Great White North 1/2 IM

It was one of the most nerve-wracking events I've ever been in and also one of the most rewarding. Amber and I finished the Great White North Tri this weekend and we both had an incredible race. I was sick for most of the week leading up to the event and looking back, this was probably a good thing. I don't think I would have tapered for the race the same way I did unless my body slowed me down. It was tough to be tired, weak and lazy leading up to a big event and my allergies decided to flare up in a big way last week.

We arrived in Stony Plain just in time for the pre-race dinner and I immediately started to feel the excitement of the event being in the presence of all the other triathletes. It was a great dinner and a good way to begin to feel excited about the race, even though the arena was about 30 degrees C which made it difficult to stay comfortable for long. Saturday we went to Element and bought a bunch of tri gear that we can never seem to find in Grande Prairie and Amber was re-fitted on her bike in the hope of relieving some neck pain.

The morning of the race I felt good and ready to race even though I was a little nervous for the first time in a really long time. I wasn't sure how my body would react after being ill and I haven't had a bad race in a very, very long time. I have set PR's in every race this year and I was hoping to do the same in this race but it was going to be a toss-up today. I did the usual pre-race fiddling with my bike, multiple washroom breaks and getting my wetsuit on and was ready to rock.

The gun when off without a lot of warning and I jumped in with every intent of having a great swim. I've been doing a lot of work in the pool and I wanted it to show up in my swim time today. I felt fairly comfortable throughout the swim, pushed it a little bit and started to fatigue in the last 200m but finished in 31:37, not quite the under 30 I was hoping for but still a great time for me.

I got all my bike gear on and headed out for the long 90km ride ahead. It was raining and my sunglasses were fogging up so I couldn't see a thing but nothing was going to stop me from having a great ride today. The first half of the ride was very fast and I felt great, after a couple hills though my legs were really feeling it. I was still moving quite well (a lot faster than other rides) and I didn't really start to tire out until about 15kms to go. At that point I just held on to the finish and hoped for the best during the run. Came off the bike in about 23rd place and was very happy to have an average speed of 37.5km/hr and finish in 2:23.39.

I started the run not knowing if my body would hold up but I was just going to go for it today! My quads were cramping up during the first couple kms but I knew this was just the initial shock of switching from bike to run. I immediately started picking off a lot of other runners, I was shocked at how slow it seemed everyone else was moving but I felt pretty good so I kept a nice steady pace. My breathing, energy, and motivation were all really strong I had a stabbing side cramp at about 7k but managed to get rid of it by downing a lot of water at every aid station. I kept picking people off and didn't realize how much progress I was making until I saw Amber at about 16kms and she told me I was in 8th! I managed to catch one more runner and saw the 6th place guy at the final km but didn't have enough road to catch him. Still I was incredibly happy to finish 7th overall, a 1:21.21 run time and a 4:16.49 overall time. A new PR and a great result leading up to Ironman. I know I need a little more work on my endurance but with a week of nothing but biking coming up next week, I'm going to be ready come August 31st!