So this past Saturday I was privileged enough to race in my favourite HSBC event, the Gravenhurst International Distance Duathlon. The Town of Gravenhurst is a community just south of Bracebridge and north of Orillia. The setting of this race is second to none; the race site is nestled into a small Cliffside across from the beautiful Muskoka Bay. The Triathletes at this event had a small twist to the start of their race – instead of the usual run into the water from the beach type of start; they started atop one of two historical steam ships from 1500 m out. They basically dove in off of the ships, tackled a dog leg to the left and swam to shore.
This year was particularly interesting as a friend of mine competed in the race with me. It’s always nice to have company on the long commute to these races, but also he added another challenge to the already challenging field – I haven’t been able to beat Ian Gaskell at anything since I’ve known him! I felt however that this might be the race that would turn it all around.
This International distance Duathlon consisted of a 10 km first run followed by a 40 km bike leg and a 5 km final run.
Both runs were down a fairly hilly but beautiful road, named North Muldrew Lake Road. The scenery on both legs of the run was beautiful with forested area on both sides of the road with the odd cottage as well. The morning was fairly cool with overcast skies and a slight breeze, perfect running weather in my opinion. My legs weren’t feeling great on the hills, which could have been due to the Half Ironman I did the weekend prior. I focused on keeping a decent pace and I was able to cross the finish line in 47 minutes and 14 seconds, which I’m somewhat disappointed in as I can usually run 10k in well under 45 minutes. I was in and out of the first transition in 70 seconds (also a bit slow, but I didn’t have a great spot on the bike racks).
The 40 km Bike ride was also quite hilly and it took you through a good portion of Gravenhurst, as well as past Mike Weir’s home Golf course, Taboo. Once on the bike, I was feeling a bit better and was looking forward to this particular leg. Despite some sections of the course in need of some serious road repairs, the Gravenhurst bike leg is probably the most beautiful course in Ontario; the hilly roads take you though beautiful stretches of forested area with trees acting almost like caves as they are so tall and dense covering the roads. The course also offers some of the best twisting and winding roads that will test anyone’s technical bike handling skills. I set a good pace right off the get go, but at about the 10 km mark, the heavens decided to open up and it POURED rain. Now I’ve experienced a rain shower while on a bike ride, but never a typhoon like this storm turned out to be. Lightening, thunder, you name it – it all happened during this bike ride. So my great pace turned into a bit of a slower one since I was more cautious taking the turns and down hill sections, but I still managed to get the 4th fastest bike split, averaging 35 km/hr with a 1:08:50.
The final run (as always) was the toughest leg for me, as I have never really been great at running straight off the bike. The 5 km run course followed the same route as the first 10km run, but had a turnaround halfway through. I took it really slow off the start and then gradually picked up the pace about half way though. The rain (thankfully) had stopped at this point and the sun was beginning to show itself. My final run was 25:08 with a total finish time of 2:23:23.
In the end I wound up finishing the race 7th overall, but managed to place 2nd in my 30 to 39 age group. As it turns out, the one person to beat me in my age category was none other than Ian Gaskell – the friend that came with me. Next time I suppose…
