Race Report: Barrelman half distance triathlon 2016

Last race of the season (or at least the last one I'm currently registered for. It's a long time until Around the Bay in March so there's probably going to be another race or two added to the schedule soon). Gave up on the weekly updates a while ago because ugh, bored of myself, but basically the prep leading up to the race was decent on the swim and bike side, and disappointing and frustrating on the run side of things. Essentially running has just felt pretty shitty ever since Muskoka, so I didn't have high expectations of the run for this race. I knew I could get through 21.1k, but it probably wasn't going to be pretty.

This year we decided against going to Niagara for the weekend - we live close enough to the race site that it's still reasonable to drive in the morning of, and we wanted to save a Niagara trip with the kids for something that doesn't involve them standing around watching mom race for a full day, which is really not the most exciting thing. Plus I kind of want to go to the waterpark myself. Yay waterslides!

So, Saturday Ivanka and I drove over with our bikes to drop them off, pick up our kits, and attend the pre-race briefing, which was basically the same as last year. John Salt did announce that they had decided to pick a random finish spot, and whoever finished in that spot would win a Computrainer, which made the entire room go 'ooooooooh'. I also did the somewhat pointless 'cover your bike with plastic bags' thing, mostly because everyone else was doing it, and I figure if someone did break into T1 overnight and steal a bike, they'd probably bypass the ones attached the racks with garbage bags.

Obligatory tri crap photo. It's been a long season.

Saturday I was up really early to get a ride to the start with my neighbour Natalie, her husband, and Stephen and David, a couple of hilarious and awesome guys from my tri club. I'm not sure I've ever had quite that many laughs on the way to a race before. Especially at 5:30 am. Possibly our inability to find an open gas station seemed more hilarious due to the time of the morning and general lack of sleep!

Sunrise at the swim venue

So yeah we got there a little bit early, but it's not like I was going to sleep past 4 anyway. And I was able to reassure myself that my bike and borrowed race wheels were still there. Really, I was most worried about the wheels, since I'd have hated to have anything happen to them. Big thanks to Laurence for the loan.

Thank god it's all still here.

Prerace smiles while life is still amazing. #70point3 #barrelmantri

A photo posted by Sam J (@sammykaye71) on Sep 18, 2016 at 5:02am PDT

We remembered to get a picture with Nicole this year! Best volunteer around - not only was she there stupid early to do body marking, she also volunteered at the finish line. That is a longass day. You are the freaking best, Nicole. Love ya. Plus you will get her hear her screaming at me later in this post. It's worth sticking around for, trust me.

Got my stuff organized, almost sent my swim goggles to T2 in my post race bag but realized they were in there just in time (OH MY GOD), and made Irina cry. Um, sorry? Maybe we should have given you the birthday card after the race?

Pre race with Sam and Irina

Checking out Irina's butt. She's making that 'birthday girl' ribbon look damn good!

Chatting with the Canucks before heading for the swim start. Photo via TriChick Jennifer

A lot less nervous this year as I got into the wetsuit and headed for the start. I paddled around a bit, got comfy, was attacked by an enormous patch of seaweed (canalweed?) that was super disgusting, and eventually located Sam & Irina for last minute good luck wishes before our wave headed out.

Pink caps waiting for the start. I'm out somewhere by the yellow buoy. Pic via Jennifer.

Swim: 40:37.2
Overall: 225/554
Gender: 68/200
Age group: 12/29

So the best part about swimming in the canal at the Flatwater Centre is the guide ropes about a metre down that they use to secure the markers for rowing events. If you can stay on top of the line, it's like swimming in a pool and you barely have to sight (to the point that at Welland I was running headfirst into the buoys).

But the guide ropes weren't in the canal. So we'd have to sight old school style, like a bunch of suckers. Damn it! I had been hoping to PB the swim course over my time from Welland, but with no lines to follow I was kind of resigned to being slower.

The swim overall was uneventful. Because I was in the second last wave this year there weren't as many people coming up behind to swim over me, although towards the end I was having to go around quite a few slower swimmers from earlier waves. A couple of times I lifted my head and found I was veering off into the middle of the canal, but mostly I swam pretty straight. It's such a familiar venue now, which is helpful for keeping the nerves calmed down.

And 40 minutes later the volunteer at the exit was hauling me onto my feet and I was running for transition. An entirely satisfactory swim - and even with having to sight, I was only 8 seconds off my Welland time, and 2 minutes faster than Barrelman last year. Really nothing to complain about! When I think about the fact that two years ago I hadn't swum a single lap of a pool, much less anything in open water, being able to crank out a 40 minute 2k swim in a race without giving it a whole lot of thought is pretty awesome.

