website: www.msctriathlon.com
Date: Saturday, Sept.11/10
Location: Wasaga Beach
Distance: 750m/20k/5k
Swim 750
This is the first year that I have actually done the swim in Georgian Bay. It was a cold morning & my feet were freezing, so I opted to not do a swim warm up. I was in the last wave & would have to wait about 15 minutes before my start, so felt that the long wait would just make me colder once I was wet. The swim starts quite a ways out in the water. Most people start swimming, then when it gets a bit shallower, they dolphin dive, then resume swimming. The swimming part was okay, & I swam all the way in until my hand reached the bottom. Unfortunately, I have very short legs, so the water is too deep for me to run, so I walked until almost the shore, before I could actually run out of the water.
Swim time: 18:00 131/355 overall
T1 2:11 It was a long run to the far side of transition where my bike was parked. This transition was set up differently & it was a long run to my bike & then to get out of transition.
Bike 20k
This is usually a pretty fast bike course. Unfortunately today, they had told us about a huge metal grate on the road at the 16k mark that we needed to slow down to about 10kph so that we didn’t get a flat. I passed a lot of people on the way out & back on the course until about 13k. I had just come down the only hill on the course & was picking up speed, & was just behind the guy in front of me. Some idiot in a tan van decided to pull out right in front of us & almost hit the guy in front of me. He had to go wide to avoid being hit, & I had to hammer on my brakes to avoid hitting the back of the van. Then this idiot decides to put on his 4 way flashers & crawl along the road. I continued with my brakes on, while all the people I had passed caught back up. Finally, he decided to give it some gas, & I got to pick up some speed, only to be slowed down again by the grate in the road. I was surprised, how many people actually went around the grate, & crossed the yellow line to do so. 3 people in front of me did this & 1 behind me who passed me as I slowed down to go over the grate. Where are the officials when you need them? Especially, when we had been told in the prerace briefing to slow down for this & to cross it & not try to go around it. This was very frustrating!
Bike time: 40:42 29.5kph 179/355 overall
T2 1:47
Run 5k
The run starts out on paved road, then heads onto a boardwalk & through a trail, until it goes back out onto the roadway. A young runner passed me at about 1k, & was running at a nice pace, so I decided to try to stay with her. I stayed with her until about 3.5k, where she became bogged down behind a group of runners. I passed & continued on my way, making the turn toward the lake. Here we had been told to stay to the left side of the road, & not to cut the corner on the turn by the lake or you could be DQ’d. I couldn’t believe all of the runners that were cutting the corner ahead of me? Then I saw Jason Vurma, one of the course directors, yelling at everyone to get to the left side of the road & to stop cutting the corner. No one listened to him & they continued on their way. He spoke to the teenage volunteer at that corner & showed him how & where to stand, to keep people from cutting the corner. My young pace bunny passed me back just before the finishing chute. All in all, I was happy with my run.
Run time: 27:15 5:27/k 198/335 overall
Finish time: 1:30:35 3/13 age group 154/355 overall
I had originally signed up for this race as a distraction & a way to relieve the stress of my son’s wedding the following weekend. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case & I had a tough week leading up to the race with wedding details & aging parents. I could hardly focus on the race during the race. The only thing that was racing was my mind. I didn’t like the swim of this race. I actually prefer the alternate swim in the river, although it would be a longer run to transition. And all of the people crossing the center line during the bike, & cutting the corner on the run, was unbelievable! I was really disappointed in this. I know that the Multisport crew did their best to control this, but you expect people to race honestly. All in all, I was happy with my own race, knowing that I had done the best I could on that day.
Congratulations to all of the Running Free athletes racing the sprint & the olympic distances in both the triathlon & duathlon.
Well said and well done. We only have our own honour to live by. If people really want to cheat they are going to find a way to do it. Fortunately, those types of individuals are few. At least I hope so. Congrats.