Gravenhurst Ontario, Saturday July 18, 2009
Olympic Distance Triathlon
Swim 1500m, Bike 40 Km, Run 10 Km
This was my second time doing this race and I was looking forward to racing it again. I think the idea of taking the steam ship out and then swimming back in is great but from an execution standpoint not so much. This approach really adds a lot of time to the race and makes it hard to do a proper swim warm up. We need to be at the dock to board at 8am and my wave didn’t start for another approximately 50 minutes. My bike and run warm ups happen about an hour before the race starts which is not ideal. That being said it won’t stop me from doing the race again.
1500m Swim
Once off the ship it was an L shaped swim course short across and then back to shore. The swim was good overall though the M40-49 AGs were in the 2nd last wave which meant swimming through a whole lot of people before exiting at the pier. I sighted pretty well and hit the dock at 26:14 by my watch and into transition in 27:53. It is a pretty long run to transition and I lost some time when I pulled my swim cap off and my goggles popped off my head and off the side of the pier. I stopped for a moment and contemplated jumping in after them but thought better of it and ran in.
40K Bike
Got in and out of T1 pretty quickly and headed out to the bike mount line. This is a challenging spot on the bike course as we ride up the center lane of the road so it is a pretty tight section. It is about 300m long and a slight incline so you need to be careful in passing in this section. The area was pretty busy when I got there which I think could have been made better as my swim wave been moved up to the 2nd or 3rd group. The M40-49 AGs have some really quick people and you really can’t afford to lose time anywhere on the course if you are hoping to finish well. I got on my bike and quickly pulled up behind 2 other racers, I called out on your left before starting to pass. The rider in front of me moved towards the side of the road which I took to mean I was good to go so accelerated and as I passed they pulled back out and their handle bar hit my hip. Fortunately neither of us fell but it was not a good situation and I am sure we both have different views of exactly what happened. Regardless when you are passing anyone you need to announce your intentions and check to see that no one is passing you as well, neither of which I saw or heard from the other racer. The first 5k of the bike is a really rough section which a lot of broken pavement so you need to be alert. They announced after the race that they will be repaving this for next year so it should be much better. After that section the rest of the bike is on smooth rolling pavement. It is a bike course that allows you to use your momentum from one hill to the next. The last section into transition is back down the center lane and since it is a slight downhill you can just coast in without losing any time. The only place you really need to be aware is at the dismount line as it was very congested so fast dismounts don’t work.
10k Run
Got in and out of T2 quickly and started the run. I had come in with a few from my AG but I was able to get out of transition ahead of them and didn’t see them again. This is not an easy run course it is and out and back course that felt like all you did was climb. There is nothing really big but it just doesn’t stop. I was able to catch someone from my AG at the 2K mark, unfortunately that was the last person from my AG that I saw. At the turn around I was thinking the it was more downhill on the way back but it was just as hard back. I was able to pass quite a few more people and didn’t get passed by anyone but was unable to improve my AG position. This is a very challenging run course that makes you work the whole way, if you are planning on doing this race make sure you keep yourself in check until at least the 8K mark at which point it finally descends to the finish.
I ended up finishing in 2:22:52 (which was a PB on that course by 7 minutes) and 3rd in M40-44AG.
This was my 3rd race of the year and 3rd podium, hopefully at some point this summer I will finally win my AG!
Next up Bala Falls maybe it will come then.
Congrats to all Team RunningFree members on great races. This race had the most RF members I have seen yet.
