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

Toronto Triathlon Festival

About a week and a half ago I did a sprint race in Toronto, and since I'm just getting around to it now I've got a few additional updates.

Toronto Triathlon Festival

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it to this race since about a week before the race I still didn't have a ride or a place to stay. I also didn't have my draft legal card which I needed if I was planning on racing draft legal. I was able to get both a ride and a place to stay from a friend though so I figured even if I didn't get my drafting certification on time I could at least race age group. I did manage to get certified in time though so here's the race report.

Swim (10:13)
We were only 16 male junior/u23/elites combined so we all started at the same time. Some pretty big local names were there including the Forbes twins, Johnny Rasmussen, Miles Zagar, and there was also Gaspar Riveros who races on the pro international circuit for Chile. I thought I started out pretty well, staying on feet until about the 300m or 400m mark, but eventually I fell off the back and was about 30seconds from swimmers in either direction. I felt like I had a good swim, but it's unfortunate that I didn't make any packs on the bike.

T1 (1:23)
Not the fastest of transitions. I got caught with my suit around my ankles again, but I saved a bit of time by getting my helmet on before the suit was off. I also wasn't particularly rushed as I didn't see anyone in transition and the guy behind me wasn't very close.

Bike (31:23)
Like I said, unfortunately I didn't make any packs and I wasn't closing any gaps to the guys up ahead so I basically had to TT it. Since the goal going in was to forget about the run and just try to hang on for dear life on the bike I put all my effort into going for a solid bike split. It isn't quite the same when you are riding solo though. For the last about 5km Itamar Zilberman managed to catch up from his deficit on the swim so we tried to work together, which I think was good because it allowed me to recover, if only slightly, enough to go into the run feeling good.

T2 (1:05)
No need to mess around with a wetsuit now, but my shoes were trouble this time around. Coming into transition I noticed I had a little gap on Itamar, which I assume formed when he took his feet out of his shoes or something, so I took advantage to try and get out of T2 first. I wasn't sure what his run was like but I thought we were of similar abilities so I wanted a headstart on him.

Run (19:52)
I tried to put out a hard first km or so to discourage Itamar from latching on, but turns out he was actually quite a bit better on the run than I thought and he went by before I settled into my actual pace. I put out a solid effort. I knew the lead girl was coming up and I didn't want them to catch me (or beat me on time for that matter) so I still had motivation even though I was running solo. I was kind of hoping for a slightly faster run considering this is only about 20 seconds faster than Woodstock and this is a much easier course, but I'll take what I can get.

Overall (1:03:54 - 11th male/12th overall)
In the end I didn't place horribly. Only Dominika Jamnicky beat me for girls and a few guys DNF'd with flats and injuries and stuff and I beat a few juniors as well. I'm disappointed I didn't get to test out some drafting on the bike, but I still think that considering I've still only been back from Europe for 3 weeks I had a really good race so I'm happy with the result.

Then and Now
For anyone still reading this is just an overview of the race lead up and the past week or so of training. Ever since I've come back from Europe I've had a nagging in my foot so I didn't actually do anything more than easy runs leading into the race. I also wiped out for the first time this year on my bike on my way to school the Wednesday before the race so I went in with a bit of road rash (not that I feel it had any effect during the race).
As usual I didn't really ease off coming back from the race. I've gotten back into the pool more often and with more mileage than perhaps I was doing in April, and I did my first road race and crit with some local cyclists. I'm 2 for 2 in getting dropped so far, but hopefully as I learn some race tactics and gain experience I'll be able to stay with the rest of them until the end. I also finally got the parts for my powertap so I'm back to training with power and can finally use my race wheels. Things are still coming along slower than I'd like in the pool, but I've only been back for a month now and I've already put in my biggest training week of 2015 so hopefully I don't over exert myself and can put together a couple solid race in the later portion of the season. My next race will be a quieter race up in Timmins which I think I have a shot at winning so I'm really looking forward to it.

Until Next Time,
Matt M

Rust-Buster: Multisport Canada Woodstock

Yesterday I started off the season with a sprint tri in Woodstock, just like last year. This year however the race date got pushed back and so the water was much warmer. As usual, a decent amount of speedsters showed up to start off the season. My attitude going into this race reflected pretty well in my results as you'll see later. I knew I wasn't going to be physically ready for some tough racing even though technically my body was very well tapered, and there was definitely a mental effect from not having done any hard training (or any training at all really) in over a month. During the week my workouts were a little slow to start although I could tell I hadn't lost too much fitness.

