Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Cultus Lake Triathlon - First (ever, not place)

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

First every triathlon, so really no idea what to expect.  The rain started at 6pm Saturday night and pounded the rainfly of the tent all night.  Everything soaked, everything gross.  Even my one set of dry clothes, the beloved sweatpants, were wet.



Pocari Sweat

SWIM


Swim Start


Sprint group started at 8:50am, very rocky and painful lake floor to walk in and stand for 30 minutes before that.  At the pre race meeting they announced a change of course, 16 hours before the race actually starts?  As it turned out in the end, it was reduced to 650m (thats only gathered from raceheadquarters site, no one ever announced it) rather than 750m.  The gun went and off I ... walked.  Just a few metres til the drop off then swam.  First bit of swimming was head right out of the water, then settled into a bit of a rhythm.  The silicone ear plugs I am trying are pieces of dogshit, and now floating next to some bass pumping punk in his boat on the lake while he tosses out tins of lucky lager.  Went off course a few times and thrashed a few peoples arms (and was thrashed myself).  Everyone was very Canadian about it when they'd hit each other, plenty of sorry's.  I doubt its that way at the front of the pack..

Finished the Swim in 24:13, good for 86th out of 120 athletes.  F**me Im a turtle.

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T1



Ran a long couple hundred metres in bare feet up to transition area, to strip my wetsuit off.  Being a downpour, a person couldnt just lay out the bike gear and running gear or it'd be soaked, took a minute or so to dig it all out of the bag.  Threw my shirt on, no socks, cycling shoes, helmet, gloves, HR monitor, and ran my bike out to the mounting line.

T1 time 4m9seconds, 63rd/120.

Rank coming OUT of T1 now in 81st place.  Gained 5 spots.


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Bike:



Bike Course for the 20k - Sprint Tri

20km out n back.  The roads were streaming with water, add to that the BC lung association bike trek is on and hundreds if not 1000's of people on Nishiki's and Dunlop bikes wobbling around the course.  I *love* the charity and the fact that people are out doing it, it's just too bad either Cultus Lake Tri or BC Trek for Breath couldn't have chosen a different day or even had a quick coffee together to go over the route.  One bad intersection where they had to go right, we had to go left, and 3 lanes of traffic trying to get through. 

Sketchy, had to stop fully. 
Pushed the bike as hard as I ever have, 2 good climbs on the course (see elev map), managed to pass 40 other Sprint Distance Competitors over the 20k, 1/3 of the field, made them my BITCH (actually, its more reflective on my poor swimming finish...).  Rode in the drops as much as I could, and kept my cadence higher than ever, avg 83, max 115.  Also noticed my heart avg 165 on the bike portion, you have to drop it like its hot to make that shit go 165 on a bike.  No EPO either.

Bike time 40:10, Avg 30km/hr, Max 59.5

Bike Overall Rank 23rd(!)

Cultus Lake Sprint - 20k Bike Elevation & HR

Coming off the bike sitting in 41st place now.  Gained 40 spots.

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T2 - sprint my bike from the mount dismount line, rack it.  Struggle to get socks on, shoes on, tie, forgot to double knot right one (see later), grab garmin off bike, grab puffer off bento box, and GIVE'r out of the transition area.

T2 time 2m12seconds, 89th/120.  WTF?  Thought I was speedy but apparently most people can rip t2 in about a minute and a half.

Rank coming OUT of T2, now in 44th place (obviously 3 of the folks I passed on the bike took it back while I blow dried my hair in T2).

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RUN:



The Run Course - 4k



4k.  Was a scheduled 5k.  Until the winner ran by transition telling everyone for some reason its only 4k, how the hell do organizers not know how far their run is?  For real. how?  We were told at the meeting that 'all gates would be open', since they had an issue with the course being shortened before too (I think).
My feet were numb from the bike, and cold.  The first k along the lake side trail even in the sand on the beach, dodging huge ass puddles.  Passed a guy running with a lower right leg prosthetic, there's power for you.  He must rip the swim and bike.  Slight climb up the road on the way back, then pushed out a final k of 4:20 with my right shoe lace undone the last 500m.






4k, 19:23, 4:52pace.  Heart rate 163.  Shouldve pushed it higher but cramps won.

Run Overall Rank 29th/120

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OVERALL RESULTS

Final 1:30:07, 38th overall / 120.  Off to the school hall for free pizza, nailed 4 slices in PB time.

Swim 650m - 24m15s - 86th

T1 4m09s - 63rd

Bike 20km - 40m10s - 23rd

T2 2m12s - 89th

Run 4k - 19:23 - 29th

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