I couldn't wait to get to this race after blowing up in Belwood a few weeks ago. I haven't done a long course race since the Peterborough half in 07, and I only raced that to finish. So I was excited to actually race long course, as an elite no less because I registered for it when I assumed that I would get my elite card after Belwood.
Got to Kingston on Saturday and the place was buzzing with triathletes, very cool. Everywhere you walked downtown you couldn't get away from middle aged skinny dudes wearing race t-shirts and Oakleys. I checked out transition and found my spot on the elite rack...even cooler!! When I woke up on race morning I knew the weather was once again going to be the key factor in the race. I'm getting pretty sick of racing in rain, I literally have not seen the sun in a single race this year. 40 degrees and baking sun in Kelowna and Gold Coast sounds pretty appealing at this point. Warmup went well but I was still nervous about the race since I really haven't been training for long distance and I've only raced sprints so far this season.
The best way I can describe the swim is, it was a rollercoaster. A wet and evil one. The swim course was 1000m out, 1000m back and the entire way out was directly into the current and white caps. I've swum in rough water before but I've never been thrown around like this. In Vancouver last year it was ocean swells which you can get into a rhythm with to sight and breath, but the chop yesterday was completely unpredictable and the opening 1000m was horrible to say the least. My race strategy was to swim steady so I did my best not to drown until I got to the turn around, then I got into a rhythm and felt strong on the way back. I got out of the water and couldn't really believe my watch...34:55 (35:50 after T1). But rather than stress about an embarrassing swim time I relaxed through transition and realized that everyone's times were going to be slow today. Turned out that the leaders were 30 minutes and change, so the rough conditions affected everyone.
Race strategy on the bike was to once again go steady and get my nutrition right to feel good on the run. After a bit of a mechanical issue having to fiddle with my computer sensor between bladed spokes at 45km/h (I really need a new computer) I got into a good rhythm and felt great. I rode strong and averaged 37.8 to the turn around. The wind got progressively stronger on the way back, so we had a crosswind on the way out and a headwind on the way back. Of course. I went through 40k in 1:05 which I was very happy with but the last 15k was into the strongest wind so my average speed suffered. It rained lightly for the majority of the ride - just enough to make corners and the lift bridge crossing extremely dangerous - but it became a downpour with about 10k left. I still averaged 35.7 over 56.2km, probably my best ride of the year, and got off the bike feeling good despite knowing that a top 3 placing was out of the question. I need a time trial bike if I'm doing any long course next year.
I got off the bike in 24th, a little sucky but I knew I was saving the best for last. I had decided the day before that taking an extra ten seconds to put socks on in T2 would be worth it. I'll suck it up for 5 or 10k, but my racing flats are blister machines so I wanted to make 15k off the bike as comfortable as possible...considering the farthest I've run this year is 17k fresh (and Craig won't be happy when he sees I went that far). I knew that the run was where my race was going to unfold. The plan was to build throughout the run and finish strong with a negative split. It was after all a training race.
I got out on the run course and had made up 4 positions in the opening km and was running 3:50 k's pretty effortlessly. That downpour on the bike went to somewhere between torrential and Indian monsoon season. But I was running well. My building effort on the run ended up equating to even splitting the three 5k's, maybe that's to be expected since I had only decided about three weeks ago that I would do a long course race just for the hell of it. At the turnaround I was in 19th, and although my thoughts of going under 3 hours were out the window given the conditions, I couldn't complain with a top 20. I continued to build and ran through 10k in 38:40ish. I don't remember much about the last 5k because I was doing my very best to block out reality, but I made my way up to 15th and finished strong.
Between it being my first competitive long course race and having done no specific training for it I'm very pleased with the result. I was 5/5 in the elite division, but I was only a pretend elite so I don't really care. I love the challenge of long course races and I think I'm better suited to the physical and mental grind of long course than the maximal efforts of sprint racing. I'll stick with short course for the next couple seasons no matter what but chances are long course is where my future is in the sport. Maybe 70.3 pro?
PS that's not a question.
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