Muskoka Chase...I almost beat Craig Alexandar....in T1....and apology :-)

Triathlon Forum
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Wow, what a huge showing from the ST studs. I believe JMo, Itseazy and Eric Fernando took top age group awards. Craig Alexandar and Samantha McGlone showed some blazing speed winning their respective divisions and both will be a force in Kona. Speaking of Craig Alexandar…I almost beat him at 1 thing…he outsplit me in T1 32 to 38 seconds…but I was close. And Epicman 'winner" Alexander Albuquerque bounced back from Epicman to take 4th in 35-39 and thumped my ass by a solid 4 minutes! Looking at the results, I just noticed that Itseazy also posted the fastest swim split of the day INCLUDING PROS with no one to work with! AWESOME!

I guess I just had one of those races when I was not “on” in any sport, but I did not do any sport particularly badly. Aside from reasonably fast transitions, it was a "balanced “tortoise style race” where I did not blaze in any sport but moved myself up to 3rd in 40-44 by being the “guy who did not slow down”. I ended up a 7:40 down on Ms. McGlone who came in at 3:00.21 ( tend to use the top women as the benchmark…last year I was 8:02 behind…so I guess my performance was similar)

Frankly, I find it hard racing from the “old man 40-44 wave” . Today, I had to make the way through women’s 40-49 (where I lost my draft in the swim), men over 70, women over 60. Meanwhile the young studs who I would like to race for the amateur overall were pulling away up front as I rode the brakes seaminly on every descent scared that I might take out an older competitor. I am really looking forward to my next 4 races…Peterborough Half Ironman, Ironman LP, Canadian Half in Ottawa and Esprit Half in Montreal, and aside from Ironman LP, all are relatively small races where I can get out front on a clean road :slight_smile:

Aside from that Janet and Mitch Fraser did an amazing job as usual. The new course was a killer. Tough steep hills. I know I should do better on a bike course like this, but frankly I have become more of a roleur and flat TT type which defies logic since at 140ish (OK, I’m up to 143), I should be better on hills.

It was great to see all the folks out there. I love this race…that was my 11 Muskoka race in a row and 14th time I have raced there.

Finally, apologies to the woman in 40-44 who I screamed off the road. We had a huge speed differential, and I was pretty darn cranky and yelled “PASS OR GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!” Frankly this behaviour (mine) was unacceptable. The lady was doing her best to pass the guy beside her, but like most guys he would not let a 40-44 year old woman pass her. I shouted…IF YOU CAN’T PASS IN 15 SECONDS THEN YOU ARE DRAFTING. Although I thought she was technicallly drafting/blocking, I really had no business screaming because you can’t really judge from far behind what is going on…it was likley more the fault of the man beside her who would have likely received a penalty for accelerating after she put her front wheel in front of him rather than dropping back…so yes, I WAS an asshole, and if you are reading this apologize. Even 40-44 men on our declining testosterone can get pretty darn revved up in the heat of battle!

http://www.sportstats.ca/...g&racecode=42084

Anyway, I can’t wait to race Peterborough mass start head to head with the young studs…this old man wave really sucks!

Dev

2

Was wondering what was going on there, Dev. I was right behind the woman as you and her had your, er, discussion.

That woman was a solid cyclist…she and I traded positions for most of the first 2/3 of the race until we hit Britannia (I’m fairly confident it wasn’t me you’re referring to as the guy that wouldn’t let her pass…I try to be fairly cognizant of those things).

3

Small world. I have no comment on her strength as a cyclist. My actions were not necessary and I should leave the “refereeing” to the officials and just worry about my own race :-). As for the guy who would not let her pass, I have no clue who it was. I was observing from fairly far away as I closed at a high rate of “knots” (to use an airforce term), and it looked like she was taking a long time to pass mainly because the guy she was passing was not willing to fall back. In any event…it was a heat of battle thing. I really can’t observe that much at 50 kph going down a slight downhill after a gut busting anaerobic uphill so any comments are based on incomplete information :-(. Anyway, this was around 7K into the ride when we turned off the main road for the out and back if that helps.

4

I’m going to take a guess and say I know who the woman is based on our start times and swim splits, and I’ll contact her offline and apologize personally.

5

As I recall, she seemed to know your name, so you might know her (she made a comment along the lines of “I’ve been doing this sport just as long as you, Dev”.)

As for if it was me, I know your discussion with her started behind me, just as we made that turn onto the out-and-back, and continued as you both passed me. Given the fact she and I were trading back and forth, I sure hope it wasn’t me. If it was, I apologize as I may not have seen them; I don’t have a big cycling ego, and so if someone is going to pass me, I drop back.

6

No, it was not you. There was a guy behind you just before the uphill when it all started off :-). I sent her an email offline and I am hoping this gets me out of the doghouse with the W40-44 :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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The lady was doing her best to pass the guy beside her, but like most guys he would not let a 40-44 year old woman pass her.<<

You should see how wigged out dudes get when gals 45-49 pass them.

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Cathy, if it is the person who I think she is, she is a multiple time Kona qualifier and finisher. She passes lots of guys and is very solid all around. Anyway, shit happens in competition, but I really should not take this so seriously. I should just be thankful for being on the road in a race and be a bit more of a gentleman…let’s just put it this way…I would not want some 40-44 man on a mission to get an optimum performance give crap like that to my wife if she was in a race! I always say, that the best guage of how to treat other women is ask yourself, “would you want someone being a jerk like that to your mother/wife/daughter/sister/niece etc etc”. Usually that sets you straight in a hurry.

Dev

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You should see how wigged out dudes get when gals 45-49 pass them.

Excellent use of the term “wigged out”. That doesn’t get enough play these days.

