So it has been a bit of a hectic past three weeks. It
started with being the Bike Course Captain for the STARRT Triathlon in St
Albert on 10 Aug, then it was racing in the Apple Triathlon in Kelowna on 17
Aug, and it was capped off with running the Edm ½ Marathon this morning. Oh,
and besides all that there was the normal work and training routine.
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| Medals from a busy month! (L to R: St Albert Triathlon 25th Anniversary Medal, Apple Triathlon 3rd Place Medal (M30-34), Edm 1/2 Marathon finisher medal, Edm 1/2 Marthon M30-39 1st place medal) |
The 25th Edition of the St. Albert Triathlon (put
on by STARRT) was awesome. The race director, James Dean, pours his heart and
soul into the race and it clearly shows. I was happy to be able to contribute
in a small way and look after the bike course for James. As a token of apprecation the race director gave each of his captains a commemorative 25th Anniversary medal as a souvenir.
The Apple Triathlon was a great opportunity to visit family,
my Aunt and Uncle in West Kelowna, put some quality training in, and test my
fitness. It is a great race and the race director and his team put on a first
class race. It was the first time that I went into a race just looking to have
fun. No pressure, just have a solid couple hours of training and enjoy the opportunity
to race. I had a good race with splits of 24:17, 1:02:38, and 36:21 and an
overall time of 2:05:58. Biggest take away from the race was solid bike power
output on all four laps of the bike course. My effort on the day was good
enough for 4th OA, and 3rd in 30-34. And as a positive
note I claimed a spot to the 2015 ITU World Championships in Chicago.
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| Exiting the swim in Kelowna! |
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| Heading to the finish! |
And then this morning I ran the Edm ½ Marathon. I had put in
a very solid week of trg which was capped off with a hard HIM/IM brick on
Friday. I knew I would be carrying a little fatigue into the half-marathon but
had intended to use the race as a gauge for my fitness. The race seems to draw
a strong field so I figured it was a good way to put a hard tempo run in before
the 70.3 WC. I had a very solid opening 10km, and then had to mentally battle
to hold it together on the back half as I battled the fatigue from a hard week
of trg. I was happy with a 1:14:11 which was just off my PB of 1:13:42 from
last year, and significantly better than my result at Ottawa Race Wknd in May.
I was 12th OA, 2nd Amatuer, and 1st in M30-39.
Glad to be through that but the next few weeks won’t be much
different. Volunteering at the ITU World Championship in Edm next weekend (Fri,
Sun, Mon) as a bike course Marshall. Yes, I’m selfish I didn’t volunteer
Saturday as I need a big trg day - Ironman Race Sim. Then it’s off to Mont
Tremblant for the Ironman 70.3 WC, then a trip to Borden, ON for a two week
course, to Ottawa on the 21st for the Army Run and then it’ll be
back home for just shy of two weeks before heading to Kona! Thankfully my wife
is gracious enough to put up with the ridiculous schedule. Yes, I admitted it –
I might have gotten a tad obsessive this year.
