HSBC Binbrook Triathlon – June 14 2009

Binbrook, Ontario

Swim 750m
Bike 27km
Run 6.5km

Race number 2 of the triathlon season for me and was hoping to improve on last week. Binbrook is based out of a conservation area and a really nice place to race. The lake is calm and warm, the bike is on quiet decent quality roads and the run is a mix of trail and pavement, more trail that pavement though.

Swim

The swim is in the conservation area and the water is pretty murky so it is hard to see anything in front of you. Also we headed directly into the sun which made sighting the buoys tough. I say this to myself every week but I should really listen to the pre-race instructions more closely or at least look at the swim course to get a better idea of where to go. I thought we were in the 3rd wave so was puttering around in the water when they said M40-49 were up in 1:30 which made us the 2nd wave. This was better because we didn’t catch much of the wave ahead. So I am having a tough time with the sun and my goggles fogging up and I swim to the first buoy without any problems but can’t find the 2nd one and figure I must just need to swim straight out and it will be there somewhere. Actually the swim course was angled to the right and by going straight I was inside the course by 50m or so. The fact that a kayak was trying to direct me over should have been a clue but I apparently had my own adgenda. Once I finally sighted the 2nd buoy and altered my wayward direction the swim went well. I think I cost myself about 30s but nothing too serious. My learning was pay attention or at least look at the course before you start.

Bike

I decide that I am not going to wear socks in this race so get out of transition relatively quickly. That being said Scott and I come out at the same time though I am on my bike and riding before he gets going. The bike went quite well and I held a pretty strong pace. This race there seemed to be a few out there that wanted to take close inspection of my rear wheel for 10k or so and only left it when they saw someone elses that was turning a bit faster. I am pretty sure they were drafting but when mentioned to them by myself and a few others they claimed otherwise, maybe they were just wheel inspectors out there ensuring we were all safe;-) As Roger said in his review my blue wheels are good looking so maybe it was pure product inspection. In triathlon other than cutting the course somewhere the only way to cheat is drafting and something I can’t understand or tolerate. Funny thing is that the one guy was strong enough that he didn’t need to and there are enough people out on the course that you can legally draft from one person to the next as you move through. Thus ends my rant on this. This time no one blows by me on the bike though Scott does ease past me at about the 20k mark and I lose about 15s to him on the bike.

Run

T2 was quick, just grabbed my shoes and went. Really wasn’t sure how my feet would hold up to the first sockless run of the year and the answer was not too well. Actually one foot was fine the other though developed a pretty big blister on my arch. That said it didn’t slow me down and I ran relatively well, Scott unfortunately was just a bit faster and I didn’t have anything for him this week. He had a great race and cruised in for the AG win and I followed 60s later for 2nd. The run is a great course if you like trail running as you run along a damn, through some hard pack trails and then into the heart of the conservation area on woodchip trails

Next on to Welland and see if I can finally move one more place up in the standings. I have 2 weeks to develop a bit more run and bike speed so hopefully that will be enough time.

Great to see Roger, Mark, Peter, Theres, Gord and John representing Team RunningFree very well.