2017 Goderich Olympic Triathlon Recap

Short version…I swam well, I biked well, I ran well, but I raced like crap.

Long version, read on.

While just about everyone else I know was racing at Ironman Mont Tremblant this weekend (huge congrats to everyone who took part!), I had the Goderich Olympic Triathlon on my schedule. I did this local race a couple of years ago and knew that it was a challenging course with a tough swim, lots of hills on the bike and a run along a beautiful rail path that was a long steady climb the entire way out. A really great course that makes you earn every minute of your finishing time.

The race was on Sunday morning and we were up at the cottage for the weekend, so the drive up was only an hour or so. We arrived at the race site with lots of time to get my race bib and timing chip and then go set up my transition area. Michelle and Jackson came up to cheer me on and Jackson had a friend there with him as well. We chatted with some familiar faces and I got a quick warmup swim in, checking out the waves that were crashing into shore and the rollers out on the water. It was going to be a tough swim today!

Swim – 1000m
18:55 (1:54/100m), 1st OA / 1st AG

The Goderich swim is usually tough, probably one of the reasons it is only 1000m instead of the typical 1500m. There were huge waves when I did the race a couple years ago and last year was even worse, causing the swim to be cancelled. There were plenty of waves again this year but not enough to stop us from getting the swim in. We all lined up just a few feet into the water and the race began. Almost right away I could tell that I was at the front or just a couple swimmers back at the most…it was hard to tell as the waves were crashing on us heading out and the swells were bobbing us all up and down. Sighting was difficult but it was easy enough to spot the orange buoy that we had to turn at. I hit the first turn and was now pretty sure I was the lead swimmer, not that I would have even been able to see someone out ahead of me with the swells. The waves were coming from the side know as I set out for the next swim buoy. I kept cruising along focussing on good form, keeping myself small with big arm swing. I sighted as best I could as I went up and down the waves but it was not easy. It seemed like I was staying on course but as I made it to the second buoy I realized I couldn’t see the third and final buoy anywhere. I started swimming head up trying to find it with no luck. I looked all around me and there was no one…a whole bunch of swimmers were coming up from behind but I was a good way out ahead of them. Maybe I had missed the second buoy? Easily done in these conditions I suppose. Then I spotted some race officials nearby on a Jet Ski…I started waving at them and yelled “Do I turn to shore here?” They came over and said yes, I was supposed to turn back towards shore so off I went towards the yellow flags on the beach marking the swim exit. I was going at a good clip now with the waves pushing me in, but it wasn’t long before the Jet Ski came up to me and said “You need to go around that buoy!”, pointing in the other direction to the third swim buoy that I couldn’t see earlier. Crap. The swim pack was nearing the buoy so I hightailed it the other direction and narrowly made the turn just before the pack, then busted it into shore where I somehow managed to still be first out of the water despite my bonehead mistakes. This was mistakes number one and two. More to come.

Bike – 42.5K (if you stay on course that is)
1:16:11 (33.5kph), 7th OA / 3rd AG

As I ran from the beach up to transition I was stewing about the mistakes I had made. I saw transition and turned to run in but then someone yelled that I was going the wrong way, transition was the next entrance. Seriously?? I guess we actually run across the run finish chute before going into T1 and there wasn’t anyone blocking off the chute, so I just thought that was where we turned. Ya, it wasn’t. Mistake number three. I turned and headed into the actual transition area and was halfway to my bike all the way at the far end when they started yelling at me again. “You missed the timing mat! You need to go back!” Oh come on, this was just getting stupid now…I had no choice but to laugh as I turned around and raced back to the mat. Mistake number four. Then off to get my wetsuit off and head out on the bike. Officially my T1 was only :59 seconds, so at least that was good…of course that doesn’t count all of the other time spent running around touring the race site (that was all hidden in my swim time!). Anyways…out on the bike.

