Muskoka Sprint – Short Course

My goal for the race was just to have fun. So many of us are all hung up on this problem or that, a disappointing time or almost anything that decreased the ‘fun factor’. I blew the fun factor at all of the running races I did this year. I didn’t want to do that again this time.

I got up to Huntsville at about 12:30. I ran into Stellavos, parked beside me, in the parking lot, and then Vicki pulled in on the other side 3 minutes later. Small world!

I grabbed my race kit and started taking things over to the transition area. I still had 3 hours to kill before race time. I saw Bernadette and Sid, then Simon, Jean, Willem, Steve and Rose. This was Rose’s first race! Then I met up with David and his family. This getting to a race early is great! I went to see what the water course was like. All the “Nobel Trade” guys who were racing tomorrow were going for a swim.

David and I made our way down to the water. A quick warm up swim and then hung out as the other three waves got started. This was the first time that my goggles got kicked off. I didn’t have three breaths in when it happened. I really have to start putting my goggle on before my swim cap! I go them back on OK though. I had a tough time getting around the other folks in the water.

I was having a great swim. I felt strong. I was paying attention to making full, long strokes and twisting with each stroke. The water in my goggles made it hard to sight a long way. I had to do a brest stroke to be able to see. By the time I finished, I caught some folks from the second wave. I was feeling pretty good about that. When I looked up to where we come out of the water, I could see it was packed with spectators. I’m usually so slow that most of the crowd is gone, so again, I felt great.

David’s son had my flip flops for me when I got out of the water. I grabbed them and started to run, but they slipped off after a couple of steps! So much for that great plan!

I could get that damned wet suit off and had to sit to get it. Oh well, I got it. I got my bike stuff on quickly and headed to the start line and mounted. I didn’t get more than a kilometer or two when something hit me in my right eyebrow. It only took a couple of seconds to realize it was a bee of some sort and it had stung me. It felt like I’d been hit with a bat. My forehand felt like it was swelling. My eye started to hurt. David caught up to me on the bike and passed me like a bolt of lightning saying, “Oh yea – I forgot about this hill” as we climbed up the steepest hill on the route.

I don’t know why the City of Toronto can close the Don Valley and the Gardner Expressway for a Sunday, but Huntsville can’t close there country road for a couple of hours. The traffic was unbelievable. I was having a good ride. Slowly making progress catching up to folks, but then the cars were in the way. They would settle themselves between a group of racers in such a way that I couldn’t get around them and the racer. Several times I passed the car on the left side, not being sure if they saw me, or if they were going to pull out to pass. The ride was hilly, but the roads were fine. Maybe it was worrying about the cars that made the ride go by so quickly. I’d had to hit the brakes several times getting stuck behind cars. The ambulances screaming past on my way back got me thinking that someone else hadn’t been so lucky passing the cars on the left!

I’d paid attention on the bike to not pushing like crazy. Trying to keep my wattage around where it felt like a zone 2 or 3 from my computrainer. I wanted to finish the bike, and have lots of strength left in my legs for the run.

Great plan, but, it didn’t really work! I headed out on that run quickly. T2 time was 1:47 – that’s a quick change for me! I started running and soon realized my heart rate was through the roof. I walked for a 15 seconds to bring it down, then slowed down my running pace to keep it down.

Our run course was a double loop. Out to the swim start area then back to the start. Around a small in town loop, uphill, and around again. I walked twice for about 45 seconds each time. Pouring water over my head felt good! Crossing the finish line felt even better!

My head was still pounding from that bee sting, but it didn’t look anything more than a little tiny red bite! By the time I got home at 8:45, it had all but disappeared.

I checked Sport Stats the minute I got home. I ended up doing the 750/20/5 in 1:37 – 4 minutes quicker than the same distance last year!