Due to the fact that it was late getting put together, this year had a small but mighty crowd of crazy souls, who braved the starting temperature of about -10C.
yes, those are bacon costumes
The skate started off well, with beautiful ice and low wind. My first few laps were nice and fast, allowing me to keep up with the top couple of skaters. But my lack of long training skates on the ice meant I ended up slowing down a bit, eventually coming off the ice in 4th. But my transition to snowshoe was fast, so I immediately jumped to third place.
Luckily we had a good little snow fall a few days ago, meaning we could actually hold the snowshoe portion of the race. Yes, there were a few bare spots, but overall, running in snowshoes was fun. Now, I will admit that I had never really run in snowshoes before this, as we just bought our snowshoes this year and have had next to no snow falls in Nova Scotia. But I think I did well, keeping my cadence high and pushed through to take over second spot.
This lead to the run. Luckily I had my running shoe on, so I just had to pop off the snow shoes, drop them off at my transition zone spot and take off for three laps around the Commons.
I could see Adam ahead of me, but I knew unless he had a cramp or something, he had far too big a lead (he is a really great skater on hockey skates) for me to run that down. Still, I felt okay running, considering I had really no rest at all before hitting the sidewalks. Pretty much all three events use the same muscles, so it is a great workout.
Sure enough I watched the gap stay the same for much of the run, with me finally coming through the finish line in second place overall.
don't hide the finish line cones!
It was a great event and took me 47 minutes to finish, so well below my 50 min goal time (just a rough estimate in my head). Yes, the distances were a bit short, as I mentioned, so likely that 50 minutes would have been a lot closer. Still it was great fun, and I am 5 for 5 on these events, and I couldn't pass up the 5th Tri the Oval Toque.
For my efforts I won a custom Cow Bell (thanks James), and some much needed Java Blend coffee beans. And I can't wait for next year's race.
