BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!! Not as cold as last year, but still pretty chilly. Must have not done an adequate job getting my head and neck immersed because I still got a bit of brain freeze off the start for about 200-300m. Caught up to the men's heat pretty quickly and made my way through them. Had some trouble with navigation at one point because of the sun and might have gone a little bit wonky. Had a bit of difficulty with my hands and feet in the cold. Overall I think the swim went alright though, could have been faster...but it was pretty colddddd.

Warming up more would have been smarter...but the water was preeeetttyy chilllly. Didn't want to spend more time in there than I had to!

Long run from the lake up a hill to transition above. Once I got there transition went pretty smoothly. Had to pack up all my stuff into my wet bag because the race was a double transition. Transition was pretty cramped this year...not a whole lot of room to run out with bike because the alleys between the bike racks were so narrow.

Not much I myself would have done differently. I think the race organisers need to think about how to make the transition area a bit bigger so there is more room in between the bike racks. I had to lift my bike over some people because they had sat down in the middle of the aisle to take wetsuit off and put clothes on. Not enough room for people to transition and have other people running with bikes behind.

Bike went waaaaayyyyyyyyyyy better than last year. I distinctly remember being miserable in the cold and rain after the freezing swim last year! I actually had FUN this year! I know...crazy! Haha.

First lap went well. I forgot the hill though about 3/4 of the way through the loop....man that thing is a wheezer! I guess it doesn't help that Banff itself is at 1463m/4800ft and that the bike course is a bit higher than that? Overall I think I did well though. I think that is the fastest speed I have ever held in a race to date and that bike course is not all that easy. It starts out more or less downhill but follows the "what must go down, must go up" trend of hills. Haha. Second lap was good. Finally remembered I needed to take in some nutrition and fluid. The ride into Banff almost ended in a bit of disaster over the texas gate on the Banff town side...but luckily I didn't end up puncturing. The wood slates that were overtop of them had moved a bit...so I hit pretty hard and was praying I didn't get a flat!



Nothing really. Probably could have trained a bit more on the bike post IM since I think I only ended up getting on my bike about 5-6 times in August...but it still went the best a bike has ever gone in a race?

Fairly smooth. My feet were still numb from the swim-bike so getting my feet into my shoes was a bit of a battle to begin with, but I got my Zoots on. Grabbed my running hat and I was off!

Nothing. Good transition

Well I think this might be an official 10k PR? Never been able to run that quick in a tri? Haha

Run started off really well compared to last year. My feet were still numb but somehow I was able to keep my cadence up and get a good rhythm going. My feet finally started to thaw about 5-6km into the run. Was pretty hot by the time the run started for me, but it went really, really well!

Nothing. 10k PR in a tri? I'll take it.

Walked around and tried to find my friend. Walked my gear to my car and then walked back for the awards and had a post race meal! BURGERS!!!


Seems in this race the difference between 2nd and 1st was actually the bike for me. My run was on par with the girl who came 1st. It was the bike that separated us by quite a few minutes. So I guess when it comes down to it, I still need to work on the bike and run.


Great race! 2nd place OA in my AG, 12/86 for women and 75/234 OA! The race organisation did address most of the things that were suggested from the inaugural race the year before from gear bag changes, race route changes, increasing bike drop time the night before and putting mats down in the gravel parking lot in T1 so we didn't have to run across rocks!!