Toronto Island Sprint Triathlon 2015 Post-race Report

Big City Race

       The Multisport Canada Recharge with Milk Toronto Island sprint triathlon started with a 4am wake-up in Guelph to get to Toronto and catch the ferry to the island. But this is the life of a student triathlete. I find getting up really early for a race doesn't negatively impact my performance as long as I sleep well in the days leading up to it. Luckily I was able to spend the night in Guelph on Saturday or else I would have had to get up and make the trip from Kingston Sunday morning. It was pretty cool driving through Toronto at 5 in the morning with virtually no traffic, it felt kind of like a scene from The Walking Dead. But then of course after the race you get off of the ferry and there are people everywhere and you don't go more than a few seconds without someone honking their horn and realize you are indeed in a very lively Toronto.

      Despite coach Mark's advice to catch an early ferry Emma and I missed it and caught the 7am departure, with a race start of 8am. It was a bit of scramble to get to the start on time, but at least the run from the outhouse to the beach was a bit of a warm-up.

      The swim felt pretty short compared to the long course race in Kingston a few weeks earlier. However a quick skim of the race results from this race indicates that the swim is an obvious weakness of mine and will be a major focus in my off-season over the winter.

       The bike felt good and ended up being my strongest leg of the race. It was a 2 loop course with lots of turn-arounds, but it was nice and flat making it possible to put out some high speeds. It got a little hectic on the second loop with the other waves entering the course but it was worth it to be able to see who's in front of you throughout the race. With 4 turn-around points I was able to get an idea of who I was gaining on and who was pulling away.

       The run at this race is very fun because it is a 4 loop course, so you are almost always in check with where everyone is in the race. Like the bike, you see everyone multiple times throughout the run (pretty much every few minutes) so you get a good idea of the ground you have to make up on those in front of you and who is coming up behind you. My run was 17:03, which was a little slower than I was hoping for but I don't think I could have ran it any harder than I did. I crossed the line in 5th and ended up getting bumped to 6th by my LPC teammate Lee Rantala who was in a later wave. We've had a lot of close back and forth races in the past couple of years and I am looking forward to a rematch this weekend at Wasaga Beach, where we will be competitors as well as teammates going for the Provincial Club Champs title. Despite not getting the finishing position I was hoping for, in the end I felt that I had a good race. It was also nice being able to race my former Queen's XC teammate Adam Doxtator again, and even though he beat me I'm glad his season is going well.

Me gasping for air like a fish out of water

     I found that this was a really well run event as always by Multisport Canada and it wouldn't be the same without the Recharge with Milk crew out there either. Next up is the Multisport Canada Recharge with Milk Wasaga Beach Olympic Triathlon, which as I mentioned before is home of the Triathlon Ontario Club Championships. Team LPC has a large group coming out and we are looking to repeat as club champs. Most of them I have not seen for a few months so I am looking forward to a bit of a reunion. In addition to the club champs I am looking to pick up some crucial series points this weekend, so as nice as it will be to see everyone, once the race starts it will be all business.