Toronto Duathlon Festival - Race Report

This race was not in the plan earlier this year but as soon as it was announced that it would be the Canadian Championships, I knew I had to re-arrange the schedule and build for this challenge. I registered as soon as the race announcement came out so that I would not get lazy and let this one slip past. Hopefully, others in the community would follow suit...

During the last few weeks, Jesse Bauer and I tried to reach out to as many duathletes we knew to see who was coming into town for Nats. We were trying to pump up the event over Jesse's duathlon revitalization project, www.duathloncentral.com , but we were not getting many encouraging emails from out of province. I totally understood as a lot of time, effort and money go into a destination race and Toronto is not the most affordable place to go for a 2hr duathlon.

Thankfully, the Ontario crew of duathletes stepped up and on race day, we had a nice field of racers for the 2014 Canadian International Distance Duathlon Championships. Unfortunately, mother nature was not in a great mood on the morning of the TTF event so we had to deal with a bunch of rain and wind. This pushed back the start of our duathlon and we stood in the corral for an extra 15 to 20 minutes while the organizers sorted things out.

Eventually, it was time to roll. As expected, Jesse and Michael Park pushed the pace from the gun. As we left Coronation Park we ran into the head wind coming from the west. For the first km I was stuck in between little packs with no protection from the breeze coming at us. Luckily, that did not last too long as two younger runners finally joined me and I latched on to Justin Spalvieri as he edged past. I knew from scouting reports that he had a 33minute 10k in his legs recently so I was happy to hold his shoulder for as long as possible without crushing myself.

Eventually, his pace picked up just before the Lakeshore Legion hill and I was once again running on my own but it seemed to be the speed I was targeting (hard to tell without km markers???) so I just kept them in range. As I ran past the Boulevard Club, I could feel someone closing in on me from behind. I was not sure who else was in the field was looking for around a 36min split so I started to worry I was actually fading back, taking it too easy. A few metres down the trail, that long distinctive stride in my left peripheral made it all to clear that Dave Frake was here to play. As he moved up beside he asked me what pace I thought we were running so I agreed with his guess and jumped on for the ride.

When we reached the turn around down near the Humber Bridge, it was time to enjoy some tail wind and a run along the closed right lane of Lakeshore Blvd. Dave and I went back and forth a little over the next km or so but eventually he sniffed blood and started to pull gradually away. I tried to hold close which brought me much closer to Alexandre Beaulieu and Justin. I was not sure what to expect from a few of these runners once they hit the bike but I knew my pre-race expectations were getting much brighter with this run.

Back at Ontario Place, i checked my watch and noticed I was right on time (36:25 for 10k) and feeling pretty good. The course was a touch damp now so the bike would be tough for some but I was here to race and willing to take a few risks along the way.

Entering transition, I could see some of the others slowing down. I raced over to my bike and dumped a helmet full of rain water over my head as I placed my bucket on my melon. I knew this would happen! I then grabbed my bike and ran up the ramp to the mount line. I must have passed Alex B  during this section as I did not see him again until the final run. My T1 time was the best in the duathlon which helped me get into a good spot right away, even passing Dave at the corner of BMO stadium, although, I knew this would not last long. I then passed Michael Park on the way through CNE and set my sights on Mr Bauer somewhere on the horizon.

Making the turn onto the Gardner Expressway we had the tail wind to help us get up to speed and, as expected, Mr Frake was zipping past as we climbed up the grade to the top of the road. I knew he was not in play as soon as he got a bike between his legs so I did not worry and just got myself up to power as I made my way through the line of triathletes on the right side of the road. Thankfully, the Gardner is wide enough that I had quite a lot of space to pass all these folks and eventually could see Jesse up the road.

Just after 5k of riding I had made up the time on my young competitor and knew I had to put down the hammer to put enough time in between us while on the bike as he would be looking to chase me down on foot for sure. For much of the ride up north on the DVP, I was pushing 53-11 on the www.3sixty5.com disc wheel Chris and Mark had let me sample for the race. I felt like I was putting down a good effort but hard to tell against some of the triathletes in this part of the pack. When I reached the turn around I started my count down to Jesse and could see I had around 1:10 on him now. This would not be enough.

I knew it was now or never so I pushed my hardest down the DVP. We were now getting a head/side wind that was hitting a lot of the people hard so it made me look very fast. I started to wonder if I was pushing too much of a big gear for the run after or for the massive head wind that would hammer me once back on the Gardner? I thought back to what coach, Kevin, said about the wind and my bike and knew I could not back off.

When I reached the ramp from the DVP to the Gardner Expressway, I took a little breather and spun up this tiny climb. It wasn't much of a climb but did force a change in gearing so I took up the cadence for a few seconds and then jumped out of the saddle and prepared myself for the last 8 or so km on the bike. These were tough kilometres due to the wind and I gradually watched my average sink from 42km/h. I used this realization to set up a mental thought in my head. I will not share it but it is something I have been working on during longer, solo rides and seems to keep me pushing hard.

Well, it worked again and I finally made the curve on the off ramp and started to race through the CNE back to transition. Unfortunately, I got a little too aggressive during the twists and turns and ended up sliding across the pavement with about 200m left in the ride. Thankfully, there were only a few scraps on my knee and buttocks, so I picked up the bike and carried on, ready to run scared.

Once again, I had the fastest transition (somehow?) and worked my way up to a pace I hoped to hold. With the first section out to the west into the wind, I used up a lot of energy to hit that pace. I knew I would have help from the wind back to Coronation Park and just counted down the time I would suffer into the wind. As I neared the turn around, I could see Dave out comfortably in 1st so there was no chance in catching him but I assumed I was fair game with some of the run splits the guys behind me could lay down. So the watch was on as soon as I rounded the turn and I used the wind to stretch out my stride and tried to float home.

To my good fortune, Jesse, Alex, Richard (Eyram) and Daryl (Flacks) were out of touch when I spotted them (according to my math) so I relax a little knowing I was going to cross the line in 2nd Place on this day. As I reached the park, I started to feel the effort in my legs and started checking behind to make sure I could coast a little more into the line and enjoy the moment. I could not see anyone in the rear view and made the corner to the finishing chute. What an unexpected way to end this big block of training and racing.

Congrats to everyone that races in these messy conditions! The duathlon community continues to get closer and I hope I got to say hello to everyone before we ran for shelter! Man that last rain came hard!

Triathlon Canada Championships
International Duathlon - Toronto Triathlon Festival

2nd Place Overall
2nd Place Age Group (40-44)

THANK YOU!
*3SIXY5 Cycling
*Toronto Olympic Club - Kevin Smith (coach)
*Kurzawinski Coach Cycling - Krys Kurzawinski (coach)
*Pedalinx Bike Shop
*Endless Endurance
*Johnny K Sports
*Duathlon Central
*Rudy Project
and of course Family and Friends!!!!!

Welland Sprint Duathlon - Race Report

Had this in draft form... I have a lot of catching up so will have to cut back on the length of these reports as they are just getting out of hand.


Recently, I travelled down the QEW to Welland to compete in my third duathlon of the 2013 season. I knew heading into the race that this was going to be a tough battle with a number of speedy duathletes confirmed to hit the start line.

Thankfully, amazing weather was on our side for the morning races and the only concern was a slight breeze out of the west that would test us on the first half of the bike leg of the run/bike/run. After getting set up in transition and chatting with some of the regulars, I headed down to the start line to finish up my warm up. As I waited with Jesse Bauer for our call to the line, Syd Trefiak (my first coach in the sport) spotted me so we were able to catch up a little before the gun.

Shortly after the first swimmers were sent off, we received our que to run and off we went for our first 5k journey along the Welland Recreational Waterway. I took the lead out to the first corner where we turned left to cross over the flat bridge and then was joined by Mr. Bauer as he started his push to stretch out the field. I knew he would want to test all our legs on this rather level and fast course so I just wanted to stay as close to him as possible and hope uber cyclist, Erik Box, would not be on our heals.

As we rounded the first turn around at the far east end of the course, I could see Jesse had done a decent job setting a quick pace so I just held my position a few metres back as we doubled back to visit the west end of the path. This section travelled along the waters that hosted the swim portion of the triathlon so I just zoned out for a while watching the masses cut through the clear waters south of our running trail.

Eventually, I made my way to the turn around marker on this end where I was still not too far off the lead, comfortably running in second place. We were around 1.5k out from our bikes at this point and I could tell our leader was feeling good as he seemed to put in a surge as we weaved back to transition. I didn't want to give him too much of a lead onto the bikes so I picked up the pace as well and minimized the damage. Finally, we merged with the swimmers coming up from the beach at around 4.5k of our opening run. This was where the first timing mat was located and I posted a time only 23 seconds down from Jesse.

We were then forced to slalom through the groups of triathletes along their run up section until we reached our bike racks. I made a much better switch over in this race as I opted to go with my tri specific cycling shoes already clipped into the pedals. This saved me 20 or so seconds and I was on my way to track down JB.

