The celebration of life continued for new father Adam O'Meara on Sunday.
O'Meara raced to his second Subaru Saunders Victoria Triathlon's half Ironman win in a month on Father's Day, both following the birth of his first child, son Max, two months ago.
“I can always sleep in tomorrow,” grinned O'Meara.
Victoria's Sara Gross won the women's half Ironman distance in a time of 4:28:27, 20th overall.
O'Meara pulled off the coveted sub four-hour half Ironman time with 3:58:09 at the Elk Lake course, 1.9 kilometre swim, 88km bike and 21.1km run, putting him in an elite category
"Feeling pretty trashed right now, I pushed it pretty hard today. I'm very thankful to my coach and to my wife (Mari) for being so supportive with the arrival of our son."
Six minutes behind him was training partner Leaf Baradoy, also of Victoria.
Both Baradoy, a transplant from Calgary, and O'Meara credited their coach, Noa Deutsch, whose demanding but applied training schedule saw her athletes take first and second.
It's Baradoy's first year of long distance triathlons and clearly he's somebody to watch, finishing up 4:04:21.
"My run was hurting today because I put a lot in my bike, more than I ever have (in a half Ironman distance), just to see how the run would feel after doing that," Baradoy said.
"It's great to have a training partner and friend like O'Meara. When its your friend you can turn the knife a little deeper. Unfortunately I didn't get the swim I wanted to or maybe I could have made it a little more interesting of a race."
Sidney's Lucy Smith finished 32nd overall at 4:37:24, fourth among women behind Vancouver competitors Rachel Kiers (second, 4:33:18) and Christine Fletcher (third, 4:35:40).
Sprint distance
Robert Johnson from Chilliwack was the only athlete to break the 60 minute mark in the sprint triathlon (500 metre swim, 22km bike and 5km run) at Elk Lake, winning with a time of 59:35.
Coming in together at second and third were Victoria's Scott Murphy and Allan Boos, 1:02:46 and 1:02:47, respectively.
Vancouver's Martina Won took the women's sprint in 1:06:26, 11th overall.