The Toronto Triathlon Festival was named as the Canadian National Age-Group Championships for the Sprint and Olympic Triathlons this year. Which meant that (1) because I signed up for the race, I would get to be racing in the National championships - which is kinda cool; and (2) there were going to be a lot of people racing, and it was going to be a lot more competitive than last year.
Attending the pre-race briefing on the Saturday provided all of the same information as last year. I was really hoping that there was going to be some big new item that would make it really worth-while ... but at a minimum, it saved the step of standing in line to pick up race kits the morning of the race.
Morning of - Pre-Race
The morning of the race I woke up pretty much ready. Bags were packed the night before, and all I had to do was re-check everything (and then re-check it again ... I might be just a bit paranoid about forgetting something at home) and then I was good to go.
I arrived at the race site with lots of time - or so I thought. Parked the car, added a layer (it was definitely chillier than I thought it was going to be) and headed to transition. I was able to get my body marking and drop off my bike pretty quickly, but then I saw the line-up for the bathrooms ... and started to get nervous. I still had about an hour to race-start, which should allow for a quick bathroom break, an appropriate warm-up and then getting into the wetsuit. But that line-up looked long. With my pre-race jitters on full tilt I exited the transition to get into the bathroom line. And there I waited. And waited. And waited. And ... well, you get the idea. 45 minutes later I finally make it to the bathroom (which is actually a port-a-potty) and was then able to convince the volunteers at the transition area that I needed to get in to get my wetsuit.
I ended up with almost no warm-up, and an overall feeling of frustration at being rushed through my standard pre-race rituals. There were some brave souls in the water near the swim-exit doing an in-water warm-up, but after hearing about how cold the water was - I thought that I should probably skip that part.
Swim
As the waves were started I noticed that there were people being brought back in shivering from the swim - and not via the swim exit. I heard the mutterings about how cold the water was, and about the craziness around the first two turns. (Just a short sprint to the first turn, and mass chaos with everyone trying to get there first.)
As my wave was called into the water, I jumped in - and immediately my feet, arms and face went numb. That water was COLD! Wow. Then I looked around at my wave - there were about twice as many people as last year, which meant it was going to be a bumpy swim. The air-horn went off and we were on our way. My arms did not have the strength or turn-over that I needed to be able to have the type of swim I wanted (sub-2min/100m pace) and after the first 200m I was struggling just to keep my head in the race. The cold was making my breathing shallow, and my feet and hands were numb. Thankfully I made it out with only a few scrapes and no significant bumps or bruises.
Bike
Transition took longer than it should have because I struggled with the coordination to get the wetsuit off and the helmet on. Then up the ramp to the mount/dismount line. (Thankfully without any slipping or falling!) After glancing at my Garmin 910xt I noticed that it wasn't displaying speed/distance. Which was curious. I then had a look at my bike computer, and it was displaying nothing as well. Which meant I was flying blind (or - puttering blind ... depending on how fast you think you need to be going to be defined as flying).
After a short zig-zag through Exhibition place, we were off on the Gardiner. And into the headwind. I actually love the ride on the Gardiner. Despite the headwind and uphill for the first half, it feels nice to know that there is no vehicular traffic to worry about. It was a bit of a shock to see just how many significant pot-holes there were on the Gardiner though - I am not sure how I have never noticed them while driving before.
After the turn-around it was down-hill with the wind at my back. Wheeee! Dodged some more big potholes, and made it to the turn-around to head back up the Gardiner and into Exhibition place. As I was navigating the turns, I made a mental note that I need to practice my cornering skills - I was giving up some significant time having to slow down to turn.
Run
I made it back down the ramp from the dismount line without falling (yay!) and then proceeded to get lost in transition. At the time it felt like a good 5 minutes that I was searching for my running shoes and rack spot, but it was probably only 45 seconds or so. Did the transition thing, and then headed out for the run.
This year there was a change to the run course to use the path for the 'out' part of the run and a lane of Lakeshore for the 'back' part of the run. This was a great change. We were able to make passes when they were needed, and allowed for other people to use the path as well without having scary 'are we going to crash' moments with the racers.
I glanced again at my watch, hoping that it might have somehow fixed itself - but no such luck. So, I had to go based on feel (which I am not all that good at). I then noticed (at the turn-around to head back towards the finish-line) that there were no km markers on the run-course. I could put together a rough estimate (2km from transition to turn-around, 2km back to running past transition, 1km to the finish) but it was still tough trying to gauge speed. I tried to employ the method of just running down people ahead of me (with some success) and was able to kick it up a notch for the finishing sprint. Well, it felt like I was kicking it up a notch - I might have just been not slowing down as much.
Post-Race
There was some post-race food available within the finishing chute - which I am assuming was set-up to be able to reserve the food for athletes, but made it difficult to go and get the food if you accidentally exited that finishing area before getting your food.
They were grilling up Hero burgers - but the line looked a bit too long for me to attempt it. So instead I hung out with some of the people from the FMCT club (some had competed earlier and others were just there to cheer - we do have some pretty great people in the club).
As happens at every single triathlon - a single set of results are posted in 3pt font. (okay - I might be exaggerating a little bit on the font ... but not by much. I swear!) The athletes were swarming the results, and it took about 15 min of waiting just to get close enough to see anything on the sheets. Another 5 min of searching and scanning and I finally found my name. I had done it! Finally finishing under 1:20 for a sprint - and earning a 9th place in my age-group. Which means ... I earned a qualifying spot for the World Age-group championships which are set to take place in Edmonton next year.
Now I just need to decide whether I am ready for the type of training and dedication that the championships would require.