Out on the first roads of the 30k bike course, the pavement is a touch bumpy so I focused more on my line than the people ahead so when I quickly looked up around three kilomtres and noticed my target, I was surprised to see him as it took 6km last race in Binbrook. This was a huge shot in confidence as I pushed along into the head wind on the smoother roads leading out of town. I knew in time Erik Box would soon be on my tail so I just put my head down and tried to grind away.

I seemed to be hitting a decent pace based on my effort but I was not exactly sure of my speed as my cycling computer decided to die before the race (i had just changed the battery two weeks ago) so I was flying gadget free, trying to replicate the effort in my previous race.

As expected, My Box finally caught me just before the 15k turn around marker. As we hit the turn together, I tried to keep him in sight but he was gradually getting away. To make things worse, Jesse had put in a huge effort to stay close to me so I knew I needed to find some speed on the return trip to transition.

For some reason, my legs were not responding the same as Binbrook and I felt very tired as I pedalled along. I know Coach Kevin and I planned to train through this race and Huronia but wasn't expecting this type of power outage on such a short bike course. Oh well, I just did my best to keep at a respectable speed and get back to transition ahead of Mr Bauer.

After a few slow downs entering Welland, due to traffic, I finally got back into the edge of town and made my short trip along the waterway to the arena. I could not see Erik ahead or Jesse behind so I was not sure how much the gaps were.

As soon as I got out on the run course, though, the picture became a lot more clear. Erik was up the road about 500 metres and Jesse was right on my butt. I was not feeling overly fast during the second run and made it to the first turn around just before Jesse put his pass on me. I made a silly effort to get on his heals but he was flying and determined to catch Erik.

I didn't want to shuffle back to the finish line and tried my best to get into some style of running which actually saw me make up time with Erik who was just now running in second after JB claimed the lead. Along the flat waterfront trail, I could see second place may be a possibility and found a little energy to push my pace. When Erik and I hit the west end pylon to turn back towards home, I was able to pass for second and then used the tailwind to pick up the speed even more.

This effort was good enough to hold the position and I cruised into the finish line about a minute back of Jesse but happy to grab second in a solid field of duathletes.

Victoria's Duathlon 2013 - Race Report

This one still stings to think about but I better preserve it for future reference.The morning started out perfectly with amazing weather, an early arrival and set up (so no rushing around in transition) and a solid warm up. Everything seemed to be pointing to a great result.

Ten o'clock rolls around and they send us off along the very familiar 4k opening run. I knew some folks like to take this out very fast so I just eased out this time and found a good pace to settle into. My motto was "stick to your own game" for this race so I tried not to worry about who was around me unless I felt I needed to use someone as a shield against the very small breeze in certain directions.

Entering transition area in 8th Place

 

This tactic was working very well as I hung in around the time I expected feeling ready to bike. I matched an previous best for the 4k on this course but felt much more relaxed doing it this time so I assumed a decent bike was going to follow.

Knowing most of the competition, I knew some of the guys like Eric Box, Francois-Olivier Cote and Luke Eghoetz would be pushing hard on the bike so I just wanted to minimize the damage they would inflict on this portion of the race. Coming out of transition, I got into my cleats very smoothly and got a drink of gatorade into my system before turning for our first little climb.

I seemed to be keeping contact with a few guys in front of me but my usual extra gear was not in my legs at this point. I figured if I spun up the first few hills, I would eventually find my power on the longer rolling straightaway.  I eventually passed on rider during the first 5k stretch but was not making up enough ground on the other guys up the road.

I continued to push on down the road at a pace slower than previous races just hoping others were not finding their hammering speed. That hope was dashed just after the 10k marker when the first of the power squad sailed past. Mr Box was crushing it and looking super smooth in doing so. Next was Luke and then Ming just before the halfway turnaround.

When I hit the turn, I tried to power up and hang close but they were slowly sliding out of sight up the road as even a few more guys made their way past me. I was feeling depleted as I cannot remember the last time so many riders crushed me on the bike. Usually it is one or two guys but I at least pass a good number as well to make up positions. What was going on?

I hung in there and counted down the final kilometres of the ride just wishing my legs would be ready to run. BY now the humidity was soaring and the heat felt like it was going to be a factor. With my lunch time runs, I thought I would be able to tackle the heat and come away with a respectable run and make up a few positions down to the wire.

 Finishing the ride, about to turn back into transition.

 

Well, this didn't happen either and I slowly shuffled my way around the country side route. Although, many others were in the same survival mode, at the turn around, I noticed Florian Ong making quick work of his first 2k and right on my heals. This was bad news as he started in the second wave around three minutes behind our wave. Damn, this was not looking good.

For the final 2k, I just tried to keep the legs moving steady and get home as quick as possible. As I finally reached the finishing area, I was shocked to see my time. I was five minutes off my previous two efforts on the Waterloo out skirts. I was bummed to say the least.

So now it is back to the drawing board. I have been training quite hard so to see this result is a little demoralizing, especially when the running speed is better than ever (new 5k pb just last month) and my cycling should be at least as good as ever.

Although, I did not have a great race, I was happy to see a number of folks climb up the results page.
Congrats to all those who participated, volunteered, cheered (especially my aunt Cathy for her support and pics!), worked and organized a great race!

Thank you!

The long and lonely start to the final run.

Spring into Motion 5k - Race Report

One of the early season races I love participating in is the Spring into Motion 5k held at the Gellert Community Centre in Georgetown. It is very close to home and hosted by Brad Mailloux and his Feet in Motion (local running store www.feetinmotion.ca ) crew.

This year we were welcomed by a warm morning considering the cold weather we had been blasted by this spring. Finally seeing the sun in the sky made it much more fun to get outside and enjoy a quick tour of the neighbourhood.

Feet in Motion does a great job in the community getting the youth of Georgetown active, which shows in the range of ages in the racers at this event. Having many of the local high school runners out, I was not sure how fast the younger gentlemen would travel across the 5k course but I then noticed a multiple champion of the race, Tim Shannon, warming up so I knew I would have one pacer out there for sure.

After a good warm up we were directed over to a new starting location which added about 120 extra metres to the route. I guess Brad must have re-measured the track and wanted to offer a true 5k for our stats. This was fine with me as I would like to challenge the sub 17min 5k on a correct course instead of pulling off the feat on a short loop.

When everyone had settled at the new line, the timer gave us our count down and we were off along the narrow park trail that led us out to the running path along 8th Line at the southwest corner of town. As usual, a large group of young guns went out very hard but I did not get distracted and kept Tim in sight as I knew he would be the one to beat on this day.

The stretch to 8th line was just over 200 metres where Tim and I took the lead as the younger legs started to burn out already so it was just the two of us out front heading north, up a slope and into a strong breeze. This is about a thousand metre section of the course where I stayed tucked in behind Tim as he broke the wind so I could save a little energy. I remember two years ago running shoulder to shoulder with him on the path as we both tackled the wind. As soon as we turned left into the sub-division he showed off his impressive speed and left me in the dust.

This year, I learned from that mistake and tried to save my inferior speed to see how long I could hang on to his heals. To my surprise, we made the turn together and I was not blasted off so I held onto his shoes as we received some tail wind support back down the slope in the nice neighbourhood of large homes.

Hanging on longer and longer, I started to get some confidence that this was going to be the race that I finally hammered that 17minute barrier so I pushed as hard as possible to not allow a gap each time it seemed a space was opening up between us. Eventually, he started to put in some distance and just before the 3k marker, he was showing his strength so I knew second place would be where I would settle but I thought I would still have a shot at my ultimate goal so I did not let off my accelerator.

At the 3k marker I was at 10:10 and a few seconds ahead of my pace at the Good Friday 5k so it was promising for sure. I kept up the intensity but as is my usual energy drain at this point of these 5k races showed up and I fought to minimize the damage I was doing to my chances. Tim was not too far up the road so I was starting to get mixed signals as to how I would end up. I estimated that I was around 20 seconds down on him and he had run 16:13, 16:32 and 16:08 in the past three years on this course. I figured if I kept that gap and he came in around 16:40, I would be in a sprint for my goal.

We soon looped through a few side streets before making our way back into the park across a community bridge. There was only around 500 metres left but I must have suffered too much in the  last kilometre or so as my watch was not showing a good reading. In the end, I miss my goal by 30 seconds but only 17 seconds behind the winning time. I guess the wind and extra portion of the course had some effect on Tim as well as he was over a minute off his amazing run of 2012.

Thinking back on the race, I was not upset as I put in a very good effort and was closer to a win than my previous few years. As always, I was impressed by the community support of this small town race and the amazing volunteers and organizers that made it such a great morning of running for everyone! It is also nice to be home in a few minutes to enjoy a full day of the weekend.

  Happy Training,
Larry
www.3sixty5cycling.com
www.endlessendurance.com

Good Friday Road race 5k - Race Report

GOOD FRIDAY ROAD RACE 5K - RACE REPORT

Being away from the race scene since my bike crash last August, I was both nervous and anxious to finally make a commitment to get on a starting line. I have felt ready since the start of 2013 but nothing has worked in my calendar up until now so I knew I needed to get back on the horse.

