2014 Toronto Triathlon Festival Race Report (DNS)

TTF has always been one of my most anticipated races. I'm pretty sure that I was among the first 10 people who signed up when the registration opened last year. How could I miss it? By now, I have an emotional connection to it as it was my first ever triathlon in 2012 and I always loved everything about it. I raced it every year since, so it was unfathomable that I skip it. I got my Olympic distance PR there last July and it still stands by the way. However, this year it was going to be all about having fun given that IMMT is only a few weeks away. Besides, it was Zin's A race and I really wanted to be there for him instead of stressing my brains out.

So it would be pretty accurate to say that I almost didn't care. I didn't obsess over the weather, I didn't think about what to wear, other than I wanted to put on a new Coeur kit that I had ordered and could not wait to receive. I had a fancy race helmet, a bike in perfect working order with speedy race wheels, new road cycling shoes which I learned to clip in without a hiccup. All I needed was for Zin to come pick me up from work on Friday and drive downtown to retrieve my race kit.

We arrived at Coronation Park where the expo and the pre-race meetings were organized under big tents, as opposed to the fancy Westin Harbour Hotel in the years before (no big deal, it was actually better because we didn't have to drive through the construction clusterfuck around Union Station), and we had to wait for the next meeting to start, or no race packet pickup for us. I also found Carol (is she following me or what?! :-)) and altogether we went to listen to Steve Fleck go through the 10-12 min of slides that turned into 45 min. Get me outta here!! I knew each slide by heart. However, there was one slide that literally jumped at me as it talked about the swim conditions and the fact that a swim warm-up was NOT going to be allowed. WTF?! At least in the years before we had about 5 min to splash around. Not this time. This slide also mentioned a water temperature expected between 13-15C. Double WTF!!

I felt compelled to write this tweet.

Water temp at #TTF 2012: 18C, 2013: 16.5C, 2014: 13-15C. Have the defibrillator and the heating blanket ready. #brrrrr @TriathlonTO
July 12, 2014

You may remember that I skipped the swim at Woodstock for the same reason. Under 16-17C, it's too damn cold for my noggin. And so the doubt started creeping in. Why would I subject myself to this if I already declined to swim in similar, yet slightly better conditions (thanks to the allowed warm-up swim) at Woodstock? What if I get a cold? Last year my hands and feet already went numb because of my Raynaud's, what if I get impaired and unable to steer my bike properly? I already had a near miss last year because I was so dizzy coming out of the water.

Anyway, thanks to the company, I didn't have much time to stress about the what ifs. Not until I got back home, but then I looked at the weather app. Thunderstorms and rain and wind, oh my!! I proceeded to organize my transition bag, put the tri kit beside my bed, my change of clothes, my nutrition, every single detail was ready and then I decided to call it a night. As I lay down in bed, staring at my ceiling, I let the thoughts sink in.

My knees were hurting and I had not been able to run more than 3km without pain. I should be resting instead.
It was going to rain. A lot. And I was going to remain soaked for hours.
It was going to be freaking cold in the water. Colder than I could handle.
I was going to fly down a highway on my bike, with puddles everywhere and water in my eyes and slippery oil patches and O M G. What if I crash?!!

And at that moment I knew that the risk was not going to be worth the reward. Most likely I wasn't going to get a PR and worse, I may even get sick or DIE. Yes, I do think about dying on my bike a lot. I would be stupid not too. Have you ever launched yourself head forward on a slope? The tiniest error can end in a LOT of hurt. Have you seen the Tour de France this year? Let that be an eye opener. If you crash, game over. No more Ironman and all training, all sacrifices thus far, gone down the drain. So I posted a status on Facebook saying that I was reluctant to start, but then my mind was already made up. I turned off the light, counted down to 5 and I freed my mind. I slept like a baby and the night went by in a blink.

