My 2015 season came to a close on August 1st in
Ottawa. Earlier in the year I sat down with Barrie and we decided that I would
end my season in early August to prevent the normal drop in my swimming
performance. This is because senior nationals for swimming are around this time.
Andrew Cole (the McMaster swim coach we work with) is done his season and his
athletes need some down time come August. I have
nothing against him stopping now; it just makes sense for me to stop too if I
no longer have the swim team to swim with!
As you all know, Magog went very well for me. Recovering
from an Olympic distance race is a lot tougher than a sprint though. I knew
this going into Ottawa, but given what had happened in Magog the previous year,
I thought I should finish off my season at Ontario Draft Legal provincials.
It’s low key and a lot of fun.
Race morning was very rushed, we had a 6:45am race start.
This is almost 3 hours earlier than most of my race starts this year! I planned
for it but it means your warm up and morning routine has to be altered. We
didn’t get a great warm up in but I knew that bridging up on the bike was quite
possible with this smaller field.
The swim was an in water start, which I like because of the
lack of running into the water! I was off to a slow start right away but I
wasn’t very concerned. I just held myself together and swam well. I came out of
the water a little back from the leaders but I grabbed my bike with the
confidence I needed to hammer. Very quickly, I bridged up with Pat Smith, and
the two Forbes. Once we caught up the pace was pretty relaxed with only a few
attacks that I had to cover. When I came into T2 I went to the wrong shoes.
Taylor and I have the same racing flats and in the adrenaline of racing I ran
to his shoes instead of mine. I had to re-rack my bike once I realized and this
caused my to become a bit flustered. I threw my helmet and sunglasses (or so I
thought) into the bin and tried to make up the time I lost. I ended up feeling
it on the running, my legs just weren’t there but I pushed through only to
realize that I had a penalty (for the sunglasses not being in my bin). It ended
up costing me a placing but I finished 8th in a very competitive
field so I’m very happy with that! Thanks to Patrick Smith and his mom for
helping me out and giving me a place to stay in Ottawa!
I’m actually on the plane right now as I write this. I’ve
been racing since March and I really look forward to putting my feet up and
chilling with my friends back home. I really miss New Brunswick and I cannot
wait to reboot and get ready for some hard training in September! Thanks to
everyone for your constant support. I really couldn’t be racing at this level
without Triathlon New Brunswick, C3, Nineteen wetsuits, Human Performance
Centre and Aberdeen Subaru!
No comments:
Post a Comment