John Reback knew he had to devise a strategy to win the 18th Annual FAU Wellness Triathlon. The 39-year-old from Jupiter was going for his sixth win in the FAU triathlon after coming in second in the 2008 race.
Reback finished 16 seconds behind the winner, 35-year-old Anton van Zyl from Fort Lauderdale, in the 2008 triathlon. This time around, Reback was in front of the pack for a good portion of the race.
“You have a tendency to push harder if you’re running with people, but sometimes I have to run from the front, and when I do, I just have to adjust my thinking,” Reback says.
The annual triathlon took place on April 19 at Spanish River Park in Boca Raton. The race began at 7 a.m. with almost 800 people, ranging from age 10 to 75, competing. It included a quarter-mile swim in the ocean, a ten-mile bike ride down A1A and a 3.1-mile run in Spanish River Park.
Reback’s strategy paid off in the end when he won the overall event with a final time of 49 minutes and 14 seconds. Coming in a close second was 46-year-old Scott Colton from Riviera Beach with a final time of 49 minutes and 17 seconds. In third was 39-year-old Gregg Blow from Delray Beach finishing with a time of 49 minutes and 46 seconds.
Colton had a 16-second advantage through three legs of the race, but he lost the lead to Reback in the two transitions between. Reback pushed ahead and never looked back.
“He is the best in transitions. My transitions aren’t bad, except in comparison to his,” Colton says.
On the women’s side, 45-year-old Linda Neary Robb of Juno Beach finished the event with a final time of 53 minutes and 50 seconds. This is her fifth time winning the event in the last seven years in the women’s division.
Finishing in second behind Robb in the women’s division was 29-year-old Jessica Wald from Stuart, with a time of 55 minutes and 26 seconds. Coming in third was 34-year-old Angela Hygema from Dania Beach; her final time was 55 minutes and 38 seconds.
Participants in the triathlon ranged from experienced competitors, to people who had nerves in their first triathlon.
“It was my first time being in a triathlon and it was a little intimidating racing against those more experienced people, but it was a good experience and I want to do it again,” says sophomore Ashley Araneo, an education major.
Araneo competed in the women’s fat tire group in which participants use mountain bikes in the cycling stage instead of thin tire bikes. Her final time was one hour, 22 minutes and 57 seconds.
Sophomore Tom Dilfer was not intimidated by the more experienced competitors.
“Just before the race started I had butterflies in my stomach, but it was a great experience and I am definitely doing another triathlon,” the criminology major says.
Dilfer’s final time was one hour, 40 minutes and 16 seconds in men’s 19 to 24 age group.
Awards were given to the top overall male and female finishers, the top three collegiate male and female finishers, the top FAU employees and students, Athena/Clydesdales in which age groups are mixed together, fat tire groups and the top three male and female age groups.
