Triathlon des Iles - Triathlon

It was a run start, I was a bit nervous, well not a bit ... I was nervous. Water was not too cold and I got maybe a 300 meters warm up so I was confident. But still I was nervous.

After talking with Steve yesterday I decided to stay outside so I wouldn't have any problem at the start and I wouldn't be in the washing machine too much. It was a good idea, but I still got cough into that freaking washing machine a little bit. I had people all around me, at some point I figured I could stop swimming and they would push me to the finish line ;)

The first 150 meters or so of the swim were a bit harder, I was not swimming at my pace and I was a little bit out of breath. Swimming too fast and the nerves are no good for the breathing.

After maybe 30 seconds in the water I realized I was dumb ... I should have go to switch my goggles, they were getting full of water, and I mean FULL. I had to swim the entire 750 meters with my left eye closed to make sure my lens wouldn't start floating into my goggles.

I swam to the third buoy, then turned right, swam to the next buoy, turned right again and start swimming to get back to the beach. I was by myself at that point and I figured everyone were already on their bike but whatever I had to finish it anyway. Then out of nowhere a guy in a kayak came by and told me "Turn left". this is where I realized that I was not out by myself, just 30 feet on the right of the pack.

So I moved back with the pack and swam to the beach.

I am pretty happy with my swim, I swam faster that I had planned so not much I can ask. Train more and get faster!

As soon as I felt the sand with my hand I got up and started running. Removed my cap and my goggles and then removed the top of my wetsuit while running and stuck the cap/goggles into my left sleeve.

Ran to the transition zone and to my bike, had no problem to spot my bike. Once there I removed the bottom of my wetsuit, right foot got out well but had some problem with left one. I think that the timing chip didn't help. I had to sit down to remove it completely, which didn't help my transition time.

It was a bit chilly so I decided to put a jacket on to ride. I had a little battle with the zipper which cost me maybe 10 seconds too. Then helmet and sunglasses on and off we go.

Jumped on the bike and started riding. I got up to speed and then I tried to put my shoes on. Damns the velcro was all stuck together and I was unable to put my feet into my shoes. I had to battle with them for a little while which made me lose some precious time during the bike portion.

Practice practice and practice :) I need to find a way to get out of the wetsuit faster. I also need to put some time into getting the feel to put my shoes on while riding.

The track was a 4km lap that we had to ride 5 times. It was flat and really nice, such a great place to ride and get some speed.

Besides the little problems I had with my shoes at the start it went really well. I pushed hard but tried to keep enough in the tank for the run portion.

As usual my bike split was my better leg of all three. I passed a lot of people on the bike, but got passed by the leader of the triathlon and of the duathlon too. Some of those guys are so fast it's incredible. I guess it shows I still have a lot of room for improvement ;)

Train more to get better!

I jumped of the bike and ran to my spot, racked the bike then put my shoes on. While putting my shoes on I got a little cramp in my left calf, that scared me a little bit but it went away pretty fast.

I then started fighting with my jacket's zipper again, I was not happy about it. But it still went pretty well.

Not much, besides having problem with the zipper of my jacket again everything went really smoothly

After my T2 I went out and my running speed was good, I was around 4:30/km (7:14/mile) Ran the first 2k at that pace then I started getting slower a little bit. I wanted to push but I was not sure it was a good idea at that time. So I just slowed down a little bit for the next 2km and then finish strong with the last one.

On my last I crossed the finish line and walked around a little bit trying to get my breathing back to normal and then I realized I just finished my first triathlon, at that exact moment I had a HUGE smile on my face and I was really proud!

Train more again :)

Not much, I walked around.


Training, besides that everything was perfect


I really enjoyed myself and I will go back there next year for sure. A great race to start the season.

Sadly people don't always realized that this is a race and they just cross runners/riders path like there was nothing wrong, not sure what we could do to change this.

They also had some problem with the timing chip for the women, sadly none of them have their swim and bike split :(