Gravenhurst Olympic Triathlon 2017 Post-race Report

Leading up to the race

Two years ago today, Multisport Canada Gravenhurst was my first ever Olympic distance triathlon. I made a few rookie mistakes that race, including waiting until the night before to put my new latex tubes into my also new racing wheels and pinching one of them. Needless to say I still had a great time 2 years ago and kept coming back. This weekend was my third year in a row racing the Gravenhurst Triathlon. Probably my favourite part of this race is simply that it gives you an excuse to come up and visit Gravenhurst.

At Welland a few weekends ago I had a very regimented plan for my race, probably because it was one of my A-races. This weekend at Gravenhurst I took a much more relaxed approach. I wanted to just see how the race unfolded and have some fun with it, because yes, I do find pushing my limits to be a fun Saturday morning activity.

The swim

The Multisport Canada ambassadors got a sweet pontoon boat escort to the race start,

Heading to the boat

which was uniquely in the middle of the lake. Once the race started I caught some feet right away and drafted them for almost the entire swim. The pace felt easy, but I wasn’t sure whether that was just because I was drafting, or because we were moving slower than I was hoping. I am still learning when to keep drafting and when to go for it and leave a draft. For today I played it safe and kept drafting. According to my GPS, I ended up swimming 1:39/100m, which isn’t terrible, but I was hoping to swim closer to 1:35/km. So in hindsight I maybe should have left the pack I was drafting and picked up the pace a little. The good thing about an easy swim though is that I felt fresh going into the bike.

The bike

I have been very fortunate this season to be able to borrow Emma’s father’s (Alan's) Pinarello fp8 (a much needed improvement over the blue beast, which I will eventually donate to an ancient history museum). And for Gravenhurst, Emma let me borrow her Campagnolo Bora Ultra TT disc wheel.

This bike practically rides itself

There was an issue with the previous bike course and the Multisport Canada team did a fantastic job thinking on their feet and improvising the route right before the race, which ended up being a faster bike course than the previous route anyway. By my watch I averaged 40.6kph, which I was very happy with. I am finally able to consistently exceed 40kph for the bike, which has been a personal goal of mine and seemed impossible when I first started triathlon.

The run

Look at those Zizus

"Oh would you
look at the time"

The run in triathlon is so fickle because sometimes you feel good and sometimes you don’t and I haven’t yet figured out how to control for this. Luckily today the run felt great. The run course at Gravenhurst is rolling hills through cottage-country, which makes it challenging but scenic (both things that I appreciate in a run course). I ran the course in 36:10, which I was happy with. This was good for a 4^th place finish.

Post-race

I once again had a great time in Gravenhurst and plan to be back again next year. The weather was great, the competition was fun, the race was put on well, and I got to chat with local legend Cody Beals at the finish. I want to thank Multisport Canada for having me as an ambassador and giving me the opportunity to come and compete in these amazing races, and the LPC Hurdle Project and Zizu Optics.