Northern "Orillia" Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The swim was good, and I was really happy afterwards to see I'd finally broken the 2:00 barrier (just). Defintely a little rougher than normal out there, and the conditions didn't help - we got battered coming around the first bouy, but it was smooth sailing most of the way back. I swam wide to avoid some of the congestion + it was a more dircet line to the beach.

Good transition and I was the 8th fastest - I realized that while not slow in previous races, I've given up some seconds for no reason.

I did well on the ride, and the watts showed that I pushed my pace. The ride times were definetly slower than last year, but I think that's because the conditions sucked, and the wind didn't seem to come from any one direction. About 2km into my ride I heard a rattling and realized that the velcro strap that held my aero bottle in place had come undone and my bottle was sliding out of the holder. I had to stop and fiddle with the strap and the people I'd already passed all came whizzing by. I didn't realize what this stop would cost me in the end.

The rest of the ride went well, and I only found myself getting passed on a couple of occasions and I passed plenty of people from the earlier waves.

Had a good ride, but lost a bit of time due to the bottle issue. I also need to figure out a replacement for Gatorade when I race, cause I can drink gallons of the stuff training, but in the race it just leaves a nasty sweet taste in my mouth.

Need to work on the engine this fall and winter.

Tied for 7th fastest T2, and I struggled with my left shoe. The tongue was sticking out a bit and I had to wrestle with it to sit properly which cost a few seconds.

Check how my shoes looked before leaving transition. Having to fix the shoe lost me a few seconds and caused me some unneeded aggravation.

In the past I've tried to ease into the run, but today it was all about hitting it hard and trying to hang on. My good friend and archrival always beats me every race, and I wanted to try and catch him on the run today (he's a much better swimmer). I ran pretty hard for the first 3km and kept pushing when I saw the turnaround marker. We passed each other about 200M apart. This was the closest I'd ever been mid way through the run.

With just over 3km to go I picked up the pace and all I cared about was catching the red jersey a couple of hundred meters ahead. I should mention that my entire run, I'd been feeling this pain/discomfort from the left shoe I'd mucked with in transition. By the end of the run I'd rubbed my foot raw and it was bleeding - but there was no way I could stop and try to fix it during that run.

With just under 3km to go, and me closing the gap, my legs decided they'd had enough. They suddenly protested and started to seize in both quads. I had to choose - keep running hard or slow it down a bit. I gambled and kept going with my legs screaming at me. I got within 50M, but the legs wouldn't give anymore and I lost a little bit of distance in the final 1km. I finished 22 seconds behind - so agonoizingly close.

Nothing. I had no run base from the winter and spring due to the ITB issue, so my run volume has been tiny. I couldn't have asked for a better run considering where my training has been.

Nothing really, just walked a bit, tried to stretch the quads, but they didn't want to limber up for me.


Need more bike and run training. I'm really happy with the swim, but now would like to see myself push my race times down a bit more.


30 seconds separated my 13th place from 8th place. The race was really closely stacked this year, so it will be interesting to see what I can manage with a full winter of training.

I'll be back next year.