Belwood Sprint Duathlon
Run: 3km
Bike: 30km
Run: 7km
Where: Belwood Park – Fergus, Ontario
After competing in the 5Peaks stop last weekend at Rattlesnake Point, I was feeling great. I ran the sport course to share the experience with a friend, and felt strong throughout. I have a new road bike, and although I haven’t been out on it more than a handful of times, was feeling confident.Fastforward to race day… even though I was threatened with rain by a colleague, the weather forecasters were wrong on all accounts. Clear skies, smooth breeze, an all-around great day.
When I arrived at the park (with my mom as a spectator, woot!) I was greeted with the last parking spot, and a nice cool breeze. I was happy about the cool breeze as terribly hot and sticky conditions invite displeasure for me when running is involved.After signing in and getting settled, the sun started to really come out and by the time the triathletes went out at 8:30am it was starting to get hot. Lucky for that breeze.
As the starting horn went off for the duathlon, everything went off without a hitch. I kept pace with the group, and finished the run in about 10 minutes. This is extremely quick for me, and my target pace was about 4:45min/km, so I was a bit perplexed. My only explanation is that either someone goofed on the distances, or they shortened it and didn’t tell us.
Anyway, I smoked T1 as I threw flats on my bike thereby eliminating the need to switch shoes. I thought it was a good idea and I’d say it paid dividends. I was in and out in a flash.
The bike course was very nice, some nice red barns and such to look at. Undulating roads kept me focused on the ride, and after 15km my average speed was hovering around 36km/hr. I wasn’t even really trying… I started thinking I was better prepared than I thought!As I expected, I began to slow down throughout the latter half of the bike and hit a bit of a wall eventually. I felt coming back in the wind was stronger and also that the route was generally much more uphill.Some extra focus and concentration got my cadence up again and I finished the bike fairly strong, but overall only felt like my showing was average at best.
T2, as expected, was great. Took a squirt of water and some more gel before a quick stretch of the quads and I was off. The first 1km or so is out across the dam, meaning there was full exposure to that great cool breeze again. We headed the same direction as the first run, however much further this time. Covered by trees, I found the shade provided little offset to the make-shift greenhouse effect that the canopy created; the humidity was killer. The finish on the bike was catching up to me and I slowed it down a bit to make sure I had a little left in the tank for a strong finish.
After a lot of mental determination not to walk, I finally saw the finish line. Unfortunately, it was still 1km away. I plugged away and pushed hard through the finish. When the announcer called my name it was an incredible feeling of relief. He event complimented me on the great showing of heart as I sprinted through the end!
A great cap on a great day.Even better was to share the outing with fellow RunningFree teammate Mark Cairns. He edged me out at the end but I think I have his number for next time…
Author
I am in an engineering position, and currently pursuing my masters in Mechanical Engineering on a part-time basis. This takes up a lot of my time :-(
Being a good Canadian as I am, I grew up on the ice, and continue to play hockey competitively to this day. Hand-in-hand with hockey goes golf, and I always enjoy a good game.
While at university, I had the good fortune of being shown the benefits of working out at the gym. During an internship at Enbridge, I had the even better fortune (can't believe I'm saying this) of being introduced to fellow Running Free team mate, Mark Cairns (https://www.teamrunningfree.com/athletes/?athlete=Mark Cairns) who introduced me to the joys of triathlon and adventure racing.
The rest, as they say, is history.
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