After a short month off, I eased back into racing with the shorter Sprint distance in the Peach Classic. This was my first time doing the Peach, and marked its 36 anniversary, which is the oldest triathlon continuously held in BC. There were lots of familiar faces here from UBC Tri, TSJ cycling and Abbotsford Tri Clubs. World qualifier spots were available for aquabike, and provincial champions for standard tri.
Swim was a CCW loop along the warm beach. Temperature was 22 C making it wetsuit illegal.
Transition racks for Sprint was rotated perpendicular in the upper section as compared to the Standard racks in the lower section, making it an obvious separation between the two traffic flows.
The bike was a one tiny out and back along Lakeshore, and then a larger out and back to and from Vancouver Ave hill. Coming back there's a slight detour to the other side of the hill along the cemetery. The turn was tricky to spot and did catch some riders off course.
The run was a short out and back, however a couple killer grades connecting to Vancouver hill, and then the rest of Vancouver hill to the Kettle Valley Trail.
I enjoyed the scenic view during a warmup run - but not so much during the race as the elevation kept changing to make it hard to get a good rhythm going.
Sharing the podium here with Scott.
I enjoyed the scenic view during a warmup run - but not so much during the race as the elevation kept changing to make it hard to get a good rhythm going.
The Sprint was an exciting beach mass start. No wetsuits. No style points. I usually hand a few minutes to the strong swimmers. Out of the water in 28th, I had my work cut out.
My power to weight is favourable for this kind of course. My bike was 8th fastest split and caught a few stragglers.
It was hard seeing the hill again but with shoes. I think the lack of wetsuit swim did tire me out on the bike, and with the technical bike, my fatigue was kicking in for the run. Still a solid 8th fastest split on run and 9th overall.
I feel like the swim without wetsuit is something I do need to work on for next year. The energy distribution of a wetsuit legal swim/bike/run feels like 10%/40%/50%. For a wetsuit illegal swim/bike/run feels a lot more like 30%/40%/30%, making it a bit more of a strugglefest by the time you get to the run.
The BBQ certainly didn't disappoint! Thanks to Jen for making this trip and friends Vanessa and Matt for hosting us. Sometimes I wonder why I bother with the longer distances. I enjoyed this race, the friends, and the perfect distance (before waiting to get food). I hope to be back next year now that I know the course.
