My teammate for Crank the Shield, Kevin Wall decided to do his first ever tri at Wasaga – a sprint distance race. The night before, he tells me he wants to do the Olympic. I decline and make some sorry excuse that I am no shape to do an Olympic distance race, especially after a very tough Cobourg Tri. Funny how peer pressure works. We both show up the next day and upgrade to Olympic distance. Glad to see the swim section was still going to happen after it was canceled the last time I did this race 2 years ago.
Looking out onto Georgian Bay, it was pancake flat with some beach break – nothing compared to Cobourg (2ft swells). The swim was moved into the adjacent river – the quality questionnable but John Salt made it clear it was well below the provincial standards in the middle of the
river vs on the edges where
it was above the standard. Regardless props to John Salt for making this information transparent!
Fellow Team RF Laurent S. was also a last minute racer. His compact cranks ready to climb L’Alpe D’Huez or the gentle roads of Wasaga!
Swim
For some reason I thought the swim started at 10:15am but was got off guard when I heard John Salt say 30 seconds to go. I ran into the water, gave a fist pump to KEvin and started peeing in my wetsuit as the gun went off. I got into the front pack and crusied to the first buoy and said to myself – better ease off if I want to FINISH the swim. So I hung back with the second pack and held on, got crushed going around the 3rd buoy and kicked a fellow racer in the head as he tried to swim ontop of me. Halfway through the second loop, I am thinking that in the last 2 weeks I have swum 2.25k, doubling my total swim mileage for the year! Taking the Roger H school of Triathlon, I stopped swimming 10 years ago! 😉
Bike
Couldn’t have asked for a better day for riding – good cloud cover, a slight wind, no major hills (unlike Cobourg OMG), nice FAST FAST FAST course that suited me. Laurent – how did you like the bike course compared to France?! No comparison I am sure. Thank goodness for my weekly Donut Ride and MTB in the Don. At least I have some good miles on my legs for riding. Never thought I would be a single sport guy but yes it is true, I consider myself more of a cyclist now than a multi-sport athlete.
Run
My run mileage is not much better than my swim mileage but for some reason, I felt pretty good – even in the sand sections which were reminiscent of XTERRA. Good to see Kevin / Laurent pumping it out. Kevin having a blast on his first Tri.
Ok enough of this multisport stuff – onto Crank the Shield!
can’t say this ride suited me like it did for you…have to change my habit of spinning at 80rpm or higher, i guess…by comparison, i rode the hilly cobourg 40k at 29km/h average and the “flat-like-a-dead-ragoon” wasaga 40k at 32km/h!!! can’t hammer, man!!
but it was a great event and i really enjoyed it! Now i can’t wait for next year how i do at an xterra race…
cheers
John, Seen your name on many tri results lately. Looks like Armstrong coming out of retirement all over again. HAHA Great work in Wasaga and way to help you friend master his first Olympic Tri!
whoa there Larry – 2 tris doesn’t count for “many”! Last time I considered myself a tri-geek was 1999 (first IM LP and my last IM!). I am no Lance – I am just a hack who likes to suffer!
You do very well for a hack. I love to stir the pot. HAHA