SUBARU VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL HALF IRON and SPRINT TRIATHLON - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had a great swim. I went out hard and settled in just behind the lead group of 3. They would swim really wide at every buoy due to the current so I would just about catch up at evry turn only to lose the draft when we hit the staight. Then on the final turn they took it way too sharp and started heading for Japan. I stopped for a second and took a really good sight of the beach, then just gunned it on my own. After about 5mintues I could see they figured it out and started angling back towards me, but not in time. I got them out of the water and touched beach first (aside from the ridiculously fast 16year old relay team swimmer who was 7 minutes infront!!). Chris Brown decided to take off the wetsuit before the timing mat on the grass...I thought this was a great idea but was slow at this and crossed the timing mat in 4th. But I have a picture to prove I was 1st out of the water!!! A huge deal for me and the highlight of my day.

I should have risked the pavement wetsuite strip and crossed the timing mat first.

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I was a little bit eager and excited to be riding with Chris Brown and Andiy Yasterbov (3rd and 4th at IM Canada 3 weeks ago)straight out of T1. I took it out fairly hard to see if they'd let me go or just hang with me. Unfortunately they just let me tank myself and stay infront setting the pace, i really should have held back and let them do the talking. Chris pulled through on the second lap and kept it going well, Andriy was playing week and made us both think he was dying just to hang on. Sneaky Ukrainian. On the final lap I gave it a really solid effort on the climb to see if I could get a gap. This was due in part to Andriy's fake weakness, of which I thought I could take advantage. I'm not sure if I did actually get a gap but by the time we got to the first U turn they were both there. Oh well, I just paced it in for the remaining 20km hoping they were suffering as much as I.

I should have compensated for the cold by eating more. I was shivering uncontrollably for the first 2 laps and burnt more than my usual ~800 calorie intake. By the time I got to T2 I was hungry and feeling it.

I tried to hang with Chris and Andriy out of T2 but I had nothing in the legs at all. I kept a faint order of hope that they would crack or I would get a second wind but neither came true. Afer 13km I really started feeling the hunger and my energy was getting really low. From there I gave up hope of every seeing the two leaders again and just kept looking behind me praying that I had a big enough lead over 4th. When Heather gave me a split to 4th I knew I was safe and cruise controlled it home to keep the suffering to a minimum. Fitting and successful end to a great season. Looking forward to some trail running and perhaps even a cyclo cross race or two this fall.

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I finally didn't get any post race GI issues. No stomach pains or sickness at all. Post race food this time was simple... Chunky Chips Ahoy COOKIES. It must be the usual post race pizza or milky recovery drinks taht upset my stomach. This is the first time I stayed away from that crap and the first time without major stomach issues for 5hrs post race.


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