This was an awesome swim. I swam really slowly, but I enjoyed it. That was my only goal for the day - fast or slow, just enjoy myself and have fun. The first loop went by well and I swam the second loop a little faster. Managed to inhale a bit of grass/seaweed stuff about halfway throught the first loop. My niece said that she could hear me hacking and coughing from shore. At one point, all I could smell was diesel fuel from one of the boats and that made me a wee bit pukey (number one reason why I barf when diving in the ocean), but it only lasted about 100 yards meters. I saw some scuba divers, who I'm guessing were going out to the wreck of the Gaskin (only a couple hundred yards further out into the river than the swim course). Coming back in from the second loop, I saw a school of perch that seemed to be pacing me back in (don't tell the race director), so that was really cool. I did think of Jen a little bit when I saw the scuba divers, but since it started getting me choked up a little bit, I tried to put that out of my head a.s.a.p. I can run choked up, but I haven't mastered that technique on the swim yet. One thing that was really cool was all of the spectators. It was neat to alternate from silence to a loud ruckus as I swam and breathed.

Not much. I had fun. Who cares?

I just took my time and made sure that I didn't forget to put on my race belt this time. Since the event timers combined the Swim and T1 times, I used the T1 time from my HRM and subtracted it from my officially posted swim time.

Not much. Maybe start running during my transitions some day.

I wanted to finish the bike leg in less than 90 minutes. OK, so I had one race goal. I came pretty close. It's a beautiful course, there was plenty of support at the turn around areas for traffic control and much unlike the states, the drivers that were out on the course were actually very nice. I only saw a couple instances of 3 person pace lines, but for the most part, most people followed the rules. Kinda' cool to see for once. It was starting to rain as I got out onto the course and the wind changed direction a number of times, but all in all, it was a good ride. I couldn't keep my sunglasses clean, so I put them on the back of my neck. Since I haven't had the tri bike out on a rainy ride, I took some of the little downhills and flats a little more cautiously than normal (i.e. slower) just to be sure not to wipe out. There's a mailbox that looks like a bass fishing lure on Route 2 outside of Brockville and I laughed to myself each time I passed it. Jen and I had never seen anything like that when we first saw it 8 years ago. It's funny that it's still there, but just a bit faded. It always cracked her up to see it and it would be the first thing we looked for when we got into town. The only real distraction on the course was "Bud the Spud." The smell of french fries usually makes me gag (4.5 years in the fast food business in high school and college), but for whatever reason it made me want to stop and get some. I rode on figuring I could get some at the pub after the race. I only dropped my chain once as I was approaching town and shortly thereafter I got my feet out of my shoes and gave my toes a little bit of fresh air. I did hear one funny thing at that point though - it sounded like I had a playing card stuck in my rear wheel. I looked down and saw my left bike shoe insole mostly out of my shoe. About an inch of insole under my heel was the only thing keeping it with me. I reached down and put it in my back pocket. It was cool to give a shout out during the bike course to JP and Jen and Michel and the guy that parked by me.

Not much. I finished it only a small bit slower than I hoped I would.

Again, I took my time and made sure not to forget anything. I did have to run back 10 yards when I ralised that I still had my sunglasses on the back of my neck and my left insole in my jersey pocket (not that I thought I would be faster, but I didn't want to loose them). Since the event timers combined the Run and T2 times, I used the T2 time from my HRM and subtracted it from my officially posted run time.

Nothing.

I just wanted to run/walk this one. Run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes, etc. I managed to do that for the whole thing. It was a nice course and a good challenge. I kept up a 9:30 min/km pace on the first loop. I have a laminated picture of Jen in her "F#@k Leukemia" t-shirt that I've been carrying with me during my races since last summer, so I took it out of my zippered jersey pocket and held it in my hand knowing that I was going to need some of her strength to get though the 10k with a good attitude. It helped, but I could only sneak peaks of it when no one was looking because I'd get choked up and I didn't want anything thinking I was in pain from running - 'cause I wasn't. My niece wanted to tag along for the second loop and since I couldn't talk her out of it and the race official said it was OK, I relented. We had a nice chat about racing (triathlon, running, BMX racing), and shipwrecks and of course "Aunt Jen." After the 4th question in a row about Jen I had to ask her to stop because it was really getting a little too difficult. Once I got to the "Beer Store" (yep, that's what it's called), I ran the rest of the way to the finish. Thankfully, Michel told them that I was still out on the course because they were getting ready to start tearing down the finish line... Speaking of Michel, he had me in stitches the couple of times I saw him on the run course.

"Run Lots" I guess.

Changed into some dry clothes, got my bike off the ground (they had already taken down the racks by the time I finished) and went out to lunch with my niece, Michel and JP. I had a blast at lunch talking with them. Went back to the hotel room to get cleaned up and then took my niece back to Centeen Park so that she could ride her bike a little bit. Because "she wasn't going to bring her bike the whole way to Canada and not ride it." :)


Training hasn't been a high priority for me this year. About half the events I signed up for were just to keep me training in one way or another. The other half were events that I wanted to do last year, but didn't get to. This race was a little bit of both for me.


Awesome race. One of the best put together events I've done. Much better doing it in person than by myself at home like last year... And yes, I made sure to thank all of the volunteers that I saw on the course.