ColdXtreme triathlon: Mandy Tik Tolman sets example in inaugural event, proving sport is ‘non-breed, non-gender specific, for anyone who wants to persist’
- Mandy Tik Tolman is the one and only woman to take on the extreme triathlon as ‘it gets me excited, I just love extreme sports’
- She suffers a crash – hitting and flying over a car – just weeks before the race but has the mental resilience to overcome the psychological trauma
Mandy Tik Tolman has won the inaugural ColdXtreme triathlon, just four weeks after suffering a collision with a car. She was cycling down Mount Austin when a car came around the corner on the wrong side of the road, she hit it and flew over the bonnet, breaking her tooth and injuring her shoulder joint.
“I was a little resistant about the race, I knew I’d just been in an accident. Usually in triathlons, there’s police stopping the traffic, but this was all self-supported. Mentally it was very tough,” Tolman, 42, said.
She completed the 15km of swimming, 80km cycling and 20km of running in 13 hours and six minutes, the first woman to win the event.
“I was nervous. At the same site of the accident, two taxis were coming and I stopped and let them go by. It sapped my energy, it made me tired, I tensed my shoulders way more now as the accident is very fresh.
“My tooth is numb, and I couldn’t rip the gels open properly with my teeth. It’s still quite new. It saps the energy, and I can’t be free, or just let go of my breaks and go as fast as I want as I’m always expecting traffic, that’s the mental stress.