Great White North

I don’t know that there is any science behind time speeding up as you get older, but when I turned 35 this year time started flying by like Cancellara in a time trial . So when my iPhone told me that yes indeed, Great White North race weekend had arrived, I started to think about all the extra training I should have done but just never seemed to get around to. However that’s a futile exercise, so I started to pack instead.

On Saturday Dezz and I headed out to Stony Plain for registration pickup and bike drop-off. With my 3 week old SpeedMatrix bike fit and a freshly lubed chain, Dezz dropped me off about 2 km from the lake so I could ride along and make sure shifting was smooth. Hot, sunny days and fresh asphalt go together about as well as me and the Calgary Stampede. After 5 sticky minutes, Dezz decided that scraping the tar off my tires with a stick was akin to scraping tar off a tire with a feather duster. Plan B – put brand new tires on the bike. Fortunately Rick and I both had one spare each.

Race morning was a beautiful sunny day in St. Albert. By the time we drove 20 minutes west, however, the rain had started. I set my gear up for a quick transition, slipped (struggled?) into my wetsuit and headed down to the beach for the race start. I wished good luck to a few friends about to become first time half iron(wo)men and embarked on my murky swim. I grabbed some feet for virtually the whole first lap and was happy with my time. But at the start of the second lap I followed a group of 5 or 6 way off course and had to fight my way back across to the first buoy. After that I felt my technique was decent but at the same time felt like I was swimming in an endless pool against the current. I ended up with a 3 minute positive split on my second lap for a 45 minute swim. The swim was chaos - kicked in the face, kicked in the stomach, goggles pulled off. YetI still remained relaxed most of the swim. So at least there’s that.

A decent transition and  I was out on the rainy bike. After a gradual climb to the highway, the course has a slight downhill giving me an opportunity to spin my legs out and get my head into the bike. It was a wet windy ride and I was disappointed by the lack of marshalls out on the course penalizing those multiple cyclists that were intentionally drafting. As I passed a group of 5 guys in a nice little pace line, 2 guys jumped onto my wheel. I immediately dropped the hammer and left them eating the spray from my newly installed back tire.  2h36 later, I was slipping from my cycling shoes to my running shoes.

Onto the run I took about 1km to get into my stride and then settled in for the next 13km. The course is flat and has a few out and backs, providing a lot of opportunity to high-five friends and teammates along the way. About the 14km mark, my legs started feeling it. I managed to keep form for the next few kilometres, but didn’t have the knee drive I needed to maintain my pace. And by km 18, all I was concerned about was keeping Faizel and JR off my heels while minimizing the amount of time Alan beat me by. Whatever gets you to the finish line!

 5h08. 2 minutes faster than my goal. New PB. Next year...sub 5h.