Funny thing about this race… it’s my 8th year doing it… and it isn’t even my favorite race… but we always manage to have such a great time that we keep coming back! And this year was no exception!
Lots of interesting races within the race this year. But I’m getting ahead of myself. So I’ll start at the beginning.
Last year I was training for my Lake Ontario crossing and had done absolutely no running or biking… but because this is such a fun event with the whole gang I found a way to participate anyway… it makes me crazy not to participate!… so I got on a relay. But Hugh put together a relay to challenge us. Which resulted in me racing my daughter, Maisey! It was awesome… but yes, she beat me… by 29 seconds over 2km! Not bad for an old guy.
Having said that, here I was again… toe to toe with my 18 year old daughter about to start the swim. Except this year… I had done no swimming… and wasn’t on the relay, so I needed to save some for the rest of the race, unlike last year when I will fully acknowledge that I blew my brains out on the swim!
So off we went… things were going swimmingly, Maisey and I were on the front row and up with the leaders… then one of us started to fall back… I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but… you can tell that it was her that pulled out in front of me… because she cut me off!!! Which lead to me accidentally grabbing my own daughters butt… and as my other daughter, Jillian, would say… “awkward”. I continued on, nonetheless.
And aside from coming about a foot from swimming head on into a “no swimming” sign while Joanne, Jillian and the rest of the crowd screamed at me, things went well. I drafted off of someone about my speed for most of the second lap… which is the smart way to do it… of course, I hate drafting, even though it’s smart (or maybe that’s why it doesn’t agree with me)… but with half a lap left I couldn’t take it anymore and I had to pass him… I had a whole pack of puppies drafting off of me too… and I knew they’d be along for the ride… and I knew they’d try and blow by me with a 100m or so left (which is what I should have been doing)… but was feeling to good, so I just took off… and low and behold when I got out of the water, I had dropped them all. Nice swim.
Then I sucked on the bike. I don’t really hate biking… I just never practice… so I tend to suck. This was my 4th ride in the last 2 years… including the 90k race at Mount Tremblant 2 weeks ago… so what do you expect. Having said that, it was a pretty good ride. I went from a 3:21 in Mt T. to a 3:06… but this is an easier (although not easy) bike course… and… and this is the part that I hate about this race… it’s only a 86k ride, instead of 90k!!! Not being a rider I shouldn’t complain, but I also hate taking the easy way out. Stupid. About the only other thing of note was that as I was screaming down one of the hills (okay, it felt like “screaming” to me)… I hit a bump… bad things can happen when that happens… but I had one of the better bad things happen to me… I didn’t wipe out… but my seat post dropped 6 inches. Crap. So now as the dozens and dozens of people that rode by me, I must have looked like one of those kids on their trick BMX bikes with my seat so low… and everyone must have been thinking “someone should tell that guy to get a decent bike fitting”. Whatever, at least I now had a plausable excuse for my tardiness.
On to the run. Phew. I’m alway happy to get on to the run… and off the bike. And all I could think about was Smitty. This was the first time in years that Brian has missed this race… but I don’t blame him… this race is ALWAYS stupid hot. Except this year. It was overcast all day, threatening to rain… but it never did (at least not until we were on the drive home… and then it opened up!).
One thing I like about the run here is that it is an out and back… so you get to high five all your buddies in the race as they are on their way in, while I’m on my way out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a competitive guy (like all of us!)… and I was also scouting who was gunnin’ for me in the run!
Everyone’s favorite grandpa, Bruce, was quite a ways behind me when I saw him at the turnaround… he’s 60… and he’s faster than me… and I knew he was coming… but it would be close, I was running pretty well.
Then there was that pesky “Ryder’s Relay” team. Maisey had put 2 minutes on me in the swim… but I was able to catch Lambrina fairly early in the ride (her first bike race ever!!! Congrats Lamb!)… but I knew Hugh would be coming for me!
So I’m 500m from the finish… with no one around. And then who pulls up beside me… Bruce! Damn. Looks like I’m going to “Gramp’d”. (not sure if that is better or worse than getting “chick’d”?!)… but Bruce being the swell guy he is said he’d run in with me. Cool.
And then with 100m left… who runs up beside me and Bruce? Hugh! So the two of them pulled me across the finish with them and we got one of the best LOST Triathlon pics ever! All in our LOST Tri shirts, which is ironic because Hugh and I both change into them during the race… who knew we’d all finish a 6 hour race at the exact same time! Well, a 5:38 race, to be exact!
As Bruce said, that was worth the price of admission right there… crossing together with all the friends and family cheering us in! (I told them that I had been waiting for Bruce and Hugh around the corner for about 20 minutes just for the photo op… but I’m not sure if they bought it?!).
Lots of fun. Congrats everyone!
(especially the medalists: Scott, Bruce, Jo and Brett… and the newbies: Carla, Patty and Jacinda!)
Cheers,
Rob