Saturday August 29, 2009
5km Run | 40km Bike | 10km Run
To say this wasn’t a pleasant day is an understatement, it was just plain brutal. It was pouring rain, thunder in the distance and windy, pretty much everything you don’t want on a race day. The swim was cancelled due to big waves crashing on the beach. It was so rough they couldn’t launch the Zodiac to set the swim course and when they finally got it out it disappeared in the swells. Needless to say it was the right decision to make this a duathlon.
I had injured my knee on a recovery run after Toronto Island and was hoping that I could last the 10k at the end figuring a nice swim and bike warm up would help things. With the change things weren’t looking good. I did a quick warm up and my leg felt OK so thought I will run and see how the first 5k goes I can always stop if it gets too bad.
5k Run:
I decided to start out the run conservatively and if things felt ok I would push towards the end. The gun goes off and people are off in a full sprint and I was probably in about 30th place in my wave. Through the first kilometer I ran a 4:15 and people were pulling away. My knee didn’t feel bad so I started to pick up the pace and was able ran my last kilometer in 3:30. I was able to pull back most of the group ahead of me and finished the first run in 19:01.
40k Bike:
After a really long transition where I put my jacket on and took it off 3 times before deciding that I really just had to go. My transition time was longer than it normally takes me to get out of my wetsuit and the only thing I needed to do was change shoes. Finally out on the bike and it was a strong headwind all the way to the 20k turn around. If you haven’t done this course before the only way to describe it is tough. You climb and then you climb some more, then you go down a bit and climb again. It was raining so hard at points that it hurt your face so I just looked quickly and then put my head down and hoped that I didn’t hit any pot holes. This type of course should suit me because I climb well but it just wore me out. The combination of the wind and the gradient killed me and I hit the turn around at 43 minutes and change or 27.7kph. I was thinking wow I am going to be lucky to get a 1:20 bike split. Fortunately the ride back had a strong tailwind and mostly down and I was able to make up some good time on the way back. I was 13:03 faster back than out and averaged about 40kph.
10k Run:
After a quick transition I was out on the run and my legs felt good. I had no idea where I was in the race but knew that the two guys that I normally race for the AG win were behind me starting the run. I kept a steady pace throughout and didn’t pass anyone in my AG. I did close on one fellow towards the end but he saw me coming and put in a big sprint. I got to within a 100m with about 300 to go but he wasn’t going to let me catch him. I ended up running a 41:14 which I was quite happy with.
I ultimately finished in 5th place in my AG though if I hadn’t wasted so much time in T1 I would have likely moved up 1 place. For a race that I didn’t think I was going to complete I was very happy with how the day went.
It was great to see a whole lot of Team Running Free members out racing and all seemed to be having really good days.
If you want a challenging course this is the one for you. This is the 3rd year I have done the race and will be back next year. Unfortunately the swim was cancelled because the swim is great, the water is clear and you can see a sandy bottom the whole way. I know not what you think when of Lake Ontario but it is beautiful.
It was great that John Salt and the HSBC Triathlon Series Team ensured that they didn’t put any of the athletes into peril by cancelling the swim. They took the time to see if it was possible and then when it wasn’t offered to let people change their entry to either Wasaga or Lakeside to ensure they got to race a triathlon.
