I've been really slack in posting updates recently - the summer rather got away from me, and while it's all well and good that I can mentally compose a blog post while taking a shower, honestly the iPad isn't going to cope too well with that environment! I'll break the updates into separate posts (like I'd actually done them at the right times) to make the reading a bit easier!
Lets start back in August. Just 2 weeks after the sprint tri in Ottawa it was time to tackle the Toronto Island "Give it a Tri". This was the first race I'd even done last year, and this year's goal was to see not only how much I'd managed to improve my times, but I had the added encouragement of being a finalist in the 7systems improve 7% contest. The morning started out well - I met up with the other couple of girls, Heather & Katherine, I'd encouraged into doing their first tri that day, helped them lay out their things in transition and walked through the in's and out's of the course. We headed down to the beach to get into the water for a warm-up swim before the race kicked off.
While that water may look relatively calm behind us, I can tell you this was actually the roughest water to date I've had to swim in. I was getting pushed all over the place, and got several mouthfuls of Lake Ontario while expecting a breath of air. All in all I felt like I'd had to push far to hard to get through this swim, and the times don't show a huge improvement over last year because of it - that and the timing mat was moved this year from the beach to the transition area that was up the beach, over the boardwalk and across the grass! Still, it was an ok time, so now it was onto pushing through the bike course.
Toronto Island is probably my favourite bike course out of all the races I've done. It's completely flat the entire way, well protected from wind and sun, and of course, no traffic either. I'd fitted a cheap speedo on my bike the week prior to the race so I could get an idea of the speed I was doing to make sure I had a higher average than last year. This actually helped me out a lot, and gave me a great improvement on my bike time, knocking 2 minutes off from last year, and boosting my average speed from 28.7km/h up to 31.6km/h. Taking into account the hairpin turn right near the end that you pretty much have to stop for, I'm really happy with that average speed.
Of course, what's any triathlon without my beloved run at the end of it. Thankfully this is a nice short 2.5km run - theory is you should be able to go all out on a run of this distance. Obviously I'd pushed hard on the bike, so the first few steps out into the run were challenging. This run starts on an uneven grassy field before you get onto the road - I found the grass to be remarkably tiring, and wasn't able to pick up some speed until hitting the run course. No speedo for the run, but I know my running pace is better than last year where I ended up walking some of the 2.5km. I also had Ian out there running with me shouting out words of encouragement and generally making sure I kept going. The photo is coming down to the finishing chute, and looking remarkably strong for how I was actually feeling at the time!
It was done - and I'd managed to hit my mark for improvement - I'd taken close to 6 minutes off my time from last year and put me at around a 9% improvement over last year - that'll do for the contest! Hanging around the finish line it wasn't too much longer until we saw Heather and Katherine come over the finish. Both of them feeling good, and so happy to have completed their first triathlon - both already talking about what races they were going to do next year now!
Standing around afterwards waiting for the official times to come up we were chatting about the race, talking about the challenges of the swim, and Ian came walking back to us after seeing some of the times go up - big grin on his face, holding 3 fingers up in the air and shouting "You came 3rd!". This took a moment to sink in - I what now? I'd come 3rd in my age group... at this point I'd like to go back in time a bit and lets pull up this blog post from last year - if you scan right down to the end of this post I was talking about having been entered in the Athena class (that's women 150lbs and heavier) and looking forward to racing in the Athena class again this year and hoping to place - the exact quote was "Looking at that same triathlon series for next year, it’s certainly going to be more than one triathlon for me next year - I want to do the sprint triathlons next - but I have a goal. That try-a-tri on Toronto Island, I’m going to do it again, and this time I’m going to be the one walking away with a medal for my age group." Now then, lets get this straight - I've just raced not in the Athena class (The series dropped the Athena and Clydesdale classes this year), but in with my age group of women 30-34 (I'm 34 which puts me right at the top of this age group also), and I've just gone and placed 3rd... I nearly fell over.
Everything from that point until the awards was a bit of a blur, and amazingly I was able to give a coherent interview afterwards for the 7systems contest. I tell ya, if you'd told me 100lbs ago (or any time in my life for that matter) that I'd be standing on a podium collecting an award for an athletic effort I'd have laughed for a month. But still, there it is - there's a bronze medal hanging on my wall. I see it every day reminding me of what I can accomplish - and what there is yet to still be accomplished.
