Knowing that I was a slower swimmer I held off a bit and waited for the rest of my wave to go out before jumping in the water. To my surprise within a couple of seconds I was catching up to the back of the back. I guess my swimming improved since last time. Before I knew it I had legs kicking me in the shoulders and I was elbowing others. Having always been at the back, this is not something that I was familiar with. Not really believing that it was my swimming that allowed me to catch up, I hung back a bit and let the field go out a bit only to catch up to them again.

By this time we were halfway out to the first buoy and the water was getting really choppy due to the wind. The swells lifted me out of the water a couple of times and dumped some good old H2O down my throat which caught me by surprise.

Due to the choppiness of the water and the struggle to get around other swimmers I really tired myself out and had to resort to swimming on my back a couple of times to catch my breath. As a result, I felt my swimming was below average, and though my pace time shows an improvement from my last tri, I think I could have done much better.

Not being used to swimming with others around me, I was a bit timid about kicking or hitting others and as a result I held back too much. Next time, I will have to be more aggressive and swim through or around the other competitors. As for the choppiness, the only thing I can do there is to get more open water swims under my belt.

A friend of mine who was at the event videotaped my swim and I noticed a couple of things: 1) I have a nice long and streamlined reach, 2) I over rotate when I breathe on my right causing my right elbow to cross my centreline, and 3) I sometimes lift my head to catch my breath instead of rotating by torso. This is all good stuff to see and I will keep it all in mind during future workouts.

No T1 time was captured for the Try-a-Tri races. Not sure why.

Not much to comment on. Cadence was good. Position was good. I rode on the aerobars most of the time as I felt really comfortable with my new setup. Speed was okay but not great. My average speed needs to increase which means I need to increase my interval training. My overall rank (38/258) is good but I should be able to do better than that.

The last down hill before coming into the dismount area was quite steep and I was going at a pretty good clip. When I got on the breaks to slow down for the left hander I locked up both wheels and the bike started twitching left and right. Due to my car racing background I have some experience with balance and weight transfer which really saved my butt 'cause that spill would have been nasty.

No T2 time was captured for the Try-a-Tri races. Not sure why.

My run was okay, but not great. I have made some fairly large improvements in my run training and I was really expecting to have done better. Well, I guess I did pace wise but I was still surprised that I had to resort to walking a couple of times as my heart rate was pegged in zone 5a/5b most of the time which is pretty tough to maintain.

Overall, it was a great race. I loved the fact that there were so many competitors there and the cooler temperatures certainly felt good during the bike and run portions.

Given that I was just coming off of having a nasty cold and having only slept for 2.5 hours the night before, I was surprised to see my results and an improvement in my pace for the swim and run portions. That absolutely made the event for me.

Race photos can be found here: http://www.pbase.com/ctenche/northern_orillia_triathlon_2006