Sun rise on race morning
Having already established two stellar pbs (from Sun Run and UBC Tri), I wanted to continue bringing my A-game for the swim, bike and run and not being too worried about my competition. Though I do welcome a friendly rival namely Andrew Wight. On the road/sea trip, he’d been humming tunes from Willy Wonka “A world is your imagination” just to get inside my head. I was thinking to myself, "Andrew, you really need a catchier tune if you want to get inside my head, seriously!", because I was still fixated on playing with my gps watch.
The race in Shawnigan marked an exciting battle between Andrew and I. However coming into this race, Andrew had only half the training I have in all three disciplines since January 2010. Recently having a new daughter, Andrew obviously had more important commitments. Last year Andrew peaked at the right moment in the Victoria Half and absolute dominated in his own backyard.
Andrew had crushed me in all of the three triathlons we competed in last year
Swim
We started the swim shoulder to shoulder.
The water was a little chilly but once I found some steady legs to draft, the open water swim was relatively smooth sailing. I was only metres back from Andrew walking towards T1 after the swim. Who knows, those steady legs could have very well been Andrew's.
T1
We sprinted out with our bikes and I mistakenly removed my chip while stripping my wetsuit. I figured I had to run back to retrieve it.
Bike
I caught up to Andrew after losing a minute or two at T1 by the 10km bike mark. Eventually by our fourth and final lap, Andrew yelled out while passing me, “Com’on, Winstorm don’t you dare let me beat you!” His final two bike laps were negative splits, impressive!
Andrew’s words were motivating, however by this point I was just thinking about a pee break and I was so close to T2.
T2
I managed to bump into Andrew again while transitioning at T2. Andrew booked it out, and I booked it for a washroom break! Such a relief, now time for an epic run- time to hunt down the prey! At this point, Andrew had a 2 minute lead into the run course.
Interesting stat: both my T1 and T2 are ranked 71st place overall by time, at 4:52 and 3:45 respectively! Not sure if I should be depressed or impressed by this result.
Run
My initial goal was to run 4:30 min/km pace but slowly relaxed it to 4:40s. I caught up to Andrew by the 4km of the run course. We exchanged some words and I picked up the pace. By the 15km marker, a runner was challenging me and was about to pass me. By the tail end of the approximately 20.6km run course, it was difficult to pick up the pace since the next closest competitor was about a km ahead. I made a determined effort to hold him off and managing to keep this gap until the finish. Nobody but a lady on a relay team managed to pass me on the run course, which I’m quite pleased about.
Finish
To silent all my naysayers out there, my overall time was 5:07:46 going under my goal time of sub 5:10, and smashing my previous mark at last year’s Vancouver half (time of 5:21:01) by over 13 minutes!!
I’m so stoked about my killer time!
I finished 29th Overall and placed 2nd in my age group. Not too shabby, considering the last time I placed in any triathlon event was nearly 5 years ago. Those were certainly the glory years when I could cruise to a podium finish in the heavy-terrain mountain bike. Those were the days!
Man oh man, my finishing pose needs to look like this!
Andrew had a very respectable time 5:14:56, also finishing third in his age group. I am so happy for him!
Eric Suess was brilliant in keeping his bike a mystery until race day. All thanks to his handy bbq stove cover, which I’ll admit is a clever idea.
There must be a better backdrop
The gang
The bling
The canon
Possibly the UBC Tri Club best team showing at a Subaru series race occurred in Shawnigan Lake. Many fellow blue smurfs with the coveted snug UBC Tri-Club jumpers were absolutely rocking the tri at Shawnigan Lake.
From the right, Melanie Van Soeren, Vincent Lavallee, and Barry Claman
A fellow competitor, Scott Chris aka Eagle has made himself a clear force to be reckoned with all his secret rituals of barefoot running, yoga classes and rides up mountains of late! He is a swimmer turning into an all-rounder. It’s hard to forget that this is the same guy who had beaten me by a very slim 37 seconds last year in Vancouver Half IM last year after all. However, he signed up for the wrong event of the race – the Olympic distance managing to pull off a respectable 2:31:27 and placing 3rd in his age group.
Scott Chris and Celeste Pakstas smiling for the paparazzi.
Snoozing is part of Eagle’s big game plan to avoid big-league competition early in the tri-season.
...and Vince gets robbed!
The half IM’ers including Ceilidh Curtis on the far right. Ceilidh is training for IM Canada!!
I have to thank Celeste and Andrew and their families for their generous hospitalities during this trip! Congrats to everyone who raced in Shawnigan! This adventure was so awesome!!!
Great post. And it's a world of pure imagination.
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out the mistake.
ReplyDeleteUpon a second look, I like our first photo in the post...it nearly looks like that cartoon.