Me and three of my buds left Vic on Friday afternoon. I was pretty excited that I was going to Nationals with some non-triathlon people. I didn't want to be overly anxious for the race too far in advance. These guys would help me relax until it was time to focus on the entire reason for the trip, the triathlon.
After accidentally missing the turnoff to Hope and hitting the US border, we were one our way to Kelowna! We sang old songs at the top of our lungs the whole way up, and got into our crummy motel around 12:00 am in good spirits. The next morning I got up early (compared to four regular guys ha) and headed down to the race site. The juniors were racing and it was fun to watch. I could feel the nervous tension building up in me. I was excited! The weather was so different from last year. It was still really hot in the day (around 30), but the mornings were strikingly cooler. I also saw wetsuits so I knew that they would most likely be legal the next day as well.
After coming back to the hotel we all went for a wine tour / tasting at Mission Hill Winery. It was amazing!
Us acting stupid at the wine tour!
Us getting our somellier on
I of course only had a few small glasses of wine, and was chugging the water on the hot day. I was the guy on the tour that had to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes!
After the tour we headed out for lunch, and then back to the hotel where I got ready to pack my tri stuff up and drop my bike off at the site. I remember one fatal error last year was being outside around the triathlon site waaaay too long under the hot sun. This year I tried to keep it to a minimum, and was in bed early.
I kicked the boys out to go partying around 9:00 pm and got a nice 5 hour head start on them for sleep!
Race morning was the usualy race morning. I made sure that I had eaten a good brekkie, and had my usualy double espresso (something I forgot last race). I found Sam Mazer in transition and we hung out for the better part of 2 hours, doing a small warmup together. I was pumped. The swim course was two loops, so it looked pretty short. I got a great warmup in and was ready to go when all of the male 20-29s were corralled together for the start. I was so scared! I have never been really scared before a race, but I didn't want to fail twice in a row, and I knew today was going to be painful. Kelowna is a hard course! I knew I would be basically sprinting in at least 25 degree heat for the next two hours! The probabilility of cramping on this course is pretty high for a big guy like me!
The gun went off, and the start was crazy! I mean stupid crazy. There were so many fist flying. Some people were so intent on hurting others that for about 100 meters we were barely moving forward! We actually came to a complete stop at one point. Tactically, it was a slow swim for me. Physically, I was pushing hard and trying to grab some feet. But sometimes it just doesn't happen. There was nobody around me that was going my pace. I swam along for most of the swim. Some guy punched me so hard in the first 100m that my left goggle filled up with water, so I couldn't see anything. I managed to fix it when we came out of the water for the second lap, but it for sure had cost me some time. I came out of the water in 23:48, which I am really happy with considering the conditions.
T1 was painful! I just didn't have the usual jump out of the water. I hopped on the bike and rode off like the wind hoping to make up some time.
I attacked Knox hill aggressively. I could tell my biking was strong today. I rode with a guy for a lap and a half, but he died soon after. I was hitting 45-47 k/hr on the stretch back into Kelowna. I knew I was faster than last year, because I had written on a peice of paper my lap splits from last year, and I was faster. I also knew that it would be very tight to get into T2 around the 1:30.00 mark, which would set me up for a 2:10.00 goal race time. My bike time was 1:05.41, almost two minutes faster than last year (which was the bike of my life). I was out of T2 in 1:31.54, so I knew my goal of 2:10.00 might not happen. Still, I was really happy with my race so far and I wanted to finish strong.
I set a solid pace on the run early. Unfortunatly, there are no km markers on the run course. This automatically makes you slower, because you can't see when you start to slack off how fast you are going and speed up! I saw on one of the turnarounds that I was a minute back of one of my fellow age groupers. I reeled him in around 4km, just in time to pass my cheering squad of three guys yelling like idiots for me! It was awesome!
When he saw me catch up, he definitely sped up, which was fine for me. I was starting to feel the heat and could definitely use a running partner! He dragged me through the next few kms, and we started talking to eachother, encouraging eachother to keep pushing hard. Around 7 km I started to get tactical with this guy. I was listening to his breathing. It was much more laboured than mine. I could tell he was working harder than me. Still, every time we accelerated, he hung on. At around 9km, there was a water station, and he pulled in behind me to get some gatoraid. That was the moment I decided to go. I went balls out and the guy just couldn't respond. In about 300m I had made a 50m gap. My cheering squad went nuts when they saw this! I finished with a 39:35 run, which I am really happy with for not having km markers. My total time was 2:11.29. which is basically a minute away from my ultimate goal in worlds. I am sooo happy about this race. I was two minutes faster in the swim, 2 minutes faster in the bike, and 4 minutes faster in the run than last year, for a total of 8 minutes faster!