Even knowing I was going to be a little rusty going into this first event, I still wanted to push for that elusive sub 17min result at this distance. Mentally, I prepared for an all or nothing approach and bought into pushing as hard as possible knowing my training was leading me in that direction.

When I arrived at the race location early Good Friday morning, I realized that my work was going to be cut out for me as the course was not exactly flat and fast in nature. I took the extra time to drive the route and noted a few places I would have to be ready for as the gradual climbs would eat away at my legs having spent a lot of time on the treadmill during this cold and snowy winter.

After taking the tour, I got parked and took the shuttle in from the train station set aside for a majority of the folks travelling in for the run. I still had plenty of time after picking up my kit and slowly got into warm up mode trying to pick out some of the bib numbers I read off the registration lists. Some of the speedsters I wanted to chase around the Burlington roads were familiar by name but I had never seen them in person so I had to resort to finding them in the crowd based on their race numbers.

Finally, feeling ready to leave the warmth of the school gym, I decided to get changed into my favourite racing shorts so I went to the men's room as not to scare anyone with my white compression shorts. As I entered the first change area I placed the shorts on a bench and went into the washroom section for a very quick visit. I wasn't in there for any more than a minute and then returned to the empty change room to discover someone had lifted my shorts! I was bumbed out as I only had my tights now and it was getting too warm to race in them.

Luckily, I knew Peter from www.mynextrace.com was working his booth and, thankfully, he was able to hook me up with some shorts. They were basketball style shorts but at least they would allow some ventilation so I happily accepted his offer. Thanks Peter!!!

Running to the line in Peter's Shorts

SO now it was time to race! I picked out my targets on the start line and then settled behind them in the second row leaving the younger runners to rule the left side of the road. We waited around listening to instructions before the sporadic countdown began. I remember a few call outs at a minute and thirty seconds with a little pause before we were sent off surprised not to hear a gun or horn.

As the youthful athletes sprinted out, the older side of the line cautiously picked their way through the field heading downhill to through the eventual finishing line. At this point there were a good 30 or so kids up ahead of me as we commenced the first climb of the route. It was a mild tester on the legs but seemed to slow down some of the teenagers so I moved up a little through the field still following my two markers who were closer to my age category.

We then zig-zagged around a few side streets for short distances before hopping on one of the longer streets we would run along. As we turned on this stretch, we had a quick downhill twister to negotiate where things started to string out a little more closing in on the first kilometre sign. Just around that section we started a long portion into the wind that took us back up the other side of the valley. I knew this would cut into the great opening km (3:06) I was able to roll off so I just wanted to minimize the damage and tuck into a few of the runners around me to help save my legs for later.

As we continued closer to the second kilometre one of my pacers had moved up the field and out of reach while the other gentleman was hanging right beside me flip-flopping with me as we both took turns cutting the breeze. Coming up to the halfway portion of the race we turned north as the road climbed up again through a mild S bend on the street before a few quick turns to get us onto Plains Road.

Soon after starting our journey east on Plains, we hit the 3 km marker where I finally looked down at my watch again and saw 10:12. At this point my legs were feeling good but also knew that I tend to fade badly around this part of a 5k before waking up again in the final 500 metres. Doing the math, and knowing we had a tail wind and mostly downhill final two kilometres to the line, I really felt like I had a chance to hit my goal on this challenging course.

Starting the third kilometre, I was still in contact with many young high school and university runners but one of the guys around my age was starting to find his second wind. I tried to pull closer in the following few hundred metres heading south off Plains but was not making any progress on the runner I wanted to stay tight with. I continued to dig deep but was running out of run and gas as we made our final turn  onto Fairwood Place Road. The man volunteering on the corner mentioned it was 400 metres to the finish so I tried to muster up one final push knowing the downhill area where we started would keep the momentum going. Unfortunately, I just didn't have the wheels on this day and I saw the board hit 17:00 as I rounded the bend about 100 metres from the line. I still had a PB in mind but was not getting up to full sprinting speed. As I passed the clock it was just reaching 17:10 so I just tried to get it to stop as close to that as possible and settled for 17:12 on my watch but 17:14 on the results sheet. Not sure how that happened but have a feeling they used the second timing mat as I let up as I hit the first one.

In the end, I beat my previous best of 17:18 on a much tougher course so this was a very satisfying result coming back after a long layoff. I was able to place 1st in the 30-39 AG and tip my cap to Andrew Taylor and Paul Leduc for their impressive races in the 40-49 category. They were the two gentlemen I followed around the Aldershot roads, eventually coming up a little short of my ultimate running goal.

Stay tuned for some exciting Sponsorship information to come very soon on this blog!!!!

Cobourg Olympic Duathlon - Race Report

The weeks leading up to the Triathlon Ontario Duathlon Championships were very frustrating for me. I had penciled this race in as my big event of the year and was getting very excited to test out my fitness against a strong field. Unfortunately, my goal was sent off course after a fluke slap shot in hockey caught the right side of my ribs and slightly cracked a bone.

During the next two weeks I could not run at all and had to stick to the road bike (couldn’t get into aero position on TT bike) in order to get in some training. Without being able run, I was seriously considering a DNS and was starting to feel like I had wasted a summer of training.

Thankfully, after two weeks of riding only, I got through a test run without too much pain. This gave me a full week before the race so I decided to ramp things up for the first few days of the week to see how the ribs would react. Although, there was some cramping in that area, the actual pain was insignificant so I elected to make the trip to Cobourg to try my luck on Saturday.

With the 2013 World Championships awarded to Ottawa just one week earlier, the last minute rush of athletes wanting to qualify made for an interesting competition. Many of these folks traveled from the Ottawa region in hopes of punching their ticket for a hometown championship and I had not raced some of these athletes and was not sure what to expect.

Wanting to race well, and not knowing exactly what to anticipate from my body on this day, I made sure to get in a long, solid warm up. I could tell right away that my legs were not as fresh as I would have liked (due to the over training to get back from injury) but I was looking forward to racing some speedsters like Kevin Smith and Jesse Bauer for the first time in a long time. I knew they would put the boots to me on the run so I hoped to keep it close and shorten the gap on the bike to make it respectable.

As the horn blasted, I burst from of the gate to avoid the stampede and then let Kevin and Jesse take the lead as we headed out on the two loop run. I knew Mr. Smith would be in around the 33 to 34 minute range so I was not going to get caught up in that game and just slipped back a little and settled into a steady pace. Jesse, on the other hand, was willing to match Kevin’s run and hooked himself on his right hip as we headed out for our first view of the quiet neighbourhood.

During the opening 2.5k, I could feel I was not reaching my usual pace and the two leaders were quickly fading into the distance. I did not feel drained of energy but my legs just did not turn over or have the jump I am used to in the first run. Circling back from the turn around, it was obvious that it was going to be tough to compete with them, even with a faster bike, so I put my focus on holding third.

With the tail wind on the back section of the loop, I felt like I got back to the start of the next lap in alright time but my watch was telling another story. I was hoping to drop into the 36 range without stressing the system too much but now I was already well off that pace and I had someone running off my heels.

This was a nice little kick in the pants that I needed. I found some more power to start the next 5k run and could see I was opening a tiny space between fourth and myself. By the time I got to the far end of the route, I was around 100 metres clear and assumed my bike would extend that lead. I then used the wind to push even harder to transition and made my first 10k more presentable at 37:30.

Transition was not totally smooth as I did run into some trouble getting into the bike zone. I was headed into the proper “Run In” gate until a bunch of spectators and volunteers started to direct me to the finish line? Thankfully, the Sportstats guy was paying attention and stopped me before reaching that mat. I ended up losing around 15 seconds in the confusion but remained calm and finally got to my bike.

Once again (Welland Half Iron Du), I opted to ride with my cycling shoes instead of my tri shoes. The 10 seconds of extra transition time would be easily paid back with extra power on the bike so I quickly slipped into my better shoes before grabbing my ride off the rack. As soon as I reached the mount line I knew I was set to roll and I quickly made my way out of town to the country side along King Street.

Passing a number of triathletes along the way, I felt like I was negotiating the head wind well as we travelled east for the first 8k, or so, section on the highway. The speed then increased with a right hand turn towards the lake. I used this short road (Archer Road) to catch my breath before we were directed out to the east again along Lakeshore Road. On Lakeshore, I finally caught a glimpse of the triathlon race leaders so I kept my eyes peeled for Kevin and Jesse.

It wasn’t very long until I noticed the lead duathlete with Mr. Bauer only a few hundred metres behind. I was not sure if I was making up as much time as I wanted so I hurried to the turn around and then used the tail wind back to hammer on the gas. At the turn around I had a triathlete hook on to my back and he stayed there for a number of kilometres before making a pass when I reached King Street again.

I didn’t care so much but was disappointed when he did not continue to pull away. We were in a zone with a lot of wind assistance but I was not able to use it to the fullest or I would have been too close and risk a drafting penalty. I thought I would be able to get past him but I think it would have been a slow pass which can lead to issues if an official comes by without seeing the whole lead up.

