It was a chilly morning June 6th, 2008 when I arrived in
Stanley
Park at 5am to prepare for the sprint triathlon world championships.I got all my gear set up and headed over to the second beach to change into my wet suit.I jumped into the chilly
English
Bay water at 6:20am to do a bit of a warm up and then got back out onto the beach to line up at the start.My age group was the first wave to start off the day at 6:30am.The swim was FREEZING.It was a slow challenging swim and I was excited for it to end 750m later.Next, I ran out and grabbed my bike in the transition area.It was raining and cold so I had to layer up to stay warm and it was interesting changing with frozen fingers!The bike was 21km total and consisted of a 7km loop that we did 3 times.There was a climb up to Prospect Point as well as a windy, narrow downhill, which made it difficult to pick up any speed.Off the bike I was still frozen and had numb feet going into the 5k run.The run course went out and back in two different directions to end at the finish line by second beach.My feet started to thaw out at about 500m to the finish.Overall, despite the weather it was an amazing day.To be able to race in our country’s colours, against people from all over the world was a huge thrill.Personally it was not my best race, however, for me this was more about the experience and the chance to be apart of a world championship event in my own back yard! What I did learn from this is that I am definitely not a short distance athlete, or at least not without some more training!
I was really proud to be apart of Team Canada and congratulate all the athletes who participated in the Sprint and Olympic distance races.It was definitely a challenging weekend for triathlon.
Next up is the Vancouver International Half Ironman this weekend. Back into the English Bay, however hopefully this time it will be a couple degrees warmer. My training this year has been sparatic with the wedding and move to the west coast so I expect this race to be a challenging one!!!! And finally August I will be making the trip to Penticton to volunteer as a finnish line catcher and sign up for IM CANADA 2009!!!!!! If you are planning on racing in Penticton this year I will look for you at the finnish!!!!!
