This past weekend Ryan Van Praet and myself headed out to Kelowna to compete in the National Champs. The OLY is a distance that is a bit shorter than we normally enjoy, but with Para tri in the olympics and the selection of the athletes coming up in the next few year, it was time to shorten up our race distances.
Kelwona is an awesome spot. Very beutiful, very west coast. Awesome!
It is also fun to be around the elite of Canadian triathlon. On our test ride of the course we were humbled by one Simon Whitfield. He was hanging around the venue a fair amount and was interesting to see these guys prep for the race. Meticulous is the word I would use.
On race day it was a civilized 7:40 start (10:40 in my Ontario time zone brain)
We were trying out a new swimming teather system and after testing it the day before hopes were high for a big swim PB.
The start went well. We were motoring. We ended up swim the 1500 in 23min. Which was the fastest Ryan has ever gone.
The bike course is fast. There is only one hill to speak of (knox mtn) and it isn’t terribly difficult. The course was 3 loops.
We both pushed this course and I think we got the most out of ourselves and the bike today. The course narrowed in a few areas which made it sketchy with some of the lapped riders. We came off the bike in 103min. Not quite the 1 hour mark but close.
Running was going to be interesting as the course was technical and it is difficult running side by side through tight areas.
We held a nice steady pace despite this and came through in 45min. A solid split for us.
2:18 final and a National Championship for Ryan!
Awesome result guys! I hope you get selected to the Olympic Team!