What a beautiful day for a triathlon! I really enjoy the later start times as I’m not much of a morning person and often do most of my training during the lunch hour or later in the day after work. So the Guelph One Sprint Triathlon 1pm start time is perfect for me.
I was starting in the 4th wave with all women aged 35-49. There was probably about 150 of us at the start line. I was warmed up an ready to go. I had a decent start but there are usually a handful of much stronger swimmers than myself so I see there is a small grouping of swimmers ahead of me. The swim course is a rectangle with four buoys to go around. Well, an interesting thing happened after the lead swimmers pasted the first buoy – they started heading directly for the third buoy in a diagonal direction!! I even had two swimmers cut me off on the diagonal to try and catch up with the group. I was confused for a brief moment but I have raced this course a few times so I was sure that they were going in the wrong direction. So the next thing I knew I was out in front for my wave!! I saw one other swimmer to my left but she was starting to struggle a little. I must admit I kinda thought ‘this is my chance’. I have been very fortunate and have had some good success achieving many podium finishes, including top overall women in smaller local triathlons or running races and winning my age group in the multisport race series but a first place finish in a subaru tri series is the one thing that has eluded me in my 9 years of competing! I want that hat!! Lol
I had a decent swim and ran up the long hill to transition. I got on my bike and my legs were feeling pretty good but then I noticed it at the 3km mark…my tubular front wheel had leaked most of the air I put into it an hour ago and was significantly low! Grrr This was my opportunity and this happens?!? Anyway, I rode on it for about 7km before getting off to make sure it wasn’t completely flat and to decide whether I was doing damage to the wheel. There was some air in the tire so I decided to keep going and hope for the best. It held up fairly well but I did almost take a big wipe out on the 180 degree turn around but manage to stay upright. I did have to be more careful on the turns so I wouldn’t go down but at least I was able to ride.:)
I returned to the bike racks and to my pleasant surprise my bike was the first one back on the rack. Now I just had to run a decent 5km and hope the extra time on the bike due to the wheel and stopping didn’t cost me in the end. My run felt stronger than what my time was but I think that is because I was passing so many people from the earlier waves. I finished the race and later found out that I was 1/38 in my age group. I had a decent race considering everything and I know things could have easily turned out different but finally taking the first place was a nice confidence booster and motivation to keep training in preparation for Nationals next month.
Congratulations to all the other racers!!
