This was the last stop on the regular Multisport Canada
circuit (but Barrelman is this coming weekend!!) and a new race venue for them.
From the beginning of the season I knew I would be coming here as I have ridden
on the roads up there and they are fantastic, and it is not too far from my
parent’s place in Newmarket.
The weekend brought some unexpectedly cold temperatures and
on Saturday evening I predicted that the race would be switched to a duathlon
on Sunday morning. I awoke to rain and howling winds, which was only more noticeable
by the lake at the race site. Indeed, the race was switched to a sprint
duathlon- 5km run, 20km bike, 2.5km run. I think this made some people very
unhappy, but was undoubtedly the right (and only) call to make by John Salt and
the MSC team- safety first!
I had not run for 10 days leading into the race as one of my
legs was hurting quite a lot. I was 100% convinced I had a stress fracture, but
just received the results from a bone scan which indicates I have other
problems but my bones are fine. I was very frustrated that I can’t seem to get
in any good run mileage or intensity without something going wrong, so poured
that frustration into my bike and swim training, which meant entering the race
feeling quite tired.
Given that it was so cold out I did not warm up on my bike,
and didn’t want to run any more than I had to, so my ‘warm-up’ consisted of
swinging my arms around a bit and hopping up and down on the leg that doesn’t
hurt. Triathletes started 3 minutes after the duathletes, and as typically
happens, the gun went off and people sprinted out onto the run course. Not my
style of racing, so I thought ‘haha, I’ll catch ya later’ and set out at a more
reasonable pace. Indeed, not too far in I started picking people off and it was
fun to start catching the duathletes too. By the end of the 5k I was starting
to feel warmed up.
I took a super long time in transition, chatted to the
spectators while I got my bike shoes on etc. What’s the rush right?
Out onto the bike course I thought my legs would feel really
crappy having had to run first (which is not something I practice), but I felt
pretty good! (I guess I didn’t run hard enough). With the wind being so strong
it was essential to get down in aero to be blown about the least amount
possible. I had a fantastic time out there and am starting to think I should find
races where it is super windy. Looking at my garmin file after it looks like I averaged
38.6km/hr for the time I was actually riding my bike (so excluding the time
running around in my bike shoes)- seems pretty fast to me!
The 2.5km run at the end seemed very short and then it was
time to get inside and warm up!
A very cold and wet day out there but Multisport Canada did
a great job in ensuring that everyone who wanted to race could get a race in.
I will see you at Barrelman in a weeks’ time- I have put in
my request for windy weather, we’ll see what happens!
Thanks to all my supporters- Kristen Pawlick from Wishbone
Athletics, C3, Nineteen, Louis Garneau, Blade Carbon Wheels, Skechers, and
Multisport Canada.
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