Eventually, I decided that I was losing time so I powered up and put out a full effort to make sure I passed this rider and then got far enough in front that I would not get in his way. This lead me into the north portion of the course so my timing was not great as I now had a gradual uphill and head wind to contend with. Thankfully, I saw the 25k marker and knew I could handle the next 15k at a higher effort without blowing up too badly.

Having raced on this section in the past, I knew the hills would soon be upon me. I was now in a relatively open space on my side of the road and was starting to see the leaders zip past as they descended back to town. I tried my hardest to close the gap even more but on one of the more steep climbs I did not use the correct gearing and grinded my way up which cost me a bunch of seconds and energy. My train of thought was it was the last climb and the downhill would allow me to rest on the other side. Thinking back, I should have been less lazy and flipped down to the small ring and scurried up the hill and then hammered it back to Cobourg.

Oh well, another lesson learned. I did end up having a decent ride in the end and posted the top bike split for the duathletes. As usual, I then compared the ride to my triathlon competitors and felt like I left some time out on the course. (Thankfully, Kevin and Jesse had enough of a lead that it didn’t make a big difference in the end so I am not thinking “what if?”.)

Back to the race, I came off the bike in third position and got the bike racked in solid time. As I did not see any other duathlete on the bike within striking distance, I was confident that I could bring home a podium finish so now I had to decide how much effort I would place on the final 5k? I started out on the run and my legs did not love me at all. I could tell I was not going to be pushing a great split so I thought I would coast it out and hope a triathlete would pass me and wake up my legs.

I kept up my shuffle but nobody really pushed from behind so I just cruised it to the turn around and watched the bibs to make sure nobody was sneaking up on me. With no duathletes in sight, I pushed on to a 21:00 split over the 5k to bring it home in 3rd Place Overall and 1st in my Age Group.

This was the best result for me at the provincials (fourth attempt) so I was happy that I decided to race and excited to get back to racing after the frustration of my injury.

It was also nice to catch up and cheer on many friends in Cobourg so I must congratulate all those who competed!

Great races to Falcons – Peter H, Joe and Jade!

Awesome work to friends – Mark K, Patryk B, Brad M, Richard P, Roger H, Eric T and Duncan M!!!!

Also a huge congrats and thanks to Kevin Smith for taking the Ontario Duathlon title. I have known Kevin for a number of years through the sport and he really has been a positive influence on my duathlon pursuit.

And a job well done by up and coming duathlete, Jesse Bauer. It was great to chat with this young talent after the race. Keep up the great work!

I would not continue to be in the game without the help of family, friends and sponsors. Thank you all!
http://www.hiperformanceonline.com/
www.fmct.ca
http://endlessendurance.com/
www.feetinmotion.ca
http://kurzawinskicoach.com
http://www.rudyproject.com/

Sporting Life 10k - Race Report

A few months back, a bunch of the Falcons decided we should get a group together to battle it out on the streets of Toronto. Our current president, Colin C, recommended we enter the Sporting Life 10k and within a few days we had several members signed up and ready to chase down some PB's on this super fast course. As usual, some side banter was included in the following days so I knew I had some serious training to do in order to back up my prediction...

As it turned out, many folks could not make it out on race day but a small group of us met early in Brampton to start our journey into the heart of the big city. Peter M kindly offered to chauffeur Colin C, Laura G and myself to the start line as he was still feeling the effects of his solid 3:05 marathon the week before.

We arrived downtown in very good time so I was able to quickly pass through registration to pick up my bib/chip before settling beside the end rails of the long barrier set up to corral all 22,000 expected runners. It was a cool, damp morning so I was not in too much of a rush to gear down to my race clothes.

Eventually, time drew closer to our start so I finally stripped down to my shorts and FMCT tri top and headed over to bag check to drop off my warmer clothing. As I approached the trucks that were hired to carry the bags down to the finish line, I started to see how incredibly long the line of people was stretching. It had to have been 400 to 600 metres long and moving extra slow. I looked at my watch and knew I would be risking a good warm up if I waited in this que. As I was about to head back to see Peter (to place my bag in his van), a man yelled over a loud speaker that a line was starting over on the other side of the road as well. I walked over and saw this was starting to get out of control so as I passed the back of the truck, I tossed my bag to one of the volunteers piling the cargo. Seemed easy enough so I am not sure why the lines were moving so slow.

Getting that out of the way, I jogged down to the start corral for my estimated finish time and started my warm up. Along the way I bumped into Dan H from our club and chatted as I stretched before continuing up to the front of the huge crowd. As I looked around, I was surprised to see very few familiar faces. I was hoping to see a few usual suspects that I could pace with but the only two people I knew were wild cards on this day. John H. mentioned that he was having a hip procedure in a few days so he was going to ease through the run and Evan Mc. mentioned that he had not trained as frequently as desired so he was not sure where he would finish up.

Oh well, with this many people there was bound to be a big group around me for the run, right?

Amazingly, I was in the second row of people by the time the horn sounded so just a couple shuffle steps to get going and then I found a bunch of open room on the left side of Yonge Street. A number of young lads flew out of the gate while I patiently locked into a good, downhill pace that I knew I needed to maintain to create a buffer for the lower flats.

After approximately 500m, the youngsters started to fade and a shockingly small crowd remained just a few metres up ahead of me and a few other people. At this point, a few quick looking guys jogged up beside us. I looked over to see their effortless stride only to notice they both were carrying their backpacks?

They must have sat in the bag check lines when the gun went off and decided to run with their gear. As we passed a police officer guarding a side street, they stopped and tried to unload their stuff with this officer. He would not touch the bags so they picked them up and headed over to a cyclist riding beside our little group. Thankfully, the cyclist found it in his heart to grab the bags and, hopefully, take them down to the finish line. Those guys blasted down the road and got back up with the leaders from that point...

Shortly after this took place we encounter our first, small incline along the route. This was not a difficult uphill in any way but it seemed to break apart out little group and I was no running solo with a tiny pack still ahead with a 50m gap on me. With a slight headwind coming up from the lake I knew I wanted to get in with those 4 or 5 guys but wasn't sure if I could bridge the gap without over cooking my legs too early in the run?

Looking down at my pace, I opted to hang tight and see how things around my played out. Having run this race a few times in my early running days, I knew most of the landmarks and crossing streets and what to look ahead to in order to distract my mind from the burn in the legs. As things leveled out down near Bloor Street, I could see I was going to have to keep pushing in order to break 17:00 for the opening 5k. As I reached the marker I looked down at my Garmin to see I had finally broke that barrier (i know it is downhill...) with less than 10 seconds to spare. This was exciting but the reality was I know needed to run a sub 18:00 second 5k to close out my goal.

Shortly before the Dundas crossing, I had a runner puffing down my neck. As I looked over I could see it was Hugo R, a Saucony runner that I had run against in the 2011 Hamilton Half, and he was moving. I thought I might be able to jump on his heels and get my up the road but he saw my attempt and zig zagged to shake me off. I did not try very hard to hitch on due to his speed so I let him carry on up the road and he came in 21 seconds ahead of me.

By the time the short lived chase was completed, I noticed the small group ahead was starting to string out. Jeff F of Team Running Free was the next runner up the road but still just a little too far to move on. I kept counting down the kilometres to the finish not really worried about placing but just hoping to keep my legs turning over quick enough to avoid any high splits.

When I finally arrived at our first turn, onto Richmond Street, I made the corner with another competitor nipping on my feet. He was a younger runner with a Waterloo jersey (Jordan F) so I wasn't sure what he would have in the tank but I locked in behind him as he pulled up closer to Jeff. By the time we rounded the smooth corner south on Peter Street, Jordan had opened up a gap but dropped me beside Jeff so I ran beside my old Running Free mate along this short stretch and over to Front Street.

On Front Street, I felt a surge of relief and the two of us reeled in Jordan and also another Waterloo racer Darryl B just before another left turn on Bathurst. We only had a short bridge run on Bathurts over the train tracks and then a quick right to our finish sprint on Fort York Blvd. Making the turn, my legs were dead tired but everyone seemed to want to push for position. For some reason, the challenge was too much to resist so I used this spark to make sure I finished up in style as I did not want to leave any seconds on the course.

Our sprint started a little early so it was a long, top speed effort at this stage of 10k. Darryl ended up with the sprint bragging rights with me a second behind and Jordan and Jeff right behind me.

During this final push to the line, I was trying to find the display of the race time (was moving too quick to look at my watch without risking a massive roll over) but the first digital clock I saw made no sense (I think it was counting down the time from the first runner crossing the line...). Finally, just before I hit the timing mat, I noticed the second clock had 34:34 so I had just accomplished what I had set out to achieve and broken 35:00 on Yonge Street.

As it turns out, the chip time was 34:36 (my garmin was 34:34 and 10.04k) and I ended up in 16th place overall of the 17,551 finishers (21,724 entrants, 4,000 people did not start or finish????).

Congrats to all the finishers and PB'ers! I missed so many of you at the park after the run due to the enormous crowds.