Pre-Race:

There were a lot of familiar faces at the race so I spent a little time chatting, but I made sure to remember my chip this time! I went for a short bike for the warm-up and was planning on doing a longer swim warm-up but I took longer than I anticipated getting my transition ready. I still managed to get a decent enough swim warm-up though and was glad to find out how warm the water really was.

Race:

Swim (11:11 - 1:29/100m):
As I mentioned before I hadn't put to much into this race mentally and it was pretty obvious at the start since the gun went off while Alex and I were basically in mid-conversation. I tried jumping on his feet as usual and maybe made it about 100m before the choppy waves stole my breath and he got away a few seconds earlier than he would have in calm waters. I tried bridging over to the larger pack to our left and they dropped me before getting to the first turn as well. So, as usual, I ended up swimming solo and with about <200m left to go Kristen Marchant passed me and put about 10 seconds into me before transition.

T1 (46 seconds):
I was a little inefficient and I certainly wasn't sprinting out of the water, but it wasn't terrible. Took my cap and goggles off before I should have, and I struggled a little with the wetsuit around my ankles (during which time I should've put my helmet on). No trouble getting the shoes on though.

Bike out - Basically the only picture I wasn't making a face in

Bike (36:58 - 32.46km/h):
Seeing the splits of my competitors it is easy to say my bike was underwhelming, but I'm neither happy nor mad about this split. I felt something was off before I even got my feet in my shoes so I certainly don't think this was my best possible split for the day, but I also don't have a split from last year to compare to and considering a lot of people said it was windy out, and I'm still out there hammering a road bike without aerobars, I really don't have much to say on the matter. I tried hopping on some wheels (legal distance of course) a few times, but couldn't manage. All I can hope is that the split was sub-par for what is to come in the rest of the season.

T2 (41 seconds):
Definitely some room for improvement here as well. I noticed when I went to get ready for a flying dismount that I had zero confidence since I'm still getting used to my new bike and haven't practiced it once yet. Regardless, I slowed down quite a lot but still managed what I will call a "crawling dismount" since I had the courage from never having trouble with flying dismounts before. Again, some small mistakes cost me some time (ie. fiddling with my race bib), but overall not terribly slow.

Bike In - See what I'm sayin'??

Run (20:17 - 4:03/km):
I came out of transition with another athlete and I tried to hold a steady pace for at least the first km hoping he would drop back, but he managed to inch ahead before the 1km marker. I kept him in my sights the whole time, but it was disappointing to find out later that the fight for 3rd male 20-24 was between him and I. The run is where the lack of mental preparation I mentioned came in. I held a pace I knew would get me to the line without blowing up, but not at a pace that was pushing my limits and that's likely what lost me a medal (although no one was in front of my fellow M20-24 either so maybe he was on cruise as well). I felt like had I needed to I could've kept the pace up for another 5km. This time however I am pleased with the split because although I don't have a split to compare from last year, I remember feeling like absolute s**t. At the same time, being able to run near sub 20 at the effort I gave and given the course tells me my run legs are still there and just need to be woken up.

Run - How about another one. Just for yolks.

Overall (1:09:53 - 30th OA, 4th M20-24):
All in all a pretty mediocre race, as was my attitude going in. I didn't expect anything special, and nothing special happened. I'm happy to walk away with a PB of over a minute though and having lost to some individuals who I would've liked to beat has got me motivated to get back into training full gear.

Finish - I thought looking at the camera would make for a better picture.
 I didn't hurt anyone. I swear!

Next up:

I'm hoping to race at the Toronto Triathlon Festival (TTF) again in 2 weeks. It's a nice fast course and although getting around the race site and Toronto itself is a little troublesome I usually don't regret going. I'm trying to figure out the details of how I am getting there and whether or not I can get into the U23 draft legal race so I can get my a** handed to me like in Detroit. If I manage to get in I'll probably post a quick update.

