Nineteen Seconds

Subaru Shawnigan Lake Triathlon Race Report

I know it’s not best practice to compare one year’s result to another for the same race. That is, unless you are incredibly consistent.

I still haven't figured out why the race organizers would put up this slow poke as their head banner. =)

For the past three years, Shawnigan has been the official start to my summer race season. Perhaps this race is an indicator of how the season will shape up.  

Despite the twist and turns of the new route changes (swim was short and run was longer or at least felt that way) and lack of using Garmin this year (one has short battery-life, other is being fixed), somehow my predicted finishing time can be almost measured by military precision. The swim route must had been short by a 100 metres or a bit and the new addition of the wooden trestle run route is pretty spectacular.

I managed to finish comparable to my results from previous years, which is somewhat an achievement (Or is this loser talk?).

This unique finding can only be interpreted as both good news and bad news.

The bad news... is simply I haven’t improved at all since I debuted in this race in 2010.
The good news? I can’t really pretend my work/life balance has a signifcant effect and fabricate it as an excuse for slowing me down. In 2010, I had just graduated and was training like a full time madman athlete. This year, I’ve juggled with work commitments as well as trying to maintain my training schedule.

I am also starting to feel stronger at the finish. I didn’t feel super tired as I cross the finish line. I think it can be best summed up as being my stamina has increased but my intensity probably haven’t improved one bit over the years. Maybe I should start pretending to look more tired at the finish line? So people don't think I'm not trying hard enough. =)

Overall it was a very fun weekend, which included a well deserved trip to the buffet! Read Brendan Naef's full team report here.

My next A-race is Ironman Switzerland, which is coming up. Watch out world, a winstorm is brewing! Can't wait! =)