The bike is hilly and there is no easing into it. The first hill comes right away and it is a pretty steep climb up from the beach. I started the climb and once I made the top of the hill started putting down some watts, trying to put some distance between the chase group and myself. I was zipping through the neighbourhood when I came to the first busy intersection just under 2K into the ride. There were a couple of police officers who were at the intersection to control traffic…or at least that’s what they were supposed to be doing. Instead they had their cruisers parked on the side street and they were out of their cars just chit chatting with each other. I came speeding up and had to come to a complete stop when the one officer asked me if I was the lead bike. Uhm, yeah. “Oh sorry”. He got in his car, hit the lights and went out to stop traffic and then proceeded to direct me straight through the intersection. Straight. Not left. Which was where the course went. Seriously. Mistake number five for those playing along at home. I went through a couple more unmanned intersections and was pretty sure I was now off course in a town I don’t know at all. I did know where the course went though, but I couldn’t tell you the street names. I was able to head north and back west though and then I saw streams of cyclists going by a few blocks ahead. Geez. An extra one and a half kilometres of sightseeing but I was back on course, with who knows how many people now ahead of me. Nothing to do now except put my head down and get to work.

I was able to pass a number of people heading up the climb along the highway and made the turn east. A couple more passes and then I saw my buddy Carol up ahead looking really strong (she went on to take first place female!). As I went by her she was like, “What happened to you??” I gave her the quick and dirty on going off course and got back at it. Very shortly afterwards another familiar face came along, this time it was Abe passing me (the only guy to pass me the entire day). He went by looking like a beast and knowing how strong he is on the bike I decided that right outside of his draft would be a great place to spend the next 25K or so. Abe continued rolling and I was feeling really good pacing off of him, but when we began to head south we had a 90 degree turn with an immediate climb. This slowed Abe enough that I entered into his 3m draft zone meaning I had to pass him. Until this point I was almost positive he had no idea I was even there, which was what I had wanted. As I went by I made some sort of comment about hanging on his wheel and almost right away he went by me again, but this time he hammered it a bit harder and really pulled away in an effort to drop me. I didn’t even bother chasing as I knew that I was already on the fringes of where I wanted to be power-wise and trying to stay with Abe would only torch my legs for the run. Mistake number six. From that point on in the bike I was solo, with only the hills to keep me company, until we merged towards the end with the duathlon and try-a-tri. The best I could tell there were four or five guys up ahead on the bike, but I really had no clue. Back into Goderich we came and finally, with only 2.5K left we go, we were done with climbing. Yup, this is a tough bike…and riding 44K while everyone else only does 42.5K doesn’t make things any easier!

Run – 10K
42:21 (4:12/km), 2nd OA / 1st AG

Empty racks in transition so at least that was a good sign. In and out in :44 seconds. As I was finishing up the bike I had seen Abe already out there as well as Cason. Cason is super fast, so I knew first overall was no longer a possibility…I would be running hard, hopefully for a podium spot. I left T2 and saw Spencer coming in to finish (and win) the duathlon. He got a high-five from Jackson so I decided to grab a high-five from both of them as well as I went by in the opposite direction. As I passed the family Michelle asked me if I was okay and what happened, knowing that there must have been some sort of bad thing on the ride. I just grunted and shook my head.

The run begins with the same big hill as the bike, but halfway up the hill we duck off the road and onto an old rail trail. It is a beautiful run with a couple of bridges to run across and lots of shady spots. I came up behind Tanner, yet another Splash n Dash buddy doing the race and he asked what happened to me on the bike…seemed to be the question on everyone’s mind! He was actually second out of the water and never saw me on the bike, so was a bit surprised seeing me behind him. Next up was Abe, who had slowed down with a nasty side stitch…the consequences of a hard bike he would later tell me. Abe said that the podium was right ahead and I could see third place there for the taking. I was able to pass third shortly afterwards and focused on moving up to second place, but the two leaders were nowhere to be seen. I would have to wait until the turnaround at 5K to see what sort of gap I was still looking at. The legs were feeling good and if properly motivated I was ready to run them down. Well, Cason went flying by me on his way back towards the finish and I could see how strong he was looking. I told him he was crushing the run and there was no one in sight behind him…he was way out in front. I glanced at my watch and saw that he was almost 2K ahead of me…no chance. It wasn’t long before I saw second place coming by and the gap to him was also pretty insurmountable at nearly 1.5K. I wasn’t catching second place today either, but I would keep running strong and see what happened. I made the turn at 5K and began making my way back towards the finish and cheered people on the whole way back. I made sure to keep going hard enough that nobody was going to catch me but I wasn’t really motivated enough to push hard and make it hurt knowing that the guys ahead weren’t about to be caught. I made the turn off of the trail and gave it a good final kick to the finish line where I heard Michelle cheering me on. I crossed the line with a time of 2:19:08 which gave me third overall and first in my age group…a really solid result in spite of all the mistakes I made during the race. Overall I had to be happy with my performance but also knew that I needed to do a better job in the future with a few aspects of my mental game.