Why is it always so much harder than it should be to find the damn pull string?

Heading for the stairs! Ahhhhhh there's Nicole! YAY!

I'd look up and smile for the camera but I'm way too worried about falling on my face. Pic via Nicole.

T1: 1:42

I had orders from Coach Zin to improve my transition time. Last year was 2:23, so consider that goal met. No taking my time here, just get changed, shove the wetsuit in the bag, and get the hell out onto the road!

Bike: 2:40:29.6 (avg speed 33.27 km/hr)
Overall: 169/554
Gender: 31/200
Age Group: 6/29

The bike was alright.

Yeah. I kept looking at my average speed, especially over the second half, and giggling maniacally to myself. This was just flat out fun.

It did take a little time to settle in - I was pacing by heart rate and it took about 5k for my heart rate monitor to settle down and stop grabbing my cadence, then another 10 or so to get my heart rate down to the 164ish target. There was a bit of a headwind over the first 20k but it didn't bother me. The worst parts for wind were by Lake Erie, where a few times the crosswinds caught my fancy borrowed wheels and I had to compensate a bit, but I was never worried. And soon enough we were turning towards Niagara and after that I positively felt like I was flying. The effort was bang on target, my speed was great, and my legs felt strong.

Around 56k ish. Looking like you know what you are doing is like 90% of the battle. Photo via Jennifer

I promise that is me. Coming out of the tunnel on Townline. I couldn't resist doing a little joyous yelling while I was in the tunnel...

Could really not have asked for a better ride! A 15 minute improvement over last year!

Now, there's a lot in that, and it's hard to say how much credit to give where. Last year I was on a road bike, this year a tri bike. A whole lot of training hours in between. More favourable wind this year. And of course those sexy wheels, which are a lot lighter than my stock wheels and at the very least provide a psychological advantage because they just look fast. So a big combo of things going into that time.

Altogether, I am thrilled with this ride!

All smiles into T2!

T2: 1:52

I had memorized my rack location on the map, so had no problem finding my spot and dumping out my bag of run gear. Quick change, shoved a gel in my bra for later in the run, and then out onto the run course. I was going to make a needed bathroom stop, but there were a few Iron Canucks there waiting for their relay team bikers and they were cheering and yelling for me and it felt like ducking into a porta potty would be kind of anticlimactic, so I figured I'd wait for the first aid station.

Run: 

Ugh do I have to?

OK fine. It did end on a high note.

Run: 2:14:35.8
Overall: 181/554
Gender: 45/200
Age Group: 8/29

Yep, that would be my slowest half marathon ever. It didn't feel great right from the start. It was getting pretty hot and the humidity was ridiculus. There were a million clouds in the sky and yet somehow not a single one of them could be bothered to go over the sun, so I felt like I was slowly baking.

I ignored my watch, ignored my pace, tried to ignore all the speedy jerks on their second loops passing me, and just did one foot in front of the other until I got to the next aid station. At each aid station I grabbed water and Heed and walked until I'd gotten down fluids and dumped some over myself to try and cool down. I tried not to think about how many more kilometres were left and tried to zone out and just keep moving forward.

Big thanks to Multisport Canada for the aid stations every 2k. They were so needed on that day!

As I came up the parkway towards the end of the first loop, I saw Sam heading the other direction, which made me really happy because I knew that she must have had a big PB on the bike. And coming in to finish the loop was a big boost because of all the supporters - Zindine was looking sympathetic (OMG do I look that bad??!), and of course all the awesome cheer squad from my tri club, both the lucky ones who had finished their race for the day and those who came out to support. And I managed to catch Nicole's attention as I went past the finish although I can't remember what she yelled at me. Something encouraging!

Heading towards the start of the second loop; pic via Zindine

Three half irons, three high fives from Natalie. If I ever travel for a half I'm going to have to hire her to come with me! Pic via Jennifer.

I felt a little energized heading back out onto the second loop, and even entertained brief thoughts of negative splitting. Ha! Not bloody likely.

And now we run that whole damn loop again? WHY DO WE DO THIS TO OURSELVES? pic via Zindine

I made a brief effort to try and calculate my likely finish time, but halfway through the run of a half iron, the brain no worky so good and I quickly gave up on that and just settled on getting to the next aid station.

The second loop of the run had a very different feel to it. The fast, pushing hard, not walking dead people were gone. Already finished, those jerks. Now I was with my fellow sufferers. There were a lot of other people using a run/walk strategy, and it made me feel a little better that I wasn't the only one clearly not enjoying themselves much.

