Monday 20 July 2015

First Overall Win!! - Timmins Heart of Gold Triathlon

I took a trip home to spend some time with family and friends, and to race in our local Heart of Gold triathlon. I had originally planned on going up on race weekend and staying for the week following to visit, but I'd been getting pretty lonely working in London and I had the opportunity to go up early so I took it. On to the race report!

Swim (Including T1 - 10:37)

I knew that I would be one of the faster swimmers in this race. In the past I've only gotten beat by the local swimmers who usually do the relays but I never did the race in very good shape. It was a running start, I got out front fast and I got some good dolphin dives in but I couldn't quite hold onto the feet of the top swimmer. I ended up swimming pulling a relay swimmer along and I came out in second, only about 30 seconds down.

Swim Start - Can you guess who the swimmers are?
(Hint: It's the ones in the race suits)


T1
I had a pretty bad T1. I ran pretty slow up to transition and I once again struggled to get my wetsuit off. I also chickened out on the flying mount again so I really need to start practicing both those things.

T1 - Might have been a bad transition, but look at that form


Bike(33:54)
Before the bike I decided to try out bestbikesplit.com since I knew this wasn't an easy course and I figured I would need a good bike to have a good chance for the overall win. I don't like using watches or power meters in races because I believe in learning to race by feel but I definitely think it helped put together a solid bike. I knew what effort I should go on the tough hills so I didn't overdo it and I made sure to keep pushing power on most of the downhills. For the first time in the bike portion of the race I passed the guys in front of me, and within about 5 minutes too (one was the top swimmer, the other was a relay biker). I never got passed after that. I actually ended up having the second fastest non-relay bike split of the day by only 5 seconds (3rd fastest including relays).

T2
I had a great T2. Zero mistakes and I got my shoes on properly this time. I still got blisters though.

T2 - Heading out for 2 laps of heat and suffering


Run (Including T2 - 21:05)
Knowing how poorly I ran at this race in the past, I knew this is where I could lose it. In the past I'd ran the course in 26+ minutes. It's pretty notorious for being hot on race day and there is very little shade. That being said there are still 3 aid stations per lap and one even had a volunteer with a hose. With all that being said, I came off the bike feeling as good as I have all season and when I found out I had about 4 minutes on the guy who thought might run me down I knew something crazy would have to happen for me to lose. However, I was still ahead of the first place relay team and I wanted some personal revenge on this course for having such terrible runs in the past so I kept the pace going and I got beat by the first place relay's runner about 400-500m from the line. Considering he runs in the NCAA I had no intention of trying to outrun him.

Run Lap 2 - "Both feet off the ground!!! There's proof you were flying...as if you needed any."
Great comment Diane!


Overall - 1st Overall - 1:05:37
In the end I had the second fastest swim split, second fastest bike split, and fastest run of the day allowing me to take home my first Overall win by a margin of about 5.5 minutes. I had a huge support team of family and friends come to watch the race since they were all in town for my dad's 50th birthday, and I couldn't be happier to have had my first win back home.
All photo creds to my mom's cousin Diane. Thanks for the great pictures!

Podium - It's 1-1 now Dan.
Work on that swim and we'll have a final showdown sometime in the future!


Next up I will be racing the slightly short olympic distance Bluewater triathlon. I was initially planning on racing the Subaru Niagara race, but plans got changed and I think it was for the best. I was feeling slightly fatigued, but I feel like had I raced all 3 weekends I would've been totally burnt out.

Until Next Time,
Matt M


Bonus pic:

I'm not sure if I made a creepy face or not, but my grandpa was killing me with that intense gaze.
I just had to look away

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