After the race we hung around for a bit and were able to catch up with friends to see how their races went. I was able to congratulate both Cason and Carol on their great wins and was happy to see so many Londoners and Splash n Dashers up on the podium collecting hardware…you were well represented Coach Sheri! Thanks everyone for reading and special thanks to Michelle for the great race day support. Next up, 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga!

2017 Bluewater Olympic Triathlon Recap

The Bluewater Triathlon in Bright’s Grove is one of my favourite races out there, clearly evident by the fact that this past weekend was my sixth year in a row competing in the Olympic distance triathlon. It is a wonderful local race and it is conveniently located just down the road from our cottage. The race supports a local church and is known as much for the post-race “pig out” as it is for the race itself.

Michelle, Jackson and I left the cottage bright and early on Saturday and made the short drive down to Bright’s Grove…Jackson was going to be helping Michelle out as she was volunteering at one of the run aid stations. I dumped my bike in transition and then went to grab my race kit while Michelle figured out where she was going to be stationed. It didn’t take long for me to get everything ready and set up my transition area, leaving me with plenty of time to socialize with some of the many people I knew who were doing the race. I chatted with Spencer, who was back to defend his Sprint Duathlon win from last year, as well as Abe, who was out to try and knock me off as the top 30-39 year old male. I finished second overall in the Olympic Tri last year, which was good for first in my age group…Abe was second in the age group and has had his sights set on taking me down in this race since last year. We had a side bet for this one too, as whoever wins the age group receives a big bottle of beer from Refined Fool, a local craft brewery. It was decided that whoever won would have to buy the other guy a Refined Fool. Good deal.

Swim – 1100m
18:14 (1:33/100m), 3rd OA / 1st AG

The swim is supposed to be 1500m, but in reality it is about 1100. To be fair the run from the lake to transition might just make up that extra 400m. The swim here is beautiful, always one of my favourites. It is in Lake Huron and hugs tight to the shore…the water is clear and cool, perfect conditions with a wetsuit. This morning was overcast and rain was threatening, but the lake was calm as can be, a sheet of glass. I managed a quick warm up and then just hung out on shore waiting for the start. I took up my position right in line with the first turn buoy, which was a mere 50m from shore. The horn went and I busted it from the start to the turn , trying to avoid the crush of people hitting that turn at the same time. I was successful as I was the second or third guy there, which gave me plenty of clean water for the rest of the race. I just settled in and found my rhythm, cruising along nice and easy. It didn’t take long to get some separation from the field and I was swimming in second or third position most of the time. The lead swimmer was way out front and there was no catching him, but I went back and forth with another guy for second spot. He seemed to pull ahead a couple of times but I noticed he was off line and going out pretty wide, so I knew that if I just held my line I would be out front once we made the turn back to shore. Soon enough we came to the final buoy and I put my head down and swam hard to the swim exit, trying my best to be second out of the water. As I approached the shore I took a quick peek to see how close I was and I could see/hear people yelling at me…not cheering, but yelling, “You’re on the wrong side!”. The shoreline in Bright’s Grove has a bunch of groynes that protect the beaches from eroding away…basically they are metal walls that go out into the water. The water level is higher than previous years and the groyne is therefore a bit lower and apparently not as easy to see. Since I didn’t have anyone in front of me to follow I guess I didn’t notice that I had in fact swam up the wrong side of the groyne. It took a couple of seconds for this to register before I had my “oh $h!t” moment, then I turned around and began to swim back around the groyne to the swim exit side. Of course this meant that the guy I had battled all through the swim with was able to pass me and I had to settle for third out of the water. A bit frustrated but I knew I was still in a good position. Swim time was 17:10, 18:14 by the time I raced up the stairs and along the long path into T1.