I'm pretty sure I managed to stick with my 'only walk the aid stations' plan (with the caveat that I counted that entire steep hill after aid station #3 as part of the aid station), which really is a pretty big success given how I felt. And eventually the km ticked off and I found myself at the last aid station with less than 2k to go and I was all 'fuck it let's wrap this bullshit up'. And from somewhere I started picking up the pace, and even passing some people.

At the 20k marker I started running hard, and with about 500m to go my teammate Danielle popped up with some words of encouragement. Then the finish line was in sight and the rest of the team was there yelling and OMG I was almost done.

And that's when things got weird.

Suddenly EVERYONE was yelling. People were screaming at me to go faster and I had no idea what was going on, but I just wanted to finish the damn race already so I went even harder.

I just want this to be over. It hurrrrrrts.

And then I heard Steve Fleck on the mic say something about the next person across the line winning something.

Honestly this all happened so fast that I didn't even process it until I was across the line, except I knew there was no one in front of me and I had no idea if anyone was close behind me, so I went as hard as I could.

(the finish video is best watched with sound so you can hear Nicole totally freaking out)

DID I JUST WIN THE COMPUTRAINER??

My 'holy shit I won' face. Also, far more importantly, stopping my watch. 

And then Nicole was grabbing me and yelling 'YOU JUST WON THE $2000 TRAINER OH MY GOD' and John Salt was congratulating me and I think I almost threw up on them.

Total time: 5:39:14.9
Overall: 181/554
Gender: 45/200
Age Group: 8/29

Crazy. I have the damn thing unpacked in my basement and I still can't quite believe it actually happened.

Prize wins aside, I'm happy with the race. It was the best I had in me that day for sure. A ten minute PB for the course overall, thanks to a killer bike leg and faster transitions. Unfortunately, I gave back 10 minutes on the run over last year. If I can get that sorted out...well, that's an exciting potential goal time.

Maybe the best part of the day, though, was a lot of time with friends and teammates. Triathletes are so welcoming and friendly! When I think of all the people I've met over the last year and a half of doing triathlons, it kind of blows my mind.

The birthday girl and my idol Mellen. I'd say thank god I'm out of her age group next year, but I'm aging up to an even more competitive group. DAMN IT.

There's Sam!

Kyra!

Win a prize, get to stand on the podium. I'll take it!

Swag and bling. Love the race hat colour this year.

And that's a wrap on triathlons for this year. Time for some recovery. And then to start planning what comes next!

Barrelman 2016 - week 2

Back into the training groove this week!

Monday: 10k run with Sam
Tuesday: TR Washington +1 (1 hour threshold intervals); 2000m swim
Wednesday: 5x1000m track work; 2000m swim
Thursday: 1200m swim; TR White +2 (1:30 tempo/sweetspot) +5k brick run
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 73k ride
Sunday: 19k long run; 32k ride

Overalll, pretty happy with how that week shook out. It was tough not having my usual Monday recovery day - by Thursday I was pretty much exhausted and really needed that Friday off!

The track work on Wednesday was particularly good. Not so much from a pace perspective (I've lost some speed since last summer), but my legs and butt hamstring feel fine even after some effort, so I'm cautiously optimistic and will try some more track work again this week. To stay on the safe side I'm avoiding doing much hill running, though, since uphills have a tendency to aggravate things.

5 am on the track is dark, yo.

The long run Sunday went pretty well, too, although my legs feel tired today. It's been a while since I've run 19k, plus I did the 'recovery' bike ride after which frankly wasn't overly recovery like. I should start using my road bike for those. It's so hard to resist pushing hard when you are down in the aero bars and there's a tailwind/slow moving cyclists to catch and pass/strava segments. The long run felt good, at least from a physical standpoint. I was bored out of my damn mind through the whole thing, though. I may have to start listening to music again, or podcasts or something if I can't get Nicole or some other willing victim to join me for those.

Post long run picture taking, because I was too sweaty to get back into the car right away.

Saturday's long ride was uneventful up until the very end. I was getting close to home when I passed a slow-moving cyclist, wished him a good morning, and didn't think much of it.

A couple of minutes later, he goes flying past me. Cool, whatever, he was just taking a break when I went around him.

Except no, he gets a hundred meters ahead of me and slows down again. OK. Passed him again, said something about it being a nice day, which he ignored.

And a few minutes later, a repeat. WTF, dude! And then he AGAIN slowed down in front of me. At that point I was turning towards home so I didn't get to see if we'd play the same game a third time, but that was seriously annoying.

