– Date – 5/19/08
– Description – Duathlon (4k/24k/4k)
– Location – Waterloo, Ontario
– Race Name – Victoria’s Duathlon
– Sport – Duathlon
– Race web site – http://www.trisportcanada.com
The arrival of the Victoria Day long weekend welcomed hundreds of eager multisport athletes to the rural outskirts of Waterloo, Ontario for Victoria’s Duathlon. The 2008 Subaru Triathlon Series opener would present the first opportunity many local triathletes and duathletes to test their training efforts from the long off-season.
After an extremely cold winter it was only fitting that the initial event would bring chilly and windy conditions that had most of us bundled up as we organized our spots on the racks in transition. Luckily, I was well stocked up on gear and clothing so I was able stay relatively warm as I stretched out during the count down to the first wave of racers set to go off at 11:00am. I elected to stay in my original grouping in the second wave instead of jumping up with elite age groupers. I initially thought the speedier elites and top age groupers would push me hard and I could do a true comparison against my 2007 times but, with the weather not cooperating, my run and bike times didn’t seem as important as just getting out to put in a solid first race.
With the first wave sent out three minutes before my wave, I waited my turn at the start line, putting in a few last stretches to keep the muscles ready for action. I was nicely positioned up at the front of the pack as the horn went off to signal the start of our season. Right off the hop, I was out with the leaders as we hammered down the long driveway of the Creekside Church to the first turn on to the smooth country roads. RJ Ross set the pace with Syd Trefiak and myself giving chase. Hitting the first hill we remarked how quickly he was pulling away from the rest of us. I decided to settle into a little more manageable pace and used the strong tail wind to conserve energy for the backside of the 4km opening run. At this point we started to catch up on a bunch of runners from the first group, making it tougher to calculate our ranking and evaluate our challengers coming in from behind.
Running with a great deal of confidence (my watch pointed out that I was ahead of my pace of a year ago); I made the turn at the 2k marker and readied my legs for the anticipated battle with the gusting breeze. This kilometre long straightaway would be our toughest test on foot. I kept my legs pumping and had lots of energy during this early stage to fight through comfortably and make the turn to the downhill section of the run. The friendly slope was a nice breather before a gradual uphill outside the driveway that would lead us back into the transition zone where my bike was patiently waiting.
I was coming into transition up with the leaders of my wave (except for Mr. Ross who had made incredible short work of the 4k course) and swiftly buckled up my new aero helmet to get ready to ride. I lifted my Cannondale off the jammed rack and jogged out to the “On Bike” line back where we had started the journey roughly fifteen minutes earlier. Not wanting to make too much of a mistake on the mount, I carefully found my clips and began to spin my way down the drive to the awaiting road. This time we would head west to the open country roads for a 25km track through the quiet country side.
I was pretty tired by this part of the race and tried to find my legs. Some of the stronger cyclists were making their move so I just wanted to keep them in sight as we headed north, dead into the relentless wind. This was a tremendously challenging portion of the race, mainly uphill on the small front chain ring. My legs were burning thanks to the constant climbing and wind busting. Thankfully, most of the others must have been feeling the same as I seemed to be making up more positions than falling back. This fueled my competitive fire and kept my thoughts positive.
Passing this test proved that I have made significant gains on my cycling skills as my peers would have blasted past me by this time of the ride last season. On the next road, the stiff side wind was still giving us our fair share of problems but I was keeping pace with a small group of athletes, making sure not to draft off anyone as the OAT Officials seemed to be hovering around this stretch of highway. Abiding by the rules, we continued to struggle through the blustery weather knowing that it would soon be our time to benefit from its power.
After a few more kilometres of powering through the high winds, it was finally our turn to enjoy some speed, although it was really only a little teaser. We blew through this section in no time at all, leaving one last battle before the turnaround pylon. As I swung around the orange cone an official mentioned I was the 40th bike to make the turn. A little more than ten kilometres left to go and hopefully some riders ahead getting tired.
Now with the wind directly at my back, I geared down and cranked the pedals to get the bike flying down the road. Even with a few rolling hills on this home stretch, I was reaching awesome speeds and loving every minute of it. It felt so good to be moving so fast and with lots of room to maneuver. I had made it through most of the slower traffic from the first group and sped along with the secondary bunch of riders spread out from wave two.
The final 10k of the ride seemed to pass effortlessly with the pavement flashing quickly under my tires. I held my spot in these last miles and prepared my head for another short run, just hoping to have enough in the tank to hold off any pressure from my competitors and maybe even catch a few of the guys jumping off the bike seconds ahead of me.
I made an average switchover in the transition zone and began lengthening my stride out to the road course with a bit of a cushion from the back. My energy level was fluttering so I decided to pop in a GU Gel in hopes of a power burst to make sure this gap remained. I knew the hill would be an important place to set my tone and used up a lot of reserves to ascend it as quickly as possible. I reached the top in good form and turned the corner to the first kilometre marker in just under 4 minutes. I took a look in the rearview and didn’t see anyone too close at this point so decided to take a methodical run at the only runner ahead of me.
Although, the wind was aiding over this kilometre, I was only making minimal gains on my fellow duathlete. Finally, at the halfway marker I was able to make my move. This pick up of one spot was not long lived as I heard the footsteps of another competitor who I had noticed moving up quickly when I made the turn. It did not take long for him to catch and pass me as he cut through the wind quite easily and looked remarkably fresh. One more look over my shoulder and there was a bit of a safety gap but the competition from wave three were blistering down the other side looking incredibly fast. This was going to be tough to maintain a three minute spread to ensure they did not grab positions on me. I re-focused on the road ahead and reached down deep, pulling out my last bit of energy. Thankfully, I reached the turn to the downhill and found the opportunity to catch my breath. There was now less than 500 metres to go and I was able to use the fans encouragement to fire up the other side and hit the last 100 metres of grass with room around me to cruise into the finish line alone in 40th place.
Although, I did not reach my pre-set goals on placing and times, I was able to move up the ladder from last year’s 71st showing and marginally improve on my time from that race. The little gain on time was a little disappointing at first but when I looked into the year over year comparisons much of the returning athletes were a little slower this time around. For example, the winner of the race also won last year but was minutes behind his winning time of a year ago. I can now take the positives from this event into my 2008 duathlon season, confident that my well planned training schedule (thanks to Coach Syd Trefiak!) is working as expected.
Thank you for reading!