Until next time,
Matt M

Graduation and 2015 Race Season

Seeing as it's been a while since my last post and my memory is probably equivalent to that of a smart goldfish at best I'll try my best to recap the semester and then jump right into what's going on now.
Things were pretty hectic with my thesis and final design project for my 4th and final year of undergraduate engineering. I also had slightly more class than first semester so training ended up being quite irregular. All that said, I managed to get through. I've officially got my iron ring and will be doing my convocation in a little over a week. I've also confirmed that I'll be returning to the University of Western Ontario for a graduate degree in biomedical engineering with a biomechanics specialization, and I managed to get a job as a research assistant in London which means I'll be closer to all the racing action this summer.
Training had been going pretty well coming out of exams. Although I was in sort of a slump in the pool, I had a huge 5k pb on the road, and bike numbers were promising. Unfortunately, in terms of training, I'm just coming back from a 25 day trip around Europe during which I only ran about 4 times and went on one leisurely bike tour, so it will be interesting to see how quickly I can get back into shape without getting injured.
Did I mention I'm racing Woodstock a week from now? Yup. Couldn't help myself. It just worked out for travel and since it's a rust buster anyway performance isn't priority. As for the rest of the season, the only race I have planned is the Timmins Heart of Gold Triathlon, which is exciting since I didn't do it last year. I'd like to do TTF, maybe Guelph Lake, and the Detroit draft legal I did last year, but it will all depend on my financial state (I'm broke after that trip), and travel and accommodations as the summer progresses.
Regardless, I'm excited to see what this summer has in store and to move onto the next stage in my life.

Until next time,
Matt M

And so begins the new year

Hey all. It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been somewhat busy with school and training, but the only reason I haven’t posted is because I haven’t felt the need or want to write about anything. Something happened during my ride today that made me want to write so I decided I would fill in the timeline between my last post and this one.

After my last race, which was Lakeside in September, we started my off-season pretty much immediately. Alex forced me to take 2 weeks completely off, which of course I only lasted about a week and a half before he gave in and let me start with some short easy workouts. The weather was still tolerable so I tried to get out and ride as much as possible since I knew the focus going into the next season had to be the bike. With a generous early graduation gift from my grandparents, I struck a deal with friend and fellow triathlete Chris Balestrini and bought a brand new road bike and my first set of race wheels. Having the least amount of class hours since I started University and having less training hours than I’d had during the summer, I had a lot of free time and I allowed myself to fall into a rut that I’m often a victim of, which is laziness in its most devastating form. I was falling behind in my school work (which really was only my thesis research), I was sitting around watching a lot of YouTube and in general I just let a lot of things slip through the cracks.

Moving into November and December, school deadlines were fast approaching, I’d started to think about my future after graduation (Masters, work, etc.), I had scholarship deadlines, my emotions were all over the place, and in the end I just couldn’t handle it all. I basically stopped doing any spin workouts in December, I stopped making it to morning swims, and felt like I was just hanging on by a thread. Only two months earlier I woke up every day happy and very grateful for the life I had and now I found myself feeling depressed whenever I was by myself. It took a lot to get through, but having a good support group around me (friends, family) and knowing that I could start fresh once Christmas vacation came around helped me. I know myself as someone who doesn’t give up easily so I knew it was just something I had to wait out and fight through.

Coming back from vacation (which I enjoyably spent with family in the Dominican Republic), I felt mentally refreshed. I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do since I only got small amounts of running done over the vacation and I had mentally written off any training I did in December, even though I actually still got in all my run and swim training. The first week was a bit of a struggle. I would die after the swim warm ups and I only made it to 45 minutes in my first ride, but it is starting to come together again. Other than a cold that I’m dealing with right now I’m more consistent. Last week was my biggest week since last February and most importantly I’m enjoying it all. Bringing this post around full circle, the reason I decided to write this blog today was because of my bike workout today. It was fairly tough and being sick didn’t make it any easier, but during the cool down I found myself smiling uncontrollably. I had a moment of clarity where I realized how much my perspective on life had turned around in such a short time, and I was really appreciative of the simple fact that I can enjoy the sport. I can only hope that everyone in the sport has similar moments of clarity, because there is simply nothing like it.

Until next time,

Matt Mahaffy

Last race of the season

To end off the season, I completed my second olympic distance race at the Lakeside Triathlon which is part of the Multisport Canada triathlon series. I had originally planned to race at Wasaga Beach the weekend before, but after some misunderstanding with how I was to get to the race I decided to swap it for Lakeside, which is less than an hour away from London. After more complications with making travel arrangements I was finally able to hitch a ride with James Schneider from the triathlon club. It was pretty cramped in his small truck, but we managed.