I am really happy because mentally and physically, I executed this race to plan. Without the crazy head bashing start in the swim, and with km markers, I am pretty sure I would have been in the 2:10.00 range.
Most of the story starts after this race, but I just can't bring myself to start it now.
More entry later...
After the tour we headed out for lunch, and then back to the hotel where I got ready to pack my tri stuff up and drop my bike off at the site. I remember one fatal error last year was being outside around the triathlon site waaaay too long under the hot sun. This year I tried to keep it to a minimum, and was in bed early.
I kicked the boys out to go partying around 9:00 pm and got a nice 5 hour head start on them for sleep!
Race morning was the usualy race morning. I made sure that I had eaten a good brekkie, and had my usualy double espresso (something I forgot last race). I found Sam Mazer in transition and we hung out for the better part of 2 hours, doing a small warmup together. I was pumped. The swim course was two loops, so it looked pretty short. I got a great warmup in and was ready to go when all of the male 20-29s were corralled together for the start. I was so scared! I have never been really scared before a race, but I didn't want to fail twice in a row, and I knew today was going to be painful. Kelowna is a hard course! I knew I would be basically sprinting in at least 25 degree heat for the next two hours! The probabilility of cramping on this course is pretty high for a big guy like me!
The gun went off, and the start was crazy! I mean stupid crazy. There were so many fist flying. Some people were so intent on hurting others that for about 100 meters we were barely moving forward! We actually came to a complete stop at one point. Tactically, it was a slow swim for me. Physically, I was pushing hard and trying to grab some feet. But sometimes it just doesn't happen. There was nobody around me that was going my pace. I swam along for most of the swim. Some guy punched me so hard in the first 100m that my left goggle filled up with water, so I couldn't see anything. I managed to fix it when we came out of the water for the second lap, but it for sure had cost me some time. I came out of the water in 23:48, which I am really happy with considering the conditions.
T1 was painful! I just didn't have the usual jump out of the water. I hopped on the bike and rode off like the wind hoping to make up some time.
I attacked Knox hill aggressively. I could tell my biking was strong today. I rode with a guy for a lap and a half, but he died soon after. I was hitting 45-47 k/hr on the stretch back into Kelowna. I knew I was faster than last year, because I had written on a peice of paper my lap splits from last year, and I was faster. I also knew that it would be very tight to get into T2 around the 1:30.00 mark, which would set me up for a 2:10.00 goal race time. My bike time was 1:05.41, almost two minutes faster than last year (which was the bike of my life). I was out of T2 in 1:31.54, so I knew my goal of 2:10.00 might not happen. Still, I was really happy with my race so far and I wanted to finish strong.
I set a solid pace on the run early. Unfortunatly, there are no km markers on the run course. This automatically makes you slower, because you can't see when you start to slack off how fast you are going and speed up! I saw on one of the turnarounds that I was a minute back of one of my fellow age groupers. I reeled him in around 4km, just in time to pass my cheering squad of three guys yelling like idiots for me! It was awesome!
Me and the guy
When he saw me catch up, he definitely sped up, which was fine for me. I was starting to feel the heat and could definitely use a running partner! He dragged me through the next few kms, and we started talking to eachother, encouraging eachother to keep pushing hard. Around 7 km I started to get tactical with this guy. I was listening to his breathing. It was much more laboured than mine. I could tell he was working harder than me. Still, every time we accelerated, he hung on. At around 9km, there was a water station, and he pulled in behind me to get some gatoraid. That was the moment I decided to go. I went balls out and the guy just couldn't respond. In about 300m I had made a 50m gap. My cheering squad went nuts when they saw this! I finished with a 39:35 run, which I am really happy with for not having km markers. My total time was 2:11.29. which is basically a minute away from my ultimate goal in worlds. I am sooo happy about this race. I was two minutes faster in the swim, 2 minutes faster in the bike, and 4 minutes faster in the run than last year, for a total of 8 minutes faster!
I am really happy because mentally and physically, I executed this race to plan. Without the crazy head bashing start in the swim, and with km markers, I am pretty sure I would have been in the 2:10.00 range.
Most of the story starts after this race, but I just can't bring myself to start it now.
More entry later...
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