This was the big race for Ryan and I this year. No Ironman or World Champs. That being said in the visually impaired triathlon community this WAS the big one. The top three VI athletes in the world at this distance were to be there battling it out. Them along with a number of other blind athletes competing there as well. It made for an exciting weekend.
Race day arrived and it looked like it was going to be a hot one. It didn’t let us down.
We were started in our own wave before the race start which was greatly appreciated as it made things alot easier for us. We got out to an ok start. Lost wonderkid Aaron Scheidies within the first few hundred meters and would never see him again!
We had a tough swim overall and fell way short of our goal times. Swimming for us is probably the hardest disipline as Ryan has a tough time swimming straight!
We were solidly in 2nd place exiting the water. We were looking over our shoulders for fellow Canadian Brian Cowie and his guide (RF’er Larry Bradley).
Onto the bike. We have been putting in time trying to get ourselves well situated on Ryan’s tandem. Because of the geometry of the bike (it was not built for a 6’2″ pilot) it has been a bit of a struggle. I think we finally have it figured out as we had a killer ride! We ended up with the 8th fastest bike split overall. We both felt very strong over the fast course in Peterborough. It is a tandem friendly course. Not too many technical turns and not too many really steep pitches. In these situations a tandem really sucks!
The run was setting up to be a scorcher. It was. We headed out fairly strong, but the heat started to get to us both after the turn around. Despite drenching ourselves at every opportunity the sun was draining our energy. We ended up walking a few aid stations on the way in to a slow run. Overall we were happy with the day. Not as fast as we were hoping, but considering the conditions, and the lack of training on my part. :> It went well!