Next thing I know, the alarm clock goes off, it's 4pm and I'm at peace. I get up, put on city clothes, I don't even look at my tri bag. Hubbs and I go to the kitchen, we have breakfast. Hey, I can even have coffee! Isn't that a treat?! If I were racing I would have had to skip. Bike comes out of the car and I don't even sigh. All I care from now on is seeing Zin SMASH it!!

I drive us downtown again and I drop hubbs off near the transition, then I go park the car. As I started walking along the canal towards transition, I looked at my wristband. I had not removed it. That's ok, it was going to give me in and out privileges and I was glad for the opportunity, I could be much closer to Zin and to all my friends racing that day. If I dare to say, I has happy and content with myself.

Before I could find hubbs, I ran into Margarita, she is one my long time blog readers who won a top at a small contest that I ran on my blog last year, just before TTF. We met back then and stayed in contact since. She has stayed true to herself in her pursuit of endurance challenges, and I could not be more proud of her. She did TTF last year and came back for more!

As you can see, it was still dry when I met her, but not for long. Literally 5 minutes later the skies opened up and it started pouring. Here's what my hubby's transition spot looked like:

I bet putting on your wetsuit was the best course of action for everyone, but also the most challenging. Oh well, people seemed to do just fine. I followed Zin to the swim start, but I was trailing a bit behind as I kept looking for Carol. And then I found her!

Big MUAH under the umbrella. This girl had a lot more courage than me for sure! I found Zin too, and then things got a bit weird, of course.

The swim was on hold and people were getting anxious. Those two seemed to be doing just fine though. But soon enough, or maybe after what felt like an eternity, they got to jump in. Blue caps, Zin's wave.

Then the yellow caps, Carol's wave. Look at them go!!

As for me, I stayed on the shore, taking pics. It was a hoot. Look who I even ran into!! Simon Whitfield, who even offered to take the selfie himself. He's got it perfected to a science! And it just made my day. Best perk of a DNS, ever!! :-)

I waited for everyone I knew to get out of the water and it was very painful to see so many people returning by boat. I knew at that moment that I had made the right decision. NO REGRETS. I was having a great time cheering on my family and friends and getting to watch the TTF operations from a different perspective. As a matter of fact, I realized that most people were taking me for a volunteer since I was wearing the same tshirt as them. Thankfully I knew so much about the race that I had no problem answering their questions. I even got a volunteer confused when I returned in transition and he asked me if I was there to guard the bags. Apparently he was assigned to this job and wanted to make sure we weren't both doing the same thing. No problem buddy, it's all yours! In transition, I found other friends from FMCT tri club, including my coach, getting ready for the sprint race. Look at them proud members of the Team Canada (psst, they are all going to the World Championships in Edmonton)!

Then I waited for Zin to come in from his bike, worried that he may have crashed too. But oh relief, there he was!! He made a grimace while running towards his spot, but overall he T2'd like a champ so I didn't worry too much. Honey, don't leave your gels inside your shoe next time.  ;-) And wait, you're not gonna eat anything? Apparently not. Soon it was time for the sprint folks to swim, so I returned by the water where I could also see the oly people leaving the transition to go on their run. I saw Margarita again, followed closely by Carol. They were safe too, phew!! Then I did a quick mental calculation and realized that time had flown by and that I should make my way towards the finish line to see hubbs bringing it home. I must have run backwards the entire km that separated Ontario Place from Coronation Park, but I could not see him. Was starting to get worried again. Did he bonk? Did he trip? Did he get abducted by the aliens or fall into a sinkhole? Eventually I arrived at the entrance of the park and saw people coming in who had left way after him on the run and then it stroke me that he must have finished already. That's what he gets for being too fast! Yeah, well... he was not impressed. But he looked good with the medal!! 9th in his AG with a 2h24 time, in a super packed field! He smashed it, alright!!

Soon afterwards it started dumping buckets of water on us. Torrential downpour!! My umbrella could barely do the work. But as long as my iPhone was dry and I could keep taking pictures of my friends coming down the finish chute, I was going to be ok.

