Subaru Shawnigan Lake International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Just cold...actually cold might be an understatement..it was FREEZING. Also the start had some pretty hard/sharp edged rocks and it hurt to enter/exit the water. My toes went numb about 400m into the race and that continued to increase to the end. Got caught up in a little bit of mayhem at the beginning and was having a hard time getting my pace going with all the other cold, floundering people.

Try and get a better start to get to pace earlier. Was stronger in the second half...but just slowwwwwww....

Time of T1 included in the swim time. A girl almost toppled over right next to me when she jumped on her bike...Glad she went to the right and not left into me.

Felt a little disconbobulated. Just get a system going.

BAD BAD BAD BAD...I'll add another one--BAD. Honestly probably one of the first times I have solidly considered packing it in half way through the event. Just had a miserable ride--Cold...Really thats kind of what did me in overall today I think. Which is a poor excuse for a really poor performace. My feet continued to be frozen numb for the entirety of the bike...couldn't really wiggle my toes at all to get some blood flow and running like that in cleats is just a mess--haha...I must have looked ridiculous...Some pretty rough areas, but they were well defined with paint on the road. Roads were wet due to the rain. My aerobottle decided to come loose...so for the last 7km I ended up strapping it to one of my aerobars with an elastic that was on the bottle...not the best choice...but I didn't want to stop to figure out what to do with it. I heard this whizzing noise for most of the bike too...thought it might be my brakes, so I stopped once to see if they were hitting my front rim...but they wern't--it was a twist tie from my race number on the bike. It was aggravating me for the first 20km or so. Also, going up one of the hills I ended up slipping my foot out of the pedal while riding out of the saddle...could have been a bad scene...but I worked it out.

Sort out my aerobottle issues...make sure nothing is rubbing on anything else to make annoying noises for the duration of the bike. Just go faster in general and work on maneuvering tight corners.

T2 time included in the bike time. So I took off my shoes and my feet were WHITE...Not like I'm a pasty white person kind of white either...actually white...it definately was not healthy...probably not the best and compounded my Reynaud's syndrome...woohoo!...poor foot circulation!!! Still couldn't move my toes. (I'd say I went 2-2.5hrs without being able to move my toes..) Legs were numb after the ride too. So getting feet like that into shoes was interesting...

Not have numb, white feet?

Well...took 2km for my legs to dethaw...at that time I was honestly probably at like 6:30/km. By 7km I actually started to get some tingly sensation back in my feet and was able to bring it up a notch.

Run faster off the bike. It takes me too long to transition into the run...Run faster in general. Thats all that really needs to be said.

Some nice man gave me some gatorade when I finished the race. Sucked that back and walked around. I must look out of it when I race. We all commiserated back at transition about the cold and various body parts that wern't working at various parts of the race. Some people it was their hands...I think hands might hurt more to go numb...but with a run at the end...I would prefer that compared to my feet.


Cold--partly my fault for not putting a longer shirt on and spending more time to dry off my feet, etc. My being a moron definately contributed to the fact that it was already FREEZING and that the rain had started.

Messing around with my bike--the twist tie thing really threw me off as I was more focused on figure out what it could possibly be than riding my bike for a good part of the bike. Then the aerobottle thing...*sigh..

Not working on more bike-run bricks.

Getting sick a few days before the race. Tried to get lots of rest and fluids in, but probably added to my poor performance.




The race is great. The report must seem really negative but it was really more me/the weather that contribued to that. There are a few things I have concerns about: 1) The rocks at the swim start in the water by the shore. They hurt to step on and could lead to an accident or someone getting injured. 2) The bike water/fuel station was more or less at the crest of a fairly steep hill...probably not the best placement. On my first lap both me and the guy passing me were gasping by the top and not really in the best place to be able to focus on grabbing a waterbottle or fuel IMHO and still be able to move forwards.

Other than that...given there is better weather at the end of May in the future...this is a great race!