Like a Fine Wine, Better with Age: Bracebridge Sprint Race Report

Given that I hadn't raced a sprint in 2 years, I had no real goals going into this race other than I wanted to have a faster bike split that my previous 2 years.  I have put a lot of time and effort into my cycling over the last year so I expected to see some kind of improvement.   Other than that I figured my swim probably wouldn't change too much and my run, well who knew.  I knew it wouldn't be as fast as previous years because I haven't been running that fast.  So this was a test to see what I *could* do.

The last time we did this race, we drove up the morning of the race.  This year the start time seemed to be much earlier than previously so we opted to drive up to Gravenhurst the day before and stay the night.  We stayed at the Residence Inn right on the water.   We wandered around downtown Gravenhurst and stopped for a drink at Sawdust City Brewery where I had a most delicious Raspberry Radler.  We made our way back to the hotel and went to grab some dinner.  It had gone from a nice sunny day to overcast and cloudy.   The forecast was calling for a thunderstorm and this time the weatherman got it right.  After dinner grabbed an ice cream and watched the storm roll in.

G watched some TV and I actually sat down and finished a book I'd been reading since MARCH.  We were both in bed asleep just before 10 am.  We were up at 5:15 so we could pack up and hit the road by 6 am.  We stopped at Tim Horton's for a coffee and some carbs and made the 20 minute drive to Annie Williams Park in Bracebridge.

The last time we did this race everyone seemed to show up at the same time so registration got so backed up they had to start the race later.  This year was much better.  We were also there fairly early as well.  We get set up in transition, picked up our kits and got body marked. I ran into two of the women from the Lake Placid Cycling Camp, Carolan and Jennifer.  It was Jennifer's first multi sport event - she was doing the swim bike.  I chatted with them for a while and then went back into transition to finish setting up.  G came over and told me that he saw Paolina and that she was racing.  I started laughing and knew that there was going to be at least one person in my AG that was going to crush me.  I saw her setting up and ran over to her and gave her a big hug.  She asked me what AG I was in and I said hers and she said Oh great.  "Like you have anything to worry about" I said.  It was so nice to see her.  She has such great energy.

She was running late setting up so G and I went into the water and started our warm up.  I did a bit of swimming but felt pretty good as I had done a bit of a dynamic warm up on shore (I am learning this is a good thing for me!).  I did a few pick ups in the water and then found G.  Once we stopped, I quickly realized that this swim was going to be difficult.  It had POURED the night before so the river was high.  This meant that there was a very strong current.  So strong that if you stopped swimming, it would push you down river at a substantial clip.  Fun!  Well, it would have been fun if I had been on a floaty with a beer.  But, I had to swim back into that current.  Oh well.  Nothing you can do about that except moderate your pace accordingly.

Because the swim takes place in a very narrow river, it's a time trial start, which I love.  Even then, it still gets pretty congested and today was no different.   I got in line with the rest of the folks in my age group and waited to for my turn to go.  3-2-1 and I was off.  The first half of the swim flew by, literally, because we were swimming down stream.  I practiced my new stroke / breathing technique and managed to swim relatively straight.  Sweet!  I got into a pretty good groove once I passed a few people.  So much so that I actually managed to pass the first turnaround buoy.  I remember seeing it but I guess because the current was so strong, I overestimated how far it was.  So I had to swim an a nice diagonal to try to get to the other buoy to swim back.

Once I got to the buoy it was like a traffic jam there were so many people.  I swam through a small pack and tried to stick closer to shore where you are less likely to be affected by the current. Swimming back was much more congested than the way out.  Probably due to the current.  I passed a lot of people and I felt like I was actually swimming fairly well.  I'm pretty sure I saw Paolina pass me with about 150m or so to go.  That totally didn't surprise me.  She is a strong swimmer.  Actually she's just strong, period, ha ha.

I finally turned around the last buoy and swam hard to the shore.  I ran up onto the beach and glanced at my watch:  14:53.  W.T.F.  My worst swim at this event.  I ran into T1 and thought I hit lap.  I pulled off my wetsuit, wiped off my feet, threw on my shoes, race bib and helmet.  I grabbed my bike and was off.   As I was running out of transition I realized that I had actually hit STOP on my watch.  So I hit resume, ran out of transition to the mount line on the bike and hit lap again.  One day I will get this right.  Ugh.  I had no clue how long T1 was but it seemed fast.

Sports stats times:  Swim:  15:18 (2:02/100m) and T1:  1:35, which isn't too bad for me!

