I drove down to this race with my mom again. My dad was supposed to join, but he ended up having to work. We left Friday after work and then stayed at my cousin's place in Sudbury for the night. We don't visit them all that often so we stayed up a little late and didn't leave till around 10:30 the next morning, which was really the latest we could leave since I had to get to Toronto before 4 for pre-race briefings. Unfortunately this meant that I couldn't get there for a swim (TTF officials had opened the swim course from 11am-1pm on Saturday). For training on Saturday I just did a quick run at Centennial Park which happened to be just across the street from my hotel. It brought back some good memories seeing as that is where I got to watch high school cross country teammates get silver at OFSAA. I went out for dinner with my mom and uncle (who came to watch the race) afterwards and then went to bed early.
Transition opened at 5:30 on Sunday, so it was up early, have breakfast, and right to Ontario Place (race site). I made sure to familiarize myself with the course as much as possible. There wasn't much I could do about the full run and bike, but I made sure to take note of the run out/swim in since it was slightly modified from last year. I also ran along the swim course during my warm up since they changed the swim to a long, out-and-back type loop. Although the race prep went smoothly for the most part, I did run into some trouble. First off, it started raining about 15-20 mins before race start. I hadn't thought of bringing a towel which meant that now all of my stuff in transition was wet AND I still had to put my wetsuit on. I had some bodyglide so worst case scenario I was just going to use the whole stick. I wasn't really crunched for time for my wave but since the first wave was starting they rushed us out of transition, but I made out ok with the wetsuit. The main problem was that I forgot my race suit at the hotel. Luckily, I actually thought about it as soon as we got to race site so I sent my mom back immediately and was able to get it in time. Now onto the main event!
MY FIRST OLYMPIC DISTANCE!
Swim (22:08, 6th OA, 1st AG):
This year I was in the 4th wave. They still made the waves 4 minutes apart, but they only forced us to get into the water a minute before we had to leave which was nice since the water was still freezing this year (even with the wetsuit). I thought I'd picked a good spot on the line to start, but looking back I don't think I took the shortest line. I also ended up picking the slow side, which became apparent when after about 20 seconds of seeing nobody, everyone from the left side suddenly came into view. I eventually worked my way through most of them though, finishing with the 6th fastest swim and 3rd fastest in my heat (down by 2 mins). Of course this meant I never really got to draft at all and spent most of the swim weaving between people who couldn't hold a line. It was fun passing so many people though and most likely the reason the swim felt relatively short compared to my expectations.
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| Swim exit - Didn't come out dizzy this year! |
T1 (1:37, 16th OA):
Last year coming out of the water I remember being dizzy and disoriented, most likely due to the fact that I swam in the frigid water without a wetsuit. Luckily this year the same didn't happen. I was able to get my wetsuit off my feet without using my hands for my first time, which is an accomplishment on its own. I had cut about half an inch off my wetsuit earlier in the week, but I don't think it made much of an impact. I wasted a bit of time deciding not to wear sunglasses of any kind (I went to put them on and they were wet so I couldn't see). It was the right choice though. The run into transition was a little long but not nearly as bad as in Cambridge and since my spot was close to the swim in/run out there wasn't much to complain about.
Bike (1:10:19, 133rd OA, 4th AG):
I think the rain at stopped by the time I got onto the bike although it didn't matter much since everything was wet anyways. I had no trouble getting my feet into my shoes and took off with a headwind that made me feel like Bradley Wiggins (I wish). There were certain points on the way out were I was definitely averaging around 40k/h for a several minutes, even managing to get above 50km/h on a couple descents. I thought I crossed 20km in 32 mins but I realized after the race that the turn around wasn't quite 20km since it wasn't a perfect out-and-back. On the way back the wind was a monster and I quickly realized I had forgot any calories on the bike. I don't quite feel like I needed it, but I don't know how I would have felt had I taken some. Maybe the run would've been a bit faster. Coming back into T2 I had a guy chasing me which was good incentive to get out of my shoes and keep speed right up to the end.
T2 (1:17, 10th OA):
T2 went well. It is always hard running down that hill with the bike but other than being a little slow on the race belt, I got out of there so fast that when I got out of transition I was wondering if I'd forgotten anything!