Pre Race:

We got to Lakeside with a little over an hour to race start. After picking up my race kit, chip and getting body marked (glad to say I only made that mistake on the season opener), I went right into transition to get set up. Alex was already in transition and I had asked him the day before for some arm warmers seeing as it was below 15 Celsius so I went over chatted a bit then we went our separate ways and didn't talk again until on the start line. I got about 10 minutes of run warmup in, put my wetsuit on, and rushed to the washroom. By the time I had finally got into the water there was probably less than 10 mins left and the race director, Chris Pickering, was already running everyone through the swim course. I probably only got 100 or 200 meters of warm up in, but I wasn't worried considering the length of the race.

Race:

Swim (19:58 - 3rd OA):

I lined up beside Alex on the start line and stayed with him for as long as I could. I didn't find it too hard to stay with him, but I didn't want to burn out so I went from drafting on his hip to drafting on his feet pretty quickly. Going around the first turn I don't know what happened, but he and Michael Murray all of the sudden seemed to have a significant gap. Luckily there was still another athlete with me, I think it was Andrew Taylor, and I drafted on him for the majority of the swim. Coming around the same buoy where Alex had dropped me (lap 2), it looked like Andrew must have gotten disoriented or something as he went a little past the buoy and looked like he got stood up (at this point we were weaving in and out of the other waves of athletes). As soon as I saw him stop I decided to put a little surge in and try and break away. I don't remember feeling him drafting, as he definitely would have when I was drafting (I smacked his feet too many times to count, I actually kind of felt bad), but he ended up only 5 seconds back out of the water. I also noticed what looked like Alex 20-30 seconds ahead on the exit of the swim and it turns out it was! It seems like the gap he got at the start didn't grow very much. I felt good on the swim, but I didn't realize I swam much better than I did in Toronto.  I had no issues with my goggles the entire time as well, which was a bonus. This was probably my best swim of the season (or at least felt like it) even though I think the course was short some meters.

T1 (0:51 - 4th OA but 10-20 seconds slower than the leaders)

I didn't have to kill myself in an all-out sprint out of the water this time! I tried to put the arm warmers on, but they were giving me some trouble and I wasn't that cold so I decided against.

Bike (1:12:22 - 36th OA)

I wanted to get as close as I could to sub 1:10 on the bike. That is about what I split in Toronto and since the transitions were much shorter I knew that if I could match my bike split I would have a good shot at a PB (goal time of sub 2:15, elite standard for Multisport Canada). Coming in on the 35 km mark I was only 10 seconds back of 1:10 pace, but as I was told beforehand, the last 5km was a killer. Nothing but sharp rolling hills, combined with a headwind killed my chances of hitting the goal time. That being said the majority of the ride went pretty well . There were certain points at which I felt good and kept thinking to myself that I should just try and hold 240W average, but I knew that was asking too much and so I tried to keep it down at around 220W. It started in the 215 range , but by the end I managed to get it up to 219. I did find myself looking at my wattage way too much in this race though so although I felt good I need to focus more on feel and less on numbers. 

A little bit of math

Knowing that my bike is easily my weakest of the 3 disciplines, I was interested to see how I would've placed if my bike would have been closer to everyone else. I took the average bike split of the top 20 finishers and found it to be about 1:06:30. Myself and the 20th place finisher were the only 2 in the top 20 to have a split over 1:10. Had I had an average bike split consistent with the other top finishers, I would have taken off about 6 mins which would have put me at 2:11, good enough for 8th in this race. I'd also like to point out that the current top 8 consists of: 3 male age groupers, 3 male elites, 1 female elite, and 1 male pro.

T2 (0:43 - 4th OA, much closer, only 10 seconds slower than the fastest split)

Went well. Came off the bike beside an older male who was slower on the dismount so I was a little rushed to get off the bike and run ahead of him. The turn into transition was more of me dragging my bike than it was rolling it. My feet were also frozen. I hadn't noticed or felt this on the bike at all so getting my feet in my shoes was probably slightly comical to any onlookers.

Run (43:51 - 16th OA)

I felt great on the run and for the first 6km I was fighting off another gentleman. When he came by I tried to stay on him, but it just seemed like he picked up the pace too much for me to hang on. Maybe I slowed down though. Coming off the bike I thought I was in about 8th so when I got passed I was just fighting to not lose anymore ground. A top 10 was sounding pretty good to me. I got passed by one more guy at around 8km, but he was absolutely flying so I knew there was no chance of catching him. I tried catching the next guy ahead of me, but I just couldn't real him in. Turns out I was only running 1sec/km faster than he was. Near the end I was coming up on one final runner and I tried to make a move, but when I did he seemed to notice (even though I was behind him) and something was coming up from my stomach so I decided to sit back... For a second. Of course I kicked going down the finish chute. My stomach didn't approve, but I don't like being out finished, and at least I gained another position! Not. He was in a relay team. It just goes to show how good I really felt though, having puked just across the line and then walking it off feeling great. The entire run I felt very relaxed: light breathing, good cadence, but I was really pounding on the rough, packed, washboard road and my body definitely felt it in my shins at the end of the race. Probably also the best run I've had of the season, although the time was disappointing. Looking at it another way though, I was only 4 mins behind a tired Alex on the run.

