Race Report – Shawnigan Lake Triathlon – Olympic Distance

Place Overall: 2/119
Place 20-29: 1/14
Total Time: 2:04:53 (44km Bike Course)

As I mentioned previously, Saturday was not an ideal pre race day:
- Training felt off: Shins bothered a bit on the run, very fatigued on the bike, stiff on the swim
- Very little relaxing: Training, traveling, checking out race wheels from a guy, pre race meeting/bike drop off took most of the day. Only relaxed 2 hours in the Lake where I tried to nap unsuccessfully
- Tired: did not sleep well, and definitely not enough on the previous 2 nights
However, nutrition, a key aspect of the day, did go very well. Had my usual breakfast, a chicken sandwich with tomatoes and yam for lunch, some fruits and cereal in the afternoon, pasta dinner with tomatoes and pesto sauce, and a bagel with PB before bed.

At 4.45am Kamal and I were up. We both set the alarms for 5, but none of us got a great night of sleep and at that point there was nothing we could do. Just have breakfast, get to the race and do the best we can.

Arrived to transition only 1:20 before start which was not good at all. I would have liked to have more time, but somehow we managed to get there pretty late for my liking. Went for a 20 min bike ride on the course and had some race accelerations immediately after arriving. Needed to leave before 7am because the ½ Iron was starting. Prepared some things in transition. Went for a 10 min jog, did not have any more time, had to come back quickly to finish transition setup and get wetsuit on. No stretching whatsoever, pretty stressed and rushed. Got wetsuit on and 4/5 min swim, ½ min stretch and that’s it.

Swim: Found Simon Whitfield at the start line and lined up close to get a draft off him. Was able to do so for about 300m, after that I got into my ideal pace instead of his and swam well and strong. I exited the water with Kelly Guest on my feet.

T1: Poor transition. Second time trying to put the shoes on the go and not much smoother than the first. Elastic bands snapped while running out of T1 and therefore putting the shoes on was hard once again. Luckily I got that sorted out without wasting much time.

Bike: Kelly Guest went past me after my slow transition and did not want him to get away. Lost a little ground, about 100m over the next ¾ of the first lap. At that moment I decided to push a bit harder and caught him before the end of the first lap. Focused on staying with him on the second lap. Legs were quite tired and burning, and did not have the energy to pass him and stay in front. Pushed really hard up hills and tried to recover legs on downhills while staying strong in the flats (not many sections). Last 10-15 min were relatively easy and was able to up my cadence, and rest a bit for the run. No problems taking shoes off and dismounting.

T2: Average T2. Fast dismount, racked bike, slipped on shoes with some trouble, grabbed race belt and off I went. At this point I was about 10 seconds down on Kelly Guest.

Run: Started very strong right from the beginning, wanted to make a move to bridge the gap but legs were feeling the hard bike effort. Keeping cadence high and trying to focus on forefoot strike. Muscles were not really hurting, but were definitely fatigued. I was not breathing very hard, however I could not go any faster. He was not gaining much for the first 4 or 5 km, but after the turnaround the gap started to increase and before I knew it he was gone. Nothing I could do about it. 3rd place was quite far behind and therefore was a sure 2nd place if nothing went wrong. Increased speed for the last km just as “drill”.

Overall was a great race. I was very happy with my swim pace and bike split, somewhat happy with the run and T2, and once again quite unhappy with T1. Need to work more on that as well as leg turn over speed.

Sunday Post Race was good, got lots of food in me right after the race. Relaxed and watched friends finish the ½ Iron, bought a set of Easton EC90 TT carbon wheels, prepared backpack and took the ferry home. Great weekend!

Thanks again Kamal for letting me stay at your triathlon/bike shop (you know why…=p), it was awesome! Thanks to Engineer Enej and Engineer Jason for the rides and congratulations on your graduation!