Still On the Road

Well it's been over a week since I've been home, I've been in Whitecourt a couple days, Edmonton a couple days, back to Whitecourt, spent the weekend in Hinton and now I'm in Edson. A lot of travel with this new job and I'm beginning to feel like I live out of my car but I did get to spend the weekend with Amber and we had a great one in Hinton and Jasper. I was happy to start the weekend with a 50km ride on Friday night and couldn't get over how beautiful it was to be near the mountains again. It is definitely a wonderful area and I love the fact that this is part of my southern loop.

Saturday Amber and I wanted to get in a semi-long ride so we took a drive out to Jasper and rode the icefields parkway. It's an incredible ride with scenery to die for and a couple tough climbs to keep you focused. I wanted to see as much of it as I could and I was hammering the first 90mins but still only managed to get in 46kms. The way back was a lot easier and I finished the 92kms in 2:55. Amber took it easy and saved herself for the race on Sunday (probably a good idea as I was tired on the bike).

Sunday was the Hinton "Mountainview Olympic Tri" it was a great race, only 54 people and a real small town feel to it. It was the first time I've done an Olympic distance race in a pool and although I was slowed for the first few laps it turned out to be okay. I had a really strong swim for me finishing the 1500m in 23:33 and was 7th in the water. The bike was a really tough, tough course; the way out was mostly uphill and I was tired from Saturday's ride. I finished the first half in 35mins and felt like I was barely moving. The way back was fun and I managed to hold 40km/hr average for the back half and finished the entire ride in 1:05.32.

Then the real suffering began, the start of the run my legs felt like cement and it was incredibly difficult to maintain a steady pace. The first km was okay but from 1km to 2.5km it was straight uphill, ugh! What a time to be going uphill, that was tough. I suffered through it and I was happy when it was over, the nice part was at the 2.5km mark it turned into a trail run and it was absolutely beautiful! After the turn around I felt a lot better and recovered enough to push it on the downhill and back to the finish. I completed the 10km in 37:37 with the fastest run time of the day and a 1st place finish with a PR of 2:07.14. What a great race! I know I could still make some improvements on my biking and swimming so I'm going to keep up the training and enjoy the great Alberta Northwest. Amber had a great race too, finishing 1st in her age group and setting a PR of 2:31.13, great job babe!

1 2:07:14 Darin HUNTER 1/9 M3039 516 7 23:59 1:36 2 1:05:43 36.5 1 37:33 3:46
2 2:11:38 TEAM - FREAK N FAST 1/4 Mixed 898 3 23:00 1:32
3 2:17:00 Brent SCHLEPPE 1/10 M4049 530 14 26:38 1:47 3 1:06:50 35.9 5 43:33 4:22
4 2:19:33 John WINTERDYK 1/5 M5059 536 11 25:43 1:43 8 1:09:35 34.5 6 44:17 4:26
5 2:19:52 Brian CORBETT 2/10 M4049 533 1 21:57 1:28 12 1:13:11 32.8 7 44:45 4:29
6 2:21:13 Neil ROBERTS 1/5 M2029 547 22 28:46 1:56 9 1:11:33 33.5 3 40:55 4:06
7 2:21:28 TEAM - NAT-GLEN-KAT 2/4 Mixed 891 5 23:35 1:35 4 1:07:18 35.7 23 50:35 5:04
8 2:21:29 TEAM - CHARLIE'S ANGEL 3/4 Mixed 894 26 29:36 1:59 6 1:08:34 35.0 4 43:20 4:20
9 2:23:01 Gerrad LEWIN 2/5 M2029 541 9 24:57 1:40 22 1:18:21 30.6 2 39:45 3:59
10 2:24:09 Brock PHILIPS 2/5 M5059 546 6 23:40 1:35 10 1:11:38 33.5 19 48:52 4:54
11 2:24:26 Devon SMIBERT 3/5 M2029 886 51 38:55 2:36 1 58:41 40.9 15 46:51 4:42
12 2:25:06 Ian ELM 2/9 M3039 509 10 25:41 1:43 5 1:08:07 35.2 25 51:19 5:08
13 2:25:42 John KOVACS 3/10 M4049 518 36 31:38 2:07 7 1:09:00 34.8 8 45:05 4:31
14 2:26:23 TEAM - M241 1/1 Male 896 15 27:04 1:49 11 1:11:46 33.4 16 47:35 4:46
15 2:31:11 Kate WRIGHT 1/8 F4049 527 12 25:59 1:44 17 1:16:31 31.4 18 48:41 4:53
16 2:31:13 Amber Dawn MORRIS 1/6 F3039 508 18 27:42 1:51 20 1:17:24 31.0 10 46:08 4:37