So annoying, in fact, that it powered me to a local QOM on the final downhill of the ride. HA!

 This week's plan:

Monday: rest, glorious rest
Tuesday: swim; whatever TR interval torture is on tap for the week. Something wonderful I bet.
Wednesday: run at the track; open water swim*
Thursday: bike to and from work (weather permitting); swim
Friday: run, TR easy ride
Saturday: long bike + brick run
Sunday: long run, swim

*haven't been in open water for a while and really missing it. Definitely going to go this week if the weather cooperates!

Barrelman 2016 - week 1

Well, recovery time is officially over - last week marked 8 weeks until Barrelman, and I was feeling ready to get back into training again. So I fired up Trainerroad, loaded up the 8 week half iron specialty plan, and got things off to a pretty good start.

I'll essentially be repeating the 8 weeks I did before Muskoka. The idea here is to maintain my fitness through to Barrelman in the swim and the bike, and maybe improve things a little bit on the run if my back cooperates. As my husband is now in training for a fall marathon, his training gets to take priority and I'll be fitting mine in around his as much as I can.

Last week's workouts:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 1700m swim; FTP test
Wednesday: track ladder (8k); 2000m swim
Thursday: TR - Gibraltar (1:45 tempo)
Friday: 104k solo ride
Saturday: 2000m swim; 10k run; 40k easy bike
Sunday: 17k run

Monday I saw my physiotherapist re: that damn sciatic thing. Fortunately the post race irritation had largely cleared up by that appointment, so we mostly spent time putting together a rehab routine I can do a few times a week to hopefully strengthen some of the weak spots in my back. And he did some ART that was like magic. For the first time in a long time all my runs last week felt...good. No nagging tugging in the hamstring, no hip pain sitting at my desk, just feeling normal. Fingers crossed we've got this thing figured out!

Tuesday was that little FTP test thing.

It really never gets any easier. Pleased with a 6 watt increase, which is going to make the VO2 stuff just THAT MUCH MORE FUN. Excuse me while I cry for a few minutes. I have a real love-hate thing going on with Tuesday night trainer rides.

Attempt at cute instagram photo fail #1. 

Wednesday I went to the track and did a ladder workout to see how my hamstring would feel. It felt fine! But it was really hot. But I kind of missed doing intervals. So I guess I'll be trying some more speedwork out this week and seeing how that goes.

Attempt at cute instagram photo fail #2. Don't stand in front of the tree, dumbass. A lot of work goes into the insta pic, OK? You can't just throw any old picture up there...

Friday I did a solo century since I had used a vacation day and had the morning free. All things considered I'd rather do those long rides with someone else along to keep me company, but sometimes a solo ride is great for clearing your head. And it's nice not to have to worry about keeping up with someone or that you are going too fast.

Plus I finally got to try out my birthday gift jersey. I want to order all the stuff from Cycology. 

Saturday rain screwed up my plans to do a brick, so I ended up at the pool with Sam instead of biking or running.

Pretty much how Sam and I train.

Then I ended up running at lunch and biking later in the afternoon and I don't know. It was a weird day. Good workouts, though! And Sunday I went up to Milton to run long with Nicole, which is pretty much the best idea I've had in weeks. I have been really unenthused with running, especially long runs, for a while (I blame the heat and humidity. I am so over it). But Nicole and I had a really great run! Getting a solid feeling 17k in has improved my mindset on running about 1000%, and it's absolutely from running with a friend. The miles are so much easier with company. Thanks, Nicole, I really appreciate you changing your run plans so I could join you!

#runnersmakethebestfriends Finally a great feeling run. Mainly because I got to do it with @egrrrl 17k is a #runanddone

A photo posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Jul 31, 2016 at 5:31am PDT

So, what's up this week!

Monday: 10k run with Sam (already done, it went great!)
Tuesday: TR, 60 minutes of some sort of interval horror I'm sure, I don't even want to look; swim
Wednesday: Run trackwork, maybe OWS
Thursday: TR 90 minutes sweetspot/tempo + brick run; swim
Friday: REST
Saturday: long ride
Sunday: long run, swim, recovery bike

As per usual, this is all pretty tentative. Scheduling is complicated and hard sometimes. Especially swimming on the weekends. That one is the absolute worst, although that Saturday morning lap swim Sam and I went to was pretty much deserted for the first 45 minutes, so I might have to hit that one up again!

