Rob Eakin Triathlete

Race Report – Squamish Triathlon

Keeping perspective in triathlon can be tough sometimes. Withthree sports to try to master, it is rare (maybe even impossible), to be on top of your game withall three at one time. So post race there is almost always something to be happy with and something to be disappointedwith.

The battle then is being able to take confidence from the positives but also use the negatives to motivate. Rely too much on the positives and you risk becoming complacent. Dwell too much on the negatives and you can find yourself unmotivated.

In spite of the 9:30 start time, it was still an early morning as it was longish drive out to Squamish. Add to that the complications of two different transition zones and I wanted to make sure I was there in plenty of time to make sure I had everything sorted out.

Had a good full warm up and was ready to race in plenty of time (for the first time at a race this year). Watching so many others scramble due to small mishaps (Choppy breaking his goggles, Jeff forgetting his timing chip in transition) I realized that after a couple of years doing this it's all old hat and can hit the start line relaxed and focused on the race.

Lined up for the swim start with Facundo andDave, not expecting to stay with them but hoping there might be some open water around them. Sure enough there was and I was able to settle in nicely to the first buoy.

Overall, the swim went very well as I was able to keep a good pace and pass a number of swimmers who had apparently taken it out too fast. I also did a good job of simply being aware of where other swimmers were as I was able to pick up the pace a couple of times to bridge gaps up to swimmers ahead.

Came out of the water just over 23 minutes in 13th. Not a great swim in terms of time (you can never be sure the swim is exactly 1.5 km) but came out in front of Ricardo and Curtis so I knew I had a good swim.

Had an easy T1 and was out on the bike. In hind sight I may have taken the first 2 km or so a little too easy as Curtis quickly caught and passed me as we passed T2 for the first of four laps.

Knowing he was about the same speed (if not a little faster) as me on the bike, I decided to simply make it my mission to stick with him for the entire ride. So it was a delicate balancing act of staying close to him but not to "draft". This wasn't a problem on the 2.5 km uphill on each lap but the long downhill most of the rest of the lap was an adventure. This was simply due to the sheer number of other riders (~300) on the course (a ~8 km loop). So it became a test of bike handling and staying aware at 50-60 km/h.

Did stay with Curtis the whole way and passed a number of riders along the way. Finish the bike (~37 km) in 59:44 (which actually included both transitions) good enough for the 5th fastest time of the day. The best part was I felt as though I hadn't pushed at all on the bike and would have lots left for the run. That is until I actually starting running.

I started the run in 5th (having passed Curtis in transition) but could hear the footsteps behind me in the first km. Unfortunately I just didn't have any legs and was passed by three runners in the first kilometre or so. It felt like a struggle to just keep moving forward but knew Curtis and Ricardo were both still behind me and I made it my mission to hold them off.

Near the end of the first of two laps there was an out and back section where there was a chance to see who was behind me and how far back they were. There was a runner coming fast just behind me (who would pass me just as we finished the first lap dropping me to 9th) and then Curtis behind him maybe a minute back and no sign of Ricardo (meaning he was at least two minutes or so back).

I took some solace in that and found myself finally feeling half decent. Did my best to keep up my pace (as slow as it was) on the 2nd lap and found when I hit the out and back that I had put more time on Curtis and there was still no sign of Ricardo (or anyone else who might catch me).

Knowing I had my place pretty much locked up, I slogged my way to the finish line with a brutal run of 44:32. I'd have to check but I haven't had a 10 km run that slow in over 2 years. It wasn't the fastest run course as it was some rocky and windy trail running almost the entire way but it was still disappointing.

Overall though I finished 9th in a time of 2:07:53, breaking 2:10 in an olympic distance race the first time (with an asterisk as the bike was short of 40 km).

So keeping perspective. With a month and a half until Nationals I'm exactly where I want to be with my swimming and biking. All the time spent this winter and spring on them has paid dividends almost exactly as I expected.

My only fear at this point is that I've left my running fitness until too late and wont be ready come Nationals in August. But this was my plan and it's worked almost to perfection in swimming and biking. So I just have to trust with more work in the next while that it will come in time.