Bill and I drove up part way after work Friday and finished the drive to Mt Tremblant early Saturday afternoon. It poured rain most of the drive up and also most of the drive back, but the whole time in Mt Tremblant was sunny and beautiful...it's like a magical place... (although by the end of the run, one might have appreciated a cloud and a little rain shower, it was a warm raceday)
We checked into our little hotel, a little down the road from the main village, in fact tomorrow we would run by the accomodation during the race (I was tempted on the run to see if they'd still let me use the room for a rest even though we had checked out race morning) After bringing in our bags, we headed off to registration, bike check-in and a practice swim.
The village was crowded and we had a hard time finding parking; we were a little too close to the heart of the action and were directed away from the town square to a bigger parking lot and found one of the last spots, this helped us decide to get there early race morning.
The afternoon had flown by, we grabbed dinner on the patio adjoined to our accommodations, and found a convenience store (after some fun trying to translate into French). With the alarm set for 4:30am, we got to bed early and managed to get a good parking spot race morning. PB and banana sandwiches and Ensure in the car for breakfast then headed to T1 to get it set up. Going in I saw Sue, an old HAC swimmer and Delta alumni (we had a powerhouse school team back then) she was doing the relay, the swim portion, and then was there cheering me on at the end of the ride and at the finish. It was so nice!
Bill and I then followed the crowd to the swim start. The volunteers were all decked up and whooping it up; it was bound to be a loud day...
Mt Tremblant went all out. They had the Snowbirds fly overhead a couple times in formation, before and a cannon blast for the pro start at 7. Bill started in wave 4 at 7:15 and my wave was 20 minutes after his.I chatted with another woman who was also one half of a racing couple, commenting how nice it is to do this stuff with our partner. I also tried to reassure a women who confided to me that her nerves were making her feel sick, oh and it was her very 1st triathlon ever!
My game plan was to play it safe, stay off to the side, keep the shoulders out of harms way. But it was funny it seemed like no one in the wave wanted to step up and be on the front line, so maybe if most of the girls weren't going to be to aggressive, I could be a little less timid. I found someone swimming basically the same speed, a little off the shortest line, but appeared to be going straight, so I caught a draft until the turn, when I went wide to avoid the cluster and lost her feet. The water temp was warm, approx 74F (good chance it will be no-wetsuits for the full in August, if you are doing it), the water was flat this morning, and it was pretty much an uneventful swim. I did like the placement of the buoys (they were close and easy to sight) There was a shallow part a fair bit away from the finish, I did some cross body strokes (another hint from Rob) and then it deepened again before the long shallow finish...I was able to pull the wetsuit down to my waist before I actually was out of the water. Volunteer "strippers" did the rest. I checked my watch and calculated a 40 minute swim, not too good, but I was unharmed, so was just happy to move on to the next leg (later when checking results I find my swim was actually 34 minutes, I had forgotten my watch was 5 minutes fast; so then I'm really happy with that swim!~particularly given my setbacks this season)
The girl who's pump I borrowed was in T1 at the same time, we said a quick good job to each other and we were off on the bike.
I liked the bike, I had done the 1st 40k on the computrainer and once again, love the feeling that the actual race was easier, it's a nice feeling. The road were almost all freshly paved = fast and smooth. There were some hills to keep it exciting, but I don't think they were ever killer. And no technical descents, which is good for me, seeing as how my biggest fear in a race is spilling. It was particularly good for us since we didn't have a chance to pre-ride or drive the course before-hand; there were no surprises, such as a hill right after a blind turn, where we would have benefited from a dry-run. Probably the hardest part was 70 to 80k, which is up and down hill after hill, but not quite close enough to carry the speed from the downhill into the next up hill. But again they really weren't too bad, and I'm saying that even though I was getting tired. I expected to be tiring towards the end as I'd only had a few longish rides this season (and was always fading towards the end of them), but today I did feel pretty good through the whole ride. The last 10k was coming the other way on these hills, but this time it was a net downhill, so it was fast and fun back to transition, not to mention pretty scenic.
[3:06 for the bike ~ pretty happy with this leg too]
In T2 I notice they already had our morning clothes bags returned, very efficient. I start the run, I feel the heat of the day, I feel the sunburn on my skin starting (which I think is my only complaint regarding the race - I didn't see any volunteer sunscreen appliers before the bike) I feel some discomfort in my back and shoulder as I try to adjust to running position. Then just after the 1k marker, I feel the muscle above my knee seize up. I walk, grab a bunch of stuff from the aid station, honey stinker waffle, banana, water, take a salt tab and an aspirin from my own stash, walk & eat. Start back to a little shuffle when it's flat and walk whenever it's uphill til the cramp in my knee disappears. I take consolation in the fact that I backed off at the 1st sign of a problem and managed to work it out (although it took a couple km, at least I avoided a total blow-up so early into the run). At our little hotel the course changed from the slightly hilly road and goes to a straight flat railtrail. I thought it was nice, it was still pretty much unshaded though. I tried the ice in the hat trick and it picked me up until it melted... I enjoyed seeing the other runners coming the other way, looking for the few people I knew; first I saw Mark, then Bill, then John, then Ronald, then I hit the 9.5 turnaround, and saw Joanne. Then I caught Ronald walking, gave him a pat on the back and some encouraging words and kept shuffling. When I saw Ronald at the next turnaround before heading back on the road, he was running again, which was good to see. Back on the road, the spectators were out in full force, making noise, out with their hoses, I focused on these people. I saw some kids playing in at one of the hoses as I approached, they quickly and politely got back before I got there I ran through the spray and cupped my hands to gather some water and splashed them,,, they got a kick out of it and cheered real loud. Then we took another little trail, and the view it offered was wonderful! of the ski mountain, at least we didn't have to run up that to the finish. Back on the road, I knew we were getting close, but I had also heard we had a couple uphills right before the finish; I wanted to push through them, but I let myself walk up, I had done my job for the day and this way I could ensure I had a enough left in the tank to fly down into the finishing chute! and at least look reasonably fast for a moment.
[run time 2:28 ~ it is what it is, and there is lots of time to get this back up to snuff, and even though it was slow, I did negative split it, so I think it was a smart run, especially for me, as I tend to run on emotions /heart instead of my head]
All in all I thought it was an excellent race! Mt Tremblant really stepped it up!
My final time was 6:15:27, it wasn't an easy course and all things considered, I am happy with my race.
In summary, June really isn't the best time for me to race as much as 1/2 IMs, but I'd seriously consider doing the full (it's in August) one of these years. (but of course I have to check out lots of other locations too, so we will see)
Unfortunately Bill and I had to pack up and head home pretty much right after. It was a long drive to end a long weekend, but it was a really good one! (Work on Monday was the next challenge)
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