Morden Triathlon - Half Iron Distance - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Best part of the day. Didn't get lazy and kept pushing.
Speed increased on second lap. Came out of the water to round the shore buoy at 22 minutes - right on schedule.
Drafted better than ever before. Sighted very well, except on the stretch parallel to the beach. There was heavy chop and I kept going in towards the shore. Must have lost about a minute on several course corrections. Nothing too serious though. Lots of water in the mouth at this part - but I never panicked and just took every opportunity to breath when they came up! I used this chance to just swim harder.
Heading into shore I really picked up the pace and must have passed 20 people...lots of kicking, but as soon as I stood up, I got a major cramp in my hamstring! I yelled "shit" and then covered my mouth - fully expecting a DQ or some discipline. It never happened. Leg returned to normal and I ran uphill to the windy transition.
Wearing Nick's Orca Wetsuit. Nick wasn't in it at the time!

Maybe start further forward in the pack. There was no reason, this time to be so far back. I think my swimming has improved, or at least my confidence has, to such an extent that I can now start to push myself even more!

I took my time. My stuff was left in my back - good thing a whole bunch of others' stuff had blown away.
Took my time drying my feet and getting comfortable. I knew the bikeride was going to be a challenge. This was a "b" race, so why stress.
I still had a pretty fast transition, considering nothing was out.
I'm pretty happy with this. Didn't doddle at all. Everything was deliberate.

Not race in 52k/hr winds.

Okay. Worst conditions I've ever ridden in. I wouldn't go driving in a car, let alone do a training ride in this. But I had a great ride. I play in the wind here, so I had a secret confidence. I stopped counting people I passed because I had such a consistent ride. I was still crappy on the hills, but was never passed on them. I stopped to pee twice (peed on myself in the wind!) and was passed by five people, but I passed them back.

I was great on the cross winds. They were hard. Unbelievably hard! But I stayed steady and didn't ever oversteer or ride too close to the shoulder.
I had trouble eating. I couldn't take my hands of the bars.

Nutrition: I had a powerbar but that was too much of an effort. I switched to gels, ripping them off my frame where they were electrical taped...I planned for this!!
Had a bottle and a half of Glyco...Never came close to that bonk feeling! So nutrition was perfect. Had about 8 eload pills. One aerobottle of water and one refill from the aid station - most of which spilled on my peed-on legs and very little of which I actually drank.

Learned a new trick!
Snot rockets without using my hands...Just do a sabrina the witch thing with my nose, narrow my eyes and snort! Works great when you can't let go of the bars...although I don't think I would do it if the wind wasn't gale force!

This was the best ride of my life in the worst possible conditions I've ever ridden in. My time was not great - but no one's was. I passed a lot of riders who normally would have been way ahead of me.
The downside is I wore myself out AGAIN and had very little left in me for the run....But this was a "b" race...I was not that interested in doing fantastic, just wanted to learn. I learned what I can do on my bike!

I did lay it off a bit in the last K, so when I got off the bike I felt great. No cramping no pain issues. All good.

Climb even better.

Reconsider ever riding Morden again.
Do any race that Highwaydog and his IronCops are involved as volunteers at - it was great to see their smiling faces!

Took my time here again, but had a very efficient transition. This was quite fast. Took a little extra time to cover my bag with my wetsuit (it was raining) took my gel flask. Fixed my hair that was all over my face during the ride. Grabbed my e-load and advil and lube and was gone.
Didn't pee in transition...potties were in a stupid place. Pee'd one Km into the run.

Not have my stuff in a bag, but it couldn't be helped...The wind...The wind!
Everything else went exactly how I planned it. I didn't rush...I was meticulous.

I had slightly higher expectations going into the race, but I knew after that ride that I would crash...I never really crashed, but I didn't have a lot of juice either.
I started off pretty strong and I'm guessing the first 10.5k I must have done in about an hour. I didn't walk at all (except the hill) in the first half.
Second half I walked a little more...my knees were getting sore. I took an Advil and gave one to Jason, who I passed and was having a hard time.

I only walked at aid stations and didn't stop at all of them like last year.
I'm not sorry about this run. I just wasn't doing much better than this time, so I am happy. I know I had a great race and in terrible conditions and that's cool!

Nutrition:
One flask with three Powergels and water (no food on course!!!!)
4 e-load pills.
Water at ever 3rd aid station. Gatorade in the last half hour - two stops.



I probably should have stretched out my stride a little at places to break up the monotony.
I could have pushed a little harder.
Not ridden so hard.
I had a good run.

shivered.
Had some chips and avoided the burnt burgers.
Terrible, terrible, terrible food situation.
Nothing going on other than other racers coming in.
Watched them congratulated and blanketed them (mark's blanket - no such thing from race) Waited for Nick and Jason. After a while, I couldn't stop shivering. Rode the bikes back to the hotel.
Went into the hot tub and warmed up....stretched then.
Beer and food and fun with the Regina RMC racers afterwards!


Doh!
The weather.
Had the wind not been that bad, I'm sure I would have gone under 6...as would many others.


As said above. I don't think it was just the weather. The Race Director just did not have stuff (like food on course, toilets) organized. He is new.

That combined with the crappy road surface makes me think I'm not going to do this race again...although I really like the hotel proximity and all the good friends that were there.