Chinook 119.1 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

When the gun went off, I swam pretty hard for the first 150 or so meters and then let off and waited for someone to draft to pass me. After about 4 speed demons passed, I found someone at the right pace to draft. Even better was that he left just enough bubbles to easily follow, but not too many to make it hard to see his feet. I drafted him for virtually all the swim except for one point when he seemed to veer too much off course. I ended up on the heels of someone else that was kicking up a storm and I couldn't see at all. I searched around for my original draft and had to swim a bit harder to re-acquire that draft.

I came out of the water with a good time and feeling that I could have gone faster (but glad I didn't). So it was a good swim. The ironic thing is, I only swam once a week for training and swam faster and easier than my previous HIM or Olympics. Go figure.

Nothing.

T1 time was included in either the swim or the bike time. I don't know which one. But it went well. It was the first time I've taken my own wetsuit off. Every other event I've race I've used the available wetsuit strippers. It was actually pretty easy.

I started pulling on some arm warmers because it was cool and windy. But when they got stuck, I abandoned that. I was a bit cold for the first half of the bike, but okay after.

I knew I was going to have trouble with the bike and the run. I had food poisoning 3 weeks before the race, dropped 8 pounds (and I didn't need to lose them), and was pretty tired. I rode the course in training a week after the food poisoning and found the hills quite tiring. That and I didn't put as much effort into training as I should have meant I just had nothing in my legs. It was all I could do to go 30km/h. Oh well.

After bonking during my last HIM, I decided to keep my nutrition plan simple. 3 bottles of Infinit and water as necessary from the aid stations.

If I wore socks, I guess I'd be a member of the yellow sock brigade...but I don't. First time I've done that tho. :-O A couple squirts of water from the aid station and all was good again.

Ride more! Not get sick.

T2 times are included in the bike or run times. I don't know which.

My worst of the 3 disciplines was made even worse by having no energy left. This was mostly a mental challenge as I had no legs for speed. I ended up running this one faster than my other HIM, but had I bonked 6km into that one. I'm glad my nutrition plan worked better for this one.

I walked each aid station, alternating drinking a sports drink at one and a gel at the next. I walked up the one hill out of the valley as planned.

Sickness and less training than desired. The lack of a tail wind for me and only me.


This is a well organized race with lots of great volunteers and some good loot bag items.

The race shirt was quite thin compared to other shirts from other events, but they also provided a nice fleece vest (in addition to race hardware).

I went vegetarian this year, so I really noticed the meat only dishes at the pre-race dinner and post race event. I could have sworn I saw vegetarian lasagna at last year's pre-race dinner! But the lack of vegetarian fare is just a small thing given it's all about the race.