Huntsville, Ontario
Well I am finally getting around to writing up this race report! Huge apologies! Lol!
I was lucky enough to stay up with my second family for this race and cut any hotel costs so I was very grateful for this. We did our registration on the Friday, got my bike checked in for me on the Saturday (thanks guys!!!), and got up super early for race day Sunday. I had a bagel with PB, banana, and coffee for breakfast. Got to the race site and was getting Limey prepped with my nutrition when I realized I made a huge first for me! I forgot my timing chip at the house!!! How in the world I forgot to put it on I have no idea. But I later found out it was underneath a bag in the room so I could not have seen it in the morning. Nevertheless, I should not have forgotten it and there was no way for me to go back and get the chip. Luckily I guess this happens often enough and Sportstats had some set aside for such circumstances. So I got my new chip thanks to the race director and I was set to go. There was a lot of time before the start so we just chilled in the lobby of Deerhurst so we can stay warm until it was time to head down for the swim.
I was in the third wave for the swim and the water was pretty calm. The gun went off and I just tried to settle into a good rhythm. Sighting was actually not the easiest with the bright sunshine but it wasn't all that bad. I tried to follow some feet but I just found myself swimming on my own....well, more like people were following my feet. Got out of the water in 35:24 for a 1:47min/m pace and 11th in my age group. Once out of the water and the hills start immediately! There is about a 500m run uphill to get to transition. By the time I got there and got my gear and Limey I left T1 in 4:06.
Now the real hills start! This bike course is quite challenging but can be a lot of fun. I just tried to keep a steady effort and keep my heart rate in the 150 range. However, I was getting passed quite a bit and I was getting a bit annoyed by this and decided to push the pace a little more and started passing people. I was still feeling pretty good and managed to keep my HR in the same range. Up and down and up and down...that was the whole bike course. We also had quite a bit of wind to contend with to make things a bit more challenging. But for some reason I had this awful feeling in my stomach throughout the bike course. I just had a sense that something may go bad and all I wanted to do was finish the ride. The course was open to traffic and I had a couple of really close cars whiz by me so that did not help. Not sure why I was feeling like this but I was just relieved to have survived the bike as well as see my friends on the run because then I knew they were ok too. I also started feeling weak in the second half of the bike. A weird weak feeling as if I was losing some sensation to my legs. Don't know what that was about. I rode a 3:24:47 for the 94km bike ride (instead of the usual 90km) and averaged 27.5km/hr, 152bpm HR, 82rpm for cadence, with a total of 1008m of climbing. I was also very happy to see my parents when I was heading to T2. I think I surprised my dad as I waved at him since he seemed excited to see me and missed taking a photo! Lol!
Got off the bike, got through transition and onto the run. As I posted before, I had a guy thank me at the beginning of the run for being his pace bunny on the bike. Ha! T2 time was 1:23.
Even though the temp was pretty cold in the morning it really warmed up for the run. I started the run and wanted to hold about a 6min pace with the plan of bringing the pace down after the first hour. Well that didn't really pan out. I was well over a 6min pace and the hills just kept coming. I think this demoralized me a little bit and I was getting frustrated with myself. I tried to bring down the pace but just could not do it. All I saw was 6:15, 6:18, 6:20....it was not pretty. So by about 2km in I felt like I did not want to be out there. Not a good thing. I let my mind get the best of me and I defeated myself. I had no fight in me for this race. Then it became a mental battle to just keep running. I resorted to walking part of one hill that was pretty steep and then I was fighting to not walk anymore and keep to the Nacho rule! Then I was worried Marianne would pass me on the run so that helped me try to push the last bit some more. I struggled for most of the run. Not a good day for me. Boo! I ran the 21.1km in 2:20:54 for a 6:41min/km pace and avg HR of 164bpm. Yuck! That was ugly! Ended up in 23rd out of 44 in my age group with a time of 6:26:32. I actually only had two girls in my age group pass me on the run.
It was a great day to race and it was also great that my parents were out there to cheer me on!!! I love seeing them get all excited when they see me come by! That was pretty awesome! I did manage to still have fun out there but it was a tough day for me on a tough course! Maybe next time!
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