Another great weekend and another great race under my belt. This past weekend (June 9th) brought another great race to the city of Ottawa at Britannia Park Beach. The weather reports leading up to the race were on the gloomy side with rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for Saturday. Waking up Saturday morning to see blue sky and sun was a relief on race day.
Today was my first Olympic Distance triathlon. This year I wanted to make the switch from racing sprint distances to the Olympic Distance triathlon and challenge myself to the rigors of international racing and hopes to one day qualify for the Canadian National Development Team. I want to be able to train and race at the international level so there is no better way to get on that path then to start doing the Olympic distance scene right!? I mean you’ve got to start somewhere! Race kit pick up and setting up my transition was first on the menu for the morning and I managed to find a good spot on the racks and set up the bike and running shoes for a quick and painless transition.
The race was set to go off at 9:45am, wetsuit went on at 9:20 to get in the water and acclimatize to the Ottawa River and warm up the body for the aggressive start. Surprisingly the water was pretty warm. Yes I know I am wearing a wetsuit which helps with getting used to the water, but even still, when the minor layer of water started creeping into the wetsuit, it wasn’t a shock, it was warm to the touch! It took a few out and backs to get used to swimming in open water again. I always seem to get panic stricken when I swim in the water, but soon enough the nerves went away and I was good to go. We were all called out of the water and onto the beach for the start of the race. All of us (Male, Female, Relay, Swim/Cycle) were set to go off as one large group and it made for a war in the first 150/200m of the race. The swim was set for 3 laps of a 500m loop, the gun goes off and we are all sprinting into the water at mach speed running and dolphin jumping through the shallows of the beach. The first lap, like I had predicted and imagined was a blood shed, without the blood. People look at triathlon and say, why be good at 3 sports when you can be great at one. Well my friends, you quite literally have to be phenomenal at all three to be able to keep up to these guys and be strong to push through the massive amounts of kicking and hitting that happens out on course! The first lap like I was saying was tough! I was getting kicked in the face, hit over the body and head when others were getting the same thing from me, and at one point, my goggles were kicked off my face, which forced me to stop and put them back into place. The second and third laps were much cleaner than the first, the field started to string out and the packs had dissipated. On the latter half of the swim I had caught the tail of a competitor and took his draft for the third lap of the swim. It was great, made the last 500m in the water a little easier. Finished the swim in a time of 21mins 26 secs which I was surprised with and pleased to see. Although to get to where I need to be, I would like to shave 1 min 30 secs off my 1500m by my next race in July.
Exit the water and head to T1. The run into transition was a little labored as I have yet to race 1500m in the water until now. Find my station with ease and rip off the wetsuit a little slower than normal, but whose keeping track right!? Helmet on and bike off the rack and I am out of T1 with some heat. There was quite the trip to the Ottawa river Parkway where the cycle portion of the race was taking place so the organizers were kind enough to take the 5 minute trip each way (going out and coming back) out of the timed portion of the race. Once we reached the Parkway it was game on! I felt pretty good during the bike portion. Averaged a 35 km/h split and finished the portion in 1hr 07mins 23sec. Stayed in my DL aero bars for a good portion of the race and every so often would stand up and give it a little punch for a few pedal strokes. There were a couple little rises in the course just enough to make you a little tired by the end of the leg. But that wasn’t the only thing slowing me down a little. There was a bit of a head wind coming from the East which made for a bit of a struggle and push across the parkway. Overall the Bike leg was relatively strong. I need to find a way to crack that 35km/h pace and step it up into the 37km/h range.
The dreaded run was after a quick T2. I have always had problems coming out of T2 lagging a little and missing the speed that I would like to have off of the bike. I have been trying to work on those skills, but it is really hard when you dont have your run coach from back home (Barrie Baydogs Kevin O’Neil) pushing you through 2 hours of speed work every Thursday evening. In any case, I tried my best to keep the cadence and turn over at a high rate. I seemed to come out quick in my mind. I still think I can pull off and shave some time off of my pace but for the 10km run I was paced at 4:09/km I know that I can run a sub 40 min 10km so I need to put that strength to solid work and get that sub 40 time that I want. Little things that I have to work on to make sure that I can get to where I want to be and shave the blocks of time off that I need to in order to ensure success in the near future. As for my body, I felt pretty good, the legs didn’t cramp at all, legs felt good and loose. The only issue is the speed off the bike and getting the pace to a faster, sub 40 minute pace. At the line, the run was timed at 41 mins 30secs. Pleased, but not pleased enough.
Overall finish time for the day was 2hr 10mins 21secs. I couldn’t be happier with the result of my first Olympic Distance Triathlon. My finish time is no where near the finish time of Simon Whitfield or Kyle Jones, but I am a close 5 minutes off the time of the last place finisher on the ITU World Cup Circuit!
Next race is the 5i50 in Huntsville in July. A qualifier for the World Championships in Iowa! Here’s hoping that the racing, pacing, and results will be in my favor! See you all there!
T
