captain-tri wrote:
That's awesome. I've been doing a lot of training in the Alberni Valley the last few months while visiting my parents, and I frequently think to myself how great a race would be there. Assuming I can get the days off work, I'm there!
Edit: I looked at the registration, and it's a bit pricey (not compared to WTC), but what it is awesome if you can select what distance you want for each leg. So you could do the full 4K swim, the 10K run, and the 90K bike, were you so inclined.
Here's my race report & if you take time to read, please accept my thanks.
There aren't many active triathletes that live in Port Alberni. I could run beer'd up drag boats all day long across the most gorgeous lake in the world (seriously) and never hit an OWS. Runners and cyclists, yep lots of MTB action too. So this $Canada150$ funded backwards-tri was cooked-up to showcase three of the biggest combustion-engined-iron-dinosaurs that are floating derelict around here. Run the old smoky train, ride against the chuggin' 1000HP diesel boat and swim around the defunct Martin Mars water bomber plane on
my
lake.
Friday night package pickup wasn't that busy. I was kinda surprised. Boston Pizza on hand for a pasta dinner which was good. The branding the promotion for this race was all-out. The race package/brief was marginal and maps were illegible.
Day#1 Race the train run. Chip timing by Race-day. 10K which featured a sizeable hill up to McLean Mill - a historic sawmill site. 21 km is a return loop. 3x aid stations had little Dixie cups and had the course wasn't really marked. I followed two dudes the way. My wife further back was directed by some town folk :). Rather than take the train back, we summoned my daughter w/car. As we were returning to race start, city crews were packing up road closures/signage. At the same time we saw friends still out on course, desperately trying to finish their events. It was surreal, like that tornado scene from Wizard of Oz.
Day#2 Bike the Boat. @ 5:30 am to greet the bleery-eyed staff & same-day register for an
OMG look what I got myself into ride on gravel Port Alberni to Bamfield. Not just gravel. Rocks, punishing, relentless washboard & 1800M of climb + descent. Sea level to sea level. I was on pretty much a road bike w/ 32mm tires 2 gels, 1 bottle and flat kit. 43 riders would start. 40 would finish credit to them. 6:30am we rolled out. Took off on road climbing to China Creek things were rosy, following the leader cause I didn't know the way.
But by the time I hit the first logging division off-pavement, all hell broke loose. Nearly unrideable. I gave it 20 minutes to see what's up ahead, or DNF. Fortunately, like a track in the snow I could find a line to ride. I couldn't look left or right nor take a hand off the bars, my front was so loose. 70K of this. The climbing. I was on a compact crank, but needed less teeth up front. Who knows I could have easily lost some if I hit the deck. I had to be full brakes on the descents for safety. MTB's were just flying the downhills - to one lane crossings. Traffic kicked up some serious dust inhalation. Counted the things that could take me out. But none did and I landed in Bamfield, to rest up for the lunch.Few summary photos of my race at <
https://twitter.com/...s/884155298079842305 Day#3 Swim the Plane My wife headed off early to volunteer. Got there & not posted/needed. Communication to volunteers was an issue for sure. Coulson's didn't roll the plane into the lake, not sure why. The course was simple enough but the markings weren't OWS standard. Into the sun on the second lap myself & several others got off course. Climbers in an O2 deficit daze like a blizzard up Everest. Kayakers were dozing doing what? I ended up following the shoreline, but course did not. So had to make 2 sizeable jogs to hook the actual buoys.
Race org chartered a plane to direct fly-in an OWS group from Vancouver. Red carpet on the beach and monogram towels after (true!). Always nice to have some competition, just wished they had a few lbs of concrete dust in their lungs too from the bike leg :P The water was beautiful and hey I could swim all day long in our lake. You can drink the water it's so clean.
My son took the 500M swim in 7.5 mins. At ~ same pace my neighbour, Dr. Owen Brown busted the 4+km's in just under 58 mins. Not sure who won the 2K swim. My son and I are below, taking a catch (green and orange).
There are some Island triathletes on the 'twitch here, so if this race runs next year, you might want to give it a whirl. Timing mats to timing mat is the same every race, only the backdrop changes. And you couldn't beat this epic deal. Bring your MTB with fat tires and be prepared!!
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