If I Had a Boat - The Muskoka Chase Long Course Tri Race Report

The alarm sounded to start the day at 5:20am. Well, truth be told, the day started when the baby in the next room started screaming at 5am, kind of a pre-alarm. I felt strangely relaxed as I ate a little breakfast and packed the car. It was time for business, I've logged the miles, let's go show it off. The transition was just starting to fill as I racked my bike and set up my gear. I enjoy the energy that goes along with triathlons. Everybody's friendly, but still you can sense the buzz of a race. At big marathons or other road races, there are two camps: the hard-core racers, who are generally quiet before the gun, and the less serious runners who spend all the time joking around. At the tri's, everyone seems a mix of these two groups.

I went to check-in, and the registration desk didn't have my number (#206), so I had to get a replacement number (#1439). I hoped whoever claimed my number by mistake was faster than me, so I can claim their time. Through body-marking, and my new four-digit race number filled my entire arm. After that, I just hung around with my wife and super-sherpa, and ran into a few people from swim club who were also doing the race. With about twenty minutes before the gun went off, I grabbed my wetsuit and started the walk to the start.

The swim start was about 500m down the beach from transition. Some people had chosen to swim down as warm-up, but if I was going to do this properly and not blow up, I needed the first few hundred meters of the swim to be the warm-up. Just as the elite wave was sent-off, I started wading in the water, moving slowly towards the line. I wanted to make sure that there were a lot more people in front of me than behind me, so that I couldn't go off too fast. Twelve minutes and three waves after the first gun went off, men aged 35 to 39 (that's me!) were sent on our merry way.

Slow. That's how I wanted to swim. It sounds like a pretty crappy goal when you want to do well in a race, but allow me to explain. Last time, I killed myself 200m into the race. At 2000m, that couldn't be an option today. Along with that is a phrase I've seen, attributed to Rich Stern: slow is smooth, smooth is fast. So I just found my Monday morning warm-up rhythm. I was passed by some people, and I passed a few. I kept my head down and my arms moving. When I could, I tried to draft a little, but the water was very murky. You'd look for a swimmer to follow, but with the black wetsuits, all you could see was a flash of white skin that was either feet or hands, and only if you were right on top of them. I sighted regularly, and never let myself get too far off course. I kept myself entertained by singing a Lyle Lovett tune to myself (the above referenced "If I Had a Boat"). That was better than last time, when my self-talk was a mix of berating, doubt and panic. As we turned for the last stretch, I noticed that I was making up some ground on other yellow-capped swimmers. I'd guess I may have passed 5 to 10 swimmers in this ~800m, moving myself slightly up the rankings. I kept my steady pace, my shoulders slightly fatiguing against the wetsuit, and stood up two strokes after I saw other people doing it. Unfortunately, I also stood up two seconds before my legs realized it was time for them to join the party, and stumbled my way out of the water. Then we got to run up a hill to transition, starting the next part of the day (so subtract about a minute from my swim time for my actual "swimming time").

I had a nice quick transition, stripping the suit and grabbing my bike to get on my way quickly. I was able to navigate the mess that is the Bike On line without incident, and set off up the road. (Allow me a moment to comment on T1 strategy. I understand that it is faster to leave your shoes on the bike, do a flying a mount, pedal up to speed, then put your feet in the shoes. Maybe next year, with some more practice, I'd do that too. But it is not faster if you can't do a flying mount, and it is especially dangerous if you don't "pedal up to speed". Five km/h is not "up to speed". At that speed, you'll weave all over the road as you try to put on shoes, forcing me dodge numerous riders as I'm already up to 30 km/h, since I put on my shoes in T1.) Then it was time to go hunting. I fell into a nice speed, and roped back a number of riders, only some of who were in my AG. The course in Muskoka is tough. It's all up and down. I would describe it as "not an inch of flat terrain", but as a mathematician, I know that asymptotically there had to be a flat at the peak of every climb and dip. (So ends today's math lesson.) For me, the more a road tilts up, the better I'm going to perform.

What happens with a race like this is bunches of riders start to form. A person who climbs better will move up, then be overtaken on the descent. In my case, when this happened, with each climb I'd separate myself a little more from the group, until the elastic snapped. Then I would move my way up the next block of riders, and repeat the process. (I should note here that I'm not accusing anyone of drafting when I mention these groups. It's just a jumble of riders, and as abilities cross, these things happen. I only saw one rider blatantly drafting, and another who tried to hold my wheel (he cracked on the next climb).)