Bike – 40K
1:03:27 (37.8kph), 8th OA / 1st AG

Onto the bike and the pancake flat ride. There was a little bit of wind but not enough to really do much damage. I had to work slightly harder with the wind in my face but the slight tailwind evened things out on the way back. I passed a few of the sprint athletes as well as some duathletes and was settling in nicely. I popped a salt tab and was downing water and Gatorade, getting my nutrition taken care of. It wasn’t long before Chris Balestrini went flying past me, trying to chase down the leader. Chris has won the Olympic Duathlon here for as long as I can remember but he has focused on triathlon this year…bad news for us triathletes! He has been coming out on Wednesdays to our weekly Splash n Dash and you can see the improvements in his swimming. It won’t be long until he is a serious threat to the big boys as there aren’t many faster runners out there. Anyways, Chris flew by me and then I was quickly passed again by Mike Coughlin, who I had just met before the race since we racked our bikes beside each other. He went by like a rocket and left me in his dust. No worries, my game isn’t biking guys down…if I chased I knew I would blow up on the run. I just continued to focus on keeping a nice high cadence and holding steady watts. I kept the power just under 90% FTP and managed to hold it there the entire ride, right where I had planned to be.

I saw a bunch a familiar faces out on the course and cheered people on as I went by them. Once I hit the first turnaround I was able to check out my competition and see how close they were. It looked like Chris had put nearly a kilometre into me by the turn at 18K, but when I saw Abe flying by towards the turnaround I figured I had almost 3K on him, a gap that I knew would be hard for him to overcome. I kept pushing and rode the tailwind back to T2, nice and uneventful.

Run – 10K
40:21 (4:03/km), 8th OA / 1st AG

It was a quick 39 seconds to get through transition and out onto the run. The first section of the run is a left turn out of transition with a short little 500m run to a turnaround, then you run back past transition for a long out and back along the lakeshore path and road. As I made the left out of T1 I saw Shane from MEC (a local running/biking/outdoors store) heading the other way and gave him a cheer…he was competing in the Relay event and I knew he was a strong runner, so I was hoping I could try to claw back some time from him and use his pace as a motivator. I hit the first turn and took some water right away…it was still overcast but it was warm and muggy. These were the best racing conditions I can remember having at this race and I wanted to make the most of it. I saw a few more faces I knew as I ran back past transition, but no Abe. At this point I was just hoping he was doing okay as I knew he was battling some knee issues and wasn’t at 100%. I came to the next aid station at the park exit and I had to make sure I took some water there as that was where Michelle and Jackson were stationed. I could hear Michelle long before I saw her! I darted across the path and made the cup grab from Jackson and then took off with some fire in my belly. Right after that the rain came and it was quite welcome at that point. It was light and just enough that it felt good. I was holding the pace around 4:15, which felt very manageable…I didn’t see the sense in pushing too hard too soon. I cruised along and made it to the turn at 5.5K…I had made up most of the gap on Shane by this point as he was now about 300m ahead. There was another issue now though as the sixth place athlete, Andrew Scollard, had caught up to me while I was downing some ice water. Before he could actually pass me I started talking to him. We follow each other on Strava but had never actually met, so I introduced myself and we chatted for a bit. I told him he must have really been moving to catch up to me and he said he was chasing hard the whole way and was feeling it now. Perfect. I just kept talking away and staying right on his shoulder. We had upped the pace by now and were running in the low 4:00-range. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t able to recover from his initial effort to catch me but I was still feeling pretty fresh and was saving something for the finish. We came to the second last aid station and I scooted over to grab some water, knowing that Jackson and Michelle’s aid station would be where I made my move. Andrew was hanging on but I could tell by his breathing that he was near his limit. He wasn’t really talking to me anymore either. We came to the end of the road an entered the park with Michelle and Jackson there cheering me on. Just a half mile to the finish. We had just caught Shane, who was putting down a great run of his own, and I dropped the hammer. I took off and sprinted the final 800m. I heard footsteps chasing me and wondered if it was Shane or Andrew, but then I heard “go Daddy! I’m coming!” and realized it was actually Jackson chasing me! I made the turn into the finish chute and the little guy met me on the other side. Shane came in next followed closely by Andrew…I ended up getting him by 10 seconds in the end. The run felt great and I believe that I executed it perfectly…I could have pushed harder and gone under 40 minutes if I wanted to but I didn’t want to risk a blow up.