Muskoka 70.3 - post race thoughts

So, it's been over a week since the race. The medal is hanging on the bulletin board at work with my other tri medals, I've worn the finisher hat every time it was even remotely appropriate, I finally cut off the athlete bracelet, and I've had a chance to think about the whole experience and what I'd like to do next.

Also, there has been a lot of refueling.

I am, overall, really satisfied with how the race went. For the swim, I came out of the water right where I expected to be. I still can't seem to find a faster gear in open water, so that's something to work on.

On, the bike, well, I'm still positively buzzing about how well that went! To hold a faster average speed over the hills of Muskoka than I did at Barrelman last year? I mean, come on. Couldn't really be prouder of myself (while still feeling motivated to do even better!).

The run, I'm not really satisfied with. The time was fine, and about what I expected, but I do feel like I mentally gave up a bit, so I'm not fully satisfied with the effort. I know I have a faster half iron run in me, it's just a matter of getting the training to line up and my head on right. It's always good to have goals and something to work on, right?

Pic my husband took as I headed for the finish. If only there was a way to bottle that feeling! This is why we keep coming back and doing more races...

So, last week I took things pretty easy. I did a short and easy open water swim on Wednesday night with the club, mostly for the chance to socialize with people, if I'm being honest. But the swim helped me feel a little more human and a little less sluggish. Thursday I took the road bike out for a short ride, which was a lot of fun, at least until I noticed the looming thunderstorm rolling in and had to make a mad dash for home (made it with 2 minutes to spare!). Friday a short run which was OK. Running and I have some negotiations to do, I think. It's always the one where I feel the fatigue the longest after a race.

Just me and the road bike, having a little fun.

Saturday, Laurence was looking for company for his last really long ride as he trains for Norseman, so I offered to join him for 90k or so. Which somehow ended up being 115k and included climbing Rattlesnake Point for the first time ever, on my really inappropriately geared for that hill triathlon bike. (locals know about Rattlesnake. I don't even like to drive my car up that hill. The blog post in that link does a pretty good job of capturing what it's like, although the grades still surprised me).

Getting to the top of that hill without falling off my bike or coughing up a lung? One of the highlights of my year so far, really. Although next time I'm either taking the road bike or getting a new cassette for the tri bike. With the 11-25 I basically ran out of gears at the bottom of the hill and had to muscle my way up the whole thing. That's not a great feeling.

I did not stop and take pictures at Rattlesnake. This was long after when we stopped to get Cokes. BEST THING EVER.

Another short ride yesterday and I'm feeling pretty good, other than my sciatic nerve acting up and reminding me it can be a real asshole. Physio tomorrow for that, but it's fairly mild so shouldn't be too big a deal.

More roads to explore and Strava segment leaderboards to climb...

This week I'm going to try and get back into my usual routine of workouts, but keeping things easy and light. No real plan, just aim for a few swims, bikes, and runs and see how the body holds it together.

Next week, though, it'll be 4 weeks until Goderich and 8 weeks until Barrelman. Back to the training grind, because I want to kick some serious Barrelman ass this time around and improve my times in all three sports. Assuming decent weather, it should be a great race, and I'm ready to gear up and put in some hours to make sure of it!

Also, more cheesecake to eat so I better get back to training ASAP.

Barrelman half iron distance triathlon - Race report

Finally, the day I was working towards all summer arrived. My first half iron distance triathlon. Turns out I have kind of a lot to say about it (surprise, surprise). Settle in, this is a long one.

Pre race

Stuff. 'tis a silly sport.

I was a little stressed out the day before the race, with having to get all my stuff organized to take to Niagara Falls. I must have checked my gear about 20 times to make sure I had everything! But of course everything made the trip fine. The bike was dropped off for her sleepover in transition, I got my kit, sweet t shirt, went to the pre-race briefing, and everything went very smoothly.

John Salt delivering the pre-race briefing.

Sam must have been in charge of the shirt colours.

We had a lovely dinner with Irina and Zindine and some of the other athletes from FMCT and their families, and also Kyra and Alasdair. It was nice to have something (wrangling the kids through dinner) to distract me from thinking too much about the race!

Captain of my personal cheer squad and chief kid wrangler. Not the frog. The guy. The frog was unhelpful.

Back to the hotel and in bed by 9:30, like a good little triathlete. Like I was going to sleep well! I woke up, wide awake and convinced it must be almost time to get up, at 12:30. D'oh. Slept fitfully after that. Too much excitement.

Race day

View from the hotel window. Looking like a beautiful day to come.

