My feet hurt. And
so do my legs, and my sunburnt skin, and pretty much my entire body. The
Welland Long Course Tri, despite being a flat and fast course, was tough.
Mother nature certainly took its toll. Do I have any regrets about
racing? No way.
Apparently when
making summer plans I can't tell the difference between June and July. I found
out on Friday (June 24th) that a daylong outdoor concert I got tickets to
wasn't July 25th like I thought, but it was June 25th, aka tomorrow, aka the
day before Welland. I didn't want to miss the concert, and there was no way I
was missing Welland, so I went to the concert and was 'that guy' sitting in the
shade, drinking water and eating a carb-loaded beaver tail. I may have been a
buzz kill to a few rowdy fellow Billy Talent lovers, but I was able to not get
too much sun, stay hydrated and take in a bunch of carbs from the various food
vendors. And yes the show was awesome.
After a solid 4.5
hours of sleep it was off to Welland. I was feeling strong and ready to go. The
Welland Long Course Tri (and the Kingston Long Course Tri) is a unique distance:
2k swim, 56k bike, 15k run. Although I've only done this distance once before
in Kingston last year, and although my body doesn't currently agree right now,
I think it is my favourite. It presents all of the aspects of long course
racing that I enjoy, but doesn't actually take all that long to do, relatively
speaking of course. Not to mention the Welland venue is fantastic. Smooth
swimming in a canal, a super flat and fast bike course, and a 3 loop run along
the canal.
My swim is
certainly not my strong suit, and this is a long race. Therefore, the goal for
the swim was to not start too fast, maintain a smooth relaxed rhythm, and try
and catch some feet to draft. I never really found anyone to draft, but stayed
smooth and relaxed (maybe a little too relaxed) and came out of the water
feeling fresh.
The goal for the
bike was to stay strong and relaxed. It's a fast course and I wanted a fast
time. The first half of the bike was into the wind and I was moving well and
felt strong. On the way back we had the wind at our backs so it felt a little
easier. I was moving well and was on pace for a fast time. Nothing was going to
get in my way. Except for a freight train. Not metaphorically. With about 3k to
go in the bike there was a train sitting across the road. Luckily the driver
must have realized there was a race, so he backed up to let us by, and I didn't end up sitting there for that long. According to my watch I biked
1:26:50 (38.7kph), whereas on Sportstats my time is 1:27:54, so I must have
been stopped at the train for about a minute. Despite this unexpected incident,
it was handled well by Sportstats and the race crew, they just ended up
subtracting the short time we were stopped at the train from our overall time. Overall
it was a strong ride and I felt good heading into the run.
The goal was to
open the first 3k no faster than 3:50s, then build throughout the race. In a
long course race, especially when it is almost 40 degrees out, the first 3k of
the run are in my opinion the most important part of the race. It's easy to
take them too fast and doing so will make the remaining 12k much slower and
very painful. I opened my first 2k exactly as planned, but at that point I got
a sharp cramp under my right rib. I slowed it down a bit and ran a 4min k, and
it went away so I picked it back up again. But at the 10k mark it came back and
stuck around for the rest of the race. I'm still not sure what caused the
cramp. If anyone has any ideas let me know. I drank a bottle and a half of
sportdrink on the bike, although I guess it's possible that wasn't enough. It
could have been because I was riding hard in the aero position for so long and
it made my ab muscles tight. Or it could have simply been an unavoidable
consequence of the heat. If anyone has experienced anything similar please
share.
Despite being
broken, beaten and scarred by mother nature and my first long course race of
the season, I had a great day. The race was really well organized, the venue is
awesome and I love the unique distance. If there's one thing I can say for
sure, it is that for as long as I am doing triathlon, I will be racing the
Welland Long Course and Kingston Long Course races. Thanks to Multisport Canada
for putting on a great race and having me as an ambassador for the sport, and to
the LPC hurdle project for the continued support. Next up is the Multisport
Canada Gravenhurst Olympic Triathlon, after of course the Canada Day fireworks
at the LPC time trial this Friday.
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