Typical for me, my race in Montreal was just another whirlwind trip as part of a busy weekend and training schedule. My main focus right now is the Hamilton Marathon in November, so this was a training race with the goal of qualifying to compete in the duathlon world championships in Spain next year; going in to the race I was aware that I wouldn’t need to go all out just to qualify, and decided not to waste precious energy on trying to place.
Of course, the week leading up to the race wasn’t exactly ideal: I didn’t taper – in fact, I did a bonus 9km run with Mike (B) and Mike (O) on Thursday – and I hadn’t been on my bike since the world championships almost a month ago. But since when have I let details like that bother me??
I drove to Montreal on Friday, arriving at the hostel at 10pm and going straight to bed as I was up again at 5:30am and trying to find somewhere to get breakfast. I had planned on my usual Tim’s bagel breakfast sandwich and coffee, but settled for a 24hr McDonalds down the street from the hostel (which messed up and gave me an egg mcmuffin rather than a bagel breakfast sandwich). Mistake: thinking an egg mcmuffin and coffee at 7am would keep me satisfied until noon when I finished the race.
I arrived in time to see the start of the Ironman distance race, and realized why the transition was so gigantic: the Esprit Triathlon de Montreal included sprint, Olympic, half iron and full iron races on the same day, on the same site, in addition to the sprint and Olympic duathlon races! I have to say the race organization was stellar, although the French race briefing was significantly longer than the English one…so I wasn’t really sure what the course was. Oh well!
The weather was initially threatening, but cleared up before the start.
First Run – 10k
The first run started out in the middle of nowhere on a gravel path, but quickly joined the main trail for two laps around the Olympic basin. I had planned on running about a 50 minute 10k, but my legs were tired and I was struggling by the halfway point so decided it wasn’t worth trashing my legs. I managed to draft off a bigger runner for one particularly windy section (which helped maintain my pace) and I finished the run in just over 51 minutes. Heading into T1 I and was feeling a little less lethargic (although a little hungry) and looking forward to hopping on my bike for some speed!
Bike – 40km
As soon as I got onto the main bike course, my first thought was OMG the bike course is the Formula One racing circuit. I had been worried about a crowded bike course because I had to do 9 laps and the full and half-iron athletes were already on the course, but it was fantastic! The turns were tons of fun, the road was wide enough that passing and staying out of the drafting zone (which was 12m per ITU rules) wasn’t really an issue. The trickiest part was remembering to say “gauche” and ” droit” instead of “left” and “right” when passing.
I don’t think I stopped smiling for at least the first three laps, and by then I was almost halfway through and my legs had warmed up. I glanced down at my watch and realized I was averaging about 32km/hr, much faster than usual! The wind picked up a bit in the second half (and my legs were tiring) so I ended up finishing the bike portion in about 1:18, matching my 40km personal best from August. And I even managed to count to nine laps!
Second Run – 5k
I was feeling great heading off the bike, especially knowing that I was on track to beat my goal time of 2:45 by a significant margin. My legs felt strong coming out of T2 and I ran my first kilometer in 5:16, but the lack of taper and proper breakfast was starting to catch up with me and my pace slowed as I continued around the basin. With a few hundred meters to go I glanced around to see if there was anyone else close by in my age category, but was surrounded by men and decided my legs didn’t have a sprint in them anyways. I picked up the pace a little as I neared the finish, just to make sure the photographer caught my good side, and crossed the line in 2:39:40 with a 27 minute 5k.
Mission accomplished! My 5th place finish snagged me a place on Team Canada for the AG duathlon world championships in Spain next year, and I finished the day knowing that I executed my race plan perfectly. Although I could have gone faster had I tapered and focused more on the race, I was satisfied with a solid time in each event and knowing the race fit into my marathon training plan.
Tri Sport Girl 