The Canadian - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Swimming is by far my weakest sport so my plan was to just go nice and easy. If everything went well, my hopes were that I would come out of the water in less than 50 minutes (yes, I'm that slow) and feel completely fresh.

When the horn went off I started my swim at a nice and leisurely pace. There was some thrashing of arms and legs around me and I got jostled a bit but I didn't let it phase me at all. I tried swimming own line but was noticing that I was slowing moving left of the other swimmers due to the current. I had to make some repeated course corrections so I lost some time there.

At the first turnaround, I found a pair of feet that was swimming at my pace and after checking to see how well they were navigating, I decided to follow them. At about half way through the course I did a quick mental check to see how I was feeling and realized that I was feeling great. Not tired at all.

I followed the feet until just before the second turnaround point when I noticed that either they were slowing down or I was speeding up. Still feeling fantastic I continued on my way, passed the feet that I was following and before I knew it, round the last buoy before heading for the beach.

I crossed the timing mat and heard that I had finished in 41:36 which was about 7 minutes faster than my previous open water 2K swim. And, best of all, I was feeling fantastic and not tired at all.

A quick check on the heart rate monitor showed that my average heart rate was just in the middle of my Z1 HR zone and that's exactly how I felt!

Swim a little bit faster? Maybe. But is it really worth it? Given my swimming ability, I think I would rather come out of the water feeling fantastic, than save 5-10 minutes and feel spent.

Obviously the real answer to the "what would you do differently" question is, improve my swim technique which is something that I will definitely be working on this off-season.

Other than the run from the beat to the transition are being very long, T1 was uneventful and went smoothly.

I had a pretty good pace plan for the bike portion which I had practiced several times in training. I was going to settle my heart rate for the first 15 minutes and then start my nutrition plan and up the pace slowly with a target heart rate cap of lower Z3 for the last half hour. The goal was finishing the ride in less than 3 hours.

I was executing to plan and noticed at the half way point, that if I stuck to it, I would finish the 90K in 2:40, way below what I was shooting for. I was thrilled.

We were battling a nice headwind the whole morning on the out portion of each loop and by the 4th lap, it seemed that the headwind was almost gale like in some instances, and now there was some of it on the return portion of each loop as well.

The course if pretty flat with several false flats which on the surface sounds easy, but maintaining a steady time trial pace over 3 hours with no change in muscle usage (e.g. no climbs) to give legs a break, it's not as easy as it sounds.

By midway through the 4th loop, my pace was slowing down as the winds picked up and my quads started getting tired.

Looking back at the results, I ranked 115 out of 200 which is not normal for me. Biking is my strongest sport and usually rank in the top 20%. I'm not sure what happened here.

I've given this some thought and believe that my nutrition was off. Due to bad planning on my part, I was using Gatorade, water and gels instead of my usual Sustained Energy and took no salt tablets. I think I drank too much as I peed too many times on the bike (3 times in 90K is too much) and tightness I was feeling in my quads point to possible low sodium levels. That's my guess.

Like on the bike, I had a pacing plan for the run that I had practiced before. At about 2 to 3 kilometers into the run, this guy runs up beside me and says “Hey buddy. How are you doing?” We make some small idle chit chat and he slowly moves ahead of me as he’s competing in the full iorn distance rance and is running at a faster pace than I am.

I continue on my merry way, feeling great until about the 15K mark. At this point I am getting tired and my pace slows down. At about the turnaround point, this fellow catches up to me again. He inquires as to how I’m doing and then he tells me that he’s got two more laps to go and feeling tired and asks me if I wouldn’t mind pacing him. Me, pace him? Ha!

I picked up the pace and ran at his speed. My heart rate went up 20 beats but I was doing okay and was still able to hold a conversation. This was a surprise to me because at according to my heart rate I should have been breathing heavy but I wasn't really. This fellow introduced himself to me, it was Jean Lacroix, and he proceeds to talk my head off. I saw right through it - he’s pretty smart this Jean Lacroix. First he tells me that I need to pace him and then he keeps me distracted by talking up a storm, just so I can go faster.

I did my best to run at Jean’s pace for as much as I could but had to resort to a couple of short walking pauses at the aid stations especially when my right quad starts to get tight and cramp up. The whole time Jean hung back with me and encouraged me to get going again.

When we got to the tunnel, just before I was about to head into the home stretch, while Jean continued on for his final two laps, he gave me a final boost of confidence and we parted. I crossed the line at 5:52 beating my goal of a sub 6 hour HIM.

I don’t know what made Jean decide to talk to me when he first encountered me at the 2K mark, or why he decided to help me in the last stretch but if it were not for him, that last 5K would have been a mental challenge and I would not have met my sub 6 hour HIM goal.

The help that I received from Jean is, to me, what the sport of triathlon is about. I hope to be able to one day, help another new triathlete in the same way.

Thank you Jean!

Obviously I could have run faster.

Being my first HIM I think I was perhaps a bit too conservative throughout the day. Still, I paced myself and finished with a smile on my face and meeting my primary goal of finishing a sub 6 hour HIM.


Before the race, I remarked to my friend that there was another HIM in two weeks in Montreal and that if things went well here I might do that HIM as well. Once I crossed that finish line I was not so sure that I would be up to that. I was tired, my legs felt tight and I just wanted to rest. Mind you, by the next morning I felt great. A day later I felt like I participated in a 5K run rather then a half iron distance race. Today, I'm ready to sign up for that HIM in Montreal. Now if only I can figure out a way to break it to my wife...