This year the New Balance ½ Ironman in Victoria BC served as the Canadian Long Course Championships – attracting a pretty fast crowd, including Jasper Blake & Carol Montgomery (who unfortunately didn’t start due to illness). It isn’t a fast course, and many describe the bike as “very hilly”. I’d call it more like “very rolly” – you aren’t ever really on flat ground, but there aren’t any significant climbs either – mostly a bunch of rolling hills and false flats. The swim is in a very nice little lake, and the run is 2x a 10k loop around the lake on gravel trails – most of it well shaded. The course record here is under 4hrs, and the event is very well supported by the town and many local triathletes – in the past they’ve had Peter Reid working as a corner marshal, and Lori Bowden volunteering at the package-stuffing party.
My goal this year was to go sub 6. That’s pretty much a number I just pulled out of my ass, but SAC approved of the goal as “reasonable”, so we went with it. This is also the first time I’ve ever trained for a long course race. Last year’s debacle @ Oliver proved that “winging it” was an insanely painful decision, made much more so by a dumbass decision on my part to ride a fixed gear. This year I showed up reasonably well trained, and with a tri-bike. I even procured race wheels for the occasion!
The weather report called for overcast skies and rain, but the morning dawned bright and sunny. I got to the race site, set up my transition zone, and lined up for body marking and chip pick-up. The line moved very quickly, and I ran into a girl I know from UBC while waiting. I finished my pre-race prep, hit the can one last time, and suited up for a warm-up swim.
The swim was a “floating start”, and I could have sworn I heard Jonathan Caron’s voice in the water. The bell went off (RD forgot the air horn), and so were we. Normally I get shitkicked in the first part of the swim, and then find myself alone – the fast and main packs having gone by me. Imagine my surprise when at the 1/3 mark buoy, I still had a lot of company! I was feeling good, and swimming well – I was even sighting pretty well (which has always been a problem for me in open water). I exited the water and ran up the beach, crossing the timing mats heading into transition just shy of 40min. The only “bad” thing to happen was that someone kicked my watch during the swim, so it stopped recording @ 14:00.
I had a reasonably quick transition, and hit the bike course. For some weird reason my HRM wasn’t registering heart rate. I tried stopping and starting it a few times (which usually resolves the issue), but to no avail. I figured that racing with HR just wasn’t in the cards, which worked out ok as SAC wanted me to race on feel anyway. I kept a lid on the effort, and didn’t attack any of the little hills as I normally like to do. It was pretty funny – a bunch of people would pass me going up, and I’d pass them right back going down or on the “flats”. This repeated pretty much throughout the entire bike. On the 3rd lap I stood up to stretch my back, and my left quad cramped up. “Uh-oh”… I sat and spun for a bit, then stood up again – this time with the right leg down for support. That one cramped up too… “This isn’t good”… I sat down and spun some more. “Oh well – just another ½ lap and I’m off the bike. Better take in some electrolytes in the meantime, and maybe it’ll work itself out”. I spun easily for the duration of the bike course, and I came in shortly after 3hrs.
Another reasonably quick transition (slightly delayed because I couldn’t find my rack), and I was off on the run. Well – sort of. My legs were threatening to cramp at any moment, so it was more of a shuffle than a run. It took a good 5k before the “I’ll cramp if you do anything stupid” feeling went away, and I started to run a little. I finished the first loop in ~1:05, and picked up the pace. Somehow my heart rate had started working again, so I took it up to around 181 and held pace. I also picked up another dude who was “holding on” at around the same pace, so we ran together to keep each other honest and for a little company to suffer with. At the 15km mark my legs cramped up again, so I dropped off the pace and went back to my shuffle. I held it together until 1km to go, and then hit the afterburners. Cramps be damned, I was going to finish strong, running HARD. I passed close to a dozen people in the last k, including 3 with less than 100m to the line. I hit the mats @ 5:57 and change, wobbled while the volunteers took off my chip and hung my finisher’s medal, and then cramped up HUGE and fell over. I spent maybe 10min lying on the grass, and then slowly got up and shuffled off for a massage.
Overall I’m really happy with my race – I had a good swim and sighted well, kept a lid on the effort during the bike, and managed to hold it together for a negative split on the run - which has always been my weakest leg. I also hit my goal of a sub 6 time. SAC will be pleased that I wasn’t smiling during the run photos, too. 
Final times:
Swim 00:39:36
T1 00:01:18
Bike 03:07:03
T2 00:01:48
Run 02:07:29 (1:05, 1:02
Total 05:57:12
Lessons learned – my transitions stand to get better, but the main issue was not taking in enough electrolytes.
This race was a hell of a lot of fun, and I’ll definitely come back. Oh, btw – that was Jonathan I heard in the water. He lost 2nd place to Jasper Blake as he ran out of real estate chasing him down on the run.
Setting up transition…
Suiting up…
The lake…
Jonathan’s ducks…
A pre-race moment…
The swim…
Leaving T1…
The bike (2nd lap)…
The bike (3rd lap, legs cramping, and “choked up” on a false flat)
The run (lap 1)…
Finish line sprint!
10 seconds later…
My own personal masseuse (highly recommended!)
