I was in Ottawa this past weekend and decided to try a race in a different part of the province. This was run by different organizers than what I’m used to in the Toronto area and I was curious to not only see what the competition was like but also what the course would be like and how a different group would set it up.
I had no idea what the course was going to be like or what the terrain was like, sometimes it’s good to go completely blind into a race. When walking around I could tell things were done a little differently here. First thing I noticed was the distance between the water and the transition area. Easily the longest I’ve ever seen, about 500m. Same goes for the distance between the transition and the bike mount. Also, the course didn’t seem to be well marked and it was a little chaotic with multiple races going on at the same time in the same area, people criss-crossing each other trying to avoid bumping into one another.
The swim started off with me having a running start as I noticed at the last second that the swim course started diagonally out of the bay and I was on the farthest side and there was no official starting line markers. I tried to weave my way through the beach-filled racers to get a closer line out but as the horn went off I made a b-line into the water. My goal for the swim was to try to draft off of one of the leaders. The swim is my best leg but there are always one or two super fast swimmers that blow by me. I have always tried to swim my own line and stay clear of others but I wanted to try to swim smarter and take advantage of the really fast swimmers. At first, my plan wasn’t working. The problem the pros don’t ever mention when recommending drafting in the water is that most of the age groupers don’t swim in a straight line. Trying to draft off of people swimming in zig zags is much harder. At about the 500m mark I was able to latch onto the hip of a woman that was keeping pace with me and had a nice even stroke. I decided to let her pass and then hitch on for the ride. We were told coming back that there was a current but after making the turn around and sitting nicely tucked to this person’s hip I couldn’t tell if there was a current. Maybe the drafting was working. I came out of the water in 6th place overall, just behind the first place woman in a time of 25:43, my fastest swim time yet by about 30 seconds.
The run up the long hill to T1 wasn’t as bad as I thought. It actually gave me time to bring my heart rate down a little before taking off my wetsuit. I had a fast transition and made my way out to the bike course. The bike course was a 4 loop 5km that went mostly downhill out and then uphill back. Nothing too dramatic. I felt good and pushed myself as much as I could. At first I liked the 4 loops because I knew what to expect and learned quickly where I could rest and where I could push it. It was more spectator friendly as I got to pass my little cheering section 4 times but by the 4th lap I was bored of the course and was looking forward to getting off my bike. I was happy later to find out that my bike splits were very consistent, within 30 seconds of each other and I ended up posting my fastest bike time by about a minute and a half (1:11:03).
One major critique I would have for this event was the poor course marking. I especially found it annoying on the run course beginning with no signs marking the exit to T2. There were 3 options and thankfully I guessed right. Throughout the run I was asking the few volunteers which way to go. Also there was only one water station. By the time we got out on the run it was getting hot and humid.
The run course was two loops, again going out was mostly downhill or flat and coming back was up hill. There was one long climb that was about 400 m long that felt great on the way out but I knew it would hurt coming home. After the strong swim and bike I wasn’t expecting a blistering pace on the run and I felt like I was going slow. The last 3 km felt like its own little race, especially the second time up the long hill. I gave everything I had and even gave a little sprint in the last 100m for good measure. My run leg ended up only being 6 seconds slower than my previous best Olympic run split and I knew I had left it all out on the course which is always my number one goal no matter what shape I’m in. The run is still my weakest leg but I’ve made an effort to get better and the results are showing, I’m running between 50 and 51 minutes off the bike. Still plenty of run for improvement but starting to get a little more respectable. I finished 15th overall out of 155 and 3rd in my age group in a time of 2:27:46. My first podium finish in an Olympic distance (3 competed so far) and my fastest time by about 6 minutes. Interestingly, my pace times are almost identical to my sprint tri pace times. Further evidence that I wasn’t made to be a sprinter.
