New Balance Victoria – Race Report

FUN FUN FUN

Yesterday morning I tackled the sprint distance of the New Balance Victoria International Triathlon – and if you couldn't guess from the first 3 words of this post - it was pretty darn fun! I crossed the finish line in 1:19:45. Good enough for 10th in my age group (and there were even more than 10 people racing so it wasn’t by default – I was actually 10th out of 30) and a PB at this distance to boot.

It’s so different to think about going as hard as you can over a relatively short distance, compared with all the thought and planning that goes into the longer races - the idea of pacing or nutrition barely even crossed my mind. It was actually a really nice change of pace (pardon the pun) compared with everything I’ve been doing lately. The last time I raced a sprint was over two years ago (Shawnigan 2008).

The sprint started in 2 waves – men went first with woman starting a few minutes later. I will say I was fairly nervous standing in the water waiting for the gun to go off, but I hadn’t really given it much thought or worry before that moment. When it was finally time and the whistle blew to start the race, I dove in with the rest of the pack, not really waiting for the crowds to clear like I often do. The swim was rough. There was lots of jostling and grabbing and pulling and bumping. A few people swam over me and I actually think I swam over a couple too. It was definitely the most physical swim I’ve been in, but I never panicked, and before I knew it, the beach was within reach.

Out of the water and up the shoot to transition I got my wetsuit mostly down and was able to slip out of it fairly quickly. Helmet on, bike off the rack and I was away. My “flying” mount could still use a little work, but it was significantly better than Shawnigan. I managed to escape the crowd fairly quickly, get my feet in my shoes, and start hammering away. (It’s amazing how much easier transition can be when your feet aren’t completely numb).

My bike leg was by far the strongest (well, in my opinion at least)… and my new bike is amazing! Who knows, maybe that is why this portion of the race felt like it went so well, because I was just so excited to actually be riding my new bike? I felt like I pushed myself and my bike really hard through the 20k loop and would say I actually passed more people than passed me (which, admittedly, is a bit rare).

I managed a really great dismount from my bike and my transition to the run was relaxed and smooth.

As usual, the run was the most difficult for me. My calf bugged me for about the first 3k, and then finally (thankfully) loosened up. Looking back on it today, I realize I could have pushed myself a bit harder on the run and that I just need to work on ignoring the pain in my leg as much as possible, as I know it is going to go away eventually. When I looked at my watch with just over 1km to go, I realized that if I pushed, I could probably get in under the 1:20 mark - the race was truly 'on' at that point.

When I finally crossed the line, the smile on my face couldn’t have been bigger. I think the first words out of my mouth were “that was fun” followed promptly by “I think I’m just going to do sprints next year!”

After my race it was time to cheer on all the Half IM participants and just enjoy the rest of the day. Of note: Kirsten laid down an absolutely stellar run off the bike of 1:44:53 to accomplish a huge PB of 5:56:22. Good enough for 10th place in her age group!