Huntsville, Muskoka 2000m, 55km, 15k,

cool starting temp (around 17) progressively got hotter (to about 27 by the end)

I had planned this race as an 'A' race with the intention of qualifying for IMC at this event. However, due to changing work/travel plans I wouldn't have been able to get the volume I would want in before IMC so I decided to forget about qualifying and just hammer and see how I did.

I week leading up to the race was definetly not an ideal taper week, had a good friends wedding on saturday and visiting friends around for most of the following week, (took me till the next saturday till I felt properly hydrated again, beer doesn't do good things to me anymore...) but the taper went fairly smooth got in the water once, and ran and biked a little (mostly reasonably high intensity low duration stuff)

So got to huntsville the morning of the race, and you could smell the stress in the air, people were amped up for this race (its the only canadian qualifier for IMC this year due to the 25 aniversary) A number of big name pros were out for the prize money too and for the chase format pro event (70.3 world champions Samantha Mcglone and Craig Alexander to name a couple)

The swim course was one big loop that took you out and around then past the start point and up a river about 500m to the end (different start and finish points). The elite women were given an 18min head start on the elite men, and my wave (all 20-29 year olds and juniors) started 4 min after the elite men so the lead women were close to the end of the swim course before we started. My wave had about 150 people in it but it was a narrow start so it was pretty chippy for the first 150 meters or so. I swam pretty easily as I hadn't been swimming much for the month leading up to the race and just held onto some feet ahead of me for most of it. Came out of the water to hear the announcer say the 'the pro men have been on the course for 34 min !" Which it took my lactic soaked brain a minute to relize meant I had swam about a 30min 2km, better then I have hoped for sure, and I didn't feel too wasted which was good for what came next. final split 30:08 or 1:31/100m .

Came through transition a bit ragged in about 1:15, it was my first race of the year and I was rusty (stupid hadn't practiced transitions at all)

Onto the bike feeling pretty good. Got out and had a couple of the strong riders from my and later waves go past me in the first 20k or so (some of those 30-40 year olds can really hammer). But was in a good grove and went through the first 35k in just under an hour which wasn't bad considering the hilly course (I had thought that the first 35 were really hilly until I got to the last 20) The last 20km of the ride were on very rough roads and were very very hilly (in smallest gear standing up and still had trouble just staying on my bike about every 5 min or so) felt some interesting things in my legs but survived and came through with a bike split of 1:35:11, averaging 34.7km/hr

Another poor tansition (only got one shoe off my foot before the dismount line... carried the other one in my hand to my rack, pretty ugly..) but got through it in 57sec.

Legs felt pretty rotten for the first few k of the run (which was blessedly flat (relatively anyway) compared to the bike course) then found a good rythm and someone running at exactly my pace to work with at about 3k. It definelty hurt but kept up the pace for the rest of the race to finish with a run split of 1:03:57 or 4:16/km pace which I was quite happy with. Tried to kick at the end to catch my pace man but couldn't quite get him.

Total time 3:11:25 good enough for 66th overall (out of about 800 athletes including a strong pro field) and 9th in my age group, which surprised me a little bit, it was a very strong field in the 25-29 grouping. The overall winner was Craig Alexander in a real time of 2:42:12 with Sam McGlone only a minute or so behind with an adjusted time of 2:42:41 (I think) real time 3:00:41.

Overall it was a very well run race, the course was well marked, there were pleny of water stops and the chase format was exciting for the spectators (or so I was told). It was a good thing I hadn't planned on qualifying for IMC because 9th wouldn't have cut it.

I was happy with my result (especially the swim and run) and defiently am phsyched for the Halifax NS 101 which is my next big race.

Dave