I recall the bike being somewhat hilly but couldn't really remember much other than two good climbs.  Well, I was wrong.  It's very hilly.  There are two good climbs but there are a bunch of unpleasant rollers as well.  I went out hard, big chain ring, head down, hammering.  There was a fair bit of "on your left"for the first bit but then things spread out nicely.  I was so focused on the hurt I was feeling and the people in front of me that I didn't pay attention to the people coming back so I had no idea where I was in relation to Paolina.   I was riding hard.  My legs were screaming at me like they haven't screamed at me in a while.  I was actually dreading the run because I knew my legs were going to feel like garbage.  I passed a couple of ladies on the ride, but mostly guys that had started earlier.  I got passed by a couple of other dudes but no women.  Whew.  I knew G wasn't too far behind me so once I hit the turnaround, I kept my eyes peeled for him.  It didn't take me too long to see him.   He was about 3 minutes behind me which I figured he'd make up no problem so I was riding scared for sure.  I didn't want him to catch me.   I kept my head down and hammered away.  The next thing I knew I was turning back into the park.  I rolled up to the dismount line and jumped off my bike.  I really need to learn how to do a flying dismount because running in my cycling shoes is annoying and slow.  Things to work on for next year!

Garmin time:  20km:  36:31 / average speed 33.6 kph.  Sports stats:  36:48 / 32.6 kph.  Not sure how I lost a whole km per hour but whatever.  This was officially my fastest time on this course.  :)  What I was even more thrilled with / surprised by was the fact that my normalized power for the 20km was 215 watts and my watts per kg (W/kg) was 3.53!  Woohoo!

I ran into T2, racked my bike and pulled off my helmet and shoes.  I wiped my feet again and yanked on my running shoes.

T2:  53s - not bad, probably one of my faster T2's.

The run starts with an uphill and normally I will plow up this hill but I just don't have that speed right now.  So I ran up it but not all out.  As we exited the park there was a huge puddle and a lot of mud so I slowed down through there so I wouldn't slip.  Once I was through there, I got into a good rhythm and started passing people.  My legs actually didn't feel too bad.  The first km passed in 4:36.  For the first time ever, I didn't go out like gangbusters in the first km.  I was actually able to start picking things up and I felt stronger as the run went on.  I kept my eyes peeled for Paolina as I was running towards the turnaround.  I saw her when I was probably a good 600-700m away from the turnaround.  She was making her way back.  I yelled WOOHOO and she waved.  She had at least 1km on me, probably more.  I passed a couple of other ladies on the way back in but none of them were in my AG.  I was hoping that put me in second at least.

I made the turn into the park and ran down the big hill to the finish.  I'm always thankful that downhill is on grass because if that was pavement, it would be brutal on your quads, ha ha.

Me and my wonky arms! 

I crossed the line and hit stop on my Garmin.  I wandered back around and waited for G.  He wasn't that far behind me.   I was chatting with a couple of ladies at the finish when he crossed the line and came over to me.  We commiserated about our horrible swims and then went over to get some food.  I ran into Paolina and we sat there talking for ages.  I then ran into Meg, a physiotherapist that I used to see at Synergy.  I hadn't seen her in years so it was really nice to catch up with her.

G and I finally wandered over and got some food and then we sat down and looked at our respective times.  My Garmin said 1:15 and change which was wrong because I had stopped it in transition.  I skipped through everything to see what my run time was and it was 22:05.  Gary wasn't that far behind me.  We grabbed some food and then it started to pour so ran for shelter.  The rain let up shortly thereafter and G said he was going to get his stuff from transition.  I finished eating and went to look at results.  My overall time was 1:16:39 and I was second my AG and 3rd overall.  It wasn't my fastest time there but it wasn't my slowest either.  Paolina was 6 minutes ahead of me.  She was the women's overall winner which is totally not surprising.  She's such a strong athlete!  I looked below my name and who so I see, but G, listed right after me.  I beat him by 7 seconds.  W.T.H.  I didn't think that was going to happen.

We stuck around for the awards since G got on the podium as well.  When I checked the results afterwards, I noticed that 4 of the top 5 women on the overall podium were over 40.  OVER 40.  Heck YEAH.  Proof right there that like a fine wine, us ladies get better with age!

It's nice to see some new sponsors at the MSC races, F2C nutrition and Martin's Apple Snacks.  I sampled some F2C recovery product as well as their greens product and I quite liked both of them.  the greens product was especially good, no chalky or gritty taste and the flavour was really nice.  I need to get more greens in my life so that may be something I look an incorporating into my diet.

As usual the race was very well organized, the volunteers were awesome and the free finishing photos are always appreciated!   Next up, my favourite race of the series - Toronto Island.  Here's hoping there's no wind and the water isn't too cold!

Girls Weekend!