I was up before my alarm, of course, and busied myself checking social media and getting my stuff organized until it was time to wake up the kids and the husband and head out of our hotel room (for some reason they all slept perfectly fine). We’d decided they would drive me (and my Iron Canucks teammate Fab) directly to the start so we wouldn’t have to deal with the morning shuttle buses. It made for a very relaxed feeling morning with minimal time pressure and stress. And it was really good to see Fab, since we did a lot of training together over the summer, and he gave me a lot of good advice about race nutrition. Triathlon friends rule.

Playing mad scientist as I concocted my pre-race nutrition and race hydration.

I got to the race site, spent a few minutes checking on my bike and loading it up with my nutrition, and then went to find Nicole to get my bodymarking! She surprised us by being there as a volunteer, how sweet is that? She’s been such an enthusiastic and supportive cheerleader for Sam and I all summer long as we trained for this thing, and I may have gotten a bit emotional when I gave her a big hug. Thanks, Nicole, that really meant a lot for you to get up at an ungodly hour and come out to support us. You rock!

With no run gear, it doesn't look like enough stuff.

My kids were restless, tired, and hungry, so my husband and I decided he’d take them out for breakfast rather than hanging around for the start. I was busy lining up for the bathroom, making sure I got into the tri club picture and saying hi to everyone there, finding Coach Zin to make sure I got a hug from him and to wish him luck, and pretty much hugging and yelling hello at many, many people. How did I get to know so many triathletes so quickly? Going to races has become a total social event!

Check out that smooth as glass water in the canal!

Iron Canucks! I'm lurking at the back.

Into the wetsuit, and down to the water with Sam and Irina. Time to get this show on the road. On the water? Something like that.

Swim (2k)

Time: 42:34.7
Pace: 2:07/100m
Overall: 285/496
Gender: 76/162
Age group: 10/21

Picture from the MSC Facebook page. My wave starting off. I'd point out which one I am but hell if I know. In there somewhere towards the top/back!

The swim could probably best be described as uneventful. I stuck to the back of the pack for the in water start (I lost Irina at some point before the gun, so there went my half-formed plan to try and catch her feet!) and got going without too much contact with other swimmers. For the longest time when I’d breathe left I’d catch a glimpse of Sam swimming on that side, looking strong! I did feel a little shaky for probably the first 500m or so - too much adrenaline, too much excitement, too much of my brain thinking ahead to the challenge to come. My legs were literally trembling. Eventually, though, I was able to shut that off and just find my rhythm and get it done.

Swimming in the canal was just as wonderful as I remembered from the training day we did there a few weeks ago. Just a fabulous venue for a swim. My sighting was a bit wonky because I never found the guide ropes that run across the bottom of the canal, but overall I don’t think I swam too much extra distance.

My biggest fear going into the swim was imagining myself getting completely run over by all the speed demons in the later waves - initially I wasn’t super thrilled about being in the first wave of non-pros! But with the waves being separated by 5 minutes it wasn’t an issue. I only saw a few people pass me from later waves, based on swim cap colour.

As I made the final turn to swim to the exit arch, all I could think was one sport down, two to go! Maybe because of that I totally botched the exit of the swim - they had volunteers stationed in the water to help us out, and I somehow managed to swim BEHIND the guy on the left side. SMRT. So no hand up for me, but I made it over the rocks safely.

Nicole was waiting at the swim exit - so happy to see her! And then I remembered SHIT gotta take this wetsuit off. Right.

There's Nicole!! .gif courtesy Zindine and the excellent MSC photographers. I like to think of this as 'wetsuits, how do they work?'

Coach Nancy caught me still struggling out of the stupid thing on the stairs.

T1: 2:23

Found my bike. Wetsuit off (FINALLY). Attempted to put on socks while still standing, which went hilariously badly. Wet feet + socks = comedy. I ended up just sitting my ass down, because when you are talking about a 6 hour race, what’s 20 seconds to get some socks on?

Helmet. Sunglasses. Shove wetsuit/cap/goggles in to the swim gear bag. What am I forgetting? There’s nothing else on the ground! That was a bit disconcerting. I could not shake the feeling I was forgetting something as I ran out of transition with my bike. I think it was just the weirdness of there not being run stuff in transition that threw me off a bit.

Heading out onto the bike course. You can see the swim exit in the background.

Bike (89k)
Time: 2:55:42.5
Avg speed: 30.39 km/hr
Overall: 241/496
Gender: 47/162
Age group: 8/21

A drawback of being in the first wave of age groupers: spending the first 30km on the bike continuously being passed by the guys. Most were pretty courteous (Zindine, I have to admit I have no idea what you yelled at me when you went by, except I did hear my name!), and there were only couple of times that someone passed me and then slowed down (which is hugely annoying).

