LATEST RACE:

Kelowna Apple Triathlon

August 17,2008

www.appletriathlon.com

 This weekend I made the trip to Kelowna, Canada for my first race in almost two months.  It was a bit of a last minute decision to shake the rust off and get ready for the Chicago triathlon this coming weekend. I flew into Vancouver on Thursday and drove to Kelowna on Friday through some of the greatest scenery I’ve ever seen!  After the pre-race meeting and check-in I met up with the Penner family, my fantastic homestay for the weekend, and took the next day to relax and prepare before the race on Sunday.  On race day, I felt surprisingly loose and relaxed as I warmed up for the 2:00pm start (5:00pm back home!).  I was excited to be racing again and looking forward to using my swim to get out and begin the breaks early.  The horn went off and I dove into the lake with about 39 other pros. It was the Canadian National Championship, so I expected it to be an aggressive race from the beginning.  I tried to take the swim out fast, but felt flat in the water heading into the first bouy.  It only got worse as I completed the first lap about 30 seconds down on the leaders and stuck in the middle of the pack with no flat water to be found.  I came out of the swim toward the end of the main pack and was exhausted!  Not the way  I wanted to start the race!  I headed into transition where I managed to be slow enough (it took me what seemed like 15 minutes to buckle my helmet) to loose contact with the main group and come out with the chase group.  The 6 loop bike course had a pretty decent climb each lap and our small chase group couldn’t make up the ground on the main pack.  It felt good to have the legs burn and feel my whole body rebelling right from the start.  I do love racing!  It was getting pretty ugly on the last few laps and our group came in 2-3 minutes back of the leaders.  I took off on the run feeling pretty rough and hoping to salvage a bit of the race which was turning out to be quite rough.  I ran smoothly and found a nice rythm, but in the end the legs just weren’t there to manage any type of speed. I  came in 23^rd with one of the more painful races in recent memory.  It seems like I had quite a bit of rust to shake off!!!  Hopefully the race will get me ready to compete this weekend and prepare for the second half of the season in the coming months! 

The trip was definitely a positive experience despite the poor showing.  It was good to see my Canadian friends Jaime and Dan (who both kicked my butt!) and get back into the racing mode.  I had time to explore Vancouver and workout in Stanley park (worth visiting if you are ever in Vancouver) I was also fortunate enough to meet a lot of great people including Eric and Rebecca in Vancouver (thanks for letting me crash!) and Connie, Glen, Oliver, and Elliot in Kelowna.  I’m looking forward to coming back next year for a bit of redemption and to see them again!   As always, thank you to those of you that make it possible for me to race.  Thanks to CSE Corporation, Kiwami Triathlon, HED Wheels, Blue-Seventy Wetsuits, ISM Saddles, Wheelie Fun Multisport and all of you that continue to motivate and inspire me to compete.  I’ll be in action next weekend in Chicago on my new Veritas custom time trial bike which is AWESOME and fits me like a glove.  It is fitted with the coolest aerobars on the planet, the Blackwell concord bars.  I’ll get pictures up soon of the new toy.  Until next week…