Grande Prairie Tri 2011

What a great race even though I wasn't in this one it was an incredible experience to be out there cheering on everyone. I have to admit I did have a bit of envy of all those racing but I know myself and I know my body and it was definitely a good idea to sit this one out. The day before the race Amber, Robert, Annette and I had a plan to go out and ride the first 180k of the year. Why? I don't know but it sounded like a good idea. Actually all three of them were racing the next day and this ride was supposed to prevent them from going "all-out" during the race. I'm not sure if it worked because they all raced very hard and it looked like they gave it everything they had.

It was so nice to have a race in town where you could sleep in your own bed, wake up and have your normal breakfast and not have to worry about all those little things that you do when you are travelling. Of course I wasn't racing so maybe Amber felt differently. There were only 82 racers and all the triathletes in town are a pretty close knit community so I had a chance to see and talk to almost everyone. The energy before the start was great, a lot of people were anxious racing at home but other than one guy from Fort St. John falling on the bike (and still placing 4th!) everything went off without a hitch.


I could tell Amber was nervous and excited but fortunately she was more excited than nervous for this one. She's done a great job at controlling her energy this year and not allowing her nerves to get the better of her before a race, something she's definitely going to need before IMC this year. I was counting the laps in her lane and it was awesome to be able to watch her swim and see how she managed the first part of her race. She did an excellent job, leading out on the first three laps she realized that someone was just going to draft off her the entire way so she let her pass and then stayed in her draft until she started to die and Amber took over again. She probably did about an 8:45 for the 500m but with the time starting on the pool deck and ending as she left the pool it was clocked at 9:10.


The bike was a very challenging 6 loop course that has a lot of accelerating and decelerating and it just knocks the crap out of your legs. It's like doing a TT with sprinting drills mixed in for 35-40 minutes straight. I went to get Harley out of the car, he got to watch the rest of the race and we picked a good spot to catch all the riders. Robert and Annette were both having a fantastic race considering what we did the day before and Robert said Amber was biking incredibly strong. She looked relaxed and comfortable even though her heart was probably in her throat, she pushed the entire ride and finished with the 2nd best female time and 10th overall in 40:17.


The run is a nice loop around the reservoir and although it said it was 5k, with some of the times out there it was probably more like 4- 4.5k. Harley and I ran down to watch Amber half way through the run and she was grabbing her side like she was getting a bad stitch but to her credit she didn't slow down and she just kept running through it. We ran back to the finish and Robert was coming in looking strong and running fast he ended up clocking a 1:01.05 and placing 2nd overall! Awesome! He wanted to go out and run another hour so Harley and I joined him and it was great to see him in such good spirits, especially after we did a 5 and 1/2 hour bike the day before. Amber also had a terrific race coming in at 1:09.32 and placing 2nd female and 10th overall! Great result on a tough bike course and riding 160k the day before. Annette also finished her first tri winning her age group and placing right behind Amber in 1:11.39, incredible for a first timer. I think my first race I almost finished dead last but I knew after that moment I loved the sport and would continue to do it for as long as I could.


It was a great experience to see everyone out there and now I'm excited to get out there myself and race hard at GWN. I've been training pretty well up until this week when I managed to catch a flu that's been going around but I'm starting to bounce back slowly. This weekend is a couple 100k rides and an hour run and then next week will be a swim focus with some short rides and runs before the race on July 3rd, I can't wait!