Subaru Banff International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

That swim was in one word PATHETIC!! It is by far the worst swimming (if you could even call it that) that I've ever done or that people have ever witnessed! I almost quit 5 times before the first buoy, after rounding the first turn I knew I would finish regardless of how horrible my swim looked. I ended up back stroking and adding a good bit of mileage onto my swim for lack of spotting. I was completely out of breath by the time I hit shore because I hyperventilated the entire way, just trying to catch my breath from the shock of the cold splashing over my face. As soon as I stood on shore I realized A. I was dizzy from hyperventilating and B. I could not feel my feet on the ground. Thankfully I had booties so running on the rocks to T1 didn't cut my feet, I saw a few ppl with some terrible gashes on the bottom of their feet.

I now know that I cannot do a cold water swim and thus have decided NOT to go ahead with the Calgary 70.3 IM. At least I figured this out in an Olympic and not a half.

T1 was a bit of a gong show, however it was better than I had anticipated. I wore tri shorts and a sports bra under the wet suit so all I had to put on were my leggings, shirt, bike jacket, gloves, socks & shoes. I decided on my attire the day before because even though they were supplying change tents, they could only hold about 6 ppl at a time. My feet were frozen so it was hard to get them into the shoes.

I would have gone to the bathroom BEFORE putting on my leggings...that took a good min. or 2. For the amount of clothing I had to put on I was ok with my transition time, and I wanted to be extra cautious for the bike due to potential hypothermia.

My bike was horrible, and I have to say this was due to lack of bike training. I seemed to have a head wind on both up and down hills so that I had to pedal pretty good to make it down a hill. Also, I got caught behind some slower people who ate up my good down hill out of transition so the climb to the Minnewanka parking lot was a chore. About 10km into my bike I realized I still couldn't feel my feet or ankles, I was a bit worried that it was resulting in frost bite. Ice cold lake + Rain + Wind = A crappy bike ride.

I would have been more aggressive out of T1, I would have made the pass that I initially wanted to and not let the pros bully me back in line.
Also, I should have done more hill repeats, because that's exactly what the Minnewanka loop was, hill repeats.

HA! So they are yelling Dismount! Dismount! And so I....begin to dismount...then they yell Noooooo not yet...at the OTHER dismount signs, come on you guys. I just finished 6km of dodging cars and kids because nobody was paying enough attention on Main, pot holes and manholes and pilons too, and now there's a pop quiz at the end of the bike. Give me a break. So I dismount, and the lady yells at me (in case I was deaf apparently) if I was OK, she yelled/asked this over 3 times, each time cutting me off when I was trying to answer. I was simply trying to tell her that I just couldn't feel my feet (on top of having the bike to run legs going on lol). I walked very very slowly to my rack spot and had a hell of a time getting my soaking wet frozen feet into my shoes. BUT it was a good transition time for me. And then I slowly walked to the run start and baby-stepped-ran onto the course.

I must practice more bike to run bricks to get the legs going.

Worst run pace I've ever ever EVER had!!! I couldn't even run that slow when I started training.
After about 1500m I felt this clicking somewhere on the back of my heel/calf, I couldn't feel my ankles or feet so I didn't pay much attention to it. At km 4 I realized there was definitely something wrong because of searing pain in both my achilles and by km 5-6 when I could feel my toes, I finally figured out that I had pulled/sprained my achilles.

I truely felt I was going to do well on the run and make up some lost time there, I didn't anticipate how long my ankles and feet would stay frozen. As well, it turned out that I actually ruptured my left achilles and sprained my right one, my Dr. said it was from my tendons being so cold and contracted that when I tried to exert them they just ripped. So apparently stay off my feet for 2 weeks and nothing serious for 2-3 months (now if only he would tell my 2 year old that lol).

Warm down was me trying to hold back tears about my dismal and horrible finish. I was soooo disappointed in my performance though I am happy I did not give up.


Initially I thought Banff would be an amazing place to do a triathlon, what better backdrop than the Rocky Mountains. The thing is you're so damn cold and miserable that you don't even notice the beauty around you. I just wanted the stupid thing to be over with so that I could finally be warm. The course itself is not challenging but the cr@p you have to put up with during the race is. I heard from many many people that they would not be doing this race again because they just didn't "enjoy" it or have "fun". As well, I found it to be extremely disorganized, nobody seemed to know where body marking was, where to get your chip, and the bussing around was a bit annoying. Oh and the items were brought over from T1 to T2 sometime while we were biking and dumped in the street and on a meridian next to T2, so if you love your wetsuit/goggles/tri equipment don't use it in this race because when I was picking up my stuff there was a line up of people asking where their "GAP" transition bags were and the volunteers had no idea, in fact some of other ppl's things were in my transition bag; good thing I checked my bag before I left (lots of mad ppl!!) If you do the race, I suggest having someone to drive you around so that you don't have to wait for the busses. Also, I suggest doing at least a few cold water swims in Two Jack, you'll want to know what to expect, it's not the cold, it's the shock of the cold that messes with you.