Name of Race: Binbrook Triathlon
website for the Race: http://www.hsbctriathlon.com/ms/index.cfm
Date of Race: June 14, 2009
Location of Race: Binbrook, ON, near Hamilton
Type of Race: Sprint Triathlon
Distance or duration of Race: 750 m S/27 km B/ 6.5 km R
Description of Race:
The Binbrook triathlon was held relatively close to the GTA. The swim was in a warm small lake inside the Binbrook Conservation area. The bike course was a rolling affair in quiet country roads. The run course was slightly rolling and inside the park trail.
Race day was nice and warm, the wind was very mild also – almost ideal condition. It has been two years since I seriously competed in a triathlon, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The swim went fine, I found my wetsuit to be quite tight (as I found out later that it was simply not put on properly), after the initial sprint to find some open water, I settled into a manageable rhythm, despite my arms feeling quite tired, I managed to come out of the water in pretty good position (tenth overall).
The bike section was a bit rolling, my plan was to ride it a bit harder than I thought I should, just to see how the legs would react. Of the three disciplines, I think the bike was the worse at this point in the season, I simply have not put in the long bike work or the interval training. I pushed it a bit hard and ended up 17th overall.
The hard bike effort led to a bit of a struggle on the run. The tired legs did not enjoy the otherwise nice park trails. Since my legs were sore, the soft surface seemed like a curse. I held it together ok for about the first 12 minutes, I was probably going at a 4:30 per km pace or so. After that, my legs just kind of gave up, it was a bit of a struggle to finish the race strong. I ended up running a 4:43 pace for the run, somewhat disappointing, but I knew it was because of the hard bike. Overall I was 5th in the age group and 16th overall.
The first race back was educational, it was mostly enjoyable, being quite slower than three seasons ago was a little difficult to take; but it shows what I need to work on for the next race. Also, I have take into account that I have taken some time off from training and racing.
