August 12

Bracebridge half iron triathlon race report:

My day started early.  After a terrible nights sleep I had the alarm set for 4:00 am.  I had packed everything in the car the night before, so it was just a matter of getting dressed and getting some breakfast.  The trip up to Bracebridge is about 2 hours up past Barrie and Orillia so time to listen to my regular race day mixed cd.  It started to rain part way up and I started cursing and then I changed my thoughts from resenting the weather to “It is what it is and will be what it will be,” and I will have to race in it regardless so may as well think positively.  This phrase came back innumerable times throughout the bike section- more of that to come.  I got to the race site with plenty of time to spare so lots of time to set up and double check.  There was a mandatory athletes meeting at 7:30 where the race director took us through what to expect on the course and reiterated the pre-race email warning of a challenging and technical bike course.  After reading the email a few days previously I had rethought my 5:30 finishing time and just hoped to get through it.  The meeting took awhile and by the time it was over there was only a few minutes to warm up.

The Swim:  2k  41:35 (2:05/100m) 21st overall.

I thought I had a few minutes to warm up.  We were asked to warm up behind the start line and I wasn’t paying close enough attention to the time.  I took a second to look up from my warm up and saw everybody lining up at the start and the starter asking everyone to come to the start line.  I was about 50 meters away and didn’t make it to the start line before the horn went.  Not only was I 25 meters from the start, I had to find a the path of least resistance through the slower swimmers and had to settle in after a sprint for the start line.  Lesson learned.  One of my warm up activities was to check out the current (we swam in the Muskoka River).  I was floating and the river was taking me downstream.  It seemed essential to get a good draft which I was able to do for about 40% of the time.  It was a two loop swim of 1k each with a 100m run from swim exit to swim start to start the second loop.  I really enjoyed the swim despite the current and felt as I was coming in to transition that I could have gone for quite a while.  I was hoping to do the swim in 35 minutes but perhaps that was not realistic for me over 2k.

T1:  2:25

I decided to put on arm warmers as it was a little cool so that took a bit of time to get over wet arms.  And I put bike shorts over my tri shorts (thanks Syd for that tip, I was very comfortable the whole ride).

The Bike:  90k  2:57:40  (30.4 ave. speed)  65th overall

I loved the bike course.  It might have been a bit over my abilities but I learned a lot on it.  The phrase “It is what it is” that I spoke to myself in the car on the way up kept my head in the game of this course.  There are hills, lots of them.  There was always another one looking at you as you were coming down another.  If I were in a less positive frame of mind I would have been screaming “not another one” but I took it as a school and the hills were my teachers.  Trying to figure out gearing was the main game.  

There was a lot of gear changing.  I made some mistakes and I had some successes but it was all fun.  And the course was beautiful.  Lakes, fern and moss on the side of the road, rock formations, innukshuks, country estates, cottages, horses, just really beautiful countryside.  There were a few sweet locals cheering on the riders. Smiles and waves to all I encountered.   Not much traffic and I found the drivers very courteous and patient with the race.

T2: 1:38

Uneventful

The Run:   21.1k  1:49:25  (5:12/k)  50th overall

Mercifully the run was a very flat 2 loop course with a teeny little hill part way through the loop.  I wasn’t paying any attention to my watch, just trying to keep my HR manageable.  My guess is I was running near a 6:00/k pace for the first few kilometers.  I wanted to be sure I would be able to finish strong.  At about the 11 k marker I realized that if I maintained a 5:00/k pace I would get my goal time.  I felt relatively strong after testing a speed burst so I picked up my pace.  This worked really well as I reeled in a couple of other runners.  Then the wheels came off at about the 17 or 18 k mark.  The IT bands started screaming at me and the last 3k were a real test. Another lesson learned.  I finished in quite a bit of pain and a big grin on my face.  And lightness in my heart.  As I crossed the finish line the race clock said 5:30:17 but was informed by the timing truck that it was a couple of minutes off when I inquired about the discrepancy between the race clock and the times posted.  

Overall :  5:32:41  45th overall  9/17 AG.

I feel very satisfied with my time and my performance. I loved the course and the race was small (191 entrants in the tri) and had a very homey feeling.  I would highly recommend this race to anyone.

Finally I want to send my thanks to Syd for the training plan that got me here, for the website and the advice.  I felt very confident about racing the distance because of the plan.