Overall (2:17:43 - 12th OA, 1st AG)

It may have only been 4 seconds, but it's still a PB! And that makes me 2 for 2 in AG, olympic distance wins. It's only a matter of time before I'm fighting for the OA wins.

A look back on a broken spirit

Last Thursday, after my final official day of summer work, I traveled to London in preparation for the most important race in my triathlon "career" so far. My 'A'-race this season was the Detroit Triathlon U25 Elite Development, Draft-Legal Race (EDR). My very first, and almost my last, draft legal race attempted.


Race lead up:
I headed into the race, not in bad shape, but with a lack of health and fitness that went into the TTF. I had been slightly sick in the week before the race and just wasn't finding myself getting the extra sleep I needed to recover. On top of this, my shin problem had been getting increasingly worse up to the point where I had to stop my weekly speed workouts and seriously cut back on the lengths and efforts of my runs. I even ended up running on my treadmill for the extra cushion (treadmill in August? Blasphemy!). Luckily, I was able to get it to the point where I could at least race on it and not ruin my entire season.

After flying to Toronto, I took the Robert Q to London where I stayed at my cousin's place for the night. Detroit is only about 3 hours away from London, accounting for time to cross the border, and the pre-race briefing did not start until 5:30pm so I got to sleep in before leaving London. Personally, I find the sleep I get two nights before the race is just as, if not more important than the sleep I get the night before. I don't find there is any increase in fatigue after one night of lack of sleep, which can be very likely when you aren't sleeping in your own bed, when you are nervous, and so on. Luckily this wasn't the case for me and I got a regular nights sleep the night before.
After getting to the briefing early to hear Barb Lindquist talk about her experience and give her advice, I sat through the briefing, checked out the course on my bike, found some food and went to bed.


Race Day:
My nerves weren't through the roof race morning but I was as nervous as I'd ever been for a race. This would be the first time I was racing to compete and not just to improve on time or to follow a specific race plan. I had my typical breakfast, did a run warm up at the race site and just took in everything that was going on. We (my uncle and I) got there pretty early for good parking so there was no rush for anything.

Swim (10:08 - 11th):
The plan for the swim was to get out hard, find some feet, and hold on for dear life. I have confidence in my swimming ability, but I haven't been swimming as much and as consistently as would have been required to be near the front so I knew it wouldn't be easy. It was a beach start and I chose a bad position. There was a pretty nasty current, once you got into the deeper water (which wasn't until halfway to the first buoy), which pulled you to the left of the buoy and you need to make a left turn (going around the right side, keeping it to your left). I knew about the current before hand, but I didn't really think it through much, or know any better. It was my first time racing in such a big current after all. I also misjudged how long the shallow section was, starting to swim a few dolphin dives too early. I did manage to get on some feet for a short period of time though and although I thought I was well back, it turns out I was in about 8th or 9th into the first turn. Once into the current (with the current), it was nice not having to worry too much about the line, but the water was still quite choppy. I think I probably had a little advantage here, being more comfortable in the water. One thing I started to notice near the end, was that I was having a hard time exhaling enough air to take in a "full" breath when my head was out of the water. Coming into shore I got passed by another guy, who I stuck with for a bit, but who ended up about 10 seconds up on me by the time we got out of transition. For the rest of the race, I was no man's land, as per usual. My final failure to execute on the swim was on the exit. As with the start, it was fairly shallow for quite a distance, but it was deep enough that you couldn't really run either. The best option would have been 3 to 5 dolphin dives (maybe more), but I did two and tried to run which lost me a bit of time.

T1 (0:26 - tied for 22nd):
Alex said this would be the fastest I've ever ran. I think the picture is self explanatory. Getting onto the bike however, I failed at a semi-flying mount. I got up and over, although at a relatively slow speed, but my right foot slipped off the pedal (which I later found out cut me a little).

Is this hard enough Alex?