We stayed around until everyone finished and the awards ceremony got under way. Some of our friends placed in their age groups and we wanted to be there for their podium. I could also not wait to congratulate John Young, who has also been doing this race for as long as I've been. We were even in the same wave in the inaugural year. Finally, we could connect again after being Facebook friends for a while. Look at those smiles!

He is such a smart, kind, and genuine soul and I have the utmost respect for him and his drive to complete endurance events such as the Boston Marathon and the Ironman. Just watch him! I know he will do great!! Here is a story that Toronto Star wrote on his race that day. And that's a wrap, my friends! I had a super awesome day at TTF, cheering rather than racing, but without any sort of regret. Hearing from everyone how harsh the conditions were and how dangerous the bike was, I know that I made the right decision. I am proud that I could think clearly and did not get carried away with emotions or guilt. Being in control means that you have to make the decisions that you believe are the best. Ironman training is definitely a learning process. (To see all pictures I took at TTF, go here).

Toronto Triathlon Festival 2013 Race Report

It could not have been a more perfect day. Naturally I am thinking that it can only go downhill from here, but since my A race is still waiting to happen (Ironman Muskoka 70.3), I'll try not to jinx it. I keep telling myself that everything is going to be A-ok, just like this race, my third ever Olympic distance and second triathlon this year. Have a seat, a coffee and a pretzel, this is going to be another one of these never ending race recaps. I still don't know how to segue into the race part by the way, but my brain is trying to figure it out... please stand by. Below are our official results if you feel that your patience is running out, pun intended.

Let's talk about my legs for a start. Still nothing to do with the race per se, but it has everything to do with how I went into it. Or rather, how I limped my way from the track to the office, to my massage therapist, to 7 Eleven, down into my basement with 10 bags of ice and up in my bathroom twice, taking ice baths. Then eventually in my bed, shivering, rolling my quads with a torture stick, and on the floor screaming while humping the foam roller.

Yep, that Wednesday track workout killed me, and it wasn't as much because of the fast running in the 30C heat, but because of the "warm up" which took my legs from 0 to 50 lunges in 5 minutes. I should have known that not doing my lunges regularly was going to bite me in the ass someday. The pain in my legs, magnified tenfold by the taper crazies, was seriously freaking me out. To make things worse, my massage therapist kindly confirmed that "shredded" wasn't a strong enough word to describe my leg muscles on Thursday, so he sent me home with orders to buy ice and immerse everything from the waist down as many times as I could before the race. And of course stretch, stretch, stretch until I cry.

On Saturday when I went to the race expo at Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, the legs were still on the mend, but I was feeling a bit more hopeful. Meeting my coach, Carol and Sharon also took some of the edge off, but going on a little coffee walk and goofing around with these guys definitely helped.

We missed the 8am athletes briefing by 10 minutes, but got in the 9am one and 30 min later we were registered and ready to rock and roll. Zin found a nice LG tri suit that fit him like a glove and I added one more bike jersey to my collection, then we went to Endurosport where I returned my test saddle and exchanged it for a "real" one, the John Cobb V Flow Max (the saddle that my crotch fell in love with, despite its unfortunate name).

In the afternoon I took the boys shopping for swim suits and decided to buy a new sports bra as well because I wasn't happy with the amount of padding in my regular running bras, as in too much of it to fit in my wetsuit or dry under my tri top. One of those taper crazies, I'm sure. At least I knew I wanted to wear my New Balance Kellog tank top (that I got for free thanks to eating enough cereal bars), my trusted Sugoi tri shorts and my (almost) new K Swiss Ironman Red running shoes. At the end of the day it was, really, all about the shoes.

I managed to get in bed at 10:30pm, with an alarm clock set for 4:15am. I fell asleep within seconds and woke up just minutes before the alarm went off. How amazing!! I must have run out of jitters, because I don't remember anything but quiet, dark and empty. Restful to say the least. Jumped out of bed and into my clothes, waited for Zin to finish his shower, then we both went to the kitchen for breakfast. I had my usual oatmeal frittata and some water. I wasn't too crazy about food so early in the day, but I made sure to take 2 bananas with me so I can top up my stomach closer to the race start. The drive into downtown Toronto was rather introspective, I don't remember any conversation that I may have had with hubbs in the car. Did we even talk? Oops, I totally zoned out. I do remember Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke (link NSFW) playing on the radio and telling myself that it wasn't a bad earworm to have stuck in my head for the rest of the day, despite what the hardcore feminists say. Who cares, really. But you're an animal... and I was feeling a roar ready to come out.