Below is a chart that shows my Needed Splits (based on the elevation chart) to get to 35:00 and the Garmin Splits from my watch. Actuals do not add up as the course was 40m long as per Garmin so that took a few seconds to run (within the error range so course may have been perfect and watch off).

Tour of Bronte - Race Report

The Tour of Bronte was advertised as tough race on a mix of asphalt and gravel surfaces. Being relatively new to the bike racing community, I was a little nervous about this event as my bike handling skills are not quite as strong as many of the seasoned riders. On my road bike, I try to avoid rough road surfaces like this at all cost so I was going into the race with very little experience riding this type of circuit.


As Richard and I rode along the Bronte Park entrance roads, to get to the registration area, the “Beginner” race was sent off past us moving in the other direction. By the time we got around to the shed to pick up our numbers, the racers had made their way around to our location and were sliding around a hairy turn. From here, we could see firsthand how tricky the gravel cornering was. What had I signed myself up for?

Eventually, it was our turn to roll out and, as usual, I came to the line later than I should have and was stuck near the back of the pack. On a course like this, with an increased risk of riders going down, I needed to be up closer to avoid any breaks caused by an accident.

As the lead vehicle led us along the smoother, asphalt portion of the course, I slowly made my way to the middle part of the group. I could now see the front runners and the volunteer signaling our first right hand turn. This one was a little tight but was still on a hard top surface so we had enough grip to power up out of the turn only to have to brake just a few seconds up this path.

Into the next turn I could see a bunch of rear wheels sliding as many of the riders tested out their bike handling on the loose gravel. I took an inside line here and noticed a vehicle wheel rut on this line that seemed to hold my bike on course. Right after this turn was another sharp right turn that proved even tougher. I was stuck on the inside so had to slow down considerably to negotiate the tree growing beside the pathway. I could not afford to get brave here as I would have wiped out a good chunk of the peloton if I was not able to hold my line.

Getting through this turn standing up was a big confidence booster going forward. The boys picked up the pace right out of this corner but everyone appeared to get on the train and follow the group along the twisting gravel road through the park. There were a few other areas of caution during the rest of the 8km loop but the initial nerves settled and I just started to worry more about getting further up the field to avoid being left behind.

After the first lap most of the group was still sitting together so there were about forty-five (of fifty-one) riders sharing tight quarters moving through the winding park roads. For a few of the opening laps I was stuck near the back end of the peloton but I could see Richard and Phill working up near the front and wanted to get up to help them out. I waited for the group to get through the loose corner near the registration shed before making a move up the right side on a flat, straight section. When I finally got up near the pointy end of the pack I saw a few guys jump off the front. I had just put out an effort to move up to this point so I figured I would sit back and wait for more to bridge.

My slight resting hesitation would be a bit of a mistake. Just as I was catching my breath two more riders broke, including Phill. I just caught him out of the corner of my eye and instinctively powered up. Thankfully, Richard was right beside me and noticed that my weak effort to catch Phill’s wheel would have pulled a train across to ruin Phill’s break. I quickly backed off and gave Richard thanks for calling me off. We then worked the front of the group with another rider (who must have had a teammate in the break) to slow the chase down.

After a minute or so I heard rumblings in the pack that we had a member in the break so they decided to jump around us and pick up the chase. By this time the foursome had opened a good gap so the hunt was on. Richard and I held strong in the group for a number of the next laps as nobody really got organized enough to make a dent in the break consisting of Gaelan Merritt (Waterloo CC), Derek Snider (Indy), Phill and one other rider.

During those laps we were around twenty five riders deep with only one rider going down in the toughest corner. That wipe out happened to the left of my line so I was able to avoid the distraction and power up before getting dropped. It wasn’t too long after this that we started to lap some riders so it became tough to know if the break was still together or broken. When we finally got around to the asphalt section I could see the leaders coming back up the other side of the road but noticed it was down to two guys (Gaelan and Derek) and Phill was not there?

About a minute later I saw Phill sitting up saving some gas. I was not sure what had happened at this point but was hoping he would have the energy to jump back on with us. Thankfully, he had saved up enough to join our group of around twenty guys/girl. Having three guys in the chase gave us a nice edge so it was time to start moving.

After making the U-Turn (near the start/finish line) on lap 7 (of 8), Richard and I got out on the tip of the group. I pulled through but misunderstood Richard’s command as I started to hammer. I thought he was coming as well but he was trying to block. When I noticed a gap I pulled up to let him catch my wheel. Rookie mistake!

The peloton was now strung out heading into the three quick hitting turns. As I got through the corners, I powered up again to see what the group was interested in doing. Unfortunately, not much as they just sat on my wheel for a few hundred metres. Starting a solo break this far from the finish would have been a lost cause (I think) so I decided to save the legs for the last lap and just hang out on the front to cover any other breaks.

As we rounded the “registration” corner on this lap I could see Richard getting up beside me with a smaller group starting to form. I was hoping this would start an echelon and reduce the size of the peloton. Just as I was about to jump in I felt a loss of power in my rear tire. Things suddenly got a little wobbly and I looked down to see the tire had flatted.

Damn, there were only 1.5 laps to go and I was starting to feel very solid in my legs. I yelled out my flat so the group knew I was pulling out and slowly made it over to the side of the path. I was a little disappointed at first but then realized it was out of my control, especially, on a circuit like this.

I walked my bike back to the team’s tent and got into spectator mode to watch Richard and Phill work their magic. As they passed our vantage point, with about 4k left in the race, you could see Gaelan and Derek were not going to be caught but the Kurzawinski Coach/PBNJ.CA boys were looking very good in the chase.

After they made their last pass, we headed over to the finish line on the other side of the parking lot. Gaelan brought it home just fourteen seconds ahead of Derek and then the pack came down the stretch around three minutes behind the leaders.

On the final sprint, I could see Richard up front, battling it out for a podium. They came right down to the wire but he just missed out by a wheel, settling with an impressive fourth place overall. Phill also came in with the pack finishing seventeenth overall. He had fought hard all day (including a crash in corner three before re-joining the peloton) and backed off the sprint when he knew he could get open for safe finish.

Other Notable Finishes (folks I know)…

Open Race

8th – Bruce Bird (Wheels of Bloor/Graywood Development)

9th – Stan Blazek (KURZAWINSKI COACH/ PBNJ.CA)

Mech- Adam Fitzsimmons (NINE2FIVEPRO.COM CYCLING TEAM)

Spring into Motion 5k - Race Report

The 9th Annual Spring into Motion 5k was hosted by Brad Mailloux and the Feet in Motion Staff at the Gellert Community Centre (Georgetown, ON). The race heads out from the walking paths of the Community Centre and then follows a stretch of the bike path along Eighth Line before snaking through the local subdivision and bringing the runners back to the Gellert Centre.

A full day of rest could not revive my body from the damage of a Friday night out with the guys. It had been a long time since we all got together and I must have thought I could still carry on like my youthful days. Bad mistake.

Not being able to fuel or hydrate for much of Saturday did not give me a lot of confidence as I went through my warm up on Sunday morning but I figured I would give it a whirl and see what I could make out of the situation. I tried to talk myself into going after my goal of sub-17 minutes and knew a few racers were going to be out ahead pacing that effort. Tim Shannon (multiple defending champ) and Sean Bowen (McMaster track athlete) were in attendance so the pace would be brisk for sure.

At the starting line, the light rain didn’t seem to be much of a factor due to the warmer air we were greeted with on this spring morning. Learning from last year, I got right on the line as the lead out to the bike path is a little tight with a lot of young, spirited athletes hammering out of the gate.

As the horn sounded, I moved onto Tim’s heels and just let him work around the teen runners setting the early pace. After about five hundred metres, the speeds dropped and the more experienced athletes seemed to filter out of the crowd to establish the lead pack. There were three runners just a few metres ahead of me following the lead bike up the slight hill making up the first kilometre. At the 1k marker, I was through in 3:18 but was already feeling drained. My legs felt fine but my stomach just felt empty.

When we made the next right turn, I was slipping back from Tim and Sean and following third place by close to 20 metres. We were now moving gently down slope so I was hoping I could maintain the time cushion set in the first kilometre and then work through the final three km’s to get to my goal. Unfortunately, my system was not cooperating and I slowly started to fade back from the youngster as we reached the second kilometre sign.

With survival mode in full order, I ignored my watch and just tried to make back time on the runner ahead of me. Tim and Sean were way up the road and on pace for a blistering time so I knew I had to toughen up if I wanted a piece of the podium. During this middle portion of the race, we zigged zagged through the surrounding neighbourhood where we seemed to be shelter from much of the wind by the taller homes of the community. Even with this relief, I could not get up enough speed to cut the gap and my target slowly drifted away.

Finally, the chase seemed fruitless as he made his turn off the streets and onto the park pathways for our final five hundred metres. When I made my turn, I could see Sean had a slight lead over Tim as they raced down the finishing chute for an incredible 16:07 and 16:13 dual, respectively.

With the finishing line in sight, I tried to muster some last minute speed but even that request was declined and I turned the last corner to watch third hit the line in 17:02. Thankfully, I finally reached that line in 17:40 and fourth place overall (a full 15 seconds off last year’s time).

