Quest for Worlds Will Continue…

As I crossed the finish line on Saturday the thought going through my mind wasn’t "I never want to do this again" but "Next time, I’m coming prepared."  As I was reminded by my mom, this was only my fourth triathlon (one which was done with a suit).  There are still many things that I want to improve on so when Rhode Island comes, I’ll be ready to get my 70.3 Worlds spot.

Overall I thought what I did was the best with what I had.  To be honest I was disapointed in my total time. I thought I could finish about 10 minutes faster.  It was a combination of things such as I got lost a couple of times sighting buoys and got off course coming back in from the swim.  The wind on the bike was also quite bad.

This event was definitely not the long course Bridgetown Triathlon that I did last year.  Ironman is a spectacle.  It costs more (I think 4 times as much as any other I’ve paid for) but the planners really do know how to run an event.

The thing I appreciated the most was the amount of volunteers.  There were hundreds of them and they were all happy!  Even at 5am when it was cold and dark they were all helpful.

To have to worry about getting 2500 people to the start line is a huge task!  In this race we all had specific wave starts spaced out ever 3-4 minutes.  This was used to eliminate the mass start which is typical in most Ironmans. 

Pros started first followed by all the age-groupers.  Before I got into the water the first Pro, Andy Potts who would win the day, was getting out (21 mins).  Someday I told myself!  Heading out into the water we got ACDC blasting on the huge sound system.  It was awesome. 

We got the air horn to start and thus, the journey began.  As I said, the swim isn’t my strongest but the time passed by rather quickly.  It was an out and back ocean swim which required going through some rough waves.

Exiting the water it was a 300m run into transition where I grabbed my bike and ditched my swim suit.  This was by far the most fun cycling I have ever had during any race.  The course was a 1 loop, 90K ride.  Through the first 30K I was averaging at least 38km/h.  The best part was I was passing hundreds of people because of my poor swim!  There was never a time where I was by myself.  No one passed me.

As we started to head inland (we were cycling right next to the Pacific Ocean) the wind and hills started to pick up.  At about 60K, my average speed was being brought down to about 35km/h.  It was hard.  I was still passing people but really had to dig deep.

The last 30K had more gentle slopes but the wind was terrorizing.  This is where a real TT bike would have been better than my road bike.

Getting back into transition I was again greeted by hundreds of people cheering.  I had a quick transition and began the last leg of the race.  Exiting I got Linkin Park "Numb" which gave me an extra hop in my step. 

I knew at this point however that my overall time wasn’t going to be where I wanted it.  Unless, I ran a time that was going to be better than that of the Pros.  This put me into a little funk but it was short lived as a 44 year old man passed me on the run.  I got behind him and just matched him stride for stride.  He wasn’t going slow, it felt like 4:30-4:40 pace.  Good enough for me at the time. 

The run was a 2 loop out and back course.  It was nearly flat but had a couple of rollers.

When I saw Chris for the first time, I picked up the pace.  He was going the other way but I didn’t want him to come from behind and passed me!  I dropped the old guy and another guy who had been tagging along.  I began running hard which for me at this time is 4k pace. 

As I was running back to the finish all I could think about was if it was enough.  Would my run be enough to get me a spot?  I knew deep down that it wasn’t but the mind didn’t want to believe it.

After wishing I could of done this or that what it really comes down to is besides the swim, both times were in the top 5 in my age group.  So guess what I have to work on?

Tomorrow I begin by journey North back to Canada.  Rest up and then run a 50K next week.  Sounds like fun eh?!

Thanks for reading and all the support.  Happy (Oh Canada!) Trainin !

Cliff