Where to find 47 seconds? - -but we will get to that later.
I have to say I love racing anything that happens in
Penticton BC. They have such a great
venue for all kinds of racing, super convenient, the town is super supportive
and it’s is absolutely beautiful here. I
also have great memories since I have done 3 of my 9 IM’s here in Penticton.
This year is the first year of a new format for ITU—they
have taken all the different distance/formats of multisport except for the
sprint and Olympic distance tri’s and put them together into a week long
multisport festival. So there are a mix
of athletes here racing duathlon, aquathlon (swim/run) aquabike (swim/bike),
off-road triathlon and long distance triathlon.
Makes for a great week of events and lots to see and do. It ends up giving the strange occurrance of
racing on a Wednesday for me.
We got here several days before the race—definitely wanted
to get in at least 2 pre-rides since the course is so technical. Had a relaxing time and did all the regular
race prep. The big talk the day before
the race was whether it would be a wetsuit or no wetsuit day—the water temp had
been hovering right around the cut-off temp.
I was hoping that it would be on the warmer side so that it was a no
wetsuit swim.
Race morning was quite warm and it was shaping up to be a
really hot day (eventually got to 33C).
They waited right until an hour before race start to give us the word on
the water—official temp 22.6C so it was no wetsuits. Good thing that the morning air was pretty
warm because I wanted to get in for a good warmup swim since the start was
going to be pretty intense.
After my swim warmup I headed over to the start corral and
looked for a sunny spot so that I didn’t freeze waiting for the start. The off-road tri community is pretty close,
so waiting there was like hanging out with a ton of your friends so there were
lots of hugs before we headed to the start line.
Race was a beach start and the water is quite shallow a long
way out so the start involved about 8-10 dolphin dives—great way to spike your
heart rate right at the start!. I
followed race plan by doing 60 hard strokes once I was swimming and then
settled into a hard pace. Unfortunately
I didn’t manage to find any good feet to follow but there was lots of room to
swim. I love swimming in Lake Okanagan
when its calm. Rest of the swim went by
with no issues - -out of the water a bit under 27min.
I had an ok transition but its definitely an area I can work
on. Anyhow—out onto the bike and started
working. The first 6k of the bike course
is really just a warm up getting to the trails-up a steep grade to the KVR
rails to trails trail. As you head out
you need to watch your effort since its just a slight grade all the way to the
entrance to the single track. I get out
there with no issues—but didn’t find anyone to draft (rules say you can only
draft a racer of the same sex)-I seemed to be surrounded by men. Everybody is trying to sort themselves out
before the single track starts and it becomes difficult to pass. I get to the trails and am almost immediately
in a line of traffic—trying to pass when I can but you really get limited—just
praying that the person in front of you doesn’t wobble, crash or otherwise do
something stupid. Inevitably something
happens—you can tell the riders that are fit but don’t have very good bike
handling skills—and you groan when you get stuck behind one of them since its
only a matter of time before something happens.
On the first big climb I have to dab or even get off a couple of times
because of what happens in front of me.
This course seems like it climbs forever—when in fact its only a bit
more than half of the single track. The
entire trail is narrow single track—you have to be really aggressive to
pass—spots that you wouldn’t normally consider good passing locations become
very attractive as they are the only chance.
The 10ish km of climbing really sort most of us out and by the time I am
getting close to the top its much easier to ride. Now for the fun/scary part—what goes up must
come down—and on this trail it does not come down in an easy way—it’s a pretty
technical descent—especially when you are trying to go fast. There were 2 spots on this half that I had
decided during preride that I would walk—a knarly downhill twisting through
some rocks that left little margin for error of pedal placement and was super
loose and sandy as well and then one rock ledge that we had to ride up off
camber—I am sure that I have the skills to ride it but could not talk my brain
into letting me do it. They did have an
easier bypass you could take—but when I pre-rode I determined that it was
faster to get off and run up the ledge and jump back on than taking the longer
way around - - and it proved true on race day as I came to the ledge right
behind another lady and left the obstacle in front of her.
I felt like I was doing pretty well on the descent (for me)
compared to the race here last year. I
have a dropper seatpost now and that made a huge difference on the steep
stuff. My perception was correct-when I
compared my Strava files I came down a lot faster than last year. I also made it down without crashing! This is a great technical race course and
definitely favors those that really have the mountain biking skills. When I popped back out onto the KVR for the
5km back to T2 I ended up in a group of 4 women. We worked together all the way back to transition—it’s
slightly downhill so we were really moving.
One of the women in the group was also in my AG—and I was really pumped
that I got out of the single track before her—in past races she has totally
killed me on the bike (like by 10+ minutes).
We run into transition together and when I get to the racks I notice
that there is only 1 other bike already racked in out AG.
I transition quickly and get out on the run
before her—though I am having no pretense of out running her since I know how
she typically runs. We stay together all
the way until we hit the entrance to the trail—which immediately is at about a
20% grade---and off she runs. I keep
pushing as hard as I can knowing that there are strong runners behind me and I
am currently in 3rd place. It’s
getting pretty hot and most of the run is in the direct sun-at least until we
descend back down to the lake at about 5km.
We run up and down the bluff a bit on pretty steep sketchy trails before
popping out onto the KVR. We then get an
easy section along the KVR-out to the turn around and back to where we head
back onto the trails along the top of the bluff (don’t go off the trail, it’s a
long way down!). After a short stint
back on the KVR its onto the trail that seems to dive off the side of a cliff
(oh right—it really does) and takes us down to the lake. From there we have about another kilometer on
the ‘trail’ before popping back out onto pavement. I put quotes around trail for this section
because really what we are doing is running along the base of the bluff—at points
there is about 10 feet of rocky/gravelly beach between us and the wall at other
times it is -10 feet (meaning we are running in the lake) It’s a fun section but you really have to be
careful not to turn an ankle. Anyhow—part
way through this section a lady from Australia passes me—I don’t catch her
number, so I don’t figure out that she is in my AG (we do not have our AG on
our calves like in most races) until after we are across the finish line. The last km of the run is back into town on
pavement—I just keep pushing as hard as I can (without throwing up of course)
and cross the finish line—47 s after the lady from Australia.
I am a little bummed at getting 4th
rather than 3rd—but if I look back at the race and my data—I executed
well and pushed my body to its limit—and thus in the end I am very satisfied
with my day. This year I have been
working on several things—one of them being the mental side of things—I just
need to get better at embracing the suck—mostly on the swim and run, I seem to
be able to tolerate the discomfort better on the bike. This race definitely showed that I am able to
be very uncomfortable for long periods of time on the run.
It takes more than just the athlete to get to these races
and do well—it’s a team. Thanks to: my
coach Chris Bagg, he seems to know what I need and has really been helping me
with the mental game, Brad Farra at Evolution Healthcare and Fitness for
dealing with all my injuries and DJ d’Austria for the bodywork to keep things
working smoothly. And the biggest thanks
to my husband, Don—training partner, Sherpa extraordinaire, bike mechanic and
many other things! #cbcgathlete #evolutionhcf # desotofemme