We arrived at the transition area just before 6am and had more than enough time to set up our little slice of real estate. I saw Carol's items ready just 3 bikes away and I thought that she must be close by. Zin was a bit farther away from me as 400 numbers were separating us.

Just as I expected, Carol showed up a few minutes later, then Zin came over once he was done too, and we took a few pictures for posterity. I am totally going to replace my framed wedding photo with this one:

We were all smiles!! Basking in the sunrise glow, because the endorphins hadn't kicked in just yet. But we must have been seriously high on adrenalin, I bet!

We put our bags away, then took our neoprene-covered souls to the swim area, then we waited... Zin was in the 7:02am wave, Carol and I in the 7:14am one. So many people around, it was surreal. It really felt like the numbers doubled from last year. This race is becoming very popular for sure. We talked to a lady from Newfoundland for a little while, it helped keeping the anxiety away. I needed to pee really badly, so I was counting the minutes until I could jump in the water so I can let go, finally. Yes, everyone else swims in it, but don't fish do the same? So deal with it.

The water was FREEZEBALLS cold. I don't think I've ever swum in such cold water before. I told Carol, "put your face in the water now", and I did the same. We only had about 2 minutes to get used to it, so it was important that we get acclimated pronto. Very shortly afterwards the horn went off and so did we. Our group wasn't very physical or violent, so I didn't get kicked or swum over, but the swim felt a lot more crowded than in my previous races. I found some feet to draft off, but overall I was passing people the entire time until we hit the first buoy. Eventually, I found myself a swim buddy in a woman with an unconventional green cap with lady bugs on it. Go figure, but it was distracting in a good way... stay close to the lady bugs I kept telling myself. I managed to navigate around the buoys like a champ and follow a pretty straight line overall (real GPS trace thanks to my Garmin watch that I put inside my cap).

The water had some hot spots, but not large enough. Around the marina I also swam into a plastic bag and through weeds that looked like chopped cilantro in a soup. After 25min or so, my hands went numb and I couldn't feel a thing anymore. It was my Raynaud's throwing a temper tantrum, but it wasn't time to panic and so I let the arms do their thing, after all I only needed to make ice cream scoops with my hands and push the water backwards, not play the piano.

As much as I could see around, there were no blue caps being rescued, so at least my mind was at ease that Zin must had finished the swim. Indeed, he was looking strong coming out of the water, weeds hanging off his arms and all.

After a few more turns, I could hear the crowd when I was breathing to the right and I was wondering if they were really that loud or it was my imagination. It definitely pumped me up and I started passing people again in the last stretch. Or maybe they were slowing down, but fact is, I was happy to see the end in sight. The next picture says it all.

What a relief! (and I wasn't even peeing)

When I got out of water, I was so dizzy, it was borderline comical. Once I got to my spot in transition, I tried putting on my bike shoes, but I was keeping on falling backwards, and I could not reach down to close the velcros. Thankfully I did not end up on my ass and I managed to leave the transition in a decent 2:30 min time.
I hopped on the bike after hauling my wet and disoriented self up the ramp towards the exhibition grounds without incident, then zigzagged my way towards the Gardiner. Once on the highway, the dizziness turned slightly dangerous as I had a few near misses when I looked over my shoulder, but miraculously I did not fall off. I decided to focus on the people and things in front of me until I felt that I was no longer jeopardizing my balance. I took a few sips of Endura, then a gel about 10 minutes later. I was starting to feel like myself again, ready to push through the wind and up and down the hills. The Gardiner and DVP aren't anything like Muskoka though, so for most of the ride, despite less than ideal conditions, I did not need to use my small gears (ok, maybe twice briefly). I was feeling so much stronger than last year and I was happy to see myself passing people again.

