Subaru Banff Triathlon - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

Felt like I did very poorly. In the first 50 meters, I tried to go too fast, bumped into a few feet and knees, tried to maneuver around but never really found a groove. Then after ~100 meters I took a mouthful of water and it was game over. After that, I had trouble breathing and couldn't do front crawl. The rest of the swim was mostly heads-up breaststroke, with a little bit of backstroke thrown in.

I was clearly near the back of the men's wave -- after ~250 meters, I saw the first pink caps from the women's wave. Apologies to any of the ladies who needed to dodge the slowpoke!

Last 200 meters seemed much faster -- maybe an illusion but I felt confident enough to try front crawl again. Overall, despite the problems, my time ended up being surprisingly average for me (comparable to the pool) -- and thankfully never got so bad that I had to take respite on the canoes.

Practice open water swimming. Why oh why did nobody on BeginnerTriathlete warn us about OWS?? :-)

In particular --
(1) steer clear of other swimmers, especially at the start
(2) work on breathing, particularly in cold water -- felt like I couldn't even do 2 strokes between breaths
(3) pace myself in the first 50-100 meters
(4) develop a better way to recover from taking on water

Surprisingly, other than breathing, the cold water was a non-factor -- taking 5-10 minutes to get acclimatized was great to do. First time swimming in a wetsuit was also easy -- bigger things to worry about I guess!

Walked up a steep hill (about 2-3 min) into T1. Felt that I had done a good job in setup -- put on my glasses, removed the wetsuit, threw on my clothes and helmet, and went on my way. Had a bit of an indecision point about whether to wear my long-sleeve shirt -- ultimately wore it, which was good as most of the bike course was shady and a bit windy.

Not much. It was a bit slow, but felt OK. I could have jogged up the hill to T1, but I was winded after the swim and wanted to settle myself down a bit.

Bike portion was quite straightforward. It mercifully started with a long, mostly downhill portion -- great way to settle nerves and get into a groove. I managed to pass a few people on the downhills, then saw them again when they passed on the uphills. After a while, I found myself mostly alone -- at least 30 seconds buffer to the front and back -- gave me a great chance to enjoy the mountain scenery.

Toward the final lap of Minnewanka Loop, I start to get passed by some very expensive bikes -- ahh, the first of the Olympic wave! Lost them when I turned back into town -- uneventful finish to the ride.

Would have liked to go faster, but hard to pinpoint anything specific. Perhaps would have done some longer training rides -- I maxed out at ~26-27 km training rides, and I felt like I was dragging a bit toward the end -- perhaps some rides of 35-40-50 km would help?

Losing a few pounds probably wouldn't hurt either :-)

Had a slight hiccup at the dismount line -- for some reason I was expecting two dismount lines (i.e. a dismount zone) but the screaming volunteers seemed to indicate otherwise. Managed to bring the bike to a screeching halt with about 2 inches to spare...

Otherwise a very simple transition -- I used the same shoes for bike and run. Just needed to rack the bike, remove the helmet and my long-sleeve shirt, pop on the hat, and I was off.

According to the stats, T2 was the only segment where I managed to finish above average (ranked #110/303 -- hey, I'll take good news where I can!)

Nothing. Using the same shoes was very helpful.

A little bit disappointed with the run segment, as I'd been hoping to minimize the amount of walking -- but ended up walking through all the aid stations plus another half-dozen times. Tried to limit any walking to 30 seconds or less, which helped contain the damage. Despite the frequent breaks, my time ended up being respectable for me -- my standalone PR is 29:45, so keeping it under 33:00 after a swim and bike felt pretty good -- I'm guessing that adrenaline might have had me running a bit faster than anticipated!

Good news was, the other runners and the volunteers provided LOTS of encouragement.

The kids (along with Grandma and Grandpa) were right near the finish line to greet us. I gave them a high five as I went by, though my son (age 5) was upset that I ran right past -- sorry little guy, but the finish line is still 100 meters that way!

Cross the finish line, and the clock read 1:45:00 -- felt pretty good, until I realized later that this was the Super Sprint clock -- so add 10 minutes... oops!

Train more without the iPod. Amazing how reliant I've become on having the tunes playing... need to maintain motivation without the ear buds.

Get psyched up for the final push -- could have done a better job maintaining a good run pace during the last 500 meters or so, and possibly passed a few people.

Brick training was really helpful -- I didn't do a lot (just a couple of 1-2K runs after a bike) but enough to get used to the feeling. It went away after 5 minutes -- after that it was just regular pain not brick pain :-)

Minimal -- grabbed some water at the finish, and walked back to meeting my family and wait for my wife to finish. Once she did, the kids were a bit cranky so we took them ASAP to lunch at McDonald's. (A surprising number of triathletes seemed to be having their post-race meals there!)


Didn't ever do a training run equivalent (or even close to) the 2 hours of exertion -- my longest one was 1hr15.

General fitness level -- I started training back in May, starting from a very sedentary baseline. Still need to lose 30-40 pounds and get my cardiovascular health up -- but this has been a great start. And hey -- as the saying goes, I've just set a PR to beat next year!

It was also a bit strange to compete without the Garmin watch -- my wife and I share one watch (hers), and she used it for the race. Guess what's at the top of my Christmas list :-)


Fantastic race -- couldn't have pictured anything better. Racing through the most beautiful scenery in Canada, very enthusiastic and helpful volunteers, friendly competitors, very well organized -- I think I've been spoiled!