So it could be said that I haven’t updated in a while and that some gentle prodding from the Westdale Warrior got me back on here today.
I’ve raced a few events this summer with results below my expectations. I started off the season in Ixtapa Mexico where I placed 9th, then went 14:57 for 5000m on the track, 2nd in Coteau du lac, 60th at the Edmonton World Cup, 1st at Elite Provincials, 1st at Windsor Triathlon (non drafting).
I arrived in Lausanne this week knowing I was in the best shape of my life but feeling sluggish. Feeling a little off isn’t the best thing to have when your going into a race with the top 13 from London WCS 18 of the top 20 in the world toeing the line. I was pretty worried my legs weren’t going to come around so I just decided to focus on what I could (suffering in the race).
Warmup went fairly well, no magic pop in the legs just feeling like a regular training day. Time to Hurt!! With a start position of 61st and some pretty brutal start speed I knew I was in for a beatdown and I wasn’t disappointed! Up until the first buoy I had an athlete dragging off me so bad that I was significantly slowing down, unable to get away and basically watching the pack slip. Coming out of the first turn though I was able to shake myself free and by the time I hit 450m I had some ground to make up. I jimmied around a group of 4 in front of me and focused on catching the swim group 20m in front of me. I put my head down and got in with about 100m to go in the swim.
T1
I exited well, got my land legs quickly having to slow down a bit because I was about to run into a barricade!) I managed to keep my feet under me only to run past my bike (no chocolate bar for top 3 fastest transition…) but 1 clipped my helmet and dangling 10m off the back of Daniel Hofer, Mark Fretta and the chase group saw that this was once again another make or break moment.
I slowly bridged up to their wheel as they caught the chase pack getting a foot into my shoes before we came out of the turnaround. For quick knowledge the course is 5km x 4, with a 6-700m climb averaging 10.5% followed by a long downhill and then a long flat in between. We hit the bottom of the climb for the first time picking up a small group of athletes (including Canadian Andrew Russell) and the pace remained ON. According to Jason I was the only person to climb in the big ring. I dangled towards the front of the pack but I was redline city and worried that if anyone really went I’d be out the back. Fortunately I hung on and from that point felt stronger and stronger every loop of the bike. We were about 12 seconds down on the lead group of 13-14 athletes for laps 2-3 and then I made a big push coming up the climb with the Aussies Box, Seear and Kahlefeldt. We kept the pace on coming down the hill and on the flat (3x world Champ?) Tim Don broke off the front of our group and looked like he was going to solo across the gap leaving us stranded. I put my head down bridging to him and then went straight through allowing our group to catch the lead with about 4k to go.
Coming into T2 it was the usual scramble for position and I was in the middle of the group coming off the bike. I was smooth getting the shoes on and was quickly into the run.
The run goes out insanely hard, you know in about 10 seconds whether or not you have the gears or don’t. I had decent legs and started moving through people passing Dodds, Ellice, Belaubre and Elvery fairly quickly settling in behind Alarza ( I think last year’s Jr. World Champ?) and the Italian Hofer. We were rolling and I was hurting bad but I decided to take the lead in our group from 1200-1500m before the body went KABOOM. I lost about 10 seconds on Alarza and 5 on Hofer over the next km before I started to recover. Suddenly I had some lift in my stride, my breathing relaxed and I started to move. Just before 3.5k I caught and passed Hofer and then passed the British athlete Bishop who has run 29:xx this year while closing in on Alarza and Sexton. I didn’t want to come 21st again but I ran out of real estate down the stretch finishing with the same place as last year, albeit with a significantly deeper field.
I gained a lot of confidence heading into U-23 Worlds in Beijing and am excited that my racing has finally come to reflect the hard work I’ve put in this year! I’ve also managed to crack the top 100 in WCS rankings #99!!
Thank you C3, Kinetico, Gears Bike Shop, Specialized Bikes, Royal Containers, Triathlon Canada, McMaster Swim/XC and most importantly my amazing family. None of this could happen without your support!!
Had a great time watching the McMaster Marauders compete at the CIS Cross Country Championships in Quebec City this weekend! Snow (really sleet) blanked the course race day but the team really poured it on and it was phenomenal getting to see so many people get to that dark place I call home. The girls ran hard and with 3-4 of them going down in the slick conditions they struggled to hang on to the frontrunners Guelph and Victoria. Despite these challenges, Sarah Haliburton’s performance rallied the team to a 3rd place finish keeping the Marauders on the podium for the 3rd consecutive year. It is really inspiring to know the level of talent on our girls team and their year round consistency is something to aspire to.
