better late then never???

Hey there,

I really thought I'd get out of a race report. I appoligize, but I will make it a quick one as there is new stuff to report on. If I'll report it, well that's to be determined.

K, as much as I remember, we drove out the day before, got a hotel in Cranbrook. The race head quarters as well as the pasta meal and race meeting/registration were held at a hotel there as well. The race meeting was brutally hot, and with the bad humidity saturday it was nearly unbearable. I remember looking around to see if anyone would pass out. Nope no one did, we got a surprise though as we walked out. I'm not sure if everyone saw but there were like 6 cops pulling a car over and the one officer had his gun drawn and was yelling for the punk with the hands up to back up very slowly. Yikes!! I've never seen that even living in Calgary, who knew I had to go to Cranbrook to witness this. Oh well we went to East Side Marios for dinner, met an old running buddy from Manitoba there. We used to train together on the track, he was a rock star back then with a 2:45 marathon PR. Now he's a lil older and joined the triathlete ranks. It was good to chat with him again, he lives in Calgary now too.

Ok the morning of the race, I'm really nervous as usual. It kinda annoyed me, this is just a training race, not a major goal, yet I'm nervous to the point where I'd like to get into the vehicle and drive away. Why do I get so nervous??? Oh well I went through the motions, had a long walk to transition from the parking spot we got along some road. Everything went smoothly, picked a spot and tryed to memorize the location, but I was nervous about that part. They had numbers at the end of the rows, but most of the people were putting their transition gear over it. I got a spot nearly right across from Trevor. I'll be chasing this rock star swimmer even with the short swim. So I get on my wetsuit and head down to the lake. It was warmer then I thought it would be, must be really shallow. We watched the sprint come and go, man that swim looks aweful short.

The gun goes off and away I go, right near the front. There's some body contact but no more then usual. I even appoligized to some fat guy who was intent on swimming into me, oh well keep the peace right? Not sure why but I kinda got a panic attack nearly 200m into the swim?? I suddently felt really claustraphobic, I have no clue why. My breathing didn't seem that bad, I would normally assume it's the asthma acting up, but I felt calm. I had to really concentrate, breath deep, relax, and don't stop. I really wanted to pull out, but I was surrounded, what else could I do but swim?!?! That feeling passed and I got near the first turn. I've never had that clear a corner, I kept looking around but there was no one around me. Usually someone cuts in sharply, but not this time. I think I did the first turn with out getting touched, that was bizzare, and I wasn't behind I came out probably just ahead of the middle of the pack I think maybe in the top 1/3. Oh well that's a first for me, onward to the next bouy where I finally met with some arms and legs, now that's more like it!! Boy this swim feels short, I still felt great and I actually started to push a lil harder on the way back to shore.

Got up looked at the watch 20 minutes somthing!!! I guess I was right, short swim, oh well I feel like I'm in the right position, still felt really good on the swim. Long run to transition where the mats were to end the actual swim, 22 minutes almost exactly. Maybe with the run up to transition it was 1500 meters? Course running the last 250m is kind of a bonus. Found my bike ok got changed and ran out. Lisa was yelling for me at the mount line. The first part of the bike went around the park area, onto one highway, then to another, a straight out and back. No wind today, lil rough road for my liking but manageable. I had a little trouble getting going, my heart rate gets so high on the swim I have a really hard time getting relaxed for the bike. Did I say relaxed? An olympic distance tri is not a time to relax, time to push and push some more. I hate these distances, I'm never comfortable, I have a tough time pushing that hard. There's no time to recover. Aughhh oh well good training right? I think at about the turn around I see Trevor, he looks really good, but not that far up the road. On the way back I found my mind wondering, occasionally I'd have to mentally ask myself if I'm pushing the pedals hard enough, can we shift up?? So I'd shift up for a bit and find I'm loosing efficiency not going faster, back down I shift. So anyways the park came up again, looking at my time I figure I'm gonna be well over an hour. booooo I run into transition and can't find my spot!!!! I knew this would happen, the transition looks sooo different with no bikes in it. Although that is a good sign(I might have passed a few swimmers) I ran back and forth for a bit, it felt like for ever in reality probably only like 30 secs. Finally I found it after cursing got changed and ran out. 1:10 bike with a slowwwww T2.

The run in Wasa is awesome, I love the winding pathways, roads and dirt trails you get to run on. It keeps my mind busy, anyways the run takes you around the huge transition first, then out on a path. I ran as hard as I could, which wasn't that fast, but I did what I could. Dusty demoralized me as he gaver by me at maybe 3k? I had forgotten about him, I thought he might catch me, but I was disappointed that it was so soon. Oh well I give him credit, he's obviously worked on his swim/bike. At the turn I saw Trevor, nope not going to catch him. There were some campers out to watch and cheer, that was nice, and I waved back when I could. Saw a few more from Greg's group. I saw Mark(not the cook Mark the other one) he looked good only a couple minutes behind. Passed Darren maybe 4k into the run. So I ticked the km's off, I'm really glad I went to the meeting for one reason. They have you run a long out and back, when you get back to transition you might think you're done the race, but you're not. You got like 2k to go, so they have you run around the transition again, run down to the lake, some over sand, then do a 1k out and 1k back to the finish line. It's nice to know those kind of details. Oh I saw Julie nearly back in transition(no I wasn't that far ahead of her, the women started later). She looked really focussed and didn't even see me, I think I managed a word or two. Did the out and back and realized I was actually close to a PB, the PB is from years ago in Manitoba. Yes I actually started tris in 97 or 98, I had a big break in between. And that was a short swim as well, oh well the finish was nice with Steve King announcing. Finished in 2:15, pretty good time 43 or 44 min 10k. Not my best either but about what I expected. The weather was pretty well perfect, it may have gotten a little hotter after I finished, it sure felt like it.

There you have it, I skipped through this pretty quick maybe missed some details, but all in all I was pretty happy the way things went. I didn't place or anything in my age group, all the times were pretty quick with the swim that was maybe 250m short? The race is really well run, the only thing I really don't like is the huge narrow transition. I don't have any clue how to make that better, maybe split the sprint and olympic??

K, I'm gonna hit the sack after 5 hours on the bike, 30 min run, Transformers movie, and one late late Race Report unedited and typed as fast as I can possibly go(actually that's pretty quick I can type at over 50 wpm) I am pooped. night all

DP