So this was the weather on the island when I got there on Saturday. Not exactly triathlon weather. Luckily is cleared up for Sunday but it was still a chilly 6 degrees.
My focus for the swim was to stay as relaxed as possible as I have a habit of pushing too hard early, panicking, and then having my technique go out the door. No problems today. The other four swimmers in my lane were the perfect pace to push hard but also get a draft as we all ended up coming out of the pool together.
I finished with a swim time of 11:17 (700 m) which is by far my fastest swim in a race. That put me in about 5th in my heat out of the water but with a quick transition was leading 200 m into the bike. So things were looking good until a little hiccup.
I had seen there was a speed bump coming out of transition so I was prepared for it. Even did a little bunny hop over it. But a second after I landed I heard a series of thuds. At first I thought there was something wrong with my bike but looking behind me I realized where the sound came from. Behind me was my water bottle rolling away. So it was a 20 km bike without any fluids.
The bike course was probably the toughest I’ve had to race. It was never straight or flat so you could never get into any sort of rhythm. Plus it had a steady 8 minute climb that only got steeper as you went. Reminded me a lot of the ride we do during training tri’s at Sasamat Lake. In fact the entire course was very similar to that of the terrain around Sasamat Lake.
So I don’t know if was the tough course, the lack of fluids, or just a tough day but the bike was a bit of struggle. About 2 km in, two guys from my heat passed me. One of them got away from me going up the long climb but I managed to stick behind the other one most of the way until he built up about 30 seconds on me coming into transition.
I had a smooth second transition and was only about 15 seconds behind him heading out on the run. The run course had a slight downhill to start and then almost 2 km of climbing to the turn around and then back (think a short version of the Peach run course). Closed the 15 second gap in the first couple hundred metres and moved into second in my heat. I then started looking for the guy in first place.
At about the 1 km mark I caught a glimpse of him just before he rounded a corner. It was enough of glimpse though that it gave me hope to catch him. I started pushing it up the hill staying completely relaxed and feeling great. I knew I was catching him even though I couldn’t see him but it was just a matter of whether I would run out of road before I actually did as he had over a minute advantage on me starting the run.
At the turn around I had closed the gap to about 20 or 30 seconds but was worried about the downhill as I tend to have trouble with them. But I just let it loose down the hill (my quads felt it after the race) and was right behind him when we hit the bottom with about a km to go. I took a quick breather, matching his pace and when he said something to me about the course being tough, I grunted in agreement, put the pedal down and left him behind.
I never looked back and finished the run in 19:32 for a final time of 1:09:51. I was looking for sub 1:10 for the first time so definitely a good race.
Unfortunately, the final heat after me produced five faster times so I finished 6th overall. One of those was in my age category so I finished 2nd in the M25-29 category. The bling for the race was pretty weak as I got a ribbon for that 2nd place but they did have free massages (always great) and a free burger at a pub up the road after the race so in the end, thumbs up to the race.
As well, a big congrats to Rob and Laura on completing their first triathlons. Rob also won his heat earlier in the day posting a time of 1:22:01 and Laura bettered her goal time of 1:40 with a 1:36:01. Nice work guys.
Next up: three weeks of training and then Cultus Lake for the first olympic distance race of the year.
