Name of Race: Welland Triathlon
Website for the Race: http://www.hsbctriathlon.com/ms/index.cfm
Date of Race: June 28, 2009
Location of Race:
Welland, ONType of Race: Sprint Triathlon
Distance or duration of Race: 750 m S/30 km B/ 7.5 km R
Description of Race:
Two weeks since my first tri this season, I was curious to see how my form would be for this
Welland race. Since Binbrook, I had trained hard up the Thursday before this race. I have never been to this incarnation of the race, compare to previous affairs, the swim was similar – an easy to navigate loop in the Welland Canal; the bike was very different – previously there was always a big hill that some athletes fear; now the bike was fast and flat; and the run was around the recreational pathway along the canal, all asphalt and without the packed trail in the previous venue. Also, the race used a time trial format, in which each competitor started the swim 5 s apart. The format makes for an easy swim, but it was hard to track your position during the race.
The forecast of rain came true on race day. It rained through most of the bike and some of the run. The swim was very easy to navigate and the time trial format allowed lots of room for swimmers to maneuver. I had taken the time to pull my wetsuit sleeves up and it felt comfortable during the swim. I felt great through the swim, perhaps could have gone a bit harder, but still placed 10th overall. After the swim, there was a 600m run back to transition, mostly on asphalt and grass.
The bike section was flat, with little wind. I held back and rode a comfortable pace, took the wet corners with caution and ended up 35th overall.
I decided to focus on my running form in the beginning of the run, trying to run tall, run light, and relax. I settled into a good rhythm after the first km of the mostly flat run course, and worked on maintaining the turnover. At the turnaround point, I had no idea of my placing as it was a time trial race, and at that stretch until the finish I had to fight hard to deal with the pain in order to maintain my form. I improved on my run leg over the Binbrook race by a lot, ended up with a 4:13 pace – good for 26th place. At the end, I was 19th overall and 3rd in my age group.
I was satisfied with the results and thought I raced as well as I could have. I am planning to put in a few weeks of hard training to improve my fitness and perhaps race one more triathlon in August. After that, I will likely to concentrate on running my first marathon in October.
Thanks for reading!