Run (42:28, 53rd OA, 3rd AG):
Finally, the run. I knew the run was going to be long, but not that long. There were basically markers at the ~2km mark (sprint turn around), the 2.5km mark, 5 km mark, 6 km mark, and 8 km mark. When I hit 2.5km, I thought I was between 3 and 4 and as I got more tired it just seemed more and more hopeless. I didn't feel like I was running slow (especially for the first ~4km), but it felt like I was running at a tempo-like pace/effort (hard, but a little comfortable in terms of breathing/cardio). My legs were so sore though that all I could do to keep pace was to keep the arms swinging so I would keep my cadence up. It seemed to work to some extent since my time wasn't all that terrible. Certainly ended up at the better end of my expectations from during the race. Actually got to pass a few people which was nice. The worst part was coming around the last building. I was somewhat alone for the last ~1km (other than watching Jesse Bauer run by from the duathlon) but in the last 400m I seen a guy creeping up on me so I knew I couldn't just let him go by. I put in the extra effort to stay ahead and almost puked across the line (again). The medics let me sit down for a couple minutes though and I was able to hold it in. I'm a little disappointed it was slower than my pace on the much harder 6km cross country course at the Cambridge Tri, but I wasn't expecting much out of my first olympic distance race.
Overall (2:17:47, 38th OA, 1st AG):
I finally got my first win. I may not have crossed the line first overall, but an age group win is better than anything I've had before, so I know it is a step in the right direction. I "only" got chicked by 4 girls (one of which was 20-24...), but mainly because of the difference in bike splits. If you cut my overall time in half it is about 1:08:53, which is about 5 and a half minutes faster than my sprint time at TTF2013. Not only that, but this "cut" time is even faster than my all time sprint PB. It may have been one of the easiest courses out there, but I definitely think it was perfect for my first olympic distance. A definite confidence booster. Can't say I'm looking forward to Wasaga yet though. Next up, Detroit!
T2 (1:17, 10th OA):
T2 went well. It is always hard running down that hill with the bike but other than being a little slow on the race belt, I got out of there so fast that when I got out of transition I was wondering if I'd forgotten anything!
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| T2 Out - Off for my first 10k race ever |
Run (42:28, 53rd OA, 3rd AG):
Finally, the run. I knew the run was going to be long, but not that long. There were basically markers at the ~2km mark (sprint turn around), the 2.5km mark, 5 km mark, 6 km mark, and 8 km mark. When I hit 2.5km, I thought I was between 3 and 4 and as I got more tired it just seemed more and more hopeless. I didn't feel like I was running slow (especially for the first ~4km), but it felt like I was running at a tempo-like pace/effort (hard, but a little comfortable in terms of breathing/cardio). My legs were so sore though that all I could do to keep pace was to keep the arms swinging so I would keep my cadence up. It seemed to work to some extent since my time wasn't all that terrible. Certainly ended up at the better end of my expectations from during the race. Actually got to pass a few people which was nice. The worst part was coming around the last building. I was somewhat alone for the last ~1km (other than watching Jesse Bauer run by from the duathlon) but in the last 400m I seen a guy creeping up on me so I knew I couldn't just let him go by. I put in the extra effort to stay ahead and almost puked across the line (again). The medics let me sit down for a couple minutes though and I was able to hold it in. I'm a little disappointed it was slower than my pace on the much harder 6km cross country course at the Cambridge Tri, but I wasn't expecting much out of my first olympic distance race.
Overall (2:17:47, 38th OA, 1st AG):
I finally got my first win. I may not have crossed the line first overall, but an age group win is better than anything I've had before, so I know it is a step in the right direction. I "only" got chicked by 4 girls (one of which was 20-24...), but mainly because of the difference in bike splits. If you cut my overall time in half it is about 1:08:53, which is about 5 and a half minutes faster than my sprint time at TTF2013. Not only that, but this "cut" time is even faster than my all time sprint PB. It may have been one of the easiest courses out there, but I definitely think it was perfect for my first olympic distance. A definite confidence booster. Can't say I'm looking forward to Wasaga yet though. Next up, Detroit!
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| Podium - My first, but not my last |