The time flew by and before I knew it, I hit Eglinton where I had to turn around. Given how much head wind we had going up, the way back down was going to be all schuss. I don't know my splits because I forgot to turn on my Garmin for the bike leg (no kidding, I hardly knew where I was!), but it was AWESOME. That feeling of being almost as fast as the cars beside you, it's magical. I suppose the adrenalin was hitting all time highs, so pardon me if I am slightly delusional. It felt THAT fast, I swear.

I couldn't even trade off that feeling against bladder relief. I needed to pee again and after trying a few times, I almost gave up, but since I was more and more uncomfortable, I gave it one last try when I turned on the Gardiner... and voila. The speed rush being pretty much over, it was time to take care of the other unfinished  businesses, like eating and peeing. You know, the bare necessities. I had one more gel and the last sips of Endura, then decided to concentrate on avoiding the potholes. They seriously need to fix the Gardiner, it's getting ridiculous. I saw too many people with flats on this stretch, and thankfully I wasn't one of them.

I made it back to transition without any idea of the time. That was a first as well. I just knew that I did the best I could with the legs that I had. I passed a ton of people, I was passed too, but it didn't let it hurt my ego. The whole time I was on the bike I had a little 57 year old lady in front of me and I only passed her once, temporarily. She passed me back on the next uphill. She was such an inspiration, seriously kicking ass out there. As for Zin, I saw him while riding up the DVP, he was on his way back already. He looked like The Flash out there!!

So back to transition, I was really happy with my bike, and glad that the dizziness had dissipated. I trotted down that ramp without confusing it with a slip-and-slide and even smiled for the camera.

After 1:30 min of transition time, I found my way out on the run. This part got confusing for a split second as I could not remember which way to go, but since my eyes were luckily working fine, I could read the sign across the parking lot and my memories from last year kicked back in. As usual, the sprint swim start was in progress and most of the athletes were still lining up to jump in the water. Oh, they were going to be in for an icy treat! And on this refreshing thought, I started the last 10k of the day.

My goal was to do the run in about 55min. I had told my coach that I should be able to run this fast after the bike. It was my "old" 10k pace afterall, not my best, but far better than the 1:03:00 from last year. I settled into a groove and for the first 2k, nothing screamed back. At the 2.5k mark I got a stitch, but I could run through it. I started concentrating more on my breathing, especially after seeing hubbs running back with pain on his face. He didn't look comfortable at all and I felt for him... I screamed off the top of my lungs a few words of encouragement and I think that he heard me, but his stomach pain was challenging him at each step, so I doubt that my cheer made any difference.

On the course I drank water at every other station, I wasn't feeling extremely thirsty or hungry after the two gels and the bottle of Endura that I had on the bike. I left the transition with a banana in hand, just like last year. I could remember the volunteer's advice at the turn around playing in my head: "time to eat the banana!". And so I did and my stitch went away almost instantly. By the 7th km I started asking volunteers to splash water on me as I was getting hot. But overall I was feeling really good, holding a pace of 5:35min/km. 

At km 8 I told myself, this is weird, I am feeling way too good and I am not hurting anywhere. I felt ashamed for not pushing harder, so I picked up the pace a little. I stopped looking at my watch though, I was distracted by the long line of cars stuck on the road, as well as the other runners and people already coming back with medals around their necks. Oh, look,  they have a TTF ribbon now! Zin for sure had earned his already. That's my hubbs and I am so proud of him!!

Despite his problems on the run, Zin finished strong in 2h31 and a few seconds, with a faster swim split than me (6 months ago he could barely swim a lap!) and a faster bike than many other athletes out there. And of course, a faster run than mine as well because he's always been the speedier one in that department (since he lost 100lb, that is!!). He truly is my hero and I love how driven and passionate about this sport he has become in the past year, all while working 80h weeks and being the best dad and husband ever.  