Bike (30:28 - 28th/last):
Alex has been doing his best to get me some race simulation for draft-legal racing and I've definitely worked my butt off on the bike, but nothing could have prepared me for this, other than racing itself. Being a development race, there weren't any distinctive packs, mostly just groups of 2-6 people. I think my uncle said the biggest "pack" he saw was 6 people (of which I was 1 at the time). I came out of transition too far back to catch anyone so I made sure to get a little ways out, get my shoes on, and go hard enough to not have the next group of guys come flying by before I could hop on a wheel. The entire race I was on and off wheels, rarely getting any chance at all to catch my breath (really hadn't since coming out of the water). I hung on to each group for anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 mins, even getting a chance to take a pull and get a little rest in one group of 3. By the end, I was at least 2 gears down from where I had started (no power meter), the final group had long passed and were now 30+ seconds ahead and I had buried the needle well beyond the red line. It was somewhere near here, on the bike, where I couldn't help but think: "This isn't fun anymore. Even in the slightest." I was getting my ass handed to me and I couldn't do a single thing about it. The only ones behind me now were a few age group athletes who were doing draft legal. I was out of my league.

That one, time I was in a pack

T2 (0:23 - tied for 4th):
Coming into transition I knew I had to see what I had on the run. The race was still far from over and for all I knew a second wind was coming. I got in and out of here as fast as I could and just tried to stick to race simulation, which was go out above race pace. I think the only reason I managed such a fast transition was that I came off the bike fast and alone which gave me a little breathing room. In all honesty though, the dismount was probably a little excessive on the speed side.

Run (21:28 - last by a mile):
I tried going out hard as planned. Everything was stiff, muscles were sore, breathing was near impossible and I found out the definition of blowing up the hard way. If you picture blowing up literally, I felt like I blew up so hard that any trace that I'd ever existed blew up with me. I was done. I'd had enough of the race. I'd had enough of competitive racing. I felt like I was running nearly 6 min/km. My first race beat me to the ground and damn near kept me there. The only thing I could think of at this point was: "Run until you find someone with a radio so they can contact the race director that I had dropped out." The first turn came, along with the first volunteer. No radio in sight. I guess I'll crawl to the next one. Again, no radio in sight. The race leader is starting to lap me now. A quick pat on the back as he goes by. Awfully sportsman like. The next one comes by: "Keep it up." My breath is slowly coming back to me. I run by some spectators, somehow thinking that the approaching mess of an athlete was in third. I wish. Almost done the first lap, I start getting some energy back. Thoughts of quitting long gone, I'm ready to finish now. I go by the penalty box and thank god I didn't get a penalty. The third place finisher now passes me as he sprints through transition and down the finish. He must've thought he was sprinting for third. All of the sudden I'm back where I started, but with the energy I would expect to be able to run with at the end of a race. I've caught my breath, I've loosened up, and now I'm finding my rhythm. I can finish this. I don't have to DNF. I'm going to finish. For the rest of the run I just kept it strong. I got passed by another age grouper, but it didn't matter anymore. In 2.5km, I went from quitting competitive sport and the race, to running strong and finishing. I look at the clock coming into transition and see that I'm going to be under 1:03:00. I cross at 1:02:55. The nightmare's over.


Post Race:
After keeping the vomit down with some water at the finish I walked around the finish area for a bit. Still too tired for food. I ended up meeting the other Canadian in the race, Gallacher Patterson. We chatted for a bit about the race and then I walked around with my uncle watching the few EDR women, watching the age groupers, grabbing food and the like. I went for a cool down (which I don't usually do) and after 2 mins of jogging in the rough, uneven grass, I roll my ankle for the second time during the week. Fantastic. Maybe it was a sign. No more cool downs for me!

Got that right

This was a huge learning experience for me, and, although it seemed like the end of the world at the time, for the most part it was pretty positive. A lot of reflection went into this race, but I decided I'm not going to give up yet. If I was really meant to give up, why didn't any of the volunteers have radios? What about the encouragement from the other athletes? Not only on the run, but during the bike, trying to get me to push and work together. The performance felt awful and even though I set a PB by eight and a half minutes, the course was 100% flat by my standards, on both the run and bike, and I'm fairly sure that both courses were short to some extent. I didn't get to bring out the run fitness I've built up over the past few months either so I've only got one shot left at my next race in Lakeside. It will be another Olympic but this is where I set my sprint PB two years ago so hopefully I turn up in good health and can do so once again.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy