Race report - Triathlon Drummondville

Since the start was at 11:25 and the triathlon was at maybe 1h30 or so drive from my place, I woke up as usual, had breakfast then packed the car and drove there.

Once there I got to packet pickup and Steve was there, guess that the decided to arrive around the same time. I got into the tent, grabbed my stuff and then went to the t-shirt table. Once again they didn't have all the size left when I arrived, and their t-shirt where huge. I grabbed a medium and it looks like I have a large. I guess they tough that triathlon was a sport where everyone is oversize.

After that I headed into the transition zone and prepare my spot, we had a rack just for us the old people ;) Once my spot was ready I headed out for a little run to warm up. I wanted to bike too but I got squeezed in time and figured it would be better not to be late at the start.

My friend Steve was starting 10 minutes after me and I knew he had a good chance to pass me before I finish my swim, so I tried to push as hard as I could to not make it happened.

At first I was with some people and I tried to stay with them. It worked for most of the first loop, but when we were coming back in the current I lost them and after the buoy there was no way to get back to them. So I finished my swim all by myself.

By the end of the second loop I started seeing people from the wave behind me and I was scared that Steve would pass me, I got passed by maybe 10 people from what I count see. And I knew that he was a good enough swimmer to get out of the water in the top 10.

I just tried to swim as fast as I could to get out of the water. Once I approached the exit I heard a volunteer yelling that it was slippery, and slippery it was dammit. I almost fell while getting out of the water.

I really need to improve my swim, this is usually what kills my race. I can make up some time on the bike and run but the swim always put me so much in the back of the pack that it is hard to have a good time overall.

Once I reached my bike I put my helmet on and started feeling dizzy a little bit. I took a couple of seconds to let it pass, then I headed out of the transition zone. A transition without a wetsuit is always so fast, but there is no way I gain much than when I swim with a wetsuit.

I jumped on the bike with one thing on my mind, get back some time on the faster swimmer. At first I got pass by a coupe of guy from the wave after me and I tried to stay with them. It worked for a while but they were fast and at some point I lost them. I was not drafting of them, but trying to stay in range.

I tried to cheer on everyone from the club as I was seeing them on the course, and besides that I just push hard and tried to keep a good average.

When I got off the bike I was disappointed with my bike split, I had no idea what was my avg or exact time since I didn't want to check but I felt like I had not much power during that leg.

I need to rethink my training, I feel like I do not have power on the bike this year and I can't say why.

Transition 2 went as smoothly as the first one, I loved my Zoot Ultra Race, as easy as it gets to put them on.

I tried to get into that 10km with a sub 45 min time in mind. I wish I could have push to get it but sadly I didn't have enough juice left in the tank to get it.

This course is mostly flat so it is an easy one to get a good run, which I did but not as fast as I expected. The only problem with it is that it is a 4 loop course, and every time you have to turn 180 degrees you lose some speed.

Not much to say about the run itself, it went as smoothly as it could with what I had left in the tank. I cheered on my friend from the club as much as I could, thanks the volunteer on my last lap and finished the race with a nice last split ... guess I still had some juice finally because I pushed the pace for that last split ;)

Here are my results from last year sprint on the same course.
Swim - 20:15
T1 - 1:31
Bike - 33:02
T2 - 1:34
Run - 23:21

And here are my results from this year Oly, same course but twice as long. 2 loop of the swim course, 4 of the bike course and 4 of the run course.
Swim - 36:39
T1 - 1:38
Bike - 1:06:15
T2 - 1:36
Run - 45:38

I finished with a time of 2:31:52
Overall - 65/104
Age group (40-44) - 13/18

My time was 5 min or so slower than my best Oly, but this one was not wetsuit legal which cost me probably that 5 minutes. Overall a good race for me, but I really need to find a way to get faster in the water.