Monday 30 July 2012

Calgary 70.3 – The highs and lows of racing!


So perhaps this was a race that just wasn’t meant to be. It was a disappointing result with a couple positives to take away from the experience. 

We headed to Calgary on Friday morning did the athlete check-in Friday afternoon and then checked into the Super 8 in Cochrane. 

Saturday morning I headed out to Ghost Lake and did a short swim(cold but not freezing), followed by a short ride and finally a light run. My right ankle has been bothering me ever since the move to Cold Lake so I was anxious to see how it would do with a few excels. It felt ok but was still a little stiff. 

I headed back to the Super 8 and spent the rest of the day with Claudia and the kids at the Calgary Zoo.

Sunday morning was an early start and it was at this time that I started wondering how the day was going to unfold. My stomach was quite upset, I felt like puking, but still managed to get half a breakfast sandwich and a coffee downrange from Timmies. After we headed to the race start at the Cottage Club I was starting to feel ok. I did the usual routine, drop my fuel off at the bike, check my tires, etc. and then spent a few minutes hanging with friends, Ian, Joanne, and Greg who had come down from St Albert (all members of the St Albert Road Runners and Triathlon club.) Side Note: This was Ian's first race back after suffering a collapsed lung following a bike crash at Summerside in late June.
Ian and I talking before the race.
  At shortly after 0700hrs I headed down to the water and then waited until 0720hrs to jump in for the start. I started to the left as I knew the first turn was going to be a bit of chaos. Thankfully I made it to the first turn buoy without must contact and quickly round the buoy and started into a groove. I caught a set of feet here and there but was more concerned with a strong rhythm then getting a good draft. The swim was quite uneventful and I was happy to see the swim exit and a time of ~35:00 minutes on my watch. That would be my best swim yet…perhaps my swimming is actually improving (positive number 1). 

Heading out on the bike!
 Transition was relatively quick and then I started off on the bike. Rear wheel was rubbing a bit so I quickly jumped off loosened and retightened the rear wheel and that seemed to do the trick. I tried to settle into a rhythm and start pushing on the bike but despite my HR rising to normal levels my power was low. I just figured I was cold and would push as hard as I could for the time being. The first forty minutes went by fairly quickly and just went I was starting to push the pace I heard the dreaded sound…poof. I knew right away that my tire had done flat. I thought no worries a quick pit stop to change the tube and I’ll be back racing. Wrong!!! I got off changed the tube, tried to inflate, and then realized there was a big gash in the sidewall of the tire. At this point I knew I had no choice but to wait for race support and hopefully get a new tire. 

Tech support arrived about thirty minutes later. Spence and Paul from Speed Theory were a great help. They first tried just fixing the sidewall, no luck, and then gave me a new tire.  The support these guys provided was superb…thanks! At this point I figured the race was probably over as I had lost 45 minutes on the bike. I thought I would just push the remainder of the bike and at least get a good workout in. I thought I would analyse my time going into T2 an if I still had a shot at going sub 5hrs then I would continue racing. It didn’t take long for me to realize sub 5hrs just wasn’t going to happen. The remainder of the bike course was uneventful with the exception of a bee flying into my aero helmet!

I rolled into T2 knowing that I would be saving me legs for another day. I had a 2:26 bike split (if you remove the time I spent on the side of the road) my fastest yet in Calgary by about 6 minutes (positive number 2). I knew my ankle was still sore and pounding 21kms out on pavement was probably not the wisest move considering I have leg 4 of the Death Race to run next weekend.  So I called the race. My goal for the race was to push the bike and hopefully get a chance to race in Las Vegas. Seeing as I had accomplished the first and the second was now out of reach I thought the smart move was to call it a day, avoid the impact on the ankle, and save my energy for next weekend. 

Mentally I was drained. I was frustrated that things just didn’t go as planned, but hey, that is part of racing. It's sometimes a roller coaster a great performance in CdA and then a mechanical at Calgary. I was thankful to see friends from St Albert and the opportunity to spend the weekend in Calgary with the wife and kidos!

As always I am thankful for the support from Brian & Jill at Grasky Endurance, Jonathan and Karen at Compressport Canada, and Brian at Brainsport.

4 comments:

  1. Sorry your race didn't turn out as planned. I have been enjoying reading your race accounts since my sister told me about your blog. Good luck next weekend on the death race!

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    1. Thanks for following the adventures. It's always fun writing about my experiences, good or bad!

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  2. I missed seeing you out there this weekend! Sorry to hear about the shredded tire, it's annoying when something out of your control goes wrong but you definitely stayed focused and still got a good swim/bike workout out of it. What a great swim for you as well! Looks like the hard work is paying off. Now rest up and get ready for Death Race!

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    1. Lisa - you had more important things to worry about then trying to find me on the race course. I am very impressed with your race execution...you should consider racing pro! A subtle goal I had was to ensure I was out of the water before you (despite having a ten minute lead I new that would be hard.)I was just putting my socks on in transition when they announced you coming out of the water.

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