This was my last triathlon of the summer and once again, I went into it looking for fun and a respectable finish. I did however have a modest time goal in the back of my mind of sub 1:30.
After a summer of hot, humid weather the day started quite cool and pretty windy. I was actually a little concerned and threw a long sleeve cycling shirt into my bag just in case. I made myself a bowl of instant oatmeal (all we had was that Dino Eggs crap, good God it’s gross) and took a coffee to go for the 45 minute car ride.
This race is held at the Kelso Conservation Area, a popular location for triathlons, trail races and mountain biking. There is also a small ski hill down the side of the adjacent Niagara Escarpment. I’ve driven by this park numerous times on Hwy 401 but never realized how picturesque it was. I had to park the car in a lot about 1 km away from transition and since I was alone, I had a nice warm up carrying my stuff and pushing my bike. I picked up my race kit and headed for transition where my designated racks looked already pretty much full, over an hour before the race start. Huh. As I’m searching for a spot, a volunteer flags me down and sends me to the virtually empty overflow racks right beside the bike exit. Score! Sometimes it pays to be “late”.
Set my stuff up, used the facilities and just hung out, people watching. Since this was a women only race and there were super sprint and duathlon options there were lots of first time racers. With the absence of male participants, there certainly was a different vibe than most of the other triathlons I’ve done.
Kelso Lake is quite small. So small in fact that the 750 m swim crosses the lake, runs along the opposite shore and crosses back again. It’s more a pond really; small, warm, murky, green and tastes like algae. I kept looking for turtles. The swim however, was uneventful and quite polite in fact. No jostling and nobody smacked me. I did have to pass a number of women in the previous wave but even that went smoothly. I had some trouble sighting as the cool air was making my goggles fog up and I felt a little sluggish but I can’t complain too much about the swim.
Swim: 14:59 (2:00/100 m) 9/111 OA
Decided the long sleeve shirt was unnecessary and hurried out of T1. The road out of the conservation area was fresh tarchip. I think the road to hell is paved in tarchip. I hate that stuff. Once out onto the main roads, the ride was hilly, windy and although it wasn’t tarchip, it was still pretty ragged. Oh well, at least it was only 20 km!
T1+Bike+T2: 46:12 (26.0 km/hr) 19/111 OA
Right out of T2, the run crosses a small dam and straight up a steep hill that took me by surprise. I was feeling strong and I was determined to muscle up that hill. Not only did I run it but I flew by a woman I had been playing cat and mouse with on the bike. That was quite satisfying. There were a couple other lesser hills before the water station, which I walked through and gulped down some water. After that is a short out&back section passing the same water station. Again, I slowed down and drank. Down a huge hill, up a smaller one and onto the turn around to do the whole loop once again. I was feeling really good at this point and thought why the heck am I slowing at the water station? Get a grip woman, it’s only 5k, run it home, you moron. And so I did. I pushed it and passed a number of people, most of them on their first lap, mind you. The winds were still quite high and my hat flew off. I thought about leaving it but it is my favorite Running Free hat so I turned back, grabbed it and shoved it down the back of my shorts. The 10 seconds I lost were totally worth it. Right before crossing the dam with the finish line beyond, a woman passed me going up the final hill. Crap, I tried to catch her to no avail but at least I knew I gave it all I had.
Run: 27:45 (5:33 /km) 47/111 OA
I’m pretty pleased with my results, considering the little amount of sleep I have had of late and the reduction in bike saddle time I saw in August. I beat my time goal (which also means a PR at this particular distance) and finished strong. The Ontario Women’s Triathlon in Milton is a fun race. A great one for beginners and gives out one of the best race shirts. Reason enough to sign up again!
Overall: 1:28:55 8/46 F30-39 17/111 OA
