Race: Gravenhurst Olympic Distance Triathlon
Date: Saturday June 9, 2007
Location: Gravenhurst, Ontario
Description: Olympic Triathlon (1500m/40km/10km)
Website: www.multisportcanada.com
When I heard about the steamship start I really wanted to try it out. I don’t think I will ever do Escape from Alcatraz so this was as close as I as figured I would get.
As always HSBC puts on a great race and transition was large and lots of room to get yourself set up.
The Swim:
Headed down to the board the boats and they split us into groups and sent us out on one of two boats. I was in the last wave start which was great because there was a lot of confusion when it came to getting to the line. I didn’t hear any announcements but the we had stopped so I headed down to see where I was supposed to go. I then found out that the other boat didn’t give great instructions either and many of the first wave were 100 – 200m from the start when the gun went off. This happened again for the 2nd wave though a little better. Not sure exactly how it went for the rest of my wave but I was off the boat and to the start line with lots of time to spare. Because of the delay in the preceding waves to get underway our start was delayed. When I was in the water I hear a call from the race boat to clear the buoy as the lead swimmer was approaching. OK I am not a fast swimmer but I can normally come out at mid or a little better of the pack and this guy was approaching 1000m in around 11 minutes by my guess. Checked the results later and he swam just over 20 minutes including about a 90 second run to transition which is simply amazing. My swim went pretty well came out of the water around 30 minutes which was an improvement on speed over my last races.
The Bike:
I knew that rain was likely so figured that I take a bit of time put my socks on and then head out. The bike course was basically rolling hills all the way. The first 5k was a little rough as the pavement was broken up in spots but the rest was really nice, somewhat tough but nice. At around 5 k of the bike course a fellow Team Running Free member pulled up beside me and for the rest of the bike we would trade spots along with another fellow how was doing the relay. It was fun to mix it up and put the hurt on each other for about 35k. It was also nice to be racing with people who didn’t pull in and draft when they were caught, as we passed each other they must have been thinking the same thing I was, OK this guy is out of gas and I am going to drop him. Biked strong throughout and end up averaging just over 34kph.
The Run:
Headed into transition and was out quickly. I started the run and felt like I was going to have a strong run. The Team Running Free team mate (I think his name was Bill) pulled up along side me about 1k into the run and asked how I got out of transition so quickly, race laces are the ticket. He quickly dropped me (unfortunately he was in my agegroup) and then along came another guy running very quickly. He ended up going by both of us. Unfortunately he too was in my agegroup. My plan was to pick up the pace each kilometer and then give everything I had left in the last K. I ended up being passed only by those 2 so overall I was happy, not happy that both were in the first 2k of the race and both in my AG.
Ended up finishing 9th in my AG which was a bit lower than previous races but there seemed to be a whole lot of fast guys out for this race.
Overall this was a really good race and my only complaint would be that they only had water on the run course. Had it been a hot day this definitely would have caused some issues but it started raining about 3k into the run so all was good.
Looking forward to doing it again next year.
