Half ironman athlete Holly Wick is truly No.1

Petaluman Holly Wick is No.1 in the world.

Wick is ranked No.1 in the world among all Half Ironman 70.3 competitors for her age group (female 60-69) as reported by ironman.com. The half ironman competition includes a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile swim.

Wick shares the No. 1 ranking with Caroline Houston of Australia, but her times in events this year are far faster than the Australian’s

“It’s pretty cool,” Wick said of the ranking. “But it is kind of scary. “It is like having a target on your back. Now everyone will be shooting for you.”

That will especially be true for the Petaluman in her next competition, the 2022 World’s Championships coming up Oct. 28-29 in St. George, Utah.

Wick won again in her most recent competition, the Oregon Half Marathon in Salem. Her overall time was 5:42:32 for an easy win over 21 other competitors in her age group. She was 210th out of all females in all age groups. She finished more than 18 minutes faster than any other female competitor in her age group.

I dramatically improved my time over last year by 12 minutes and comfortably took first,” she reported.

Although she improved her time in all events, she was boosted by an ultra-fast swim aided by what she described as a “super current” in the downtown river that provided the venue for the swimming part of the event. “I felt like a log just floating along,” she said.

The win was especially important for Wick, because it qualified her for the 2023 World Championships in New Zealand.

Not all was perfect.

Soon after returning from the Oregon event, both she and her husband tested positive for COVID. “It was annoying,” she said. “I lost three weeks of training. I am just now getting back to training hard.”

Wick said she will take some time off from competition as she prepares for the World event in Utah, an race she will enter as No. 1 in her age group. She added that she will continue to train hard.

“You never know,” she said. “Someone might come out of the woods and blow us all out.”