I'm home already (live 10 mins from Deerhurst) so I'll go first! :)
I was checking the forecast all week hoping we'd get one of those glimpses of decent weather for this race and lo and behold that doesn't happen!
I woke up at 4:30 and did my usual morning thing. It was dark for the next coupla hours and just LIGHTLY misting. Got to Deerhurst around 6:30 and set everything up. I have certain luxuries as an employee in terms of keeping all my stuff in storage and knowing where the best morning toilets are (privacy and no wait!) :)
I thought it was pretty organized for the swim starts. We were all corralled down at the beach and my wave started at 8:15 sharp. My swim was super typical. ultra mediocre and in fact slower than normal. It seemed usual, and though I was going well, but exited pretty slow in 39:22 (31/66 in my AG)... was the long run up to T1 included in T1 time or swim? Either way it blew as usual.
Onto the bike and i just tried to get in a good pace. The plan was eload in my aerobottle and one concentrated bottle of eload to be diluted with water received at bottle exchange (twice). this concentrated eload thing worked like a dream at IMC a few weeks ago so why not give'r again? Well about 5k in I lost that damn yellow thing so things changed. I sucked back a bunch of the eload I had in the aerobottle to stop splashing and just jammed it up with empty gel packets until the first bottle exchange where I threw it away and grabbed a water. Well it sucks to pound a shot of the concentrated eload and then chase it with water, so i suffered through a bit of this before ditching the eload bottle at bottle exchange numero deux and going with one water and one gatorade (I also had 5 gels on the bike). My bike felt good... despite the ridiculous hills, off and on rain (mostly just varying intensities of ON) and the intermittent wind. i finished the 94k in 2:57:36 which I was pretty pleased with given the course and the conditions. I was 18th in my AG and 182 overall in the bike, not half bad.
The run is where I normally shine and make up for the majority of time deficit given up from my weak ass swim, but for some reason I got this major back back right from the get go. must be sciatic related as the pain shot through my left ass cheek and down my leg. This stayed with me for most of the run and i really only felt good on the "flat" parts of the run. Rain picked up like mad and i was soon sloshing through puddles and such and feet were a mess. I passed a few in my AG, a couple passed me... pretty uneventful for chasing down dudes in my AG, none that were a real challenge and there was no way I could keep up with the dudes that blew by me. I managed to hold a ~5:00 or little less per k for the duration and finished my run in a time of 1:44:11 (16th in my AG)...
So I ended up with a time of 5:27:40, more than 30 mins slower than I did at Peterborough in July! But given the day and the course, I'd say the performance was damn near on par!
It was a great race, despite the weather and I'll be back for this one for sure. And the medal is kick ass.
To all those who may bitch and moan about the parking situation, as a former shuttle driver for the resort I assure you there was nothing more that coulda been done. I assume they'll widen the road to the Airstrip maybe, but there's no way around having to park over there. Believe it or not, there were "regular" resort guests there as well and their needs (at least to a certain extent) need to be addressed also.
All in all a great first year!
Congrats to all who raced!!! and if you're a real man/woman you'll skip Esprit next year and head to Huntsville for a real challenge! :)
I was checking the forecast all week hoping we'd get one of those glimpses of decent weather for this race and lo and behold that doesn't happen!
I woke up at 4:30 and did my usual morning thing. It was dark for the next coupla hours and just LIGHTLY misting. Got to Deerhurst around 6:30 and set everything up. I have certain luxuries as an employee in terms of keeping all my stuff in storage and knowing where the best morning toilets are (privacy and no wait!) :)
I thought it was pretty organized for the swim starts. We were all corralled down at the beach and my wave started at 8:15 sharp. My swim was super typical. ultra mediocre and in fact slower than normal. It seemed usual, and though I was going well, but exited pretty slow in 39:22 (31/66 in my AG)... was the long run up to T1 included in T1 time or swim? Either way it blew as usual.
Onto the bike and i just tried to get in a good pace. The plan was eload in my aerobottle and one concentrated bottle of eload to be diluted with water received at bottle exchange (twice). this concentrated eload thing worked like a dream at IMC a few weeks ago so why not give'r again? Well about 5k in I lost that damn yellow thing so things changed. I sucked back a bunch of the eload I had in the aerobottle to stop splashing and just jammed it up with empty gel packets until the first bottle exchange where I threw it away and grabbed a water. Well it sucks to pound a shot of the concentrated eload and then chase it with water, so i suffered through a bit of this before ditching the eload bottle at bottle exchange numero deux and going with one water and one gatorade (I also had 5 gels on the bike). My bike felt good... despite the ridiculous hills, off and on rain (mostly just varying intensities of ON) and the intermittent wind. i finished the 94k in 2:57:36 which I was pretty pleased with given the course and the conditions. I was 18th in my AG and 182 overall in the bike, not half bad.
The run is where I normally shine and make up for the majority of time deficit given up from my weak ass swim, but for some reason I got this major back back right from the get go. must be sciatic related as the pain shot through my left ass cheek and down my leg. This stayed with me for most of the run and i really only felt good on the "flat" parts of the run. Rain picked up like mad and i was soon sloshing through puddles and such and feet were a mess. I passed a few in my AG, a couple passed me... pretty uneventful for chasing down dudes in my AG, none that were a real challenge and there was no way I could keep up with the dudes that blew by me. I managed to hold a ~5:00 or little less per k for the duration and finished my run in a time of 1:44:11 (16th in my AG)...
So I ended up with a time of 5:27:40, more than 30 mins slower than I did at Peterborough in July! But given the day and the course, I'd say the performance was damn near on par!
It was a great race, despite the weather and I'll be back for this one for sure. And the medal is kick ass.
To all those who may bitch and moan about the parking situation, as a former shuttle driver for the resort I assure you there was nothing more that coulda been done. I assume they'll widen the road to the Airstrip maybe, but there's no way around having to park over there. Believe it or not, there were "regular" resort guests there as well and their needs (at least to a certain extent) need to be addressed also.
All in all a great first year!
Congrats to all who raced!!! and if you're a real man/woman you'll skip Esprit next year and head to Huntsville for a real challenge! :)