Guelph Lake 1 Oly

Right! Here we go.
A nice partially cloudy day in guelph. This is a venue that I have had strong races at in the past so I think it must suit me well.

I wasn't too confident going into the race. I had taken a tumble on the mountain bike on saturday and landed on a root brusing my hip. It was a little sore and I didn't know how it would respond to the running.

I had set relatively lofty time goals for the day. I wanted to run a sub 40min. 10km, and average 37kmph on the bike.

They had adjusted the swim from a straight 1500m to two 750 loops. This suits me fine as the little run on the beach allows the arms to recover and freshen up for the second loop.

The start was a mass start. I had seeded myself in the sub 23min. group. Apparently those farther back had a rough go of it. For us the start wasn't too bad.

Caught a decent draft for the first few hundred meters but lost the feet of the guy at the turning buoy. He went wider than me and I ended up passing him. I then found myself all alone (which wasn't the plan) There was a small group maybe 10m in front of me. I tried to bridge to them a couple of times but found that the effort wasn't worth it.

We exited the water for the second loop and I tried to bridge then. I was able to get onto the feet of that small group and caught a sweet draft for the entire second loop. We were out of the water in 22:00. I had the 13th best swim time. I was happy with that. It is a long uphil run to the transition. I had a good smooth transition.

Onto the bike.

I've been learning to pace myself early on the bike. So many people race off hard, and then blow up on the run. I find if I take a few km to allow the body to adjust I then am able to push the bike, and not be burnt out for the run. I was passed by a number of people initially, but I think I got almost all of them back by the end.

Averaged 36.9 km on the bike. Right on my goal pace.
Bike: 1:11.?

I ended up passing a guy right before transition. It turns out that was for the lead! I never knew that until I read the results! I thought through the entire run that I was in second or third.

The run is a lot hillier than I remember. Started of at a good pace. The legs were getting pretty heavy by the turn around, but I knew it was mostly downhill until the last couple of kms. Started running with a guy who was from the 40-45? age group. Both of us were pushing pretty good and we ended up pacing each other for the rest of the race. I got a lot of comments that we looked relaxed and chating away. Trust me. We were chatting, but pushing hard.

Guelph finishes with a run past the finsih line, and then they shoot you up this punchy little hill and back to the finish. Probably one of the most painful finished of any race I have done.

I made it up the last hill, and the legs recovered on the way down. I managed to break from the small pack I was running with and beat them too the line.

Run: 40:45 (not the sub 40 I wanted) but a good solid run.

I ended up winning my AG. First time for that! I've been eyeing up those race winners hats for a while!

This race was a world champs qualifier, so I was offered a spot. I declined do to it not being in the budget, but that made someone else happy!

So guelph was good! Looking forward to p-borough though.