My wife, daughter of almost 4 and I drove up to Deerhurst very late on a traffic congested Friday evening so the report starts on Saturday…

On Saturday we strolled around Deerhurst and went through the registration process, which was super quick and painless, and went to check out the expo. This was definitely not like Lake Placid. I mean, there are some similarities but, at least for me, the charge in the air was non-existant. It was so quiet. Since we’re stayed at Deerhurst I thought it would be a hub of activity but on Saturday it certainly wasn’t which made me feel rather ho hum about the upcoming race.

On Sunday morning, the day started out with just a fine mist but at about the 60K point on the bike it started to rain. By the time I got on the run course it was pouring. But at least it wasn't cold which made it much better than Placid.

Okay, back to the race. The waved starts were extremely well organized and we were off without a hitch at 8:15 sharp. I was swimming well up until the second right hand turn at which point I started drifting to the left due to the current and didn’t sight often enough and as a result I swam a little bit more than I should have. At about ¾ of the way through I got a nice hard whack to the head right as I was taking a breath which knocked my goggles off and made me ingest what felt like a bucket full of water. I quickly flipped on my back and had to chill out for a bit as I was having a very hard time getting air in my lungs and wheezing pretty badly. A couple of minutes later I was okay and continued the swim.

The last 50m of the swim was pretty icky as my face was covered in weeds. Every time I would rotate for a breath I’d have these weeds hanging out over my mouth. Once I was able to stand up and sink my feet into the deep sludge I’m sure I must have looked like The Swamp Thing as I was making my way up the stairs. LOL. On to the bike.

The course was pretty tough right form the get go as it was peppered with short but steep hills without much chance for recovery. The middle part of the course was relatively flat with some mild rollers and the last third was hilly again. From very early on I was getting severe cramping in my lower abdomen. I upped my salt intake and watched my caloric/water intake to make sure I was getting something in but not too much to push me over the top. The pain was bad though and a couple of times I thought I would have to pull over. I was able to hold on and after about 2 hours the cramping eventually went away.

The bike course beat me up pretty good especially the last 20K. By the end of it my legs felt shredded and I didn't want to see my bike any more. For me, finishing these 94K was tougher than then 180 at Lake Placid. Caveat - my view on the toughness of the course may be slanted by the fact I completed a half iron race two weeks prior to Muskoka and by the fact that since IMLP I have done only one long ride and hardly any structured training so I’m sure I lost some raw endurance.

And so after a tough bike course, came more hills on the run course. Up, down, turn right, turn left, etc. It was crazy! I started to get some painful cramps in my quads within the first 10K which were no doubt due to bike portion of the race but I was able to massage some of it out and grit my teeth through the rest of it. I know not a lot of people liked the last 5K through the golf course but I did! Being so close to the finish and seeing all the people really gave me a boost.

Speaking of which, crowd support was fantastic not only through the little towns that we rode through but also coming into Deerhurst on the run. The cheers, cowbells and clapping coming from both sides of the road were absolutely amazing! You couldn’t help but feel like a rock star!

Trisport did a great job of hosting the event. It was well organized. I loved the way they handled the swim starts and loved the course. The volunteers at the aid stations were great (my favourite one was the kids at the elementary school on the run course). In contrast to the drab mood that I felt on Saturday, the day of the race the mood was fantastic. There was most certainly a palpable charge in the air.

We stayed at one of the Deerhurst Sport Suites/Chalet's and it was about 2 minutes from the transition zone which was perfect. My wife and daughter were able to stay out of the rain when they chose to and I was able to go in and out of the transition zone/expo as I pleased (nothing else to do but wonder around aimlessly) and was even able to sleep in on race morning. Speaking of which, after setting up my T zone on Sunday morning I realized that, like an idiot, I left my wetsuit back in the room. No problem, within 5 minutes I was back and forth from our room with it. Easy. Oh yeah, one last great benefit at staying at Deerhurst - hot shower after the race at the Deerhurst gym. Ahhh... For us, the extra $ was well worth the convenience especially with a little one in tow.

Overall I had a good, but tough, day and am happy with my results especially with my run only because I toughed it out and just kept running despite having my legs feel like they were about to fall off. From a purely effort basis, I feel like this was probably my best performance to date.

Times
Swim: 46:06 (slower than usual)
Bike: 3:25:11
Run: 2:15:40 (slower than usual but happy for toughing it out)
Finished in 6:36:25

Pics can be found here - http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=159892&id=622335155

As I walked through the Deerhurst resort after the event there were piles and piles of athletes and their families camped out on the hallways. The hallways and carpets were soaked with water and I was just imagining the cleanup job that the Deerhurst staff would have to undertake once we were all gone. My wife reported that the restaurants were packed on race day (they were pretty quiet the days before) and that staff were feeling overwhelmed. I wonder if Deerhurst will sign up for it again next year?

Speaking of which, why haven’t we heard a date for 2009 yet?