Race Details:
750m Swim
20K Bike
5K Run
After a long hiatus I'm bringing my race report blog back to life. This past weekend I raced the first event in the 2016 Multisport Canada Triathlon Series schedule at Pittock Conservation area in Woodstock, Ontario.
There was some hype about severe weather that never materialized, but the race did have some really windy conditions, and it did get a bit warm, but in such a short race, it wasn't that big of a deal.
John Salt had a short little introduction for the MSC ambassadors in transition before the race, which was cool. Here is a shot of John and I just chilling beforehand and a shot with most of the ambassadors after the race.
I was in the 4th swim wave going off at 9:06am. It was only my 2nd open water swim of the year, but I felt confident and thought I was going to have a decent swim. Off the horn, somebody went off pretty quick and I didn't have time to get on their feet. I just focused on putting out a good hard effort for several minutes and then just see who was around to hang with. I immediately found pretty clean water and didn't have much contact out to the first turn buoy. Once we made the turn, it was a wall of swimmers from earlier waves. This took a bit of navigating around and I had to pull up and find some clear paths one and a while. In addition, it was a bit choppy the whole time, as the wind was coming at us from the side. Going out was a bit harder, as I breath to my right and the waves were hitting me in the face.
Once we made the last turn and headed back to shore, I found myself swimming alone and just trying to get the turnover up. I thought I was going to have a decent swim time, but when I got back to shore, my garmin read something like 12:50 or so. This was disappointing and something I need to continuously improve upon.
T1 went ok, but I did drop my goggles and swim cap and had to turnaround and pick those up. That cost me 5 seconds! LOL.
Onto the bike, there were a number of people at the mount line when I tried to get on, and my shoe hit the ground, but overall, no biggie. The exit of the park is super bumpy and really slow, so you can't start hammering until you get out.
Once out, I just got down to work, but found my 88mm 3Sixty5 Cycling front wheel catching all the cross winds and it kinda made me nervous. There were many sections where I had one hand in my aero bars and one on my base bar. I managed about 37 kph at almost 290 watts for the north section out of the park to the first turn passing all kinds of people. At the first turn, we got the huge tailwind and for the next 3K or so, I averaged 47kph at only 263 watts until we made the turn south to the turn around point. Again, more cross winds as we went south and then north back to road 33. The westerly trip on road 33 into the headwind was tough but managed to average 34.5kph at 290 watts.
The final turn back to the park was again an ordeal managing the cross winds and I got stuck behind a few slower riders in the no passing zone going down the hill and to the dismount line. In the end I rode 31:42 at around 263 watts, but that includes the downhill and run to the transition zone. I'd say I was close to 285 watts for the true ride. Nobody passed me, so I was guessing I was close to the top of my AG. There were a few bikes on the rack when I got there, but I was also mixed in with some younger and older AG's.
Strava Link Woodstock Sprint Tri Bike
A pretty quick T2 and I was out on the run course. The first few hundred meters were a little bumpy going over a grass field, but eventually we were up on the gravel trail of years past and I was making my way past many other racers from earlier waves. There was however one runner that I was not gaining any time on and I could tell he was older, so I was wondering if he was in my AG. It turned out to be Chris Jocelyn, from the 45-49AG, but he was running well. I'd say I kept the gap pretty consistent out to the turn around, but he started to pull away once we made our way back. I creeped his results on Sportstats, and he's a solid runner, so no pride lost there. By the time I made the turn and was headed back to the finish line, it really started to feel warm, but knowing there wasn't much left, I just kept pushing along. My splits ended up being pretty consistent despite the rolling course on mixed terrain.
Strava Link Woodstock Sprint Tri Run
In the end, I crossed the finish line in 1:06:35 11th overall out of 345 racers and first in my 40-44 AG.
Lionel Sanders (aka the hottest 70.3 triathlete on the planet) made a special guest appearance at the race and crushed everyone. Good thing it wasn't longer, or it would have been way worse. He's a super nice guy and spent a tonne of time hanging out and chatting with other athletes. Of course I had to get an obligatory photo opp with him. This is myself and Spencer Summerfield, another MSC ambassador and 3Sixty5 athlete.
So with the first race in the books, it's time to get back to business. My next MSC race is going to be the Kingston LC Tri. This is one I haven't done before so I'm very much looking forward to that one.
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