Rock You Like a Hurricane - The Milton Sprint Triathlon Race Report

"At least it wasn't raining."

That's about the nicest thing that could be said about the weather this morning. When I checked the forecast after waking, it was "5 degrees, feels like 1". The projection for the day: sunny, but windy. Cold wind, too. They weren't lying. Once we were at the racesite, if you were in the sun but sheltered, it wasn't too bad, but as soon as you were exposed, it was a bitter chill. I put off putting on my wetsuit as long as possible, but finally had to, and headed to the lake for a quick swim warm-up. Water temperature: 64 degrees. (Sorry about using units all over the place, but I need to do Canadian weather temps in Celsius, and water in Fahrenheit. It's just a flaw in my brain.) So by rights, it was warmer in the water than out. The shock was pretty good, but really, once we got moving, it didn't feel too bad. It was getting out and waiting for the race start that really sucked.

They started the first wave at 9:50, a few minutes late, then my group followed (Wave 3) at 9:56. And when the horn sounded, it was time to go.

Swim:
Last year this was my first triathlon, I went out too hard, and struggled to a horrible swim time. This time I ignored everyone around me, and got into my own groove. I was knocked out of that groove when someone somehow swam underneath me, then firmly planted their heel in my left eye. It caught me off guard, I got a bit of an adrenaline dump, and was on my way to the same situation as last year. But I forced myself to settle down, and was able to keep swimming my own race. Beyond that, I swam comfortably for the 750m. I drafted off one of the highest kickers I've ever seen. Every kick his feet would come out of the water, creating a big splash, and making my life miserable, so when I saw a chance to pass and reach new feet, I took it. The home stretch along the shore was a bit tough, since the current was up from the dam, and the waves were at their biggest since we were at the most exposed part of the lake. I kept my drinking to a minimum, and hit the shore at what my watch said was 14:00 (just outside my 13:xx dreams).

T1:
Normally a slow transition is caused by bad planning. That was part of my problem. I decided to throw on a long-sleeve jersey for the ride, but forgot to pull down the zipper before the race. I also forgot to check my aerohelmet, and make sure it fit right. The tension adjuster had closed over the winter, and I wasted precious seconds getting it open again. The other part of the problem is that I couldn't feel my hands. That made pulling off my wetsuit extremely difficult (this is slowest I've ever done this), and working the zipper and adjuster damn near impossible. I handed my competition at least 40-60 seconds here that I didn't need to lose.

Bike:
Did I mention it was windy? Looking now, 40km/h, gusting up to 60km/h. It was windy. The wind was coming out of the northwest, so really in our faces for the first half. Of course, that's the half that includes the 1.4km steep climb. I went at a speed that was hard, but seemed slow, and passed all kinds of folks. Then it was a tuck and generate as much speed as possible. It continues to roll for the outbound stretch, making a tough to get a rhythm. After the turnaround though, it's 53x12, 45+km/h, most of the way home. I don't know how a stick figure like me moves so much faster than these other guys, but it happened. I know I moved up a few spots here, but it was hard to keep track. Normally I pace my bike ride by HR, but I forgot to put on my heart rate strap before the race (part of the "it's cold, I'm going to avoid this as long as possible"), so it was all on feel. I probably could have lifted the effort in a couple of sections, but for the most part, I'm happy with how things went.

T2:
Another horrible transition. But there was nothing I could have done differently. The problem was, with the cold wind on the bike, I couldn't feel my feet. At all. And you wouldn't think that would make putting the shoes on that tough, but it was. I could slide my foot partway in, sit down and get it a bit further, then stand up and stomp it the rest of the way. Then repeat for the other foot. Again, there goes 30 seconds for no good reason.

Run:
The course goes up then down. That's Milton in a nutshell. It's about 3.5km up, kind of rolling but mostly up (and into the wind). Then about 3.5 km down. I left on my long-sleeve jersey, which was a mistake I was overheating a bit, but I don't think it had any great effect on my race. I tried to get a good pace going right from the start, but because of the terrain, there's no sense in taking kilometre splits. They vary too wildly. It just has to be on feel. I never really found my rhythm at all. I'm not disappointed with my run, but I definitely feel like it could have been better. I only saw one guy from my age group, beyond that I was mostly among 25-34 year olds. It became tough to motivate myself to keep the kick going. I probably left 30-60 seconds out there, but that's how it is sometimes on race day. As the season progresses, I'll get better on digging it out for these races.

Official results:
Swim: 14:14 (1:54/100m), 18/77 AG
T1: 2:28
Bike: 51:28 (35.0 km/h), 6/77 AG
T2: 1:26
Run: 32:18 (4:19/km), 8/77 AG
Total: 1:41:51, 57/556 overall, 8/77 AG

OTS Points: 40, Series Points: 40
OSS Points: 40, Series Points: 40

All in all, a very good day. I made a couple of rookie mistakes that gave away time, and I had some tough luck that gave away more. In the pretend world, where my transitions don't suck and I run a bit quicker, let's say 90 seconds total, I move up 12 places overall and 2 in my AG. But I don't live in the pretend world, so I'm happy with what I did. I moved up 8 places from last year in my AG, and 48 in the overall. I beat some guys who beat me regularly last year. All my events were faster, except the bike, but I'll blame conditions since everyone was slower. That's a rousing success, even for someone as overly competitive as me. And now that my legs are coming underneath me, I think I'll just keep moving up the pack as the summer goes.