- Guelph Lake One, Olympic distance Triathlon
I’m going to save myself some typing and use my buddy, David Brezer’s description of the race (with a couple of little edits by me!). Lots of fun and just a good training race on the way to Ironman Canada for about 20 of us LOST Swimmers.
David and Joanne are both excellent swimmers… and both of them had some issues in the swim. Nothing that can’t happen to anyone and nothing really serious, although I’m sure they would both beg to differ if you had asked them at the time! The short answer is that they both got a good dunking in the crowd… and had a hard time recovering… but they both did… and both went on to have a good race. Which is good experience in itself. Something about “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” David had the best line after the race, something to the effect of “Rob, you now have my permission to kick my ass if I don’t come out for LOST swimming… that open water swim experience is important!”
PS. When you read David’s self-prescribed punishment for screwing up the ride, you’ll see why he crushes everyone on the bike! As Brett said “I feel like I learned some valuable lessons without even attaching a bib!” 😉
Cheers,
Rob
Rob, Joanne, Ron and I were out Guelph Lake Conservation Area competing in the Olympic Tri this morning. Great weather – cool at swim start, sunny and hot for the run, windy bike, but just enough to steel one’s mind.
Rob and Ron had great swims (mass start, 2×750 loops) – Still can’t believe how well Ron’s swimming with a 35min 1500m! (he just started swimming this winter!). Unfortunalty Joanne and I each had our difficulties. I went out way too fast trying to keep up with lead swimmers and got spooked by the first turn. Took most of the trip back (1/2 of it doing breast and backstroke) to get my breathing and nerve back. Second loop was better – just wanted to finish so took I it slow and easy. Funny ’cause I ended up neg splitting. Sounds like Jo had similar challenges – even had a conversation with the safety kayakers for about 5 minutes!
Big lesson: Show up on Saturday morning for LOST swimming – even if the water’s not flat. Take your time, ’cause no one wins just because of a good swim. Also, there a good reason the swim is the first event 😉
The bike was pretty windy – I’m guessing about 25 to 35 km and net in your face on the return out-and-back route. A far cry from the 10km/hr the Weather Network website predicted (not that they are any more accurate than checking the moss on your local spruce tree.) Joanne must have caught her stride after the swim ’cause she averaged over 29 km/hr and, yes, “chick’d” you-know-who by more than 4 minutes. Ron held a respectable 30.1 km/hr given that he chased Brett’s butt for more than 120km the day before, all the way through the hills of Belfountain – after a Lake O swim. Coming off a recovery week and with the benefit of a PowerTap I managed my pace and was quite pleased with a 32.5 km/hr average.
We all managed very strong runs through the mixed terrain of grass, asphalt and gravel with the three boys all close to 45 min 10k’s and Ron and I running within 6 seconds of each other. Joanne’s run rounded out her great top 6 placing!
Unfortunatly my effort was for naught. When I didn’t see my name posted with the results I thought it might be because I used my own chip. Nope. Turns out that I was on another list – the DQ’s (and no, that does not mean I was in for an ice milk treat.) According to a nice official in a white shirt Bib Number 1815 (me) was seen to cross the centreline, which, according to OAT is an automatic Disqualification.I don’t recall the incident – may have cut inside a cone at a turn, or may have been an early pass on a crowded road. Regardless, I did not question the official and have no doubt it happened – and I feel awful.So, lesson to me and my fellow racers – watch out for centreline violations. And not just because you don’t want to end up with a big, fat DQ after your name. It’s a safety rule that makes sense.
Oh, and as self-flagilation, I rode back from the race (90k-ish), thanks Ron for taking care of my van!
Guelph Lake results
David
I agree with the group about the chaos of the swim leg at Guelph. I was also racing on Sunday and swam with the pack out to the first buoy. Everyone has their own style that helps them get through these situations but found that if i focused on letting my legs drag behind me, almost dead, that i was less bothered by people whacking and pushing on them. I was probably over rotating to make sure i got a good long breath but it worked. At Kelso two weeks ago in my first open water swim i had to pull up and do some back and breast stroke in a vain attempt to normalize my breathing. Just goes to show that everything you practice in the pool can go out the window in the panic of a group start in open water. Going around the first buoy at Guelph was ridiculous as there was a huge bottleneck and everyone pulled up because of the traffic. It was almost like one of those lazy rivers where the current pulls you around the corner. After that first turn I made a move to the outside for some open water and was able to get some rhythm. Went to the outside on the second lap the whole way and was able to relax much more. Probably swam about 50m more than I had to but I feel like I left the water with a lower heart rate than if I stayed in the pack. Finished with a 31:38 swim leg (i was shooting for 30 min) but was happy that I was able to keep chugging along despite the insanity of the mass start. See you all Saturday morning!
Nice race report.
I consider myself an ex LOST since I swam with the group once in 2007 but I am planning on doing the race this year.
Here are my little 2c on the race, my best Olympic distance in 4 years.
Last year’s swim so brutal so I was excited to read from the organizer that they had improved the start.
I positioned myself on the far left, hoping for a clear path until the 90° turn at the 2nd buoy.
This year the traffic was much better, but the “going wide” strategy turned out to a disaster since I was slower than year by a few seconds and I am much faster in the pool!
My wife, who was spectating, told me that it was a big chaos; some people had no clue where they were going and were going in diagonal, totally off course. One guy was even wearing a Hawaiian baggy drag swim suit!
I personally did not find the wind to be too strong on the bike especially compared to last year’s gust. But since I ended biking the exact same time for the 2nd half despite derailing after the mount line and being unable to put my bike shoes on for a while, the wind must have been blowing on the way back. What a nice surprise to jump off the bike at the dismount line and to fell absolutely no cramping in the legs. Did not look at the pace on the GPS until the 2nd km and was thrilled to see 4.05/k. Temperature was almost perfect for a triathlon.
Great race. Peterborough Half iron is next.
Here is my video report.
http://youtu.be/0g74eC05vMI
Sorry but the after race comments are in French 🙂
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