Victoria International Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Mass start, and I eventually found a little pod of people to draft with. We all rounded the far turn buoy and were headed home when I notice a guy in a kayak headed toward us. I turn to breathe and I can tell he's yelling something and paddling furiously at us. I breathe again and now he's pointing his paddle directly at me and yelling. So I stop and ask what's up. He says I didn't go around the buoy. I reply, "Um, yes I did... we all did, in fact," while indicating my little group now pulling away from me. "Nope, you didn't, you need to go back and go around it again," he says. Soooo, I realize there's nothing to be gained by arguing with him: the longer I tread water, the more time that's going to pass before I eventually have to go back and comply. So now I'm FURIOUS. I sprint the 50 yards back to the buoy as hard as I can, going against the flow of oncoming swimmers (I took a wide angle back to the buoy so as not to interfere with the course), and have to feed myself back into the mess around the turn.

That cost me at least a couple of minutes to talk to the official and swim the extra 100 yards, not to mention how mentally difficult it was to go BACKWARDS on the course. Grrr. So I really should've been close to my 38 minute goal otherwise.

Not be spotted by an overzealous kayak volunteer... really though, not much I can do about that.

A little longer in T1 than I would've liked. Wetsuit would NOT come off around the ankles.

I HAMMERED once I was on the bike. I felt like I needed to make up some time, so once I got my breathing under control, I pushed it hard. The course itself is mainly along back roads, with plenty of rollers. The hill they added was pretty brutal. Looking back at my log, I pushed 269w up that hill, and 388w at the top where it was the steepest. The first time around it wasn't too bad, but the second time... oh man. I got out of the saddle and just stared at the road right in front of me. Lots of people were weaving back and forth and just barely turning over the pedals.

Bike was very strong for me. Leaving out the 3 Pros, I had the 10th fastest bike split OA, 2nd in my AG. I felt good about that.

Not too much. My back tightened up on me near the end of the first loop, so I had to come out of aero briefly to stretch but otherwise, it was very solid for me.

Quick T2... shoes off, dismounted, and was able to quickly rack and get moving.

On to the run... it was a nice course on hard packed trail around Elk Lake. Pretty flat, but lots of twists and turns. The big thing about trail running is I find it hard to get in a solid rhythm. Plus, you have to constantly stare at your feet and the trail so as to avoid roots and rocks. I think I would've been faster on the road to be honest. My splits were pretty even: 47:26 and 48:36, so I paced it well. Small GI issues, which is surprising since I rarely have stomach problems. I took some water to try to settle things down.

Not too much to change here either. Maybe push a bit more... but I guess I always feel that way after a race.

Hopped in the lake to cool off the muscles.


Being SICK! Oh man, if I was feeling okay, I could've shaved off a few more minutes. Oh well.


This was a great race! A good size: not too big, not too small. The organizers were excellent, as were the volunteers. Smiles all the way around. I'll definitely try to do this race again.