So race morning came and I arrived early at site. The race was declared wetsuit legal, but only just as the air temp was cool enough. The water temp was right on the border. So I decided to use my sleeveless suit, which I find makes my arms less tired and is also much quicker to get out of. After setting up my bike in transition, I put on the suit and got a warm up swim in.
The race brief happened, then we waited on the beach as the Standard/Oly distance swimmers took off. Eventually it was our turn and we headed to the water.
I entered at a more causal pace, as I wanted to start the swim easy. Sadly, I hit the water and started to push a little too hard. Things were going okay, but I started to breath heavy and had to slow down a bit to catch my breath. I got going again, but was now pushed fairly wide of the first buoy. Still, I kept going. Then the waves of a distant motor boat started to hit us. Nothing too big, but I ended up gulping down some of the water and again had to deal with that. Finally i got to the far buoy and headed to shore.
Ultimately my stopping and my lack of endurance showed in my final time. Also my apparent inability to sight properly didn't help either. My swim was about 850m rather than 750m and i got out of the water in 17:44, the worst swim I have had in a long time. Oh well. I was 41st now and headed to the bike.
A quick transition (44 seconds and 3rd in time) and I was riding. I had many places to make up and wasted no time. By 10km into the 20 km bike ride I had moved into 10th place overall and pushed as hard as I could. I knew my run would be decent and was willing to sacrifice a little speed to get as close as possible to others. With 5km to go I had moved into 8th place overall and that was as much as I could do on the bike.
I finished the ride with the 4th fastest bike split at 33.4 km/hr avg speed for the 20.5 km course. Some people found this course hilly. Other than one big climb (excluding the initial climb from the beach) I found the hills to be mild, long but shallow in pitch. That allowed me to hold a better rhythm. My second transition from bike to run was 27 seconds, only good for 5th overall. I did screw up putting on my first shoe and had to readjust it. But overall it went well.
I took off on the run, and is usually the case, the first kilometer or so is tough o get your legs to full extension. Still I reeled in the next two runners by the 1.5 km mark and firmly planted myself in 6th place. As I approached the turn around positions 4 and 5 were headed back but were likely 800m or so ahead of me. My stride started to open up and I was able to push a little harder. I reached the final hill down (about a 400m descent) and ran towards the finish. I never was able to catch the next two guys, but got within 30 seconds. A better swim and who knows.
My run was the fastest of the day at 19:30 for the 5km. That was what I had. And truthfully it was the first time in a long time that a run actually felt good (well after I got warmed up). So that was good.
I finished in a time of 1:15. Not my best but decent. I was really happy with the bike and run and transitions. Ideally I "should" have been able to knock 3 minutes or so off that swim, but it wasn't to be that day. But how fast are the 40 year olds? 6th place was only good enough for 4th in my Age Group. Zoom.
Next up? Still planning on what to do. The mojo is starting to finally come back from Bluenose, so i don't want to let that slip away. I also don't want to over do things.
