The swim was basically point-to-point - we had to walk from transition down to the start. They must have moved it up the beach towards transition from where they originally measured the distance. I'm guessing the swim was roughly 1000m, based on both my time and a conversation I overheard between two of the duathletes -- they said that run #1 was to be 2.3km, instead of the posted 2.8km... the 500m difference certainly jives with my swim time -- and yes, I'm a slow swimmer. The race was a chase format, with the women getting a 16 minute head start over the men, first across the line takes the prize money. My first mass start! Ok, my first start that didn't involve age-group waves. There was probably only about 50 of us... don't know if that qualifies for a "mass" start. It was uneventful, other than not really being able to pass anyone... it seemed like every time I came up behind another swimmer, there would be two more on either side, boxing me in... but when no one was in front of me, no one was beside me, either. Weird. Out of the water and up a very steep embankment along Lake Huron... the stairs weren't really stairs, they were huge slabs of stone... I usually see them being used in fancy landscaped yards. I think my HR was about 560bpm when I finally reached the top.
T1 was horrible -- I somehow managed to get my shirt caught in the zipper of my wetsuit. This has happened before, but it always came out with a little extra effort on the tug, but not this time. The ripping sound I heard was a chunk of my Zoot tri top that remained in the zipper after the wetsuit was finally off. Bad times.
I finally made it out onto the bike course, which was advertised as "flat and fast." It was definitely flat. Fast for me doesn't seem to exist right now on the bike. My running has come a long way, but my biking lags behind. No one to blame but myself, though -- after focusing on a May half marathon, I've continued to knock off great running workouts... speed intervals, tempos, long runs... but my bike rides have been slightly less enthusiastic, and quite unorganized from a training standpoint. So I have to say I'm not surprised that my bike times have been rather pedestrian this year. That is something I look forward to changing this coming off-season -- I'd really like to see some improvement on the bike next year.
Anyway, the 40k came and went... some rain here, some wind there... some more wind there (and there, and there). It wasn't a straight out and back -- it was several smaller sections, so we never really got to take advantage of when the wind was at our backs. But on the good side, we never really had the wind in our face for too long, either. I managed about 30km/h average on the bike, and the second half was definitely faster than the first -- two years ago I would have been thrilled... not so much now. But, I think it's a great starting point for some major improvements later this year and early next.
One other thing about the bike... I think I'm a little timid when it comes to pushing or spinning hard during a race. It's not like I'm soft-pedalling out there, but I'm not exactly mashing it, either. After experiencing some very painful cramping last year at Muskoka 70.3, I seem to be living in fear of a killer cramp that hasn't yet surfaced. It seems that the possibility of cramping on the bike (or later on the run) really has me racing on the conservative side of things from an intensity standpoint. Something else to work on, I guess!
The run was pretty good for me, overall. The rain was pretty steady by that point... nothing hard, though. I was holding about 5:00/km for the first 3-4k, but didn't feel like I was pushing too much. The middle 4k or so actually saw me pick up the pace a little -- certainly not a lot, but it still felt good. The final couple km were the most difficult based on what the clock was saying, but they still actually felt not bad. It was strange -- I tried to pick up the pace at the 8k mark and again at the 9k mark... but they turned out to be the 2 slowest of the race for me. I managed to average about 5:11/km on the run. I was really hoping to be faster, but in my only other Olympic race (Aug/08), I fell apart on the run and it took me an hour to finish the 10k -- so I'm happy with the improvement.
Overall, not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. I seem to have hit a plateau with my swimming... I'm not getting any faster. Something in my favour -- a local coach I know (who did my FIST bike fit for me) just opened a multi-sport store here in town... they have an endless pool with cameras for training & coaching. Might have to go in for some technique analysis. I know the swim is a very small percentage of the race... but if I could improve my technique, I don't think there would be an easier way of shaving minutes off my overall time while not expending any more energy. Makes sense, right? I'm hoping to get in there soon.
Next up is the Barrie Triathlon on August 9th. This is a last-minute addition to the schedule -- I'll be at a cottage 45 minutes away that weekend, so I figured, why not? My wife, on the other hand, figured, we're on vacation, so... why? (ooops) It's a short course (700m, 20k, 5k) with lots of loops, making it good for spectators and won't take too long to complete -- so I can get back to my vacation quickly. Should be good. As usual, time will tell.
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