10A
FRIDAY
Sept. 1, 2017
SeasideSignal.com
FORMER SEASIDE ATHLETE GINNY MEADWAY HAS NEWFOUND CAREER
SWIM, RUN, BIKE
By Gary Henley
Seaside Signal
G
inny Soller Meadway, a Seaside
High graduate and triathlete, had
another successful competition on
Sunday, Aug. 27, in the Ironman
Coeur d’Alene in Idaho.
Meadway, 34, finished second out of 71
competitors in the age 35-39 division, and
sixth out of 304 females entered in the race.
Overall, she was 59th out of 980 compet-
itors.
Her official time was 10 hours, 54 minutes,
30 seconds (8:40 per mile). The event starts
with a 1.2-mile swim, followed by a 56.1-mile
bike and a 13.1-mile run.
At Seaside High School, her big sports
were soccer, basketball and track.
Now, Ginny Soller Meadway is winning
awards for swimming, biking and running,
and usually all on the same day.
The former Seagull star took up marathons,
half-marathons and triathlons last year, and has
taken to triathlons like … well, a gull to water.
“I started triathlons last year,” said Mead-
way, who now lives in Seattle. “My husband
thought it would be a good idea to do all three
sports instead of just running. Little did he
know how expensive the triathlon world is.”
Meadway has competed in events from the
East Coast to the West, from Canada to the
southern U.S., and recently came up big in the
eighth annual Lake Meridian Triathlon Satur-
day, Aug. 12, in Kent, Washington.
Out of 78 females entered in the “Olym-
pic Wave” triathlon (nearly 32 total miles of
competition), Meadway finished first in a total
time of two hours, 23 minutes, 11.1 seconds.
Meadway, 35, completed the 1,500-me-
ter swim in 27:00.1. She had the best time in
the bike portion (1:09:32.3, over 24.8 miles),
and the second-best time in the 6.2-mile run
(43:55.0).
Second place overall was Kari Vreugden-
hil, in 2:23:52.8.
“It’s an all-out sprint, plus endurance dis-
tance,” she said of her most recent event.
“You need both. I have done two 70.3 (mile)
Ironmans this summer. I placed on my second
in Canada, which is the biggest accomplish-
ment of my racing so far.”
In one of her most impressive finishes,
Meadway was the first female finisher (and
second overall, men and women) in the Jail-
house 5K run in Hampton, Georgia. Out of 357
finishers, she crossed the finish line in 20:27,
second behind Tom Dillard (18:51). Meadway
was also the fourth female finisher in the 2016
Hotlanta Half-Marathon in Atlanta.
Pedaling
for a
purpose
Bike and Build
project lands in
Cannon Beach
By Brenna Visser
Seaside Signal
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Ginny Soller Meadway celebrates as she crosses the finish line in Sunday’s Coeur d’Alene
Ironman.
In a return to the North Coast last spring,
she took first in the Astoria Run on the River
Half-Marathon, in 1:31.34; and in “Ironman
70.3,” July 30 in Whistler, British Columbia,
she finished fourth in her age group (and 16th
overall female).
Meadway ran in her biggest event April
17, taking part in the Boston Marathon, which
she completed in 3:22.44.
Up next for Meadway is the “Full Ironman”
competition in the annual Coeur d’Alene Iron-
man event, Aug. 27 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
It’s a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride,
and a 26.2-mile run, said Meadway, a former
sprinter and pole vaulter in her days at Seaside
High School (she still owns the third-best pole
vault mark, 9-6, in school history).
Of her new career in triathlons and mara-
thons, Meadway has “podiumed” or come in
first in almost every race she has entered the
last two years.
“I freakin’ love it,” she said.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The top spot on the awards stand — a
familiar place for Seaside High School grad
Ginny Soller Meadway.
Families from the East Coast
huddled together in front of Hay-
stack Rock, holding welcome
signs and bottles of champagne.
The excitement in this group
started building three months
ago when their friends, siblings
and children all made the deci-
sion to ride 3,856 miles across
the United States, ending their
journey Saturday, Aug. 5, was
the end of their journey.
Mary Savarese flew from
Connecticut to meet her daugh-
ter Katie with a poster with the
names of all 36 participants
mapped along the route they
rode from Virginia Beach.
“We just find it amazing,” she
said. “When she told us, it was a
surprise — but the decision did
make sense. She is outgoing and
always up for a challenge.”
That challenge is a program
called Bike and Build, where
college-aged people have the op-
portunity to raise money for and
help build affordable housing all
while biking across the country.
Founded in 2002, the program
and those who apply for it have
donated more than $6.2 million
to affordable housing causes
throughout the United States,
which each rider contributing to
the construction or renovation of
3.6 new homes.
There are multiple routes rid-
ers can take, but the central route
has historically always landed in
Cannon Beach. Gabe Planas was
one of the 36 riders celebrating
in the surf of the Pacific Ocean.
“It was awe-inspiring,” he
said. “The impact of what we did
probably won’t hit for a while.”
Before hitting the road, Pla-
nas and the other riders started
preparing in January with 500
miles of training, 10 hours of
volunteer work with afford-
able housing groups and raising
$4,800.
HOOD TO COAST
The challenge of race walking makes it ‘more fun’
HTC from Page 1A
“There aren’t a lot of race walkers out there, so
it’s a pretty tight-knit community,” team captain
Marek Ziegien said.
The Portland-based team, donning bright yel-
low shirts with an illustration of the movie “Taxi
Driver,” are all co-workers who have been com-
peting in this event for the past five years.
The team likes to keep it light, rotating team
names with other walking puns like “Walks on
Walks Off” and “Sasqu-walks.”
But the walking itself is anything but casual.
“We’re a part of a race walking network.
There’s a real technique to it,” team member
David Howitz said. The team competes in other
events where there are strict guidelines for race
walking form. And thinking of race walking as a
slow sport is a misconception, they said. Current-
ly, the record for fastest walking time for a mile is
5 minutes and 31 seconds.
The technique comes down to how the arm
swings, how the hip drops and making sure to
roll the foot forward. But that challenge of bal-
ancing physical and the mental components is
what makes race walking more fun than running
to some, team member Michelle Chuaprasert said.
“If you think you’re just going to walk faster,
it’s not going to work. It’s not intuitive,” she said.
But for some race walking teams, like the
“Christopher Walkins” from Sherwood, compet-
ing in Portland to Coast is a way to connect as
friends out of the routine of their everyday lives.
“Why do we race walk? Because we don’t
run,” team member Jenni Kelley laughed. “Be-
cause someone on your friend’s team cancels,
and you do it for the first time and then you get
hooked.”
For this team, race walking isn’t about form
and just doing something physical, team member
Michelle Coxcy said.
“It’s about doing something for ourselves,”
Coxcy said. “It’s not easy, but it’s something we
can do together that’s fun.”
JEFF TER HAR/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Having fun at the finish line at Hood to Coast.
BRENNA VISSER/SEASIDE SIGNAL
BRENNA VISSER/SEASIDE SIGNAL
JEFF TER HAR/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Crossing the finish line at Hood to Coast.
The band Radical Revolution plays on the
main stage at the end of Hood to Coast.
More than 19,000 runners and walkers
competed in this year’s Hood to Coast
Relay.