I had my 310xt set up on my handlebars showing my average heart rate, current heart rate, distance, and cadence. No speed information. I did not want to fall into the trap of trying to chase a particular speed; not with a half marathon to run after! I did sneak the occasional glance at my 920 on my wrist (which was showing speed), though. Just to check that it was working, you know.

The first part of the bike I knew there would be a tailwind, so I settled in to take advantage and start getting in my nutrition. It was pretty uneventful. The roads were in good shape, the other riders were being courteous, physically I was holding the effort I wanted (based on heart rate) and my peaks at my wrist were showing me I was above 30 km/hr. Well on track for a sub 3 hour bike ride.

At the 30k aid station I successfully managed to discard my empty bottle and grab a fresh bottle of water. First time doing that! And I didn’t fall off my bike or knock over a volunteer or otherwise humiliate myself! Then back to the grind. I got all my nutrition in as planned (for the curious, I ate about 12 salted dates during the first half of the bike, and a gel about half an hour before I finished. I also drank 3 bottles of Skratch + NUUN). It was also around the first aid station that I stopped being passed all the time and started doing a little bit of passing of my own. Very few women went by me, and I caught quite a few.

I spent probably about 30 minutes contemplating the vital question of when you can consider yourself halfway done a race like this (did I mention the terrain was FLAT? Very little to keep your mind busy. Pick a gear and a cadence and just hold it). Could I consider myself at halfway at 45k? That’s halfway through the second sport, but the bulk of the distance and time would still be left. I never really resolved that issue to my satisfaction, but at least it gave me something to argue about with myself. I also spent some time contemplating the fact that certain portions of tri suits should really not be constructed out of white fabric. White = see through and some things I just don't want to see, if you know what I mean.

Then I focused on getting to 63k because I knew there were going to be a few people from my triathlon club there cheering, and sure enough there they were! Such a great mental boost.

After that things got harder. There was a whole combination of factors at play. There were some rough roads (typical Ontario winter road damage). There was headwind. There was a group of people up ahead of me breaking the draft rules and the tri Ontario official showed up on his motorcycle and rode alongside them for what seemed like a really long time, and I slowed down a bit just to stay out of that whole mess.

Mentally, it was all just wearing me down a bit. My legs felt great, physically overall I felt great, my heart rate was right where I wanted it, but I just couldn’t keep pushing quite as hard. My mind was all, 'can we run yet? bored now. enough of this.' I ended up slowing a bit over the last 20k and my heartrate dropped. Looking at the data, I could have pushed this section more, but especially with a flat bike course like this there’s a real mental grind to holding your aero position and consistent effort, and my brain just wasn’t quite up to the task. Something to remember - and train for - in the future!

You can really see my heart rate drop over the last 20k.

The last few km of the bike were along the Niagara river, and were just gorgeous. I kept glancing at the total time on my 920 and hoping I’d be done in under 3 hours - somehow I misread how many km I’d done and all of a sudden - well before I was expecting it - I could hear an announcer and I went around a corner and boom, there was the dismount line!

T2: 3:39

When I hit the button on my watch for T2 and saw 2:55 total time for the bike I was ecstatic! Well under my goal time on the bike. Exactly the big boost I needed after my mini-mental breakdown at the end of the bike. I was pumped up and ready to run! The volunteers quickly pointed me to the correct bike rack, where sure enough my run gear was waiting. I chatted happily with a volunteer as I changed my shoes and socks and grabbed my visor. She told me to get out of there and she’d pack my bike stuff into the gear bag for me. Race volunteers are the best! Especially when I told her I smelled terrible and she just laughed and said I was in good company. Poor woman had to touch my stinky bike shoes.

Short stop at the porta potty to pee (yeah, I suppose I could have done that on the bike, but I’m not at that stage of commitment to this triathlon thing yet), and then saw Irina (who just killed the swim/bike event!) as I emerged and headed for the run exit. Another little mental boost as I headed out on the run. Little did I know that would be the first of many excited ‘Hey I know you!!!’ moments.

Run (21.1 km)

Time: 2:04:46
Pace: 5:56/km
Total race time: 5:49:19.8
Overall: 222/496
Gender: 46/162
Age group: 9/21

This run. This was the big question mark. How badly would it suck, basically. What kind of an idiot bikes for 3 hours and then decides to run a half marathon? Turns out lots of idiots!