My final time was 2:03:34, fastest I have ever gone at this race and 3 and a half minutes faster than last year. I took 5th place overall and most importantly the age group win, meaning I win a big ol’ bottle of beer! We stuck around for awards and of course the great food spread…I enjoyed my hot dog, chili and of course the legendary butter tarts. Thanks to all of the volunteers that continue to make this a great race, thanks to Michelle and Jackson for being a great cheer squad while volunteering themselves, and thanks as well to Brad Reiter for the great photos. A special shout out to Ken Walker (along with his wife Deb and daughter Haley) who has been running this race for nearly 30 years now…thank you so much for all the work you do year after year. All of us athletes truly appreciate it!

2017 IRONMAN 70.3 Syracuse Recap

This past weekend Michelle and I were down in lovely Syracuse, NY as I took on my first goal race of the year, Ironman 70.3 Syracuse. I had chosen this race for a few reasons, the key one being that it was one of the final races offering qualifying spots to this year’s 70.3 Half Ironman World Championship, being held September 9-10 in Chattanooga, TN. My goal was to snag one of those spots.

I knew going into the race that it was going to be tough. Prior to signing up for it last fall I did a bit of reading and asked some people about it and it seems like many agree that it is one of the toughest Half Ironman courses in North America, and if the weather turns at all it makes it the toughest. Last year’s finishing times were slow for a big race with just 42 finishers going under 5 hours, so I knew that I had to respect this course. I put in the training over the winter and spring and I have been running better than ever the last couple of months…I was ready for whatever the day brought.

Michelle and I arrived in town on Friday afternoon and went straight to the Ironman Village at Jamesville Beach Park where we were able to zip through athlete check-in in no time and also picked up all of the race swag. One of my regrets from Ironman Mont Tremblant last year was not just buying the swag I wanted and being my typical cheap self, so this year I just got what I wanted (and tried to not think about how much that US-Canadian exchange rate was going to hurt!). Walked away with a couple of shirts and a running visor, as well as shirts for the kids. I also managed to snag some new aerobar pads for my bike from one of the vendors there to replace my gross and filthy old ones…long overdue and I got them for half the cost here in Canada. We stuck around and took in the athlete briefing and then took off to get checked into our hotel.

We are fans of local bars and hangouts, so we found a cool little place not far from our hotel called The Distillery…they featured a menu full of typical pub fare, lots of specials, and a whole mess of craft and local beer on tap. I was a happy boy! I tried out their House Ale and then switched over to the Founder’s Session (being responsible, I had a race coming up). I also loaded up on the carbs with some spicy chicken pasta…Cajun chicken with linguine tossed in a Buffalo sauce, yum! It was a great meal and the sort of place Michelle and I wish we had to go to at home. After a delicious dinner we hit the local Target to get supplies (bananas and a 12-pack of Saranac) and then went to the Sweet Frog to cap the night off with some frozen yogurt.

The next morning we woke up and went out for a little shakeout run…Michelle and I just did a few kilometres (think it was about 3 or so) and already at that time of the morning it was HOT. Plenty of hills too, no matter where we went around town. I had a feeling this race was going to live up to its reputation. We finished up and went next door to Denny’s to grab some breakfast and my sister Emily came and met us there…she had made the drive down that morning from Kingston to hang out with us and watch my race. After breakfast it was back to the hotel where I did a final tune up of my bike and took it for a quick little spin around the neighbourhood and then we were back off to the race site for bike check in. No issues there and we decided to drive the bike course to see what I was getting myself into the next day (basically a lot of hills. A LOT of hills.) After a quick stop back at the hotel for Emily to check in we were off to dinner at Olive Garden, more carbs with pasta and unlimited breadsticks. A decent fill up and I put myself to bed for the night…tomorrow was race day.

