Season Opener at Woodstock

Goals heading into the race

Run strong, bike stronger, don’t annihilate myself, and try not to get sicker than I already was.

The race

This race site is really growing on me. I love the run course (minimal pavement), especially crossing over the dam. And the biggest challenges on the bike are the winds and overcoming your own personal pain at the red line effort. The only real hill on this course is the climb out of the park and onto the main roads.

I started the run easy and slowly built up the speed during the first 3 km run. After two weeks of being sick, breathing was tough because congestion was at full capacity. Sorry to everyone around me for having to deal with all the hacking and snorting. Considering I don’t do speed work, I was happy with my first run of 12:59 – 4:20/km pace. I had so much more to give but for me running sub 4:20 pace brings injuries so with Roth in a month I was not going to go faster. All the major players in the race were running sub 4 minute range so anything faster on my part would be wasted effort anyway.

I expected thunderstorms so I brought along my “traveler” bike. I left the aero wheels at home and just brought an aero helmet. This was a mistake because it stayed dry all day. Nevertheless, it is all about the engine powering the bike. Although, some fancy wheels would have chopped some time and possibly moved me up a few spots on the results. I didn’t feel awesome out there but had a solid ride. After all the long and aerobic training, the red line effort was a shock to the system. But a welcome shock. My heart rate averaged 175 bpm for the ride, and I averaged a speed of 32.3 km/hr. I didn’t feel all there but managed to overtake quite a few of the faster runners and moved up the field into the top 10. Not too bad given it was the maiden race voyage on the “traveler” (2007 specialized transition comp), and the wind must have beaten up others as well because the top bike splits were not mind blowing.

The final 3 km run went well. I felt great so headed out with goal of running close to the first run split or even negative split it. But I was not going to kill myself doing so. I passed one person, another passed me (thanks Rico), and I finished it in 13:13 – 4:25/ km pace, for 10th overall (1:04:49). I didn’t know it at the time but I also got 3rd in the 40-49 age group.

Post-race

The coughing and hacking amped up and it was a sight to behold. Fellow racer Carlos B. was also sick so he joined me in the festivities. Things were made better by the Recharge With Milk crew who came over to give us a carton of chocolate milk – yes, not great for phlegm but I didn’t care – and it didn’t make it worse by the way. The Hero burgers were awesome too. The addition of these new sponsors created a great on-site buzz and makes this series even better than it already was.

It was great to see TRF member Gary Kennedy back in action after a long hiatus due to injury. The better looking Kennedy, his wife Phaedra, was rocking that run and represented TRF well, as usual. Lots of other teammates out there too – my Roth teammate Gord Avann, my sometimes riding partner Peter Geering, and a bunch of others I’ve never met before. Congrats on your races, I tried to pick out the names on the bibs but you were going too fast.

Up next:

Binbrook Duathlon. An excellent race site by the way.

Sportstats results