50 shades of ..... silver... second place agaaaaain. Niagara Triathlon

Well I've come full circle... again.  Last race of this season, one year out and at the same location as my first try-a-tri.... this race was a bit different than that one though!

I won't lie, my goal for this race was to win, although slightly unrealistic, I'm strong enough now that a W is possible depending on the field.  I think the title takes away from the surprise ending though... I came second.

Arrived at the site an hour early, pretty uneventful set up, didn't get the transition spot I would have liked, but not the end of the world. Jumped in the lake for my warm up swim, did my 200m easy and spent some time holding my breath.  Met up with Kyle in warmup so it was nice to have someone to chat with and cut the tension.

I'm practicing my "bolt" a la Usain Bolt

SWIM - I was in wave 1, this start was in water, you could stand near the shore but I chose to tread water and start in deep water next to the buoy to cut out any unnecessary swim distance, however most of the speedy people also chose to do this.  Horn blew and we were off, I was right in the middle of the washing machine and swallowed a bunch of water early, but since this was my last race of the season I didn't pull up, I just went all out.  Andrea and Neil my training buddies have been helping me with my sighting and it's paid off in paramounts.... I swam in a straight line!!! Super close to all the buoys.  It took me a good 200-300 m to get my stride but once I got it I was swimming all out and felt better than ever, which is probably reflected by my best ever swim time!

1:57/100m

T1 - Good transition, no sitting down :)  I was fast out... not so fast clipping into my bike though, took me a few embarrassing tries... goal for next year is to rock the flying start.

BIKE - so on this bike they have "the hill" well I figured I bike in Hamilton, how bad could "the hill be".  Well it took out many riders in front of me, a few crashed because they couldn't make it up and couldn't unclip in time, some people just didn't even try and walked up! Now I wasn't going to do something as embarassing as walk up, and I had no problem conquering the hill.... but it was, as is now the term, demoralizing.  It kicked up pretty steep at the start and was a tough climb, then you hit a flat part and thought "well that sucked but it's over...".  NOPE.  Another huge kick..... get to the top, "thank god it must really be over".... NOPE.  One more huge kick.   I probably would have cried if there was another.  FINALLY at the top, I took a few deep breaths and was able to get my breath back.  Took off and passed almost everyone in my age group.  The rest of the ride was a breeze, except my computer wasn't working.  If there was an award for not checking your equipment before a race I would win it.  The downhill was really fun other than it dropped us off on a main road with too much traffic, it was a bit scary at times as drivers were coming onto the course, and I finished first in the bike yet again!!! into a smooth T2

30.23 km.hr

Finally figuring out this whole "aero" thing

T2 - Had a good transition but my feet were wet and my shoes loose which results in some insane blisters at the end of the race.

RUN - What can I say about the run?  I was dreading it during the bike... 7km.  I hate running still.  All I could think on the bike was "go faster, make more distance cause you know your run sucks".  As uncomfortable as I was on the run, I managed to pull out less than 5min/km.  So that meant that this race I hit all my goals, except for winning.  Lost first place by 1min, to a girl with a much faster swim and a slightly faster run.

4:57min/km

The end of this journey

Very sad this ontario race season is at an end.  The title of this post is an homage to chris and I, whom throughout the past two weeks have produced 3 silver medals between the two of us, just can't get that elusive gold.  It's all up to you Chris!

I never regret it when I do it, I always regret it when I don't - Tour de terra cotta

An unscheduled stop on my atheletic tour this summer brought me to the small town of terra cotta, ontario for a purely cycling race.  I was originally just going as a supporter and possibly a feed zone girl for Chris in his first 100km race, but he convinced me to race in the 26 km beginner race since we were going all the way out there, and so far my greatest success in triathlons has been on the bike, getting the top time in 3 out of my 5 triathlons so far.

Earlier in the year I strongly considered riding sportif in the good friday road race, but essentially chickened out and didn't do it. I regret that one.  But I literally had no group riding experience at that point.  Since then on our rides I try to spend as much time as I can drafting Chris, I've done one long group ride, and ride in a group with my triathlon training group, have had 2 metric centuries under my belt so I felt more prepared for a group ride, so when Chris suggested it I signed up almosssssst right away. 

Of course the day before I got really nervous, I really had no idea what to expect, well over 100 people signed up for the race and I've seen so many road crashes (and been involved in a small one myself at the St.George-Ancaster) so I had a healthy respect for group riding and the peloton.

The weather could not have cooperated more, hot and sunny, no humidity, not too much wind! The course was closed so no worries about the pesky yellow line, a big plus for my first road race.  The roads were nice and smooth, the course was fast with only one hill (although not a devastating one)

Mass start with all the adults and I was somewhere right in the middle.  On this course there was the only hill, and a decent one (I think avg grade of about 4% but up to 20% at some spots).  Here I learned it would have been better to be at the front because this is where the main group broke away, I think if I got in with this group I might have been able to stick with them on the flat, but probably would have been dropped on the hill because I'm not a strong climber.

After this first climb I was on my own for a few minutes, not where I wanted to be, but then one other girl caught my wheel and we were together, we worked together one and off and caught onto a chase pack of about 6-7.  I stayed with this group for the majority of the race.  A few times I tried to break off with people passing, but they all generally lost their speed or the chase group caught back up.  It was a really great experience, the chase group I ended up with was a really supportive and safe group, nobody did anything stupid but they were solid riders.  I even took the front a few times but usually the guys who were much stronger were in the front.  Going down the hill i practiced my aerotuck and was able to pull away from the other girls on every downhill section (they inevitably caught up on the hill climb which they were stronger on).  My main weakness was the corners, I was still nervous about holding my line and not sliding out so I always slowed down too much, sprinted out of the corners but still got dropped almost everytime because everyone else came into the corners with more speed than me.  A few times I felt too tired to catch back on, but all I could remember was chris telling me if I get dropped, especially near the end then the race was all for nothing, so I kept managing to work my butt off and catch back on and was in a really good position coming into the end, which was right after the downhill so you had some time to recover for the sprint.  My group really picked it up in the last 5km which I also wasn't prepared for but held on.  Coming into the end the other two girls in my group had way more experience than me and I had no chance in the sprint finish, and came in 1 and 2 seconds behind them.  Turns out the main peloton had no girls in it and we were the top three, so a little disappointed about that!   Can't complain too much though as I got second in my age group (the winning rider was in my age group) and 3rd for women as there were 3 of us in the chase group.  The next woman rider was almost a full minute behind us.  Average speed of 34km/hr so I'm not upset about that!

Overall a great experience and I'd love to do another road race!  Stayed the rest of the day and watched Chris in the 104km race, hopefully one day I'll be fit enough to ride in one of those!

2/5 for women 20-29
3/31 for women
27/108 of finishers

avg speed 34km/hr over 26 km

results
http://results.sportstats.ca/res2012/tourterracotta_ab.htm