Race morning arrived at 4:45am…I was up without my alarm. Some oatmeal and a cup of coffee in my belly, we were out the door and I was setting up my spot in transition by 6:00. The race kicked off at 7:00 and I was in wave 4, starting at 7:12. We watched (and laughed) at the peacocks strutting around trying to be seen. I had joked the day before that I need to make some fake race shirts to wear to expos, something like “Lard Lad Donut Dash 5K Fun Run – 43rd Place”, just to thwart the cockiness of other triathletes. I was intimidating the other athletes with my runDisney race shirt, I’m sure they were terrified. We went down to the beach and I jumped in my wetsuit and had a quick warmup swim. It was pretty ridiculous as we were only allowed in a small little roped off swim area, so everyone was just swimming around in a big circle. I said to one of the ladies there that it looked like we were trying to make a whirlpool like we did as kids in the backyard swimming pools. It was enough to get loosened up before the start though so it served its purpose. Out of the lake and a quick kiss and goodbye to Michelle and Emily, then I was off to my corral. Race time.

Swim - 1.2 miles / 1900m
31:47 (1:39/100m), 8/159 AG

I was in the largest Age Group (M35-39) with 159 guys registered, so our age group was split into two waves. I was in the first of the two and had discussed the split-wave with my buddy Matt as he had the same situation for his Florida 70.3 race. He told me to just treat it as a time trial and go as hard as I could, knowing that there were other athletes coming in 4 minutes behind me. I took his advice with me to the start line and made my way to the front of the wave. I positioned myself right at the front and on the buoy line, giving me a straight shot on the out and back swim. The horn went off and I was ahead of the pack in clean water right from the start. Clean water didn’t last long as I was on the previous wave in minutes. From that point on it was traffic, lots of traffic. I just weaved my way through the crowd staying on that buoy line. As we got further out I noticed that the chop was starting to pick up…the wind was blowing and waves were forming on the lake. I knew that it was going to be tough once we turned to head back to shore. I kept the pace steady and focused on form, knowing that it was going to be important when the conditions worsened. Around 900m I made the turn and began the 100m swim across to the turn buoy where we would head back towards shore. Right away the waves were on me, crashing from my right-hand side. I just made sure to breathe to the left and all was good, although sighting that turn buoy was a little more difficult as I typically sight from my right. I made it though, which is better than a lot of the other people around me. There were plenty of folks struggling with the chop. Once I turned to shore the waves were crashing head on right into us. It was like swimming upstream the whole time. I just focused on my head position, roll and a strong pull. Still plenty of traffic to deal with and I got kicked twice right in the goggle…both times it completely compressed the socket on my eye and I couldn’t see a thing, so I had to pop up and fix it. It may have cost me a few seconds but it was time well wasted. I went past the final sighting buoy and approached the shore…I grabbed sand (and a few weeds) and popped out of the lake, tearing the top of my wetsuit off and running past the cheering spectators, picking out Michelle and Emily along the way, and then plopped down in front of a pair of wetsuit peelers. They were almost all available, no one was using them for some reason. They ripped the suit off of me in about 1 second and I was off on the long 500m run to transition.

