Guelph Lakes II – Tri Relay

Date – 9/1/07
Description – Triathlon Relay (750m/30k/7k)
Location – Guelph, Ontario
Race Name – Guelph Lakes II Triathlon
Sport – Triathlon

Race web site – http://www.trisportcanada.com

OK, I now what some of you may be thinking. What am I doing writing about a Triathlon? Don’t worry I did not get my feet wet as I was asked to help a co-worker with a new experience in the world of multisport.

Knowing that I enjoyed these events a great deal the game plan was to re-acquaint her with the sport by way of a relay team. At first we had a full team of three, with myself as the anchor on the run, but over the weeks leading up to the race we had many people bail out on the project so I decided to let her do the swimming and I would tackle the bike and run, an awesome brick workout for me.

The morning of the event soon came and we arrived at the Guelph Lakes Conservation Area with plenty of time to register, get oriented with the rules of the relay, get changed and set up and do a quick little warm-up. The relay swimmers were all put together in the final wave of the Sprint Triathlon so we would have a pretty good idea at the rack how we were making out. My swimming partner would have to tell you about her portion of the race to get all the details but for someone who had not been able to get to the pool too often (due to family and work) she performed very well and came out from the 750 metre swim in a time of 18:53 (which also includes the tiring run up the hill to T1).

As she hustled into the transition area, I congratulated her on her swim finish and removed the timing chip to get my first leg of the race underway. I have never raced on the bike with fresh legs but knew I was going to love it. Right from the “Bike On” line, I got moving quickly through the field of slower triathletes, duathletes and some of the other relay teams. I was soon clipping along at an unusually fast pace and seemed to fly across the asphalt. With nobody in the rearview mirror, I kept the hammer down and made a lot of progress during the entire 30k. With some recent history of horror stories on the bike, I made sure to make the corners in a cautious manner to keep the bike on the road this week. As I looked down at my computer I could see the results of my August training as the average hovered around the 37 km/h mark. Only in the final entry into the park did I let off the gas a little and ended up posting a 49:18 (36.5 km/h) time for 30k, easily the most complete ride of my short career.

After a very controlled dismount, I rushed back to rack my ride and slip into my racing flats. I could see by the small number of bikes back from the ride that I had made a lot of ground back and was thinking about my sub 28min goal for the final run. Although, I am very used to making the transition from bike to run, I was a little worried that I had spent a lot of energy out on the bike and was nervous about the upcoming 7k.

My legs were tight out of the chute and thought it could prove costly as the other teams had fresh legs coming into their run potion of the event. Moving away from the crowds of fans at the transition zone I got into a rapid shuffle and was amazingly making positive gains on the people around me. After 500 metres things started to stretch out in my legs and I knew it was time to kick it into high gear. I started to blast through the field and got my second wind after a refreshing mouthful of Gatorade from the first fuel station.

As the leaders came back down the right side of the road I tried to find my targets but was having trouble remember faces from the bunches of athletes hanging around our section of the paddock. I knew there were a few teams out in front of me but only recognized one runner who was well out in front of me. I figured his team was in second so decided it was just time to open up the tank and leave it all out on the road.

I continued to pass runner after runner with nobody challenging me. My legs felt strong and my hill work was a great gap builder on anyone trying to keep pace. Having run this stone chip trail four times in the past, I knew exactly what to expect with the finish line fly by and hit the 6k mark eagerly awaiting the hill that usually burns my legs up with 500 metres left in the race. This time I was not gong to stall on the way up and got a good head of steam at the bottom to help make short work of the steep incline. At the top of the hill I made a final turn and sped down the other side knowing the finish line was well within reach. I was sure I was going to post a solid time but wanted more and made a final sprint to the line to hit the tape in 26:42, tops in the relay by close to 2 minutes.

Overall, our duo called Team Running Free had a great introduction to the Triathlon relay world and finished 3^rd best out of 17 teams. We hit the podium in my partner’s return to multisport for a bronze medal that topped of a very fun day of racing.

On a personal note, I finished the ride and run without one single person passing me and built on some great training that has increased my confidence with the Canadian Duathlon Championships only two weeks away. Wish me luck!