I started out and felt...amazing. Like a pace of 4:59/km showing on my watch amazing. Damn it. Slow down! I got that under control and settled into 2 hour half marathon pace. That lasted until I got to The Hill. At which point I realized this course was not an easy run course and I stopped paying attention to pace and just ran at an effort I felt like I could maintain.

And I felt good. Startlingly good. Happy as a pig in shit, shouting encouragement at people I recognized as we did the out and back through the park. Up the hill (I ran it on the first loop, promising myself that if I ran it the first time, I could walk it on the second loop). Past Marineland. The long false flat to the Casino property (I swear 90% of the run course was uphill, somehow). The run through the Casino garden, which was really lovely! And I remembered to look to the right and could see the falls from above. You don’t get a lot of views like that in races around here!

Then down the super steep hill (man does it ever suck when a downhill is too steep to really take proper advantage of it) to the parkway, and past the falls. Even with all the tacky nonsense that surrounds the touristy bits, the falls never fails to impress.

Damn car blocking my sweet run pic with the falls in the background, *shakes fist*

Then the loooooong run back along the parkway, made a little nicer by the cooling mist coming off the falls. And the fact I was running faster than the cars on the parkway were driving. Many tourists staring - I started waving and giving thumbs up to anyone who looked supportive, because why not? Through all of this I grabbed water and Heed at each aid station, which were very well stocked and the volunteers were excellent (on the second loop I switched to Coke from Heed, and DAMN did that ever taste good!).

As I headed back towards the finish/turnaround I crossed paths with first Mari and then Sam heading out on their first loops. High fives! I also saw various Iron Canucks teammates and we shouted or high-fived. And then I saw the cheer squad again, and my family waiting for me! Gave both my girls hugs and then off to the turn around. That was an amazing feeling.

Coming in to finish the first loop. I think I'm attempting to do the club 'angry beaver' pose. It's a thing we do. Photo via Coach Nancy.

Frankly I got a little emotional after seeing my husband and kids. Took a few minutes to get my heart rate back under control.

As I hit the timing mat for the turnaround, I could see the race clock at the finish was at 4:45. Holy shit. I had a ton of time to spare and get in under 6 hours! Even if I had a dramatic crash and burn I’d probably still make it - and the way I was feeling, I knew there'd be no disaster today. Off to do the part of the race that beforehand I’d been dreading the most: the second loop.

Past the cheer squad again to start the second loop! Photo via Coach Nancy.

It was NOTHING like I’d expected. I thought it was going to suck, but instead I felt fantastic. I saw all the supporters again as I headed out, and because of the nature of the course I was kind of able to divide it into smaller, manageable segments in my head. You know how when you drive somewhere the first time it seems to take forever, but then when you do it again and you know the landmarks it seems shorter? Same thing here. Knowing exactly where I had to go made things seem shorter.

Through the out and back in the park (pretty!). Up the stupid hill (walked it, like I’d promised myself - there was a guy with me at the bottom who ran it and we reached the top at the same time, so I stand by that decision). Past Marineland to the casino. Through the casino grounds. Down the ouchy hill (my quads!). Past the falls again.

Then the long stretch back to the finish. And that’s where things got a whole lot more uncomfortable. One of my teammates who was running the relay caught up to me (I’d been expecting him to catch me for a while based on seeing him on the course) and tried to talk me into picking up the pace and running with him. Thanks for trying, Stephen! But I didn’t have the juice in my legs to keep up with his pace. Just. Keep. Moving. Ticking off the km until there was only one left to go.

Running in to the finish was amazing. Seeing my kids jumping up and down, losing their minds. I had the biggest smile on my face. The pictures probably tell the story best:

High fives from the cheer squad and the #teamies who had finished their portions of the relay! You guys, join a tri team. It's so worth it. Photo via Coach Nancy

High fives from Natalie! Who taught me all about open water swimming back in May.  Yay for #teamies! Photo via David H.

Not entirely sure why I look like I'm about to fall over backwards...

And DONE.

So yeah. I did it! And it went just about perfectly! I still can’t quite believe it. I’m just so, so happy. I trained hard, I had a plan, I executed, and it all came together. What an amazing day.

BOOM. This medal represents a whole lot of hard work.

You know I'll be wearing this sucker every single chance I get. Including fancy dinner parties and tea with the Queen, should invitations to either of those things materialize.

I was holding onto the bike because I didn't want to fall over.

This is an amazing race. Must do, bucket list type of race. The swim course is fantastic, the bike course is built for speed, and the run course! Normally I would hate that sort of run course (2 loops! lots of uphill! stairs!) but I loved it. Just way, way too much fun. Do this race!