Bike – 56 Miles / 90km
2:50:18 (32.2 kph), 15/159 AG

Long run to my bike in transition. It was hot already and the sun was blazing. I’m usually lousy for wearing sunscreen during a race but I knew that the sun would kick my butt today if I didn’t, so I took the extra couple of seconds to spray myself. Again, time well wasted based on all of the lobsters I saw walking around the park later in the day. All told it was 3:08 from the swim exit to the bike mount, not bad considering I had to run half a kilometre with a wetsuit over my shoulders or a bike in my hands. I hopped on my bike and zipped past Michelle and Emily again and headed up the road, getting the legs loose and ready for some serious climbing. There is 3244 feet of climbing on the bike course (almost 1000m) and it is pretty constant throughout the ride. We were hit with the first big climb just 3K into the bike. I switched into my small ring up front and spun past a bunch of people. First hill down, didn’t drop my chain, I’m happy. We cruised along for a few more kilometres before turning south right into the teeth of the wind that had whipped up for us. The wind was out of the South all day and it was blowing pretty good. The turn also marked the beginning of the biggest climb on the course…really the first 20K or so you are climbing the entire time, gaining nearly 1000 feet. I have never used my small chainring as much as I did on this bike course, it was climb after climb with barely any time between climbs to even shift back up to the big ring before dropping right back down again. Eventually we crested the top of the final climb (in this opening stretch anyways) and had a nice long decent to give the legs a bit of a break. I got it up well over 50kph in this stretch and it felt good to go finally go fast. Once it flattened out we took a couple of turns and hit the first aid station. I tossed my water and Gatorade bottles and grabbed new ones…Orange Gatorade, yuck.

One of the nice things about this flatter, more rolling stretch of the course was that I could finally enjoy the beautiful scenery. Seriously, what a gorgeous part of the country. We continued south into the wind around a pretty little lake with cottages all around it and hit the halfway point. I was aiming to put out 220W on the bike and the first half was a little high due to the big climbs, as I had expected. I was right around 30kph for the first half but I knew that I would be able to ride easier yet faster on the back half due to the wind and lack of really big climbs. I tucked into my aerobars and just cruised, ensuring that I kept the power steady by spinning quick up the rollers and not pushing it too hard on the flat sections. It was around 60K in when I finally saw someone from my age group pass by me…I considered chasing him for a split second but quickly thought the better of it. A few minutes later another one of my age groupers went past but I ended up catching him on the very next hill. We went back and forth with each other pretty much the rest of the ride…I didn’t let him get too far away from me and managed to leapfrog him on almost every hill, only for him to go by on the corresponding descent.

At 70K we made the turn north onto the appropriately named Sky High Road, another big climb for about 5K. The last 20K of the ride was similar to the climbs and descents of the first section. I swapped out my water and Gatorade at the final aid station and dug in for this last tough stretch. Right away it was going wrong…the guy that handed me my water gave me a bottle without a cap so I had to take a swig and stick it in the cage on my downtube…a lit bit sloshy but okay. Shortly after that I went to take a slug of Gatorade and…nothing. I squeezed again and still nothing, so I unscrewed the cap and, yup, it was sealed. Come on. I stuck the cap in my jersey pocket and peeled off the seal, taking a big gulp to try to avoid sticky sport drink getting all over me, but there was no way I was getting that cap back on. I was moving along at a good clip through these hills and had to hold the open bottle with one hand (my second cage is mounted horizontally between my aerobars, so couldn’t use it), and I couldn’t get the cap back out of my jersey pocket unless I completely let go of the bike…not happening at that speed on that road in the middle of a race. I took another good slug from the bottle and then just dumped the contents. I shoved the empty bottle back into my cage and trudged on to the finish. A couple more climbs and one final big descent (which had a nice sharp 90 degree turn in the middle of it, along with a 40kph speed trap) and I was jumping off my bike and running into a very empty transition area…I hardly saw any bikes at all.

Run – 13.1 Miles / 21.1km
1:37:18 (4:37/km), 6/159 AG

Without the long run from the beach, T2 was a much quicker 1:33…still a bit longer as it is a big transition area and I reapplied my sunscreen. I sprinted out of T2 with my legs feeling really good…I had been taking salt caps on the bike as I knew I would be in trouble with the heat. By the time I got onto the run course the temperatures were soaring and the heat index was in the mid-90’s, along with blazing hot sun and no shade. What wind we could actually feel at this point was certainly welcome! I ran past Michelle and Emily and Michelle said something about me being “well in the top 20”, which made sense given the lack of bikes in transition, but I had to remember that I just had to run my own race and keep in mind that half of my age group started 4 minutes after me in the other wave. I checked my pace and it was a bit too hot, around 4:00/km. I kept telling myself to slow it down and was trying to hold it around 4:30/km. I quickly caught and passed a couple guys in front of me and then pulled up beside the guy in my age group who I went back and forth with on the bike. The two of us ran pretty much side by side for the first 5K and then I made a bit of a push up a hill and put some distance between us. I also saw another guy ahead from my age group and I put the pass on him as well…I had already moved up two spots on the run.