The disappointing part was that this year’s weather conditions were much easier for running and Tim took 19 seconds off his time from 2011 so I should have had a better result. Oh well, have to look forward and be ready for Sporting Life 10k on May 13th.

A big thank you to Brad and his Feet in Motion crew for another great race. They always make the event worth putting on the calendar with their charity donations, volunteers, prizing and solid, local competitors.

Good Friday Cycling Race - M3 Race Report

Surprisingly, I had very few nerves going into the first race of the season. As long as the bike was working well, I knew I had put in the work to stay close to my teammates so we could stick with the majority of the riders in the M3 field.

After my warm up, I did get to the start line behind most of the others in my category so this created a little worry but Coach Kris from our team, http://www.kurzawinskicoach.com/ , gave me a game plan to work my way up the pack to align with Richard and Phill. I really wanted to be up much closer to them on the start but the Commissionaires were being very strict with us staying on the right half of the road and forcing all late riders to the back of the pack. Oh well...

So the race starts and several guys go zooming up the other side of the road for the next few kilometres trying to get away from the back. I didn't want to risk a DQ so I "patiently" picked away at the right side. Once out of the tree lined section of the course, we were getting hit with a minor side wind that many were trying to avoid so the right side eventually started to open up, although I was wasting more energy than most of the other riders, I still felt that I was well below my usual race effort so continued up the side of the pack.

By the time we made our first right turn I had moved up into the top fifteen and could see Richard and Phill lurking up near the front. We were now into a head wind and the pace dramatically slowed as nobody wanted to lead out the group. This short stretch leading to a steep, twisting hill tested our braking abilities again so I just stayed put and waited for our first climb.

I dropped down to my small ring up front and spun up the hill with no worries. I was making good time up the hill and was actually getting caught in some of the guys starting to stall, which caused some drama but I strugged it off and crested the hill for my decent. During the decent, I passed a good number of athletes and made it up to see Richard and Phill both in around the top five.

Deciding I could give them a lead out for a while, I settled in behind the lead rider and made the next two climbs on his rear before making a little move as we headed down the hill after turning onto Safari Road. I was hoping Richard and Phill would pick this up and give me a signal to hammer but I think too many others were too close at this point to really make a major move this early in the race. I just kept pulling and monitoring my effort to make I was not burning too much too soon.

As we made the next right onto Brock Road, the huge peloton remained right on my tail. We had a tailwind along this fairly flat part so the speeds started to pick up and everyone held tight until we made our last turn of lap 1 back to the start/finish line.

At this point a few guys decided to pick up the pace and seemed to want to sprint for the line. Not sure what they were thinking but we all jumped on and nothing was established as we started lap 2. Not too much further up the road, my momentum had taken me back up to the front with WOB rider, Stanislaw Bielak. Kris told me to stay with him as much as possible as he had won the past few Good Friday races in this category. I was hoping he was ready to roll but he was not too interested in pulling so I basically had to roll to a stop before he would pull through.

Eventually, a few other riders grew tired of the slow pace and took the lead as we corned onto Westover Road. This was the head wind portion so their efforts were pretty much smashed by the breeze that was showing signs of waking up. I was starting to think this was going to take a sprint to win the race, which is not in my favour, so I was starting to plot a strategy to take off, hopefully with my teammates in tow.

I figured I would wait until we got through the three hills and then pick it up on the flats to see what would happen. With this plan set, I just tried to remain calm on the climbs to reserve my energy for the upcoming effort. Unfortunately, as we were descending on the Safari Road hill, our race was neutralized by an official to let the S4 group pass us. The pace car destroyed any chance I had as the group became like a can of sardines waiting for the race to start again.

Once the S4 group had passed, and gapped us, we were set free but it was chaos for the rest of the race as we had too many people trying to share a lane of this country road. Many were getting edgy and making their move on the other side of the yellow but I did not want to risk this. Especially, after watching one dude almost eat the front grill of a car coming up the other side of the road. Scary...

So the rest of the last lap was just a bunch of grapes floating along the course. I could see Richard and Phill just a couple bikes ahead of me but I was stuck dead centre with nowhere to go. By the time the group started to move along Brock Road for the last few kilometres, things were really getting pushy as I could see a lot of jockeying for position in the couple rows a head. This is when things got really crazy, just to the right of my bike, I saw one guy go down and the rider beside me could not avoid the mess. I was just hoping my teammates were OK but I could only see Phill still riding. I had a bad feeling Richard was a part of the carnage and started to get very cautious.

Around the last corner, to the sprint finish, all I could think was just get me to the line with the rubber side down. Thankfully, this short section opened up to the full road and the group spread out with most grabbing wheels on the right hand side. I saw an opening on the left and hammered down that side of the road passing a few people from the massive peloton. I ended up with the same time as the leader but back in 22nd place. Phill had a nice sprint just a few wheels back of the leaders and ended up in 9th place overall. Jon Westwood had a solid debut in the S4 category getting his feet wet in the sport with a 32nd place showing. Nicely done guys!

Thankfully, Richard ended up being cleared by the medical staff and is back at it already. It was a nasty tumble he took and can be read about on his blog http://richard-westwood.blogspot.com/

From the results page there were 52 riders that finished in the main group and 97 athletes that started the race in M3.

Also, it was good to see a bunch of tri and du folks out on the course. I know the roadies don't like to share their sport very much but we put in some good results. Congrats to Alex Auld, David Moore, Ryan Power, Derek Snider, Evert Lamb, Kevin Tearle, etc. ( I am sure there are more but too many names to sort through...)

Mississauga Canoe Club 15k - Race Report

This race was not originally on my calendar so I wasn't totally prepared to go super hard for 15k. A co-worker, who has always been supportive of my racing and my tri club, is a member of the "Missy" Canoe Club and asked a few of us in the office to join in the fun. It didn't take much to convince me to run so I re-arranged my weekly schedule to make it fit into my training so I that I wouldn't miss out on any of my workouts.

Although, the weather was a little cool and wet on the morning of the event, I was curious to see how close I could take this race to my 15k split in the Hamilton Half Marathon. This kept the motivation high while I warmed up in the chilly rain as the rest of the small field assembled near the starting line. As the gun time neared, I decided shorts were still acceptable but went with arm warmers and a tri top to kept a little warmer up top.

With the Canoe Club trying to keep costs down (rightfully so) they designed the course to stick to the walking paths around the Lakefront Promenade Marina. This made for a lot of twists and turns with some blinds spots out on the course so I made sure to listen to the lead bike guide during the pre-race instructions. When it was time to begin the run, I positioned myself behind some of the younger athletes and just came off the line in a relaxed effort. This was probably a good call as many of the teenaged runners went off like canons, getting out well ahead of me to the start of the path.

I was fairly certain a good number of them would burn out after their short sprint so I just set my target on a few of the smoother looking ones and slowly made made way through the crowd. By the time we had covered the first kilometre I had moved up to sixth spot with a couple solid looking runners chasing the bike very quickly. One of them was relatively young but had great form so I was not sure what to expect from him at this distance. The other was a familiar face from a few previous races. I knew he was a gamer so there was no way I was going to stay on his heels for 15k. I just patiently hung back as we circled RK McMilland Park to the west of the starting area.

After making the loop around this tree filled park (could not see the competition during this section), we doubled back past the beach cove and headed to the northeast trails. I was now running in fourth spot, about a hundred metres back of third, feeling confident that I could catch this guy somewhere down the road.

We were just over three km into the race as we zigged and zagged along Waterfront Trail and I was making solid ground on my target. From a previous 10k race on these grounds, I was now comfortable enough with the course to zone out (take my mind off the pain building in my legs) for a little while and focus on my form and pace.

As I reached the 5k mark (water station), I could tell I had fallen too far off the pace of the two leaders so there was little chance of reeling them back in. I now had to settle with the possibility of a third place finish. Not so bad but not exactly they way I imagined the day...

A little further through Marie Curtis Park, as I neared the turnaround at the far east end of the course, I noticed I wasn't too far off that podium position. I hurried over to the volunteer pointing out the turn marker and made a quick pivot to re-trace my steps. Two things hit me at this point. Firstly, my legs died on me right out of the blue. Secondly, I could now see how close two runners were just behind me. Oh Oh!

The twosome on my rear brought a bit of a spark but I felt like I was suddenly struggling with my form over the small rolling mounds of asphalt, fighting despreately to speed up. By the time I weaved through the kilometre in the forest, I had lost contact with the last spot on the podium. I hit the 7km aid station and was afraid that reaching for a drink would stop me in my tracks so I just kept my eyes forward and hoped to hold off the guys on my heels.

Watching my garmin on the way back to the marina, I could tell my pace was suffering compared to my early splits. My goal of fifty-five minutes was in jeopardy now so it was all about getting through the final portion of the race without losing too many spots or dropping out. Thankfully, my mental game was on to make up for the lack of physical game on this day and I talked myself into staying as efficient as possible.

This was not pretty, believe me. I couldn't see the guy running in third at this point so I was starting to doubt some of the upcoming turns on the course as we twisted back to Lakefront Promenade Park for another loop. I got through the loop for the second time in the race and was really not sure where we were heading next for the last four kilometres. I just hoped the volunteers were on top of the situation as they directed both 8k and 15k runners along the pathway.

Lucky for us, they did a great job! I travelled back along the Waterfront Trail, along the back edge of an industrial park, and counted down the distance knowing the final turnaround must be coming soon. Shortly after that thought, I watched the leader zoom past me with second place a litttle back from the young, talented runner. After I saw third place, I knew I was getting close to my final switch back and hit the line and blasted off to get back up to speed. I could once again see 5th and 6th place licking their lips so I just gunned it for the final two km.

My legs were too tired to put any length into my stride so I had to concentrate on just speeding up the cadence of my shuffle. This was enough to increase the gap and provide a respectable final few thousand metres. I was very relieved to make my way back to the marina parking lot and see a low 56 on the clock. I made a final sprint to keep it under 57 minutes and broke the tape in 56:32 (on my garmin).

This was good for 4th place overall and a nice, new standard for 15k (not including splits from longer races)for me to aim for next year. I still have not seen the actual chip time results so I am not sure how that looked for my age but I would assume two of the three runners ahead of me where under thirty years of age.

Road 2 Hope Half Marathon (2011) Race Report

Missing the Scotia Toronto Waterfront Marathon a few weeks ago, I thought I would just pack it in for the season and take some time to rest and recuperate. Thankfully, other people had better ideas and I soon found myself gearing up for the Hamilton Road to Hope Half Marathon. I had put in a lot of work for the marathon and my coach did not want to see me waste all the effort so he recommended this date for me to compete.

Having raced this particular event last year, I knew it was a fast course but I still had to be ready and on my game to hit the time he had in mind for me. So I took the three weeks and made a very solid push in training to get myself ready to go sub 1:20 in Hamilton. As luck would have it, Tyler made a last minute change to his schedule to help pace my effort. Heading into the race with this support, I was feeling very good about my chances.

On Sunday morning, I grabbed my gear and headed towards the Hammer. On my way, I picked up Tyler and we drove to Confederation Park (the finish area) to catch the shuttle bus up the hill to the starting line. During the ride we discussed the strategy of the day so I knew what to expect and where I wanted to be in relation to his position on the course.

When we arrived at the high school (our warming centre), we grabbed a spot in one of the halls and I slowly prepared my kit for the race. I was not sure how warm it would feel come gun time so I was taking a long time deciding what to wear. As I weighed my clothing options, I had a chance to chat with Laura G (FMCT) and Luke Ehgoetz. Laura was gearing up for the full so she had a bit of a head start and was just about to make her way over to the line. Luke was running the half with us so I was interested to see what his game plan was for the 21.1k.

After we discussed this, and checked in our bags, it was time for a quick warm up outside. It was incredible running weather so I ended up ditching the short sleeve technical shirt I had under my top and just went with tri top and gloves on this early November morning.

At the start line, I tucked in behind Tyler and let him lead out of the tight chute. Unfortunately, I did not battle very hard once the gun sounded and I found myself falling off the pace, getting stuck behind some folks that were not hitting the pace the lead group was pushing. With a sharp right turn about 100 metres out of the school driveway, I had to wait to get around the corner before I could negotiate the crowd and then bridge up to the group I wanted to be running with. I wasn’t expecting to generate this kind of acceleration in this part of the run so once I caught up to Tyler I just sat on his heels for a few minutes to get the heart rate back down.

Over the next few kilometres we kept things under control, hanging slightly back from the chase group (the solo leader was well ahead of them). A few times I felt the urge to surge up to one of the other small packs in between us and the chase but Coach T wisely held me back keeping me just under our targeted pace across the flats leading up to the Red Hill Valley Parkway.

Just after the 5k marker we arrived at the downhill section as we merged onto the expressway. We had the benefit of a solid tailwind at this point so Tyler pumped up the pace and I just stuck on his tail. Most of the small groups were now strung out down the road so we just ran our own pace and did not worry about working with anyone else, for the time being.

On the decent, I was cruising along quicker than planned but I was doing well staying with my coach for most of this drop towards the lake, usually following him or just behind the twosome or threesome he was pulling along. This held true until the 8k area when I made a mental mistake trying to grab a cup of energy drink from an aid station. I missed the first one when I took my eyes off the cup and had to scramble to reach for another before passing through the zone. This brief lapse in focus seemed to knock me slightly off their pace and a gap opened up between myself and Tyler, Hugo Reyes and Michael Enright.

Tyler had mentioned Hugo’s talent level (as we watched him charge out at the start of the race) so when Tyler started to run beside Mr. Reyes, I figured they were going for a much quicker time than I could manage. My new plan was to just try and keep my gap around a hundred metres back. With the wind helping I knew I would be OK to work alone for the moment but I also knew once we changed direction, in a few thousand metres onto Barton, I would be expending a lot of extra energy going solo.

As I reached the 10k sign, I looked at my watch (35:23) to notice I was around ten seconds ahead of last year’s pace. This had me a little worried as I remember how much time I gave back in the last half of the run in 2010 and I felt like I was struggling a lot earlier this year. Shortly after the sign, I started to climb up the exit ramp from the expressway and decided to skip the aid station that would have added a few extra metres (on the far side of the curve). I saw Tyler, Hugo, Michael and another runner all head towards the volunteers so I hoped that my shorter route to Barton would allow me grab onto the back of their line to find some protection from the wind.

Similar to 2010, the wind was slowing everyone down along this short detour to Woodward Avenue. Tyler was now pushing ahead of the rest of us and looking very strong as I joined in behind Hugo and Michael. Once we turned right onto Woodward, we enjoyed more assistance from the wind and I just let my legs go and led the group for a few minutes with my coach a little ways up the road.

Over the next few kilometres, the three of us kept swapping positions leading the small pack to the lake front portion of the course. The cross wind was pretty tough along Beach Blvd as Hugo and Michael started to fade a little so I decided to just run on my own and try to chase down Tyler who was now about 50 metres up the street. When we finally reached the turnaround at 16k, I was not too far off but realized it would be a mistake to bridge up since the last five kilometres were going to be killer with the winds howling from our right.

On our way along the lake front path to the finish line, Michael ended up catching and pulling past me with about 4k to go. My form was getting very ugly at this point and I could not match his speed to work with him (to be honest, I don’t think there was any place to hide from the wind from the direction it was coming from so I just tried to use a training course landmarks to get me closer to the line as fast as possible). The Brooklin, Ontario native eventually hit a wall with about 2.5k to the line and I slowly got around him. He held on for a few hundred feet until a twosome from the London area smoothly glided past us, knocking both of us out of the top ten.

I had nothing left in the tank but Michael seemed to have a little juice and tried to track them down. He eventually came up six seconds short of their time and I was another eight behind him. I was just happy to reach the tape before having to crawl.

I ended up breaking through in 1:17:40 and finishing 12th overall and 2nd in my Age Group. Tyler also set a PB finishing 45 seconds ahead of me in 8th position. Thanks Coach!

Congrats to everyone on their races in Hamilton! Great work by Luke to easily beat his goal and qualify for New York in 2011!

Tour de Hans - Race Report

There is no mistaking it, fall is in the air. A few months ago, I was anticipating that the October 1st weekend would be a touch cooler so I was planning to race a XC Running event to ring in the season. As the race drew near, I continued to experience issues with my lower abdominal/groin region that has made running a little uncomfortable. A couple days before the weekend, Tyler and I decided to pull the plug on the Ontario Masters’ XC Race and take it easy on the running side.


Cycling, on the other hand, does not seem to bother the injury very much so I have ramped up the bike miles to stay active. I knew a large number of the Falcons were registered for the Tour de Hans 100k ride in the Kitchener/Waterloo area on October 2nd so I figured I would join the group and get in my scheduled long ride.

Coming off a successful Centurion Canada, I could tell I was growing as a cyclist so I wanted to add to my experience base and get aggressive out of the gate in the Tour de Hans to see how things go. If I fell apart because of a serious effort, I could accept it and walk away knowing what has worked and what has failed. My cycling partner in crime, Richard Westwood, and I had worked through this game plan a couple days before the event so we were prepared to push each other to maximize our efforts.

I had also spoken to my triathlon buddy, Luke Ehgoetz, who had mentioned that he was game for the challenge. This was his first cycling event and he was excited to see how his amazing triathlon bike skills translated on the road bike. Although, I am nowhere close to an experienced roadie, I passed along some pointers that I have picked up recently to help him join us to see if we could manage a three person team if we got into the same group.

On the morning of the tour, the air was a chilly four degrees with wind chills reported in the low negatives (CP24). Luckily, the predicted rain held off for the time we were out on the bike so it did not become a factor (unless you packed rain gear for the ride) and the roads were in fine shape for our race.

