2012 Shubie Dooby Tri

Well there comes a time every year, when that last triathlon is going to have to happen. And for many in the Halifax area, it is the Shubie Dooby Triathlon. Held in the awesome Shubie Park in Dartmouth, this is a lake swim, rolling bumpy road ride, and hilly trail run (crusher dust trails). There are 2 races, an Olympic and Sprint Distance.

I again chose the sprint distance as my race. My reasons are twofold. My swim is still not great and at the Olympic distance I would be so far behind the leaders it isn't worth it to me. And second I love the idea of sprint racing at this point in my triathlon life. I still love going as fast as possible for as long as possible. I hate holding back.

Well here we are lined up on the beach, praying that the thunder and lightening will stay away (and it did!) and getting our race briefing. I am in there I swear. I was lucky to get in a bit of a pre race swim and the water was rather nice, just a hint cool, perfect for racing.

We were separated into 2 waves as the beach is small, so it was men first and then women. I got a great start and immediately found a great rhythm. As I approached the first buoy I looked up to see a huge mess of guys all crammed into a tight area right by the buoy. Even though I know the shortest route is the fastest, I opted for a wide swing around the buoy to preserve myself from the beating I might take.  I did the same at the next buoy as well.

Add my detours to a little zig zagging as I was tiring on the final swim to the finish, and I easily added 50 meters to the swim. So when I got out and saw a 15 on the clock, I was pretty happy. I know there  is plenty of work to do on the swim for me, but it is getting better. Total swim time was 15:21 by the time I got over the swim matt. I was 36th overall in the swim out of 127 people total, which I took as a good sign.

(I swim run in a blurry motion)

From here I was off up the hill, on the green carpet, and into T1. I easily passed a few people here as I ripped off my wetsuit, grabbed my space alien helmet and took off with my bike.

It was a bit of a run to the mount line and over big hard gravel. That wasn't much fun, but neither was my attempt at mounting the bike. Eventually bad things happen to good people and I was in that zone. 

The elastic bands holding my shoes in place had snapped off during the run. Okay no big deal, I practiced my mounting of the bike all the time with loose pedals. But the pedals were also now in the wrong orientation, ugh. Still I fixed it by hand quickly and then mounted and pushed off. 

My first foot went onto the shoe fine, then as I put my second foot down to pedal and get some momentum, the shoe slipped around and banged into the ground. My bike jumped a little, the shoe dragged and I maintained total control. Whew. Someone event yelled, nice save.

I got the first foot into the shoe, then pedaled a bit down the first hill and through the corner before attempting to get my next foot in place. I did get my next foot in, fixed the tongue a bit on my first shoe and did up the strap. Now I had to pedal up another small hill and around a corner prior to getting my second shoe strapped up. 

Here I noticed that the strap had come out of its eyelet, so was loose and doing no good. So while pedaling I had to reach down, thread it through the eyelet, and then cinch it up. Whew again. Sure I lost a little time, but I did have a fast run barefoot from T1 to the ,mount line, so it all works out.

The bike ride was fine. I love the rolling nature of this course. many hate it. I can power through it as a 20km TT and did so. I passed a few people, kept aero, powered along and managed the 5th fastest bike split of the day. Including T1 I averaged 30.3 km/hr and had a time of 39:34. Fix that shoe and mounting issue and I easily get the 4th fastest if not 3rd of the day. So the riding wasn't a problem at all.

I came in T2 and did a great dismount. This time right at the line, very slick and smooth. And again, my shoe came off the cleat. Dang! I had to go back and retrieve it. Alas, that couldn't help my T2 / Run time. 

So, bike on rack, helmet off, hat and run number on, shoes in place. Blamo - off to the run.

I had a great pace starting out on the run, sub 4 min per km. Sadly with the hills I couldn't keep up that pace. Though I was passing some people and feeling okay. But I finally hit a 420ish pace and ended up staying there until the end.

I crossed the finish line in 6th place with a run time (and T2) of 23:28 for the 4th fastes of the day and an overall time of 1:18:22.

Okay, so I obviously lost much time in T1 and T2 and need a faster swim. But darn, I am sure happy with 6th place out of a field of 127 and 2nd overall in my age group.  I grabbed some great Java Blend Racing wool socks as my prize and ate much food following the race. Always a good event.

Next up? Another one of those double weekends. Rum Runners relay event on Spet 29th and Riverport Duathlon on the 30th. Yikes, we will see how that goes! Here's hoping for good weather.