What.  A.  Weekend.   I know it's Thursday but I finally got around to putting my thoughts on "paper"

Seriously.   It was filled with so much awesomeness.   G was away at his annual Fall Classic golf weekend with the boys so I decided to have my own girls weekend in the city.  On Saturday, I did my first multi-sport event of the year in Georgina at the Ontario Women's Triathlon and then on Sunday I drove out to the east end to do my second D'Ornellas Girlz Ride.

SO.  MUCH.  FUN.

I feel like I've been toeing the "sick line".  I've dialled things back a bit this week so I should be healthy for my portion of Barrelman.  I don't think the Double D's would be pleased if I bailed.

Anyway....

On to the first fun part of my weekend:  the RACE!

I had been watching the weather for the week and hoped that the rain that was forecast would magically disappear.  At one point Saturday didn't look too bad.  But on Friday the forecast was back to being kinda crappy.  Overcast with rain.  Boo.  At least it was going to be warm.   I packed everything up on Friday night so all I had to do Saturday morning was roll out of bed, eat breakfast and pack up the car.

I headed out at around 7:30.  Thanks to the awesome 10 am start, I didn't have to get up at the butt crack of dawn.  YAY.    It was overcast and a bit muggy.  But cooler than it had been.  As I made my way up the DVP, I noticed the clouds breaking up a bit.  Would the sun come out?  Ohhhh...I was hoping it would!

I pulled into the parking lot to overcast skies.  The sun had decided to hide again.  Nothing I could do about the weather.  And besides, I was going to be RACING...FINALLY!   I parked the car and went in to find my bib number and pick up my race kit.  I went back to the car to grab my bike and made my way into transition through the swim exit.  I found my rack area and got myself set up.  I went to walk out of the bike entrance and realized that I forgot to check my bike in with security.  Ugh.  So I had to run back to where I set myself up, grab my bike, run out of transition and around to the bike entrance to go through security.

Whoops, ha ha.

With that sorted, I left transition to go see if I could find a race belt.  I have about 7 of them SOMEWHERE  (more than likely in a box in storage) and I could have sworn I left one in my tri bag but alas, I didn't.  I got one and made my way back to transition when I ran into Deirdre.   Can I just say that I love this girl?  She is so sweet and so lovely.  I feel like I've known her forever.

Pre-race selfie snagged from her IG account.  Thanks Dee!   Oh and you guys should check out her You Tube channel!

Speaking of people that I love, I also ran into Irina.  I have been so pre-occupied that I completely forgot that she would be racing.   Pre-race we didn't get a chance to selfie so it happened afterwards.  This picture makes me laugh.  So good.

There was so much socializing and chatting going on pre-race, there was no time to be nervous.  I think the fact that it was a Women's Only event contributed to that big time.  There's such great energy at these sorts of events.  It's a much more relaxed vibe than at a regular triathlon.   Deirdre and I spent so much time yammering that we didn't realize people were making their way down to the water.  Gotta love that.

I wedged myself into my wetsuit and Dee and I made our way down to the water.   I wanted to do a warm up so we headed into the water and started swimming.  I stayed relaxed and focused on my breathing.  Stroke, stroke, breathe.  Stroke, stroke breathe.  The water was beautiful and fairly shallow.  It got deeper as you got closer to the first buoy but I don't think it ever got too deep.

I did just under a 10 minute warm up and got out of the water to find Dee.  I found her, wished her luck and watched the waves go off.   My wave was up next.  I found Irina and got a big hug.  The 40-49 year old women all lined up on the beach and waited for the horn.  It went off and as per usual, I let the crowd go.  I wandered in slowly so I didn't get my heart rate up too high.  Eventually I dove in and started swimming.  I stuck to the outside so I wasn't in the fray.  I paid attention to my breathing and made sure I wasn't holding my breath underwater.  So far so good.  No panic.  I was sighting fairly well.  I think I've finally gotten the hang of it.  Before I knew it, I was at the first buoy.  I had passed a lot of ladies.  I could see a few more orange caps ahead of me (other ladies in my wave) so that spurred me on to push a little harder.  I caught a few more ladies and then hit the next buoy.  I could see one more orange cap so I pushed the pace a bit harder.  I was definitely working.  But I felt surprisingly in control.

I passed that last orange cap but she stayed on my heels for a bit.  I swam until I was almost crawling along the bottom.  Then I got up and ran.  As soon as I got up, I started pulling off my wetsuit.  I ran like I was being chased by a rabid dog.  The run up to T1 was a long one.  I forgot to glance at my watch as I exited the water so I don't really know what my actual swim time was.  All I knew was that this long transition was going to be added to my time.

