Aug 23, 2006

Orillia Race Report

A bit delayed, but here it is... The Orillia "Northern" Sprint Triathlon was on Sunday morning, August 20th. It was cool and slightly damp, so I was a bit chilly in my t-shirt until I pulled on my nice warm wet-suit. I had shared a motel room with two club mates and we were up at 6:00 AM. Breakfast was a pretty miserable affair in the motel lobby, but we got away in good time (although I forgot my toilet kit and had to return for it after the race).

Wave Six StartMy race went well, with a overall time of 1:50:16. The distances were a 750m swim, 33km bike and 7km run. This was good for 164th out of 652 entrants and 20/67 in my age group. I just pipped a teammate at the finish line by 11 seconds, although I never saw him during the race. I think he was catching me on the run.

Swim: 750m in 13:32 (1:49 min/100m, 4/67 in age group, 61th overall). My swim was a bit off because of the choppy water on the first leg and the heavy traffic owing to the 500 swimmers in the five waves ahead of me. On the second leg of the swim I could surf very slightly on the waves. As an experiment I tried to remove my wet-suit as soon as I hit the beach so those 30 seconds counted against the swim. Although a "wet" wet-suit comes off quicker than a clingy damp one I was too unsteady on my feet. Better to wait until I'm in the transition area and my heart rate has settled a bit I think.

Hitting the roadBike: 33km in 1:02:32 (31.7 kph, 36/67 in age group, 242th overall). The bike was straight-forward although there were a few tricky corners and getting out of town was a bit messy. Not as hilly as Cobourg was, but still challenging. There was a loooong, but not too hard, climb early in the loop part of the course that was followed by a long descent. That I liked! I'm still getting passed by plenty of people on the bike though, so plenty room for improvement here.

Out onto the Running CourseRun: 7km in 30:56 (4:26 min/km, 24/67 in age group, 195th overall). was quite flat and I felt strong again. There were lots of other runners around me from the so there was always someone ahead to challenge myself with. I passed a club mate at about the 1 km mark, she was trying to favour her knees a bit.

Overall, it was fun participating in such a large competition. There were seven waves at the start! The course was challenging enough and the weather was good for racing (but not for standing around). Good fun. And I won a prize! I had a choice of several items, but I picked a backpack that my newly teen-aged son might like to use. My last race this season will be on September 9th, at Wasaga Beach.

Listening to: (Far from) Home by Tiga from Sexor.

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