The Great White North Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started the race near the front of the pack so I could get a good "pinball feel" in prep for IMC. It worked quite well. I would have liked to drafted better so I will try to work on that. I was clawed within the first 200 m of the swim and thought my timing chip was stripped off of me. While rounding the first bouy, I quickly checked to see if it was still there. Whew, it was. Someone drafted off of me for the first 400 m. The rounding of the bouys were very congested and was very slow. The next 600 m went relatively well. Breathing and stroke was comfortable. Running around the beach bouy was fine but really murky water and had to be careful with the sink holes.
Heading out for lap 2, the first 400 m I was able to do some drafting, the next 200 m was off course a bit and the last 400 m was a bit of drafting, then a push to the beach.
Happy with the swim as I was under my goal time.

Get in the "lane" where everyone else was more (stay on course), faster around the bouys and drafting better.

The world was moving a lot when I got to my bike and had to take a few seconds to get my land legs as I felt I was going to fall over. Grateful for the wetsuit strippers. Very organized and helpful volunteers in T1. Time wasn't bad but felt I could have done this quicker. I had compression socks to put on, which took longer too.

Next race, I will go with the compression sleeves before the swim so socks will go on faster.

Happy that I practiced the course a few times. I had to back off a couple of times as I didn't want to violate the drafting rules. I noticed some blocking but didn't let it bother me. Had to stop on side of road to pee. Sad to lose a couple of minutes there. Headwind for the last 10 km was tough.
Felt good and strong on the hills. Passed several people going up the hills.
Nutrition was well managed as I had a mixture of bananas and gels with my 3 bottles of drink.
Felt quite happy with this time as my goal was 3:15.

Perhaps push a bit harder on the bike, not much else.

This went quite slow. Felt strong coming in and don't know why it took so long to do this. Had to stop and pee again on the way out of transition so that could have impacted this time.

Have to review with race partner (was watching race, rather than competing, due to a recent auto accident) to see how I can improve.

Very pleased on how I did on the run. Kept focus on my heart rate and keeping it in the desired zone, which I did. I really pushed it with just under 2 km left and passed a whole bunch of people.
I ran almost the entire race with only walking a 10-15 seconds every other aid station. These aid stations, I would drink Heed. The aid stations I ran, I took water (ran and drank, then splash on head). Every 30 minutes, I took a gel. I didn't eat anything else on the run.
For the last km, my time was 5:17! Very happy with this.

Maybe push it a bit harder but was happy with the 6 min/ km pace.

Across the finish with my daughter! Upon turning the corner and seeing the time was under 6 hours, I was almost overcome with joy! Very happy with this personal best for this distance. Two years ago, I did the Sylvan Lake Half with a time of 7:20:41. With a bit of an easier race, better training, more coaching and a new bike, I wanted to drop an hour off of this time and I did much better! 1:28:07 difference!!!


Perhaps held back a bit bcs was a bit worried for the run.


This was a great race and I will definitely do again. Very organized and excellent help by all of the volunteers. If I were to look for a area of improvement (very minor), it would be to add more volunteers at the end of the race. When I crossed the finish line, I was asked to remove my timing chip and place it into the box. With pushing as hard as I did for the last km, I was worried that I might fall over it I attempted to remove the chip. Luckily, I didn't.
Everything from carb load meal, pre-race meeting, race and post race meal with awards were excellent! Wouldn't recommend this race to anybody as they could potentially sign up before me! ; )
If you are thinking of doing a Half ironman distance race, this is a great race to do!