Sometimes a nice small local triathlon are the best! Great venue with friends and family.
Olympic distance triathlon races in your local area are always nice. You get to meet new faces and see people racing for the first time, one person was on an old bike that was so dirty it looked like it was stored in an old barn for years. My race was on Sunday so Danielle and I volunteered on Saturday at the mount and dismount lines for the bike transition. With being a member of Team F2C I also spent some time at the F2C Nutrition tent telling people how great the brand is. Grew Cowen the owner of F2C Nutrition was there as well, it was great being able to finally meet him in person.
Race day! The swim takes place at Welland International Flatwater Centre (WIFC), it is a premiere flat water facility in the heart of the Niagara peninsula. It it's like being in a big swimming pool, 100m wide and over 1 km long. There are buoys in place for canoe and kayak racing throughout the year and this is what we were using for the swim course. All the buoys are held in place with cables anchored down by concrete blocks. The water is so clear you can see the cable as you swim, so you can just follow the cable in the water instead of having to sight every once in a while to see where you have to go. Swim time was 00:22:57
To help with fast transition times I usually clip my shoes in on the bike so I just have to jump on the bike and slip my feet into my shoes as I bike. Well I guess it doesn't matter if it it is you left or right shoe, you can clip them in on either side and guess what I had my shoes clipped in on the wrong sides. I had to jump off my bike and switch them around on the side of the road. I won't make that mistake again. The bike course is flat and fast following the shore line. It is shaped like a big L with wide turnarounds at each end, you have to do 9 laps; which makes it great for spectators. There is a screen to show you how many laps you've completed, but there was so much glare from the sun I couldn't read it. During the race I lost count of how many laps I had left so I asked the rider behind me, I thought he was on the same lap as me but it turns out he wasn't. Bike split was 1:04:11
The run was 4 laps which followed the pathway of the WIFC; it was fairly flat with some nice shade. I find lap courses suit me because I can get into a routine for fueling, every lap I would take a gel and some glyco durance from the aid tent set up on the course. I finished strong with a run time of 00:41:41
At the finish line I was talking with the other racers and I found out that I did indeed do an extra lap on the bike. I was a bit disappointed in myself because I might of been able to win the race. Even with doing that extra lap on the bike I finished 8th overall and 2nd in my age group with an official time of 2:11:11
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