What an amazing experience it was to race in this sport-centric country with the fastest and friendliest athletes triathlon had to offer this year.   My race was filled with highs and lows and despite the lows, I will remember it as one of my best races to date.

The day dawned beautifully with tons of sun and a light breeze (okay, from Lethbridge standards, there was no wind).  I fretted all week about the ocean swim (the shark thing...), but once we got into the water, it was awesome, truly awesome...and really, really salty.  The water temperature was 20 degrees so we had wetsuits, and despite the first 4 minutes of churning chaos, the rest was long and strong swimming.  While I came out of the water in my fastest swim time this year, my recorded time is much longer because getting back to transition was about a 250 metre run in my wetsuit.


Transition was smooth and I headed out on my bike feeling really good.  The course was 2 loops, flat and fast and I dropped about 3 minutes off my previous best bike time.   So, life and the race was great when I came into transition the second time, racked my bike and headed out on the run.  My legs were a bit heavy, but within half a kilometre, I was running well and passing people.  As I came down a hill onto the flats at about the kilometre mark, my right calf cramped or tore and I nearly fell.  After many deep breaths, some fairly substantive (albeit qu
 

What an amazing experience it was to race in this sport-centric country with the fastest and friendliest athletes triathlon had to offer this year.   My race was filled with highs and lows and despite the lows, I will remember it as one of my best races to date.

                                                                             

The day dawned beautifully with tons of sun and a light breeze (okay, from Lethbridge standards, there was no wind).  I fretted all week about the ocean swim (the shark thing...), but once we got into the water, it was awesome, truly awesome...and really, really salty.  The water temperature was 20 degrees so we had wetsuits, and despite the first 4 minutes of churning chaos, the rest was long and strong swimming.  While I came out of the water in my fastest swim time this year, my recorded time is much longer because getting back to transition was about a 250 metre run in my wetsuit.

 

Transition was smooth and I headed out on my bike feeling really good.  The course was 2 loops, flat and fast and I dropped about 3 minutes off my previous best bike time.   So, life and the race was great when I came into transition the second time, racked my bike and headed out on the run.  My legs were a bit heavy, but within half a kilometre, I was running well and passing people.  As I came down a hill onto the flats at about the kilometre mark, my right calf cramped or tore and I nearly fell.  After many deep breaths, some fairly substantive (albeit quiet) swearing to myself, I managed to start moving again.  At first, I thought it was a cramp, but as I continued on, I couldn't work it out, so the remaining 9 km was a hobbling hybrid-limp of running as I realized that I was prepared to crawl across the finish line if that's what it took to finish.

 

And this is where the lows were.  The pain was easier to handle than the tremendous pull to succumb to disappointment after all the time, effort and commitment it took to get here and the realization of what this would do to my time and placing.  Thankfully, I spent a lot of time trying to resist that urge and I believe it helped me handle the pain.   That and the last 200 metres of the race!

 

Perhaps it was adrenalin, or the frustration of limping for 9km, or the fact that one Aussie in my age group had just passed me and another was just in front of her, or the thousand people lining 'thunder alley' (aka, the finishing shute) cheering and shouting and hi-fiving people, or simply a what-have-I got-to lose attitude that made me try to sprint.  And for about thirty seconds, enough time to pass both Aussies and stay in front of the three Canadians who had been gaining on me the whole run, I ran without noticing the pain...that is until I crossed the finish line, tried to stop and ended up falling.  The medics were with me in a nanosecond and probably based on the choice words I was using, immediately lifted me up and took me to the medical tent...the first time in my 14 years of triathlon that I have ever seen the inside of the medical tent...Joseph found me about 45 minutes later after an amazing sport doc had worked on my calf enough so that I could stand.

 

And so, after the events of the day, the gamut of emotions, and a whole lot of tears shed for a whole bunch of reasons, I am immensely proud to have had this experience.  Even this morning as I limp around the apartment and ice my swollen calf, I have a renewed sense of what it means to be a Canadian and I am humbled that I have had the opportunity to represent this country!

 

As for the standings, I finished the race 54th in my age group and was the 3rd Canadian to cross the finish line in my age group.

 

Life and triathlon are good!