-C

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Nice job out there Dev and all the other ST studs. .
As for the swim split, I wasn’t fastest, I think there was a pack of pro men about :30 faster. For the 1st time in a long time I felt like I raced smart. Here’s a short report on my day:

I took the first 400m of the swim out hard to get a gap then cruised pretty steady to T1, 26:01 (I think the swim’s long :wink: )

Onto the bike, this was my first race with the PowerTap, I’ve only had it for a couple of weeks so I’m really still learning but I knew based on percieved exertion along with the numbers I was putting up that I was riding well within myself. This was a big goal going into this race as I haven’t been running much at all. I ended the ride in 1:26:32, NP was 310. I think the course was hard but fair, probably 2-3 minutes slower than the previous course. I’m looking forward to a more rolling course like Peterborough however. The climbs here were just enough to break up the rythm I thought.

Out of T2 I felt pretty good but wasn’t sure how long that would last considering this would be my longest run since early May. It turns out that proper pacing on the bike really does allow you to run closer to your potential. All things considered I was happy with a 1:02:59, it’s the fastest I’ve ever run there and I’m looking forward to getting through some solid training miles over the rest of the summer.

Congrats to all those who nabbed the coveted IM slots, this race as always brought out the solid pros as well as the amateurs!
A shout out to my buddy Wolfgang Guembel who had the race of his life to stand on the podium with two World Champs in the Pro Chase!

Cheers, Ian

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Just noticed there were 4 DQ’s. I don’t think I have ever seen a DQ at an Ontario race!
How many course marshals were there this weekend?

great race guys!

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Dev,

Nice chatting with you after the race. You had a great race - stop being so modest. It’s a tough AG. Sorry that I missed you on the race call in both T1 and T2. I was not checking the overflow racks.

Overall an outstanding weekend in Huntsville. Seemed to be huge numbers of people out doing and watching the sprint race on Saturday afternoon. Good to see, as they got to see young Conner Hammond decimate the field. Watch out for this kid! He’s got the genes. He’s got the talent and the fitness, but most importantly he’s got a great attitude - loose and easy-going. He’s going to go a long way.

Many people, including the pro men and women talking about how much harder the new bike course is for the long course race.

Len Gushe is from another planet. Fitting that on Father’s day, he was racing well with some guys who where young enough to be his sons!! To bad that he had not fully recovered from the Flu, otherwise he may have been able to really push Alexander.

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How many course marshals were there this weekend?

Mark,

John Grace the head OAT ref on the bike told me he had 5 people out on the bike course.

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Hey Ian,

Well done buddy. You looked great out there.

But enough about you. I want to hear about Elisabeth’s race on Saturday. I saw her running to T1 and she was flying! Did her bike perform well on the technical Muskoka bike course?

Mike

15

That’s awesome. Looks like there were almost 800 for the long coursers. That is a great turnout.
I would be interested in hearing how it was for the mid-packers. I am so frustrated with the drafting I am seeing this year it is getting me extremely turned off. I guess I just need to become a better cyclist so I don’t see this crap.

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Itseazy, thanks for the cheers out on the course. You looked awesome. Great race and race report. Like you, I am looking forward to a course like Peterborough…more to my riding strengths than short 500W 18% grades that were on many places on Muskoka course. 310W NP is crazy power dude. Can’t wait to see what you put down in Peterborough. Unless I can pull off a 1:25 run (not likely), I have no hope of “defending” my first overall age grouper from Peterborough last year with you in the field. Frankly, the field last year was soft!

I am glad to see that you felt that the swim was long at Muskoka. The far turn buoy was normally well before the island…this time, beside the island. I felt I worked pretty hard on my swimming and only took 1 min off last year’s time, so hearing this news from a good swimmer makes me feel better about my relative swim spit. Also, I lost my draft early in the swim (within 6 min) when the “leaders” in 40-44 caught the womens 40-44. I ended up losing the two front swimmers in my age group and pulling the next group for 1500m. Although my swim split shows 7th in my age group, I am pretty sure I exited the water in 3rd. So my secret for the 38 second T1 is out…I actually remove my wetsuit when it is totally soaked, so the wetsuit removal time is in my swim split…that’s when the group I was towing passed me…but I was out on the bike course in 3rd, got passed by 1 and passed one back. Then on the run, it was steady. You don’t really have to run too fast to do OK in the old man waves…just don’t slow down.

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"…anyway, I can’t wait to race Peterborough mass start head to head with the young studs…this old man wave really sucks! "

Dev, as we discussed yesterday after the race, having an elite age group wave at Muskoka would be a lot fairer and more enjoyable for the stronger masters athletes. Of course with IM slots on the line it isn’t practical.

I suggest we drum up support for an elite age group wave for those who don’t care about slots. If this new bike course sticks, it will be a lot safer. Plus, this way I can make sure you old studs don’t slingshot your way to a faster bike split than me :).

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"I believe JMo, Itseazy and Eric Fernando took top age group awards. "
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Actually, you can add St’er HR to that list. Rich was the top amateur in the race.
That was my first time doing the race and i’ll be back foresure. Great organization and tough competition.
The pro field was huge and top quality.

Also highlights for me was some Steve Fleck announcing (sharing the job with Kevin McKinnon). I never did get to meet Dev though. You were talking to itseazy and then were gone by the time i came up.
Good race by all out there.

19

Actually, you can add St’er HR to that list. Rich was the top amateur in the race.

Indeed, Rich Pady is in great shape and had a great result on Sunday. He’s looking good for a top place overall on the men’s side at Ironman USA. I had the pleasure of training with Rich down in LP a few weeks ago and he’s got that course completely dialed in.

20

Hey Dev…did you see that the Peterborough run course is changed. No more running out and back. It’s a two loop course. I kind of liked the out and back personally but I can see how they would like to get rid of it. it created havoc with the traffic.