Well, the plus about doing a race is you no longer have to be nervous about it! This morning I competed in the Cultus Lake Olympic triathlon, BC. I watched the forecast all week, hoping in vain for a hot spell to warm the water - but with this morning's dawn, I knew it defintely wasn't to be - overcast low skies, showers and a south-westerly wind. This actually calmed my nerves - I guess because it couldn't be too much worse and I could relegate the outcome to one of those crazy things I've had to do, like hiking 12 hours on the West Coast trail in a downpour - or hiking anywhere in a downpour for that matter - you just do it.
It was a cool 6C at the transition area. Water temp had actually dropped to 10C, and with the wind whipping over it, felt cooler. As a result the organisers halved the swim for the sprint, and reduced the Olympic swim to 500m - and the swim was also optional. Well, without the swim it wouldn't be a tri - so I did the swim...3,2,1 we were off. just getting out of the water became my main concern, my body was warm with the wetsuit but the hands, face and feet were frozen - it made it hard to concentrate on my stroke, I had planned to minimise my kick but found I just didn't have the "warmth" to concentrate on my stroke - I was windmilling, trying to follow the yellow cap ahead, and getting in some early hydration for the ride by getting a few unexpected mouthfuls of water. It was over quickly, I was 5th girl out...then got passed by a few in transition as my wetsuit wanted to argue about leaving my body. I talked to my boyfriend as I got changed and fumbled with gear in my cold hands - took me about 45secs just to do up the buckle on my helmet! Not to worry, eventually I got out of there and hopped on the bike.
The bike course for this tri is really quite good - a gentle climb out, downhill into Yarrow, out onto the Sumas/Chilliwack flats, then back. Headwind on the way out - but with the knowledge there was a tailwind coming back! I felt like I was cruising at a pretty good speed for me - but I kept getting passed! I averaged about 23-28kph on the way out, 28-32kph on the way back - made me realise how much work I have to do on the bike in the future if I want to keep up with some of the girls that passed me. I really went fairly hard and was slightly concerned about my run after....
But boy, when i hopped off that bike and started running, I felt great! (fortunately T2 was about 1min or less) Couldn't feel my toes tingling til the 5km mark but it just felt nice to push into a pace that I knew i could sustain for not much more than 50mins (after feeling lately like all I do is long and slow) - I even passed a few people! It felt good to see the finish line loom. There was a guy just ahead of me and I'd been slowly gaining on him for the last 2-3kms. Well, I went for the sprint finish and surprised him which was kind of fun, we crossed the line together actually after he saw me pass him with 10m left and he sprinted to catch me.
Overall time I'm not sure - I think around 2hrs 30min. In some ways it would've been nice to know I'd done a FULL Olympic (1500m swim) but given the conditions I was happy to forgo some of the swim (which is the part I'm most confident about). Anyways, a great race, well-organised. Despite the weather I would like to think I'll go back next year...thanks for tuning in....