The Muskoka Long Course Tri went off weekend (2K swim, 55K bike, 15K run). Up front, we were treated to an awesome performance by Miles Stewart who made up the 18 min stagger on the ladies including Lisa Bentley and Teresa Macel and took the $20K race.
Closer to my world, I had a good swim, stuggled on the bike on a borrowed bike from a friend that I got 3 days before the race, but still managed to have a reasonable ride. About a mile into the run, I was treated by the Vortex of Allan Faulds who blew by me like I was racing in a other parallel universe. While I was struggling on the run, I was still running close to 4 min per K. Now I know why Allan goes 9:08 (or whatever) in Ironman. The guy is incredible. On a positive note, even though the rest of my race was just OK, my transition splits (free speed), was up there with the pros !
Well, I am already looking forward to being buried by Allan at the Peterborough Half Ironman in 3 weeks. I better get some run legs back so I don’t get blown into the ditch by his vortex. On the other hand, this assumes that I would be able to swim and bike at his pace, likely a tall order over the half Ironman distance.
Did a fun 10 kms run one time. There was a a 1/2 marathon at the same time. Everybody started together. There was a guy that was way out in front of everybody else. I initially assumed to be that much faster than the field he must only be doing the 10 kms. Nope. He did the half.
Allan is one heck of an amazing AG athlete. Did he not win AG in IM Florida?
Not to hijack the topic, but in my opinion the most memorable thing about the race was seeing Lisa Bentley walking her dog along the run course after her finish, and cheering us “less stud-like” athletes along. And it didn’t seem like she was doing it out of duty or obligation … she just really seemed to enjoy seeing people out racing for the pleasure of it. Damn, she’s cool.
Actually Paul, just read the results. You’re pretty good yourself. Congratulations to both you and Allan for a pair of good races. The wife and I were supposed to do the sprint but she’s been injured again for the past two weeks. Same thing happened last year. Hopefully she’ll be up for Peterborough.
I was standing on top of the last hill before the finish waiting for my girlfriend, when Lisa came running by with her dog. I asked her if her dog needed to get in 15k also, she just laughed and kept going.
I raced Muskoka this weekend as well, and it was good to see Lisa, Tereza, Miles and some of the other pros there chasing the $20k prize purse. It was, however, disappointing to find out on race morning that Peter Reid would not be showing up, as I had hoped to see him out on the couse.
I had a half decent race, until I got off my bike, as the run was a struggle (although, to be fair, I knew going in that I had some work to do on my running). Congrats to all those who finished this notoriously tough race.
Thanks Shony, I really put together a great race, a real breakthrough. That was the first time I ran under an hour and it was also the first time I was under 3 hours overall.
Devashish Paul just like I spell it. (my last name is Paul, first name is Devashish, or Dev for all you dudes who can’t be bothered to spell or say the whole thing ). The results for Muskoka show my name backwards as usual.
Eric, congrats on a great race. Good luck at IMC.
Any slowtwitchers from Muskoka going to be at either Tupper Lake or Peterborough half Ironmans ? I’ll be (foolishly) racing in both…then again, why bother doing intervals when you can just go in a race !
Hey Paul…I’ll be going to Pete but doing the short course (me and cerveloguy are competing for the fasttwitch on slowtwitch award…I’m gonna win by attrition…20 races in one year should be a tough act to follow…6 already in the books). Hope to cheers you on though. Such a long drive to waste not watching the long course people come in.
hey now…I’m not sure if those winter ones count (okay, we’re Canadian I guess they count)…all of my races are tris and dus…I can’t seem to venture out into the cold too often…and certainly not to race. Besided, to be in contention for the FT/ST award all of your races have to be 2hrs or less…anything else definitely qualifies as ST only.
Powerman AL Duathlon
West Bloomfield 1/2 Marathon
Willow Duathlon
Nankin Mills Duathlon
Grosse Ile Duathlon
Little Smokies 1/2 Iron
Seahorse Triathlon
Ann Arbor Triathlon
Muskoka Triathlon
I have plans for 6 more local sprint and Oly races, plus another 1/2 before IM Canada. I’ll do a few more tris and maybe a du afterwards, and then run the Detroit Free Press Marathon to try to qualify for Boston.