The heat was brutal now and you could see its effects on everyone. By now there were a lot of people on the out portion of the course as I was running by them on the back and they were struggling. I was still holding on though and made my way back to the turnaround to complete my first loop in 46 minutes. I was feeling the heat though and my pace was starting to fall off. Shortly into the second loop the back and forth battle with the bike guy swung his way again as he scooted past me. He opened a bit of a gap but I never let him get too far ahead…he was looking alright but not great, no better than me I was thinking, so I was pretty confident that I could reel him in next time we hit a hill. And there were plenty of hills on the run course as well, no flats here with over 600 feet of elevation to deal with. Sure enough I caught up to him and made a pass, pulling away for what I hoped would be for good.

Once I hit the first of the two out and back sections of second loop I was feeling just about done…my pace had really fallen off and I was putting in kilometres in the 5:15 range. I continued to take water, ice, Coke, more water and more ice at all of the aid stations and was eventually able to dig deep and make a push for the final 5K. It was nowhere near fast, but I managed to get the pace back into the high 4-minutes range. I was passing a whole bunch of guys in my age group now, but with the multiple wave start coupled with the two-loop run course there was no way to know if they were anywhere near me. Eventually I made it back into the park and was running along the path towards the finish line, just a half mile to go. Wouldn’t you know it, back and forth bike guy pulled up beside me. Seriously, this guy was like Robert Patrick’s T-1000 Terminator, he just wouldn’t die! I saw him pull even and knew how hard he would have had to have worked to get back to me and I knew that I had to drop him right away, so I gave everything I had and just sprinted all out for these last 800m, dropping him right away…I finally broke the guy. I approached the finish chute and made the final turn, hearing Michelle and Emily cheering me on. It was a bit of a blur as I was getting loopy from the heat and the big finishing kick but I knew it was over. The announcer called out my name and remarked about the great time that I put in and it was over…final time 5:04:04.

I collected my finisher swag and grabbed a slice of shade under a tree, waiting for Michelle and Emily to show up. It didn’t take them long to find me and they had the cooler with them so I was able to just lie down, crack open an ice cold beer and start the recovery process. I really had no idea of how I finished, what my time was, nothing. Michelle figured I was around top 7 in my age group but wasn’t sure as the Ironman tracking had crapped out on her phone. Guys were still coming in that started 4 minutes after me, so it was hard to tell. I knew I had raced well on a tough day and had a good shot at a Worlds spot, that’s all I could ask for. I took a dip in the cool lake with a bar of soap and got myself cleaned off, then we headed into town to grab some beer and pizza at The Distillery. Once I sat down I checked my phone and saw a message from my buddy Luke saying, “5th place bud congrats!”…sweet! I had made the age group podium and had a guaranteed spot for Worlds, I just had to show up at the roll down ceremony with my credit card. We downed our meal and headed back to the park just in time for awards. It turned out that it was an incredibly tough day for everyone, even harder than the year before, with only 14 athletes going under 5 hours. I did indeed end up coming in 5th in my age group and the gap between 1st and 5th was just 4 minutes…incredibly tight. My time was also good for 25th overall out of over 1300 people. I was called up to the stage for my award and a little while later went up to claim my spot for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga this September. My age group was allocated 7 spots for Worlds plus one additional spot for 8 total…the top 7 guys all claimed their spot and the final slot only rolled down to 10. I’m glad I didn’t slack off expecting slots to roll!

It was a great day and I was happy that Michelle and Emily were able to be there to share it with me. The conditions were brutal and this was the hardest course I have raced on (it made Mont Tremblant seem like a joke), but I was smart and stuck to my plan, racing with my head as much as my legs. The weather did beat me in the end, but I held on a lot longer than most people out there. The training I had put in paid off on race day (thanks Coach Sheri!) and now I have the great opportunity to go and race in the World Championships. I’ll take it easy for a little bit but will be back out training real soon and taking on some local races over the next couple months leading up to Chattanooga. Thanks for reading folks!