Category Archives: Race Report

Longest Day Run

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Wow, the Longest Day run at UBC is awesome! If you haven’t done this race before, you should put it on your calendar. It’s got a great friendly community vibe and has the best post-race food you’ll ever see. My friend Stephen took this “action” photo to prove it. They had cheesecake and ice cream for dessert, for pete’s sake. That’s my kind of race!

Lots of friends & familiar faces… equals lots of fun!  However, 10Km races are hard.  The 10km distance is not so much fun (after about 6km) and this route had a little hill that almost got me.  Even if it was hard, I was only 30 sec of my 10Km best so it’s a good start.

 

 

Year of Events, not Races

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In previous year’s, all of this crazy triathlon training was about the racing but this year its about the events. A subtle distinction, but a distinction none the less.

What a better event to kick of the year, then my swim bunny appearance at the Delta Triathlon:

New Year, New Best

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Looks like I’m starting the year off right with a 36:23 personal best at the Steveston Ice Breaker 8km race! I went out way too hard but still hung on for about a 30sec best time. It hurt like a son-of-a-gun. With about 2km to go, I couldn’t help thinking I hope the half marathon doesn’t feel like this. However, It is nice to see that I’ve cracked the 37min-ish barrier that this race seemed to hold for me over the past 3yrs. We’re still a little travel weary from our trip to Mexico, and Torbin seems to have brought back a tropical bug with him, so all-in-all, I’m pretty happy with the effort. Next up, the Langley half marathon.

Third Half of Oliver Race Report

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The second half of my Oliver race report is here. I don’t want to stretch this race report out too much longer… but the reason why I’m reflecting is that I’d like to learn from what happened on the run – specifically on the second half of the run. Short story, I ran out of gas. For the long story, keep on reading.

I felt great coming off the bike. I came in just behind one girl, and noticed that only one bike from my age group’s rack had returned. My head space was great – and I was feeling great. joanne-oliver-run I wasn’t running hard, just steady. I definitely felt the extra effort on the bike, but was still running well. I passed a bunch of folks including one girl within the first 5km. At the first turn around, I could see some very strong racers behind me so I knew I was in a very good position. My headspace was awesome. The run hurt, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I’m not exactly sure where it all went wrong. But I definitely ran out of gas. Somewhere in the first loop I discovered that my stomach was saying, “No way, Jose to gatorade.” I tried to get a gel in me Continue reading →

Second Half of Oliver Race Report

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The first half of my Oliver race report is here…

Race Day morning started really early. 4:30am or 5am or something ridiculous like that. I’m not a fan of the early wakeup. Since it was so early, we decided that it was a dumb idea for Torbin to come with me to the start. It’s tough being a spectator – because you can’t go anywhere I go – and I basically just hang out with my triathlon friend and/or focus on the race. So his plan was to sleep in and then come see me later in the afternoon. Good plan, worked out well, especially since I know that his support is there every day!

Ok, so now we’re at the swim start. I’m a different swimmer now. Much faster, so I wanted to get a spot near the front. I was in the first row… but way out on the side. The strategy worked well. As you can see from the picture, it still was a bit crazy but I was way more comfortable. I like the new one loop course. My time was 34:03 (last year 34:54) – Hmmm, maybe I was a little too comfortable and probably should have gone faster. Oh well, no biggee, it was comfortable. 48358-209-014f

After the swim, we had a 500m-650m run to transition. It wasn’t too bad… kind of a nice opportunity to get your head back from the swim and get ready for transition. There was one bike gone from my rack, and this helped me to think, “OK, race starts Continue reading →

Oliver Race Report

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I had a really good time in Oliver and I’ve got the photos to prove it. For me, racing well is not about my time and/or my placing, it’s about my internal attitude. I’ve talked about this perspective before. I think it’s because after many years in amateur sport, I’m not interested in the pressure to perform. I’m here in sport because I enjoy the experience. Instead of pressure – insert pleasure. When you’re out there enjoying yourself the results seem to come along with you.

