Mud Sweat & Tears - let the pictures tell the story!

My first (and probably only ever) Podium Finish!

August 27, 2006 … Chatham Bulldogs Triathlon/Duathlon.

The weather was crap! I listened to the rain all night long, drove an hour to the race in the rain, waited around for the start in the rain & raced in the rain! Oh yeah, and the mud and the mosquitos during the final run! Was it worth it? In the end yep!

To continue on with my summer of no real training or focus, I actually went into this race semi-prepared! I had done a couple of rides through the week, carbo-loaded for dinner on Saturday & was pretty well rested. Then came the rain. Funny thing is, on Saturday afternoon after riding, we were talking about racing in the rain & what problems you can run into on the bike. Then I admitted that I haven’t even ridden my bike in the rain, let alone raced it. Somebody was listening! Because I had quite the learning experience the following morning! :-)

The first run was great, I went out quickly & after a point you just couldn’t dodge the puddles anymore, I said to hell with it & ran through them if I had to. 12:09 for the initial 2K run. I thought I took my time in transition, but according to the chip times I wasn’t too bad. The bike sucked wind at first, but it always does for me because I push too much on my first run – one day I will learn, really I will! While I love the flat, fast course in this race, you are pedaling, ALL the time! My clothes were already soaked through from the pre-race & first run leg, and I could actually feel the water draining out of the bottom of my bike shoes while I was pedaling. GROSS! My handlebars were wet, my aero bars & seat were wet, at times I couldn’t even see my bike computer because of the water on it! But, I managed to stay upright & tried to keep as close to 30K per hour as much as I possibly could. It took a good 4 kilometers to stop sucking wind, but I got my breathing sorted out finally. I just kept thinking, this is only 20K – I have friends in Penticton today racing Iron Man Canada – they had to do 180 kilometers today. That’s when I kept repeating “suck it up buttercup” over & over in my head… Tim gave me that one… I also threw in a “princess” every once in a while! I managed an average speed of 27.08K per hour on the bike – not bad as I think I managed an average around 23 or 24 k per hour last year. I took my time in transition this time… I was so wet that I could barely get my running shoes back on. The towel that I had thrown over my gear was soaked & luckily I had put my running shoes upside down under the towel – at least they weren’t full of water! I choked back a Chocolate Hammer Gel – blech, but it was all I had at home. Threw my hat on & hit the trail back into the woods.

This is where it fell apart – I really have to work on my “mental” game if I intend to race. I have the physical ability, but my head starts telling me otherwise. I probably walked half of the stupid little 5K course. Luckily though only a couple of people passed me, which was actually quite shocking. I guess I wasn’t the only one who was having a bad day. Because we were running a dirt road through the woods, the mosquitoes were incredible. I have bites on my arms & legs & I think I can still hear the little buggers buzzing around my ears! I did manage to run in the final kilometer though. All said and done in 1:37:32… 13 minutes SLOWER than last years race – that was all because of the second run. My first run was on par with 2005, and my bike had improved. Had I not let my head win the game on the second run, I would have easily beat my 1:24 time.

Here’s the best – this is a pretty small race. There were probably only 40-50 people doing the Sprint Duathlon in total. Last year they went in 10 year age categories for placement. This year, they decided to go all out & get medals & the whole thing. They went in 5 year age categories & I Silvered in my age…
No-one else has to know that there were only 2 of us in the age group though!