So, Saturday, June 11 was my first race of this season, having been sidelined from the National Capital Half Marathon due to the issue with my left leg. The event: an Olympic Distance Swim-Bike at the Ottawa River Triathlon, being held at Britannia Beach in Ottawa.
This being a bit of training day, I trained as normal in the week leading up to the race, but knowing that I would be putting in a hard effort on the bike during the race, I left my trainer ride out, using my race bike leg as my hard ride.
After a failed attempt to get to Britannia on the night before to register due to construction season in Ottawa, I arrived at the venue early on Saturday morning to secure my entry and get my bike and race kit down to the transition area, which gave me some time to wander around the site, catching up with some friends and training partners prior to the race. It was great to see some people that I haven’t seen in a few months and catch up, if only briefly.
A quick stop at the race orientation, just to get the scoop on the swim course – three loops, including an exit at the end of each loop, quick run around two fluorescent green (Name of Sponsor Here) buoys and back into the water… dolphin dives anyone? This was great practice for the Big Event, since we will be doing two loops of Mirror Lake including an exit from the water and brief run in between. This was to be my first Olympic-distance swim in a race situation, so I was a bit anxious, and keen to get it over with. This was a normal feeling of course, as I’ve always viewed the swim as a necessary evil in triathlon; it’s never been my favourite of the three sports.
At the start, I wished my riding buddy good luck, and a big smile washed across my face, this was going to be it, the first race situation test of my months of work through the winter and spring. Loop One, the gun, or horn went off, signaling the start of the race. I began diving into the water, a few quick dolphin dives (check them out on Google) and into a starting pace, after about 30 seconds, I settled into what would be my race pace for the swim. I was well positioned to draft off a few people, and made it comfortably to the first turn, where for some reason everyone ALWAYS slows down, and in a lot of cases pop up like they are coming out of a gopher hole. I stayed in my rhythm and did my best to get around the human pylons, er, additional obstacles, and set my sights on the next buoy. At the second turn the water was quite shallow, which meant people were standing in the water and walking around the buoy, causing issues for those coming after them. I made the turn and headed for the turn at the fluorescent green (Name of Race Sponsor Here) buoys. For a split second en route to the turn I remember thinking, three loops? Really? How can that only be 500 metres… Reaching the turn, I got up and around the buoys and into the water to quickly start loop two. The second loop felt great, except for the moment where I had just adjusted my goggles only to have someone kick them off my face, but moments later, I’d finally settled into a rhythm, and I found myself relishing the second turn and third loop. Before I knew it, loop three was done and I was running for my T-zone spot to get my bike. That’s right, I RAN to my bike, which was the best feeling ever after having been basically run-free in training over the past three weeks while recovering my left leg. The pictures of that swim exit speak volumes, I don’t think I’ve ever smiled that widely in a race photo before. I found out later that the swim was actually 1600 meters, which meant it had gone even better than I’d expected.
On to the bike, once I’d run across a boardwalk and several meters down a recreational path, I got on the bike and made my way down the pathway until I reached the entrance to the road where we would complete four loops of approximately 10 k. I won’t mention the fact that we had to ride across grass and off a curb to get onto the parkway, but I will mention that there seemed to be a headwind in both directions and that four 10k loops can get ridiculously boring at a certain point. Yes, grass and curbs, definitely not my idea of ideal race course terrain, but it was what it was and we all sucked it up to get’er done. Once I got into a rhythm, that is exactly what I did, and knowing that I didn’t have a 10 k run waiting for me after the bike, I did what I could to leave it all out there on the course. I finished the 44.4k bike in about 1.5 hours. Overall it was a fun day, probably the most fun I’ve had on the race course in a while.
What I learned… I learned that my progress is swimming has been fantastic, I felt comfortable and confident throughout, and I’m very pleased with my final result. I learned that I was nutritionally short on the bike, now I know I need to carry at least two gels on the bike in an Olympic distance race, one would suffice, but will now carry two just in case. And, finally, I learned that the swim-bike discipline is awesome, it allows you to test your limits on the bike without having to worry about saving your legs and some gas for the run…. And, there’s tons of room at the massage tent when you finish!