Cobourg Triathlon, 2007

Two years ago Cobourg was my first triathlon, a sprint race. It's still my favourite with a comfortable grassy transition area, a clean and weed-less swim, a challenging, varied and scenic bike leg and a flat run on quiet streets. It doesn't hurt that my mother lives a kilometer from the race! This year I entered the newly-added Olympic distance race.

I picked Chris up from the camp drop-off point on Friday afternoon and we drove out to Cobourg a few hours later, bringing along another member of my triathlon club. We did a familiarization drive of the bike course and then checked into my mother's house. Mom & Ted were out with friends so we whipped up a pre-race pasta dinner for ourselves and had an early night. The next morning we rode our bikes over to the transition area and got setup and body-marked. Chris came over later with my mother and step-father to cheer us on.

Race day was beautiful; calm blue skies and warm. In the end I finished in 2:29:54, which was good enough for 47th out of 244, 7th out of 25 in my age group. Pretty satisfying.

Swim: 1500m. 24:38, 13th out of 244, averaging 1:39/100m
Cool, calm waters and no weeds. Starting in the third wave meant no chance of drafting, although if I'd spotted the guy in my wave who finished the race 2nd overall I might have been able to get a tow. The first leg lined up with the sand ripples on the bottom of the beach (that's how clean it was!) so I didn't have to do much sighting. The second leg was straight into the sun so there was a lot more sighting required. I was passing a lot of swimmers from the first two waves at this point too. Last leg was straight back into the beach. I tried to pick up my kick near the end to see if getting more blood flowing through my legs would help with the run into transition, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

T1: 2:28. A long run up the beach, with heavy legs. I came off the beach with very sandy feet. Should have brought a pail! I probably lost 30 seconds getting most of the sand off.

Bike: 40K. 1:17:02, 70th out of 244, averaging 31.2 kph
I got off to a good start on the out-and-back bike course, settling down during the first flat 5K and popped some salt tablets and Gatorade, had a gel a little while later. The hilly parts of the course were OK, but I noticed that my quads were getting a bit tight and I could feel some soreness in my butt that seemed reminiscent of the cramping that held me back in my Half Ironman in Peterborough. That makes me think that the problem in Peterborough was bike fit or just conditioning, not salt depletion. Although I lost some ground on the climbs I did well on the downhill stretches. On the most significant climb at about the 30K mark I was able to spin up without too much trouble so it's interesting to note my progress since my first race.

T2: 1:26. This one's always pretty quick but I lost another 30 seconds chatting with my mother...

Run: 10K. 44:21, 49th out of 244, averaging 4:27/K
My legs felt a bit heavy coming out of transition, but the run went pretty smoothly. It was mainly a matter of dealing with the heat and staying hydrated. I got lapped by a few of the top finishers (it was a two lap run course) which was humbling, but I enjoyed interacting with the spectators and chatting with other runners.

I felt good about this one. Next race, Wasaga Olympic in September!

Yesterday my father was cremated out in Regina. There'll be a wake for him soon. Chris is now backup at camp for his final two weeks of technology deprivation.

Listening to: Feel It by Jakalope from It Dreams.