I ran into T1 and quickly found my bike.  It had started to rain while I was out on the swim so my helmet had gotten a bit wet.  I pulled off my wetsuit, grabbed my race belt, yanked my shoes on and put my helmet on and then I grabbed my bike and started running.  There was a fairly large group of us getting on our bikes at the same time so it was a bit chaotic.  I skirted around the group, ducked int my aerobars and started pedalling.  Every time I yelled on your left, I made sure to say thank you and  nice work or looking good.   I did that until I couldn't get words out anymore.

The rain had started to come down quite hard.  I was really glad I wore my aero helmet with my visor as well as my sleeved Louis Garneau top.  It was just cool enough that I felt totally comfortable.  The visor kept all the water out of my eyes and off most of my face so I didn't notice the rain too much other than the fact that I was soaked.

The bike course is a big flat rectangle so I was really looking forward to seeing how hard I could push it on a flat course.  I haven't done any really targeted training since April but I have been riding my bike a lot.  I've been riding without my power meter, just my heart rate monitor, which I've only been using to record the data so I can look at it afterwards.  I've been riding on feel for all my rides.  Power wise, I felt pretty strong so I figured I'd crank out some solid numbers for the 15km TT.

I got through the first half of the course feeling pretty strong.  I was hurting like hell but I was loving it.  I made the turn onto the back half of the course and kept hammering away but I could feel my lack of top end fitness starting to affect me.  The lactic acid build up in my legs was making them scream.  I was breathing so hard I was almost gasping for air.  So I slowed up a bit.  I had to recover a bit before I could dig deeper.  I hit the 5km mark and figured I had about 8 minutes or so left.  I could hang on for 8 minutes.  It wasn't going to be pretty but I could do it.

The odd few times I glanced down at my watch I saw 35-36 kph, which was great.  Better than I had anticipated.  I pushed hard that last stretch.  The road has a few gentle curves so I kept hoping that the finish line was just past the curve I was coming up to.  After 2 curves, it was around the 3rd one.  THANK GOODNESS.  I was dying.  I sat up as I got close to the dismount line and then pumped my brakes a bit.  I love my hydraulic brakes!  Makes coming to quick stop very easy.  I jumped off my bike and felt woozy and a bit nauseous.  Wow.  That was new.  Guess I went really hard.  I started to run into transition and my legs felt like jello.   For the first time ever, I was honestly glad that I didn't have to run.

I stopped my watch as soon as I crossed the line.  The 500m swim and 15km bike took me just over 35 minutes.  I then paraded out to the finish line and did a little dance.  Dee had already crossed the line - no surprise there, she is a monster on the bike!  So we hung out and chatted with Paolina for a while.  Dee asked me how long my bike took so I then went through and looked at everything.  It took me just over 24 minutes to ride 15km.  The bigger deal for me was the fact that I set a new power threshold of 233 watts.  My previous power threshold was 209.  WOW.  I managed to average 36.7/kph for 15km.  AVERAGE.  In the pouring rain no less!  I am still in shock.

We chatted for a while and then I went off to find a something warmer to put on.  I then did a bit of shopping at D'Ornellas (new cycling socks, yay!).  I ran into a few other ladies post race - two of whom I met at the free clinic that Paolina had.  They had stopped me pre-race to ask me a few questions so I was happy to see them both post race.  They both had a lot of fun and, one of them ended up on the podium as well! Pretty awesome for a first triathlon!

I packed up all my soaking wet stuff, changed into a dry top, got my jacket and went in search of food.  The awards were starting soon and Dee and I were told that we were the top two finishers, we just didn't know who beat who.  I didn't really care one way or the other, I was just happy I was on the podium.  It meant that I still knew how to race.  I felt that because of my mystery injury, that I would have lost that competitive desire, that fire in my belly.  But I was very happy to see that it's still alive and well.

I went in to the pavilion, grabbed some food and found Irina.  A few minutes later Dee came and said she had been looking for me everywhere.  She told me that I had won the swim bike.  I had beat her by almost a minute.  Um.  What?  Ironically the swim was where I made up all my time, haha.  Our bike times were just over 30s apart.  I can't believe I got to within 30s of her on the bike.  That made me happy.

In the end, Dee and I both ended up with first place medals as they split the race into women 39 and under and women 40 +.    The finisher medals were super cute and the new Multisport Canada medals were also really nice!

Afterwards we stayed and chatted with Paolina and then of course there were photos.  Dee and I were some of the last people that left, ha ha.

On my drive back to the city, I couldn't help be smile as I thought about the morning.  There was so much good energy and everyone was smiling and happy despite the horrible weather.  I loved it.  It was such a popular even that MSC will be adding two more women's only events to their calendar next year.  WOOHOO - nice work Paolina and kudos to John Salt for seeing that the triathlon world needs more events like this.

Next up, the swim leg of the Barrelman Half Ironman.   This should be fun.