Name of Race – Wasaga BEach Sprint Triathlon
Website for the Race – www.multisportcanada.com
Date of Race – Saturday, September 8th, 2007
Location of Race – Wasaga Beach, Ontario
Type of Race – Triathlon
Distance or duration of Race – Swim – 750m; Bike – 20K, Run – 5K
Description of Race – Third year for me at Wasaga and looking forward to a swim…love this course as the swim is a nice sandy bottom swim, a nice and fast bike course and a fun run (the sand is always a challenge). throw in the hardest (in my mind) transition zones, and it makes for a great day.
The Race Wasaga Beach this year would serve as a qualifier for Sprint Worlds in Vancouver next year. With my recent success on the HSBC race series, I thought I would take a stab at it. 6 deep for a guy that usually cracks the top 10 in his age group…I thought it would be doable. Plus, my bike was feeling good, I knew the swim would set me up well as always and the run would allow me to hold on for dear life.
Pre-race Was up and out early that morning. My friend and ironman training partner Bryan was in town for the race from Montreal (he recently moved back). Well, that led to some great discussion ont he ride north and us missing the exit off the highway…i didn’t realize it until we were up near Midland…so an early departure from Markham which would have got us to Wasaga very early, ended up having us show up right near cutoff time…but it didn’t matter…
When we pulled up, the waves were a crashing. it was looking worse than the year before when they turned it into a duathlon so I knew that was going to eb the case today again. I also knew that my shot at a worlds spot was basically gone. take the swim away froma swimmer and a add a second run to a terrible runner (whose not having a great running year) and that means no luck for me. So the swim was officially cancelled around 8am, the race turned in to a duathlon (5/20/2.5) and I got ready to roll with it. I also decided to switch myself back to my regular division this year (clydes under 40) since an age group spot was gone so I wanted to race for a division placing.
Run #1 The horn went off and so did everybody else. And I mean everyone in my wave flew out of the starting gates. I’m not a strong runner and it showed today. Decided to not worry about it so much as I knew I would catch a few on the bike…settled in fairly quickly but it never felt great. The runs this year have been tough witht he extra weight I’m carrying around (+15 over last year). But it was OK for me. Run #1 time – 25:09 (5:02/k), 9/27 Clydes and 210/434 OA
T1 Transitions at Wasaga are tough…and with doing a duathlon, you need to do the tough sand transition run twice! So safe to say, tz’s are somewhat slow. T1 time – 2:29
Bike Another race where I get to pass lots of people on the bike. I was flying along nicely (or so I thought) until a friend of mine flew past me…I didn’t worry too much since I think he had the 17th fastest split on the day. I was feeling strong, sticking to my cadence view on my bike computer instead of actual speed (which has been great the last few races) . One thing I saw at this race was tons of drafting, blocking, and just plain stupid riding. Now granted, I had a different view of the bike…slow on the run, at the back, trying to get past people, but it was pretty bad. I saw a few people drafting really badly and the blocking at times was even worse. I only saw one official on the bike course and of course they were at the front. I was surprised that there were not many penalties and no DQ’s, especially seeing as the next day at Owen Sound, it seems from the results like there was a record number of DQ’s. Bike time – 35:47 (33.5 km/h), 4/27 Clyde and 70/434 OA. Great bike split for me at Wasaga…I’ve gone from 28.5 km/h 2 years ago, to 31.9 km/h last year and now this…bike is really progressing well so far.
T2 Long run from the dismount line in bike shoes…but I got through it and was dreading going back to the sandy transition run. T2 time – 2:27
Run #2 Just settled in to a decent pace (for me) and just wanted to hold position as best as I could. I knew how far the run was, was familiar with it since this would be the 5th time in 3 years that I’d run it. Run time – 11:27 (4:35/km), 10/27 Clyde and 207/434 OA.
Overall What can I say, second duathlon in a row for a guy that excels on the swim. Neither of hte last 2 races has made me want to convert, that’s for sure. The runs were OK, the bike was great and overall I was happy. Overall time – 1:17:19, 4/27 Clyde (2nd under 40) and 130/434 OA. My second place finish in the clydes under 40 gave me the race series win for the year – pretty psyched about that but next year I’m going to shift back to race as an age grouper…I’m hoping that it’s because I don’t qualify as a clyde anymore, but even if I do, I think it would be more interesting. Worlds didn’t materialize, but I’m not too worried. my wife is probably happy that my racing expense may drop next year for the first time in a while (no ironman, no worlds, no new bike…well, who knows on that last one).
One more triathlon for me…Ironman Florida. I haven’t done an open water swim since July and Florida will be my first one in the ocean. I’m really looking forward to the race. My training probably isn’t where it needs to be but it’s at least at a spot that I know I can get through the day. Everything is finally booked and I’m ready to go. Still have the Scotia Half which is just going to be a long run training day and I think I might just keep Hoss company as he pace bunnies for the day. And after Florida, i will be taking a short break this time (versus last year where I took a good 4-5 months off). I’ll also be switching the bike to a roadie setup for next year since the focus is going to be on short stuff…just depends on whether I take the time to do that over the winter!
Thanks for taking the time to read.
