Swim (10:56): I really enjoyed the swim course. The swim was one loop, out around a couple of islands and back, and the water was pretty warm. I hadn't expected there to be too many fast swimmers and I was right. I stayed as far left as I could on the start line since I was able to seethe first two buoys line up. In my head, this meant I chose the straightest possible line to the first turn. Ben Sayles had moved over to the far right, but I had no intention of trying to follow him so I didn't worry about it too much. Once the gun went off, he went ahead as expected, although close enough that I could have jumped on his feet had I wanted to. I decided not to because I knew it would take a lot out of me and I wouldn't stay there for long. Luckily, there was another swimmer near him that I decided to draft off of. I jumped on his feet for about 200m, but eventually I just kept swimming into his feet so I put in a little extra effort to pass and put him behind and swam the rest trying to keep Ben in my sights. I think I came out about 40-50 seconds down but by the time I ran to transition (where the timing mat was) I had just been passed by Blair Morgan from McMaster and Ben had about a 1 min lead.
 |
| Swim exit - Myself in front with Blair close behind |
T1 (0:53): The run to transition really hurt and I once again had some trouble getting my wetsuit unzipped but the run was long enough that I figured it out. I got snagged on my chip taking my wetsuit off, but otherwise it went well.
Bike (56:22): This defintiely did not start well. As per usual, I always forget to do something with my shoes, whether its put the straps in the loop or loosen the velcro. This time it was the latter. By the time I undid my shoes, got my feet in and tied them up, I probably lost the better part of a minute and got passed by a couple athletes (of many). The bike course was great. It started with a nasty ~10% grade hill, but was quickly followed by some fast, quick, winding rollers. It was unfortunate that this section of road was roughed up, otherwise I would have flew through it (some people seemed hesitant in this area, particularly on the way back). The rest of the course was nice rolling hills on some pretty smooth road and was quite enjoyable to ride on. In terms of the race, I didn't start getting passed until I think about 12-13km in, but by the end I was back in 20 something spot. In terms of power on the bike, I averaged about what I had hoped, but the time wasn't quite as fast as I'd hoped. I'm thinking it may be time to start thinking a little more aero.
T2 (0:36): Another smooth transition. Coming back into the park, we were a group of about 6 or 7 athletes and most of them seemed very hesitant and nervous about dismounting at speed so I stayed behind and off to the side and passed them on the flying dismount (avoiding a loose shoe in the process). The short amount of cruising getting back into the park re-energized me and I was able to get out onto the run course feeling fairly refreshed. I did fumble with me race bib a little though.
Run (24:58): Three for three for a great looking course. The run was 100% cross country, with the typical 50m stretch of pavement. The course was all grass or wood chips or gravel which was so nice to run on. Unfortunately, I haven't been doing any hard work out in the trails. I noticed this because I had a definite lack of strength on the hills, a lack of technical running on the downhills, and a difficulty recovering from both. Right out of transition I chased down a girl who had passed me late on the bike. I caught her about 200m into the run and was feeling good so I took off and slowly increased the gap up until the 2km mark. At this point I was hurting quite a bit and knew I couldn't hold it for 6km so I eased off a bit. She caught back up by the 3km mark, I tried to stay with her, but in the end I let her get away. I managed to pass 3 or 4 people and only be passed by 1. I also didn't have to fight for a sprint finish which I was so thankful for. You can only dig for a sprint so often.
 |
| Finish - No need for a sprint finish today |
Overall - 2nd AG20-24 - 20th OA (1:33:42): At the end of the day, I am happy with what came out of the race. Much happier than at Woodstock. No panicking to get everything ready, no forgetting my chip or power meter, I felt good on the run, and the bike and swim both felt like improvements.
 |
| Podium - First AG podium that had more than 3 participants! |
 |
| Thanks for the support Dan (photo creds for the swim and finish pictures) |
Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy
