Race Report: Shawnigan Lake - Official Season Begins

Date/Time: May 29, 2011, 7:30am Weather: 15ish, sunshine
Distance: Half IM
Gun time: 5:07:27
Swim: 38:36 (2:02 per 100m pace)
T1: 3:43
Bike: 2:41:15 (32.7 km/hr)
T2: 2:02
Run: 1:41:53 (4:50 per km)
Age Group: 4/5
Overall: 27/84 

Alrighty, no more blogging hiatus, I guess this little race report is a little overdue...perhaps. This past week, I’ve been flabbergasted with loads of real world work and client meals and trying to sneak in more training whenever I can, despite the jubilant excitement of the city for the Canucks and their exciting run for the cup! My prediction is I just hope the better team will win zee cup. =)

Cool shot I stole from the Clock Tower Images



Shawnigan Lake is the first race of the Subaru Western Tri Series and having done this race last year, I had a better idea of kicking the can this time around.

Here's the team report summary: http://ubctriathlon.blogspot.com/2011/05/shawnigan-race-results.html


Naiely, Derrick and I went over to the Island together. Naiely prepared us her famous homemade pasta for the ferry trip over and it tasted great - among her secret ingredients was added brown sugar. We also had yummy yogurt with fresh fruits to top it off. We’ll have to bug her for that secret recipe.

We took the later ferry than everyone else on the team, and had to rush to the race site. No worries, we got there just in time to miss it. Haha it’s the honest effort that counts anyways. The team took over Camp Pringle (superb hospitality) this year and it was super nice being within minutes of walking distance to the race start.

swim.

Having not swam more than 7 times the past two months, and 3 of those 7 swims were during the last week leading up to this race, I knew I was in trouble for this race and it would had been a huge wake-up call. Despite all of this, my time was 59 seconds faster than last year – and I still got the gloomy impression I was coming out dead last out of the water. I know my time will improve once I start attending VOWSA swim practices.

Lesson Learnt:

Two Swim caps did the trick this year, no more bobble heading coming out of the water this year unlike last year!



t1.

Last year I lost time for running back to retrieve the timing chip because I had taken it off whiling stripping my wet suite and then forgot to put it back on. A similar trend as the swim, I was out of T1 quicker by 69 seconds than last year. I was happy.



bike.

This year I bought miss P2 to the race - Faster, lighter, and aero-er, which made it a lot fun-er race.

I think it even attracted celebrity status of sorts, which I’m not known for. While completing the third lap, a random dude biked past me on the passing lane, rotated his head 90 degrees clockwise at me like a robot and yelled out “hey it’s UBC TRI KID!” I had no UBC tri clothing on at the time, but I guess my signature grimacing-smile had given it away. This had given me a boost on the third lap along with so many Olympic and sprint bikers on course. First and last of the 4-laps course felt really lonely. Biking-wisely I was exactly clocked in at 2 minutes faster than last year.

Lesson Learnt
Temperature was warm and sunny and I was wearing my Sugoi long sleeve jacket which was a huge mistake! It also costed me a couple mintues figuring out how to put it on and take it off at the transitions. But one great thing about this is that it had simulated a heat ride and I felt HOT on the ride. Good prep for Ironman at least.



t2.
I didn’t use the portables this time around and saved 103 seconds from last year.



run.
I guess by this point, I had just under 6 minutes of banked time from last year’s race. Inevitably with the hotter conditions this year, my cardio system was running out of steam (no pun intended). Usually it’s the legs that give first, but I really felt the lungs burn. The last 5 km was the hardest part as this relay lady was on my tail within a metre all the way to the finish line (good work on her part for keeping up). It did make for an epic run, but I learned from Garmin I was still 5 minutes slower than last year. I was impressed that I managed to shave off last year’s overall time by 20 seconds.

Lesson Learnt
I will need to embrace for the hotter conditions, and as the season moves on, hopefully so does my fitness.

Dash to the finish

The highlight of this awesome trip was enjoying buffet food on the ferry trip back. Not going lie, we kinda pigged out – and not surprisingly Naiely felt obligated to taste-test everything on the dessert menu.

Shawnigan Lake Race Report

The much anticipated opening event of the Subaru Series kicked off at Shawnigan Lake late last month.

 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 left, Derrick Lee, Andrew Wight and I did our road trip together
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.

Highlight of the trip: Vincent Lavallee gauges a leap to the trunk to temporary grab his jacket and to protect shotgun, not realizing Derrick had already dove into shotgun through the middle gap. Vince kindly lays the smackdown and poor Derrick is laying helplessly on the ground...

...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!!!