Swim: 40:17 (2:01/100m) 45/83 AG, 282/549 OA
T1: 2:17
Bike: 1:46:51 (30.9kph) 39/83 AG, 208/549 OA
T2: 2:03
Run: 1:15:02 (8:04/mile) 57/83 AG, 301/549 OA

Total: 3:46:28 49/83 AG, 249/549 OA

Long-winded version:

Race morning started off raining slightly and cool. I stood outside at 6:30 in my race suit and it didn't feel too bad ... I decided to go with no arm-warmers or gloves on the bike. I felt that if it poured down than I'd be better off without them anyways.

My buddy and fellow Big Bowls Triathlon Team member E "bitch" C picked me up and we headed for the transition area. While I was unpacking my stuff and racking my bike another friend David "Big D" Windrim sauntered into the transition area and racked his bike near ours. All three of us are in the 30-34 AG. We talked about race strategy and how we were gonna make each other feel pain out there.

10 minutes from the start (or so we thought), EC and I headed out to the start of the swim which is a 500m walk from the transition area. It is a point to point swim with the exit point maybe 1-200m from transition and is a "in water" start (maybe 50m from the beach). As we are gradually getting on our wetsuits on the beach the announcer says something to the effect of "10 seconds til we send off our 30-39 age groups!". EC and I look at one another, and the gun goes off. EC quickly does up my wetsuit and I run into the water trying to put on my cap and goggles. As soon as it is deep enough to swim I try to find myself and get in a nice swimming rhythm ... still well behing the start buoy.

Swim - 2km

In a panic to catch up, I resort to swimming hard while breathing with every stroke ... the opposite of what I normally do in the pool (bi-lateral breathing). I swim far off course (to the inside) and have to angle out to catch the stragglers of my AG. Finally, after what seems an eternity, I catch alot of them before the first buoy. After that, I calmed down a bit and just worked on taking it easy, long strokes, and try to work of someone's draft which I found pretty hard all race. I dedided to let the fish of my AG go and work on a solid bike and run splits.

As I hit the last buoy, I'm feeling good, and ready for the bike ... although I can't get that feeling out of the back of my head that I've "ruined" my race by starting late, going off course, and having to work hard without a draft the whole swim. I'm surprised I caught almost half of my AG when I gave them at least a 100m start.

T1:

Wetsuit comes off easy enough (thanks EC!) and after some bumbling I'm out of the transition area ready to hump the bike.

Bike (55km):

Time certainly erased how hard the Muskoka course is. There is not one terrible incline, but it is rolling the entire way. But as it is a true out and back, any uphill you climb, you get the recovery downhill on the way back and vice-versa.

I eased into my race pace, and focussed on working hard the whole way. Looking at my 10km splits along the way, I was making good time, but not as good as I thought I would. Two years ago, I averaged 33.1 kph on the bike, but at the midway point of the race this year I was only at 31.9. But, I knew I had some real estate to work with and concentrated on finishing hard.

The course was definately long ... 57.8km by my computer. Give a few hundred metres in and out of transition and it was still 2.6 km long. At the end of the bike I was feeling fine and averaged 32.8kph (a little over 20mph).

Last year, I did the course in 1:40 flat. This year, almost 1:47. I was very disheartened that after two years of really solid training I've lost 7 minutes on a 55km course. But looking at the results later .. it appeared I wasn't the only one. The coolest chick in triathlon, Lisa Bentley, went from 1:34:20 in 2001 to 1:42:49 this year so I guess I wasn't the only one who felt the course was harder. :) Most people I talked to after the race said the bike was somehow "harder" and "long".

T2

Couldn't feel my hands. It's fun doing up ez-laces when you can't even feel what you're doing. My mind was telling my hands what to do (and we were doing this with muscle memory too ... not like I haven't done this before!) but they just weren't cooperating. So, after a lackadaisacal 2 min T2, I was off into the run.

Run (15km)

I felt great coming out of T2. Grabbed my gel and took a quick pee in the first 500m in a woody section of the course. I had planned to take it out IM pace (around 8 min/mile) and hopefully get it down to 7:40/mile later in the race.

I took it out steadily and even the whole way ... had some kms get down to 4:45/km (downhill) or 5:13/km (mostly uphill). Much like the bike course, the run course is also rolling the whole way. Not a PR course although my boy EC ripped up the course in approximately 55 min for a sub 6 min/mile average and the 3rd best run overall! Yo! PR would be proud baby!

I finished with something left in the tank although I didn't seem to be able to will my legs to run faster during the race. I was happy to see the finish line. :)

Post-race reflections

Where has my speed gone? Although I would be happy with this pace for a half IM and up, I'm still in shock that I was almost 7 min slower this year than 2 years ago when I was in worse shape. And that's even with an 8min advantage coming out of the swim! So, in reality, I lost 15 min on the bike/run portion of the course. That's amazing.

I didn't seem to have the ability to dig further and find a way to lose a few more minutes on the run (which was 5 min slower than 2 years ago).

Oh well. I'm only worried about my IM-USA speed. Although I'm a little worried now about that too. The three multisport races I've done this year have all been between 4-6 minutes slower than 2 years ago when I did IM-USA in 13:48. Let's hope that loss of speed is made up for in extra endurance.

See you at the races,

Clive

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