Ok, enough waxing all philosophical like. My pre-race prep went well. I drove up Saturday morning. I was going to drive up by myself and do this race weekend thing totally solo but Torbin took pity on me and helped with the driving. Thanks for the support, Love. I had the weirdest taper ever for this race, with a work trip taking me to Colorado 2 weeks out, and a busy work week pre-race that included a 3hr bike ride to Deep Cove on Friday. Yup, the bike ride was for work. Awesome, eh! Probably not the smartest idea for a pre-race taper… but I decided that I’m not that serious about racing so why should I cancel on fun things, just because of an “A” race. Jeez, Louise.

to be continued…

check back later as I do plan to finish this post later today Second half of this race report will have to wait. I got distracted by, well, life.

Torbin and I drove up to Oliver on Saturday (or should I say Torb did most of the driving). We left real early in the morning so we were actually in Summerland by noon. I dropped Torbin off at my Aunt/Uncle’s place and then headed to Oliver for the pre-race prep. I arrived in Oliver, enjoyed some solo focused time visualizing for the race, got all my gear prepared, and did a little test bike ride. I was finished with all the pre-race stuff nice and early so headed to the lake for some quiet time. Quiet confident time before your A-race is a good idea – where you think, “Cool, everything’s done, I’m ready!” I like some time away from the hub bub and nervous energy that often surrounds these events. While hanging out on the beach, I had a nice visit with Jim and then met with the South Delta/SAA group for a very choppy swim. After the swim, I enjoyed some more visiting, went to the pre-race meeting, and then headed home to Summerland.

Bests and Worsts at the Delta Triathlon

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The best thing about the Delta triathlon was volunteering for the kids race.  I took the kids on the pre-race bike tours of the race course on Friday night.  I also got up at 5:30am on race day to be a bike course marshall.  My favorite thing was chatting with my new friend Jason.  He’s in Grade 4.  We became friends on Friday night.  On Saturday morning, I cheered for him on the bike course and he took his hands off the handbars so that he could turn around with his biggest smile and wave crazily at his new friend/fan.  On his second time past me, he was a super serious bike racer going as fast as he could.  I was proud of him – and had a little chuckle as he recovered from this serious racing with a “Whoah” and a little swerve.  My second favorite thing was talking to my new friend Wendell (also in Grade 4) who was telling me that he was going to be really good because he can change from his pyjamas to his clothes really fast.  [Big Smiles!]  The kids race was awesome.  If you haven’t volunteered at a kids race before, you should.  It’s a hoot!

The worst thing about the Delta triathlon was putting in a personal best race effort that should have placed me 5th place overall – and then getting DQ’d because an error. (A volunteer pulled me out of the swim 4 laps too early. I said “Are you sure?” and they said “Yes, Go!”) I had two ambitious goals for Delta, 1) beating the 1:10 mark and, 2) placing well in the overall standings.  Given the opportunity, I would have met my time goal.  So, I’m going to call it a PB.  As for standings, I will just have to wait to Oliver to prove that I can make an impact in the overall placings of these races.  I’m better at longer distances anyways, so watch out in Oliver everyone! I plan to, “Bring it on!”

swim 7:04 (475m)*
bike 36:08
run 21:33
overall 1:04:44 + ~5min* = 1:09:44
*extrapolated to 700m = 10:25 + 1.5 min to exit = ~12min

Here’s what I’ve learned from this gaff. I was confused, but I followed the instructions. That was the wrong choice in the end. But it’s hard to think fast on your feet when you are trying to put it all out there during a race. You’re on auto-pilot with not even enough time to put a shirt on or do up your laces. How are you supposed to have the presence of mind to stop and have a conversation with some random volunteer who is telling you to do the wrong thing? I’m not sure how you do it, but that’s what you’ve got to do. I guess this is just what you learn as you become a more experienced racer. I’m reminded of the pro-racers at Oliver who went off course on the run course a couple years back because the volunteers hadn’t put down the cone at the turn around point yet. Maybe it’s just that these things happen, and you can’t ever really be ready for them. I wonder what the pros would say? Me, I say we should all practice our clothes to pyjamas transitions more often. [chuckle]