My last tri of the season, my first Olympic distance race, and the "A" race I've been targeting with my training schedule. The
Thousand Islands Triathlon is held in Brockville, with the swim in the St. Lawrence, the bike course running east along the river past Maitland, and the run course snaking through town on streets and multi-use pathways. Overall I'd say this was my favourite course of the season. The St. Lawrence is cool, clear, and deep; the bike course is smooth, scenic, and uncongested; and the run course is mostly shaded, which was a huge bonus on a day when the humidex was exceeding 40 degrees.
Things got off to a rough start. I arrived in Brockville an hour before start time, which usually is enough for me to check in, set up my transition area, get a quick run and stretch in, then get to the water in time for a brief warmup swim. Granted, this doesn't allow much margin of error, but it's worked for me so far.
Problem #1: According to Somersault, there is parking right near the T-zone. Checking on Google maps reveals a big parking lot right there. Perfect. Except upon arrival, the roads are blocked off for the race and the lot is inaccessible. So I had to drive a few blocks away before I found street parking.
Problem #2: 4 port-a-potties on site, though Somersault advised that the "best-kept secret" are the washrooms at the rowing club. Except for those washrooms are all blocked off. And the line-up at the port-a-potties is long and very slow moving. It was a long wait and people were getting very nervous as the 8:30 start time got ever nearer and the lineup didn't seem to move.
Problem #3: I had a little more to do in my T-zone than normal. I had to mix up my
Skratch Labs electrolyte drink for several water bottles (normally I just have one and I premix it at home). I also had to tape my
Honey Stinger gels to my bike, which I've never done before.
These 3 problems converged and resulted in my frantically pulling on my wetsuit as the Race Director is calling out "30 seconds to go!" with everyone else already in the water treading water at the start line. In the picture above you can just make out the lone idiot still standing on shore as the race is about to begin.
So not a great start. But I suppose I might have had a little more adrenalin that normal surging through my body as the start went. I was able to get out front pretty quick and make a break for it with the lead pack. At the first turn, the faster swimmers distanced themselves, and it was down to me and one other guy to form a small chase pack. We traded off drafting each other for the rest of the race, and I came out of the water in 7th position (though made it out of T1 in 6th). I felt like I swam well and was really happy with my drafting. I'm not sure what my swim time was, but I exited T1 in 29:52, so there's no chance I hit my goal of doing the 1.5km swim under 22 minutes. Rumour has it the course was about 200m long (so 400m longer in the Olympic event), so it's tough to make any real assessments.
The bike course starts with a nasty little uphill, then you're on your way out of town. I was surprised at how rolling the course was - it was really difficult to settle into any kind of a rhythm, and I found my self constantly changing gears. In the end I think this was to my advantage, even though I pretty much exclusively ride flat roads in training, I seemed to make up the most ground on my competitors on the uphills and downhills. We were on our own for the first loop, but the second loop featured the Sprint Tri racers. The road was open to traffic, which I now realize I actually prefer to a closed course, since it forces people to ride single file, and means you don't get the crazy packs of racers riding 3 abreast (technically against the rules but it seems to happen on closed courses). Felt good on the bike and entered T2 in 3rd place.
Now I knew that podium spot was not going to last - my run is consistently sub-standard and was the only real question mark coming into this race. Not a question mark in terms of how I'd do (poorly) but in terms of how I'd pace it. I know what a 5km effort feels like (it sucks) and knew that pace wasn't sustainable for 10km (especially after a 1.5km swim and 40km ride). So I was somewhat diligent about reigning myself in over the first few kms. I was feeling alright and keeping my pace under 5min/km. At the turn to go out for loop #2 I was happy with how things were going - my pace was pretty consistent and felt sustainable. But then around 6km things got hard. And at 7km the 800 pound gorilla who reads your training logs and punishes those who haven't been putting in enough miles decided to jump on my back. My pace slowed by 30s/km, and the gorilla was whispering "just walk for a bit dude, it's hot, your tired, just give in." I didn't walk, but man did I want to. Slowing down did allow me to compose myself and I was able to find a rhythm for the last 2kms and finish with a strong effort on the fiendish uphill sprint to the finish line. I had wanted to come in under 50min for the run, but my run plus T2 time was 53:07, so it looks like I was just over that target.
So my podium spot at T2 turned into 8th place by the end. But I gave it all I had so there's nothing to regret other than arriving a little later that I should have.
"Daddy, are you alive?"
Overall it was a good experience and a satisfying end to the season for me. Another AG win and top 10 overall finish, and it certainly cemented some things for me in terms of what I want to work on for next year. I really liked to course, Brockville is a nice town, and grabbing fish and chip's from
Don's was a great recovery meal.
Goals:
1) Run under 50min
2) Swim under 22min
3) Place inside top 10
Time: 2:33:48
Rank: 1/3 AG, 8/65 OA
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