The only real scouting report I had about the course was that the corner onto Brittania, a left turn, goes straight up the steepest hill of the day. If you aren't ready (and most aren't), you'll struggle to get the gearing, and maybe end up walking. I saw the corner coming, and went from 38 km/h to about 25, dropped to the small-ring, and got ready to shift as I rounded the corner. The report was right. It would be easy to cook it into that corner, then snap a chain trying to get geared properly. Instead, I passed about a dozen people who struggled up the road. This also started a section of about 10km then was an absolute roller coaster. Unlike the start of the course, with false flats and mild (less than 4%) grades, this was straight up and down. I tried to keep a handle on my effort, didn't get swallowed up by any of the frost heaves, and got to the false flat run into town. This was a very quick section, and lots of people kept a hot pace all the way to transition. I got in, changed my shoes, grabbed a hat, and was off on the run course.

I left transition with another runner in my AG who seemed about my speed, so I just marked him for the first while. He slowed to a walk at an aid station, so I had to continue on solo, although I was really among a large mass of people. I could just hopscotch my way up the group. I had a rough goal for my running pace (4:20-4:30/km), and I was about on target. I had a few where I'd lose concentration, and then lose form, and run a bit slower than I wanted. It wasn't an energy issue, because I'd bounce right back with another fast split, just losing focus. I was moving well through the crowd, gaining a lot of overall places, but I never seemed to catch anyone in my AG. I kept things together through 12km, then lost some time as the majority of that kilometer is uphill on the way back into town (5:00). But again I picked things up and ran a 4:19 to the penultimate marker. It was here that I got a "you're doing great" from 11-time Ironman champion Lisa Bentley, who was out for a recovery jog after her top 4 placing in the Chase. All was good until I hit the 14.5km mark, when I felt like I was being ripped in half by a cramp. It was the worst I've felt in a race, and a strange place to cramp. It was in my lower chest/ribcage like my tri-top or HRM was too tight, but I was forced to walk for a few seconds, then shuffled, then was walking again (passed by two runners), then fought through to the top of the climb (about 10m), then down the homestretch to the finish line, grimacing every step of the way. I missed out on having the race announcer call out my name as I crossed the line, because of the number change from that morning. I was done, spent but happy.

Official results:
Swim: 42:23 (2:08/100m), 62/110 AG
T1: 1:19
Bike: 1:36:51 (34.1 km/h), 21/110 AG
T2: 1:09
Run: 1:07:22 (4:30/km), 25/110 AG

Total: 3:29:01, 125/777 overall, 26/110 AG

Needless to say, I can't complain. I'm even pretty happy with how things turned out. I realize my post on Friday seemed very "doom and gloom", but I think my concerns were valid, and I went about getting the answers I needed from this experience. Let's review:
The competition: OK, I didn't get any OTS points from this weekend, and was 8 minutes out of that spot, but I was top 25%, which isn't too bad for my first year in the game. I'll be back, and I'll have bigger guns and more matches (I love mixing metaphors).
The swim: Huge success today. I didn't hit my goal of 40 minutes, but talking to people after the race, it seems everyone was two minutes slower than previous years because the current in the river. So that puts me in the mid-39s. I also know I could have swam faster. I had a good swim without breast-stroking, doggy paddling, holding the kayak, or any other issue, so next time I know I can turn up the pace, however mildly, and perhaps run a 36 minute swim in September.
The bike: Again, I felt good. I could have gone a bit faster, but at what cost. The terrain up there suits me, so I can expect another good showing.
The run: This wasn't quite where I wanted it to be, but still within my goal window. I was hoping to pull about 1:05-1:07, and if we give me back the thirty seconds of concentration lapse, and the 45-60 of cramps, I'm pretty close. With another run focus over the summer, I think I'll be in good form. I did form some blisters, so I'll need to test-run the shoes a few more times to see what changes I can/need to make.
Preparation: I survived. It would have been better to get some more long runs in, but that's what the next three months are for. To perform as I did on these legs, I think I can feel pretty good for the future.
September: Without going into too much detail, I have some ideas of the paces I'd like to do at Muskoka 70.3. I want about 2:00/100m on the swim (got pretty close), 33-34km/h on the bike (went 34.1, on an apparently more difficult course), and 4:15-4:30/km on the run (4:30 exactly, 4:24 adjusted for cramps). So the speed I need is there (or not far off), I just need to bring up the endurance.

All in all, a great weekend and a fun race. I can see why this is such a highly regarded event every year. Now I need to get about the important business of eating and sleeping, to recover enough for next weekend.