On to the race…

The opening 5k (out and back) portion of the event was used as a slow, warm up parade that was not timed. Guest rider, Simon Whitfield, led the group through a neutralized loop away from the staging area where I sat back a few rows from the front not wanting to miss out on anything once we returned to the actual start line of the race. When we wrapped up our warm up (although we were moving too slow to actually warm anything up as my hands were still numb), Simon continued to pull for a few hundred metres before the top guns gathered near the front of the peloton.

They were not blasting very hard, yet, so the group remained very large for the first few kilometres of the race as we continued on a straight away of rolling road. I was in close contact with most of the riders (Bruce Bird, Ryan Roth, Ian Scott, etc.) that I knew would be in the eventual lead group so I just stayed in among them as a few people attacked to test the waters.

Riding with experienced racers, you can see that they do not panic about breaks but monitor the rider out in front to see if they are going to stretch or come back to the group. During this stage of the race every minor attack came back quickly and the pack just kept pulling along until the 12k point, when things got interesting.

I saw a route marker on the side of the road that was directing us to turn right so I prepared and signaled that we would be doing so. Richard was right on my wheel so I knew he was committed to my every move. Unfortunately, for a bunch just ahead of us, the police escort did not turn and they kept following along. I was the first to turn right and started to doubt my move as a whole slew of riders continued straight for a few seconds. Luckily, a local rider pulled up with me and confirmed that I was heading in the correct direction.

The chaos to my left was kind of amusing to watch as riders scrambled to get back on route. Some were cutting across the grass in the ditch and on the gravel just to rejoin the front. This right hand turn put us dead into a strong wind so I was not really excited to be leading the charge now so I wisely slowed the pace and waited for the strong folks to jump back into the lead of the peloton.

This short connecting road into Wilmot was slightly up grade so things were finally starting to string out a little. When we entered the small town, we had a left turn that led us to a set of train tracks that looked pretty touch and go. I wanted to protect my rubber crossing these but was certain that the power riders would attempt a separation after the tracks.

As usual, the front runners took off after bumping across the railway and the race was on to stay in contact. I was hoping Richard and Luke would be right behind but I was struggling to hook on so I could not turn to peak back. I was on and off a few times as the lead group formed. Just as I was about to fall off on my last push, I got some help from a rider who managed to bridge across and grabbed his wheel. I thanked him for pulling me up and tried to recover for a few minutes before moving up to a protected position in the middle of the pack.

At this point, it was tough to tell what was happening behind us. I was not sure if the chase group had come up with us or where Richard and Luke had settled? With the strong winds most of us were battling to hold our lines so I didn’t feel confident enough to look back to see what was developing behind me.

During the next ten kilometres, I was fighting the cross wind hitting the right side of our group. I tried to get over to the left side of the train but just couldn’t find the right time to do so. At the 29k area, we finally reached the start of our longest climb on the course. It was not much of a hill, by Collingwood standards, but it was just enough to start shaking folks off the back as the leaders pushed the pace.

At the 32k mark, I started to fade to the back for a little breather. This quick lapse in judgment cost me again as I could not hold the wheel of the last rider in the group and watched as the gap grew inch by inch in front of me. As the peloton continued up the slope I noticed other riders slipping off as well. By the time we leveled off I could see several individuals on the horizon so it was now decision time.

Wait for a group (which I could not see coming up behind me) or just hammer and hope to work with others to create a group out of the shrapnel left from the peloton.

After the Tour de Terra Cotta, I could not waste another opportunity to push the limits in a cycling event so I opted to bury my head and leave it all out on the roads. If I blew up at least I did trying.

As I gained more speed, getting as aero as possible to cut the powerful wind, I passed a total of three riders all going solo. None of them seemed too interested in grabbing my wheel so I just kept pounding away as I could see a group of three making a left turn at the very top of our ascent. This was now close to 5km of time trialing up the slope so I was starting to feel the burn but not about to give up. Thankfully, I caught them a few hundred metres after the turn and pulled in front to show them I was very keen on making more ground.

I stayed out front for a minute and then waved the group through to catch a quick breather. Around the 40k mark we made a right turn and I could now see another bunch of three guys about 700m down the road. I figured this was our best chance to bring on more people so I moved up along the crew and asked if they were ready to follow up to the next few riders. I was happy to receive a positive response from the team and I got into TT mode for another hard effort.

As I pulled, I was encouraged by several of their comments as we made solid work of closing the gap between the two groups. I really started to feel the load of the effort when I got within ten metres of the last wheel ahead of me. I was hoping they would see us coming and let us hook up easier. No dice.

I really had to work hard to claim those final metres of the bridge so by the time we all moved across, to create a seven person pack, I was exhausted and having a hard time hanging on as we climbed a small hill before Linwood.

I watched as they began to increase the space and could not believe my luck as I worked so hard to create the bigger group and now there was a good chance I would be left solo with more than half the race left. To my relief, we crested the hill and started travelling down so I was able to get back on before rolling through Linwood where we turned right to finally catch some nice tailwind action.

Over the next several kilometres we became organized and started to work a pace line. I noticed one of our gang fell off during this quick period of time but we held a strong mix of six guys as we approached an intersection just after the half way spot. Unfortunately, we did not sight the rumble strips in the asphalt and the first set sent our group all over the place. Not exactly sure what happened (flat, loss of momentum, bike damage, etc.) to a couple of the guys but coming away from the intersection we were now down to four and looking unorganized.

(Note: I am throwing in the names of the gentlemen I worked with over the last portion of this race as I think I can tell by the finishing order whom they may be. I would like to point out that I had one of the most positive racing experiences of my short cycling life. These guys were total class and very supportive as we travelled the rest of the course as an efficient unit. Thank you!)

Not very far after the cross in the road, we started to get back into a flow but the Time Trial sign was too much of a carrot for Andy Mill and Phillip Hodgkinson to pass up. They sprinted ahead to test their skills but I told them I needed to recover and just kept my pace. Andy mentioned that they would wait at the top so that we could stay together so I was cool with that. Kent Bauman joined me and we worked our way up the hill not too far off their wheels so by the time we crested we were all ready to roll down the steep backside and round the bend.

Shortly after the sweeping bend, Andy got us organized again and we started a very smooth rotation through our four man collective. The pace was high and the communication was strong as we worked through the different cross and tail winds, changing our line position based on the direction of the wind.

During this stretch, in the 60-65k range, we picked up another rider from Toronto (I assume, based on his kit) and got the benefit of an extra man for several kilometres. I noticed just how much quicker we became with five people as the rotation gave us just enough of a break to recover between the short pulls we were popping off at the front. Unfortunately, this gentleman must have extended himself earlier as he was only on for a short period of time and soon we had to drop back to our four person ways.

Then in the early 70k’s, we picked up another three riders that were waiting around for some help. They got up to speed and joined us but did not offer much in assistance. As we continued along, I could tell some of our core group was starting to tire but Andy was still looking very fresh. Kent and Phillip had certainly done their fair share of the work to get us to this point so I figured if Andy and I could give them a rest we could get them back for the final 5k to 10k.

We continued to rotate along at a solid pace through the rolling hills leading back to the finish line. Kent continued to throw in his local knowledge of the course to give us key warnings of the upcoming turns so we could whiz around the roads without worrying about going off the marked trail. He was spot on with his orientation so I believed him when he mentioned the final 5k would be a battle into the wind.

With six of us left for the home stretch, I was not too concerned with my position. I was already very satisfied about my effort for this 102k ride and knew we were all beat up (except Andy, who seemed to have endless energy and the two guys on for the 30k free ride). Based on duathlon experience, I figured I had just enough in the tank to take it home through the wind so I got down aero again and wanted to see if I could pull the train home. Thankfully, Andy was more than game and we started a two man rotation into the wind. Kent and Phillip threw in some spot relief as well so we made quick work of this section.

On the very last climb about, 2k from the finish, one of the other guys launched an attack. I was not up for that challenge but Andy went across and then Kent pulled up beside me. He pushed me along mentioning I had done too much work to leave behind. It sparked a little extra energy and I jumped on his wheel. In seconds, we had caught the attack to reach the final turn together.

As expected, the final 500m (or so) quickly turned into a sprint for the fresh legs of the guys sitting in our draft. Only Andy (of our original four) was able to react and he made it to the line second in our group. I pulled in as the fourth rider as Kent and Phillip held their spots, even though I am sure they could have sprinted past me. We were racing so I assumed they would move up a few positions for fun but they showed me that there is some mutual respect among cyclists, contrary to many of the forums I have read.

In the end, we covered the 97km of timed course in 2:41, which was well ahead of my expectations in this type of weather. I crossed the line in 21st position of 182 finishers and was 3rd in my Age Group.

Most importantly, I gained more valuable racing experience and enjoyed a very positive cycling experience thanks to the team effort Andy, Kent, Phillip and I shared for 60k. Awesome job fellas!

I also applaud the efforts of all the Falcons and my friends for toughin’ it out on the Tour de Hans course. Bruce (2nd overall), Ian (3rd), Rolie (13th), Luke, Richard, Jon, Ian, Colin, Craig, Shanta, Lori, Ryan, Jim, Peter, Bill, Brent, Stuart and Bernie. Nicely done folks!