As we lined up for the start, I looked to my right and saw a guy that was about 6'4" with arms down to his knees (slight exaggeration) wearing swedish goggles and built like a swimmer. Another guy to my left was also wearing swedes and looked ready to tear up the water. I was starting in the right place. :)

When the horn went off, I ran as far as I could and then dove in and started swimming hard. I looked both to my right and left to see who was doing what and within about 15 seconds I decided left was where the action was and headed that way. We were going at a hard pace but nothing insane - I felt pretty good and was sitting in about 3rd. Somehow we caught some swimmers from the wave in front of us within about 2 minutes even though they had a 5 min head start - not sure how that happened but anyway.

About 10 mins into the swim I was still sitting in 3rd with one guy right beside me - we were both competing for the same set of feet and bumping into each other. At some point he got a 1/2 body length ahead of me and I decided to drop in behind him rather than fight him. Around this same time we started running into more traffic from the waves in front of us and I think he made a bad choice by staying close to the buoy line where everyone else was. It looked to me like it was going to get crowded so I headed wide instead. This may have been a mistake in the end, I'm not sure. From here on I pretty much just swam by myself, staying a bit wide when things got crowded and not getting much of a draft at all.

Overall, I just felt "ok" in the water. A warmup may have helped, I'm not sure. I certainly didn't have the great draft pack that helped for the full IM last year.

I'm not sure. This was the first race I've ever done with waves where I had to worry about working my way through the waves in front of me. I think I just need more experience there. I probably took the conservative route by going around wide.

I wasn't sure if I was going to go to the wetsuit strippers but as I went by, the two immediately on the edge were free so I dropped down and they had the wetsuit off me instantly - I think it was a good choice.

There is about a 400m run from the swim exit to transition. I was able to run at a decent pace, passed quite a few people through here. When I got to my bike everything went smoothly, glasses on, helmet on grabbed my bike and went. Shoes were clipped into the pedals already and I was able to do a smooth mount at the line. Pedalled up to speed and got my feet in my shoes quickly.

I probably could have done this a bit quicker but I was very deliberate with everything to make sure I didn't do anything stupid.

AP = 202w
NP =211w

Power targets were to start out 205-215w for the first 20 mins until getting to the first climb. The first section on the Montee Ryan is a constant series of rollers but nothing too steep that needed to go to high in power. I felt really strong and the pace felt really easy. I was immediately passing a ton of people. I was able to do a lot of slingshotting. Again, this was completely new for me. I'm used to swimming at the front of a race and then having people pass me on the bike, not the other way around.

The first climb up Conception hill was where I started putting out a bit more power - targets for the long climbs was 230-240w. I took a small sip of my water/gel mixture just before this and just before the aid station at the top I took in some chews and a piece of waffle. At the aid station, I grabbed a bottle of water and sucked in as much of it as I could before ditching it at the end of the aid station. Once over the top, I kept the power to the pedals until I was spinning out and then I just tucked in - max speed down the hill was 77 km/hr.

From there to the turn around and back to the hlll is a series of rollers but just steady from a power perspective. Passed a ton more people along here and also started getting caught by some of the stronger rides from my wave. Anytime we went slightly up, people would hammer by me and then I would re-pass them on the downhills. I was good at keeping the water and calories coming in. I ditched my first bottle (300 cals) at the 45km aid station and did the same strategy of taking some chews and waffle right before the aid station and slamming a bunch of water into me during the aid station. Switched my rear bottle up between my arms at this point as well. Again I was passed by a lot of people going up Conception hill and re-passed a lot of them on the descent.

Things got a bit silly in the short section through St Jovite, it was really crowded through here and very difficult to just ride how I wanted to ride. AP through here was only 181w.

After getting out of town, the ride along the Montee Ryan was good. I did a lot of yoyo'ing with people as they would pass on the hills and I would pass on the descents. One jackass passed me on the right on a hill and nearly caused an accident. I said a few words at him but he didn't seem to care as I saw him do it again later.

Going by the 70km mark before the steep hills, I took a peek at my overall stats on the computer. Power was great, average speed was 35.3 km/hr - awesome.

For the steep climbs, I just put it into 34/28 gearing and did what I could to limit the time spent over FTP. I was over 300w a few times but never for too long. I finished up my second bottle of gel/water just before the turn around. I knew there wasn't many places on the descent to take anything in. The last 10k has a lot of fast descents, I passed a lot of people on the way down. Speed up into the 70+ range a couple of times.

The last 3 mins or so is fairly flat/downhill after one last climb, a good chance to settle and prepare for the run. As we turned towards transition, I took my feet out of my shoes and got ready to dismount.

Nothing. I rode what felt like a good steady but not hard power. I did my best to ride as legally as possible and felt really good coming off the bike.

Again, I was deliberate with everything. Ran to my spot on the rack, almost got t-boned by someone cutting across between racks.
- Racked my bike, helmet and bike glasses off.
- Race belt and fuel belt on
- socks and shoes on
- watch on (should have done this first to give it more time to lock onto gps)
- visor and glasses on and out of transition.

Turn the watch on immediately.

This is where I had to rely on all my run training. The pace I was given by Shane as a target would be the second fastest half marathon I have ever run (by a lot) so I had to really trust him and myself that I could do it. I felt confident that I could (or at least be close).

As I left transition, the watch was still syncing up so I had no pace information for the first 2 mins or so. I just tried to run easy and smooth. Went through the first km in 4:40 - a bit too fast, especially with the tough hill that was in it. The first 5km are in some rolling hills and I just tried to control my effort while maintaining overall pace as best as I could. Kms 2 and 3 were a bit off target pace with the hills but from there I kept it right around the target for the next 8 kms. The turnaround is just before the 10k mark and from there is a very slight incline on the way back. At the 11k mark, my pace started to tail off a bit to the low 5:0x range including one 5:13. When I saw that I knew I had to focus harder and up the effort. That brought my pace back down a bit until getting back into the hills for the last 5k. From there I just fought as hard as I could to go as hard as I could maintain.

I was drinking from my water bottle (again with a gel/water mixture) all along taking in 100 cals in the first hour. From there I switched to more coke and a few sips of the gel mixture. I was also pouring ice down my tri suit to help keep cool. I was a bit nervous the first time I did it but it actually felt great. :) I would recommend that strategy for sure, I think it helped a lot (not that it was all that hot out).

The last 10k involved a lot of math in my head to figure if I was going to be sub 5 hours or not (what else did I have to do?). I knew that as long as I kept running I would make it and should have a few mins to spare.

I think I have room to improve in the suffer zone. My run has improved tremendously since I started training with Shane and I think I still have a lot of room to improve more.

Poutine
Chocolate chip cookies



If anything at all, inexperience but I don't think I had much more in me.