The 34th Morden Triathlon will not be taking place this summer.

Due to a number of factors holding the triathlon just wasn't feasible, shares Morden Third Wave Triathlon Club President Tom Wiebe.

"Our club itself is a small club, it's tough for us to get enough volunteers, it takes a lot of volunteers to run a race that size."

Morden's triathlon is the longest running in Manitoba, being a half Ironman instead of an Olympic distance triathlon's in the rest of Manitoba.

A half Ironman consists of a 1.9 km swim, 90km bike ride, and 21.1km run. Wiebe notes that as you increase the distances in a triathlon the number of stations and volunteers need to run said stations rises exponentially.

With such a small club trying to organize an event of this scale was becoming too difficult, says Wiebe.

Another factor that contributed to the absence of this year's triathlon was the condition of the Highways, Triathlon Manitoba evaluated the Highways with the increase in traffic it wasn't safe to have a triathlon on them.

Though the triathlon isn't happening this year Wiebe says this is just a hiatus, with plans in motion to make the triathlon better than ever.

"What's happening now is we're having conversations with Triathlon Manitoba that it's tentatively booked that we're going to have an off-road triathlon. The bikes would be on the trail, the run would be on the trail instead of the Highway."

Having a year off also gives the Club an entire year to plan and build the momentum for next year's triathlon. Wiebe notes that every year they had been able to raise some funds which would be donated to local charity, however, if the Morden Triathlon is controlled more heavily by Triathlon Manitoba he's not sure how much they would be able to fundraise for.

Next summer will be an interesting experience says Wiebe and with changes comes new possibilities and challenges.