So, this was supposed to be the final tune-up before FISU World University Champs next Saturday in Erdek, Turkey.  And since Vancouver Worlds was turned into a duathlon, this was also my triathlon season debut.

I had an unfortunate bout of food poisoning(I think) before Vancouver worlds, which completely derailed my race.  It was so bad, this is the last time I will mention it.  In the past week, I managed to get healthier and put in a few good workouts, but nothing crazy fast.  I feel that with my lacking base, I could still get more out of volume at this point in time.  That is why all of July I am devoting to cycling base.

Back to race day.  Started off at 4am… had to do my 5hr shift early to still make it to Guelph for the 1pm start.  I have been missing so much work due to all my travelling, and next week is no exception, that I couldn’t get the day off.  On the drive over, it started drizzling but nothing major.  During WU I’d say conditions were ideal, maybe a bit hot, but by the time the race started, I probably couldn’t have asked for better conditions.

Looking forward to the swim.  I’ve been swimming with the UofT varsity team for the past 6wks, and they’ve really helped get my swim back up to where it was quickly, especially after I lost everything during recovery form my surgery.  On the line was a fellow varsity blue, butterflyer Orlagh O’kelly… without a wetsuit.  Gun went off and I settled into a groove.  Iwas probably in the top 5 as we rounded the last buoy before making a right turn.  I fought to get right next to the buoy getting the shortest path, yet upon rounding that buoy I see a few swimmers to my right cutting the courseand getting in front of me.  I tried to latch onto their feet but they accelerated away.  the rest of the swim I just tried to stay on the feet of whoever I could or just maintain a decent pace.  Coming out i see Orlagh was several meters ahead of me starting to run up the big hill.  Without a wetsuit that was a pretty impressive swim. But I got even right at the timing mat.

T1- my best T1 this yr.  Very calm and smooth, exactly like I visualized.

Bike- my biking needs alot of work, but it’s been starting to come around.  I’ve been struggling with holding big gears, and am always relegated to spinning very high cause my muscles just aren’t ready to handle even the slightest bit of grinding(boy do I miss not having a proper base).  I got passed by Taylor Reid, a 17yr old who ended up winning on the day, at about 8k.  At the TA, I realized i was in 5th place and pretty much kept that til the last 4k where I got into 3rd.

T2- I had the perfect dismount with lots of speed but unfortunately I couldn’t find my shoes and ended up running back and forth for a while losing valuable seconds.

RUN- normally the run is my favorite part but not today.  Still having some stomach issues early on, and got passed within 500m.  Being a numbers guy, I paid attention to my splits(which I shouldn’;t have).  My first km was 4:03, and I pretty much gave up at that point(big mistake).  I felt like I jogged until the 3.5k point before I realized the 3rd place guy wasn’t gaining anything on me, so I only got my act together with 1500m to go.  Still, I managed to get my 3rd place spot back and by the time I was finished I put 54sec on 4th place.  Afterwards I really regretted letting up early on the run… part of it I couldn’t deal it(stomach issues) but part of it I could(mental focus).  2nd spot was only 36sec ahead, while first was 1:12.

So, I finished 3rd overall, but disappointed since I felt good in my training beforehand to be able to win a race like this.  But, now at least the first tri is out of the way, and I can focus on the big race in Turkey on June 28th.  I leave Jun23-29th, and know I’m going to have a great race(I know for sure that at least I won’t have to work the day of the race!)