The swim went great - it was my first time in the full suit and things went beautifully. I felt strong and in control and was able to come out of the water much more quickly than ever before. I had a slightly positive split, however, this was due to my draft target going from a great sighter to not so good on lap 2. Once I realized the problem I was off on my own. Added a little time but not much. The swim was short - juding by the times of some other swimmers - about 200-250m or so. However, people that I am normally coming out of the water 6-8' behind I was only 2-4' behind so I'm very pleased with the new suit.

Not much - great swim :)

A solid transition - I exited the water and had both arms out by the time I hit the mat. Although overall a little slower than last year, I knew going in that it was going to be slower. Since I was going to run in my flats and hadn't raced them before, I decided to put on socks for the run - and since the run across the gravel parking lot with no shoes on lost me time last year, I decided to put socks on in T1. That in addition to the full wetsuit added a little time (about 37").

More practice getting out of the new wetsuit. Other than that, nothing.

I set out on the bike planning to average around 160 for the ride. I felt strong and comfortable throughout and was able to get my HR down within about 3km. At this point I just started settling in and tried to find a good race pace. It seems that I run best after a consistent effort so my plan was to stay steady throughout the ride and I was pretty close - next year I might turn it up on lap two but I decided this year just to keep going. I didn't follow my nutrition plan too closely (I finished with my gatorade bottle mostly full and still about half a bottle of water) as in the first lap I had some gatorade come back up and I just couldn't bring myself to take much in after that. On the last leg of the bike the sprint distance athletes were on the course and for about the last 3-4km I was behind someone who was all over the road. I watched him almost take out two athletes as they passed him (one went over the yellow line) because he was riding in the middle of the lane and everytime someone was close to passing him, he would stand on the pedals and sprint to stay in front. As he was going almost as fast as I wanted to go, I followed him back to transition rather than risk passing him. This lead to a slightly positive split on the second lap - however I think it was probably the best decision. Also on the second lap I was passed by a group of about eight that had a decent paceline going - however, even with this I was only about 30" down at the turnaround and probably 1' to 1:30 down at T2 - I knew I would catch most of them.

Very little - I know my bike is the weakest leg so I'll be working on it this winter - if I could bike the way I can swim and run I would have broken the top 15 at this race.

Due to the gravel parking lot, I left my shoes on - I hate doing this as I was feel like I am going to crash as I try to unclip and start running quickly. I managed to stay upright and got to T2. I ran by my stall and then when I went back, had to move the wetsuit of the guy next to me so I could rack my bike. Got things racked, switched shoes (love the new laces I put in :)), grabbed my hat and number and took off. About 13" slower than last year :(

Don't run by my rack spot - and find someone who isn't going to throw their wetsuit on my part of the rack.

I took the first km or so to get the legs moving. The first part of the trail was fairly technical so I was careful to watch my footing and keep my cadence up. After the first km, I just started concentrating on a strong turnover and a nice fast first lap. I was hoping to finish around 45' so I figured a 20-21' first lap would be ideal. At the end of the first lap, I checked my time and realized things were going very well. I started to pick things up on lap 2 and focused on running the second lap very fast and setting myself up for a strong finish. Throughout the run I wanted to maintain my form and keep moving at a good pace. The hill that killed me last year on this course we had to do twice this year - although it is brutal this year I powered up it without much difficultly - definitely a big boost, especially heading back towards the finish. At the end of lap 2 I picked up the pace as hard as I could go - things went well and I passed several people in the last km and hit the finish chute knowing I was putting up a great race - final 10km time a new PR of 42:21!

Nothing.

Walked, stretched, ate and drank. Talked to Victoria and some folks from NB and watched some other people I know finish - great day!


Bike fitness


My goal at this race was to go under 2:30 (previous OD PR of 2:31:48 and last year on this course 2:40:35). In addition, I wanted to take time off each of my splits from last year which I did (8:50 on the swim, 4:22 on the bike and 7:44 on the run). Even though I'm almost positive the swim was short by about 4', I still would have been able to have broken 2:25 - a great day for me!