As for me, I picked up the pace as I said, thinking that if I didn't, Carol would most likely catch me since she's always had amazing brick runs. I could see her getting closer after the turn around, but I decided not to look behind me at all for the rest of the run. I wanted to enjoy every minute out there and I left it up to her to close the gap. I arrived in the chute almost by myself though, glad that I didn't have to battle the last 100m with anyone. The finish was all mine!! I saw Zin and Lauren cheering on me and I was in heaven. 

I was just about to finish the perfect race, without even knowing my time. When I saw the clock I didn't know what to make of it, I could only remember how I started at 7:14am so it looked to me like I had made it under 3h, which was exactly my goal for the day. I could not be happier.

Little did I know, my bike split was much faster than I expected and I actually crushed my goal by 10 minutes, bringing a 14 minute improvement to my last PR from a month ago in Guelph. Now that was worth celebrating!! If I had a beer, I would have poured it on me like the pros.

5 minutes later, I went back to the chute to look for Carol. She was about to have her own Iron War with another girl across the finish line. She came from behind and decided to challenge her to a sprint and man, oh man, that was entertaining!! Too bad I don't have the sound track to this, it was epic!! 

After the race we hang around to wait for my coach and our friends Rebecca and Jeff from the tri club, who were all doing the sprint distance. Coach finished second in his age group and Rebecca and Jeff both took 9th place in theirs. I have some seriously fast friends, you should be jealous. :-)

All in all, I had the best day ever. My hubbs completed his first triathlon ever with some times out of this world, my friend Carol finished her first Olympic distance in under 3h and with a run PR (on tired legs!!) and I beat all my expectations for the day with a huge PR and ready to go for another round. For me, the best achievement of the day was not only to finish and beat my times in every leg, but to finish with fresh legs and realize that I am prepared for much more. This triathlon gave me a huge confidence boost for the 70.3. For the first time ever I feel ready to attack this new distance and give it all I've got.

Must have been all the ice baths...

And now we wait...

The Toronto Triathlon Festival is just 2 days away! And I've got the taper crazies pretty badly. It's not that I even stopped exercising like before Guelph Lake Tri earlier this year, but I have a few extra rest days, well needed by the way. So much needed that I have all the imaginary pains going from my right pinky toe to my left ear lobe across and up and down and sideways. Today I could not take it anymore and I booked a massage therapy session for after work tomorrow. I will also ask my therapist to make a fire and sing while dancing around me a few times counter clock wise for good juju. By the way, I just tried to stand up and noticed that my pain got 10 times worse in my quads, of course.

The past 7 days have been intense, no questions about that. I must have also eaten more, because somehow I woke up with 4 extra pounds which I decided to lose stat. All before Sunday. How? By thinking really really hard about 6 pack abs, cyclist thighs and tight butts, while drinking a beer and eating chicken wings and ice cream. If you really, really want it... well, wait for it, it will happen (said no one, ever). Yeah, I feel flabby and bloated and I'm not even PMSing, but some days I imagine that I'm pregnant. There's got to be a reason to this madness!!

And then there is the bike which is waiting for a flat or some other mechanical failure, like my derailleur flying out or the chain getting stuck between cogs. There is always a possibility, other than me crashing and breaking my neck and dying. All this, in my head, day in and day out. For some reason I haven't thought about drowning or getting eaten by a sea creature that somehow made it to Lake Ontario yet, but I'll be watching Sharknado tomorrow and that should take care of it.

The only way to make them taper crazies go away, is to look at these pictures and tell myself that I've got this (more or less...)! Hopefully, without a flu developing overnight, some super-extreme heat alert that melts the Gardiner or a tornado spout that spits me out of the canal. Oh I have a fertile imagination, you should be afraid.

Wheee, boobies!

Watching Zin swim is fun

Holy mother of quads!

He's going to kick serious butt

And... Back to boobies!

Yeah, well, distractions are good. Much better than this, right?

Photo by Joey Mole, Safety Harbour, FL

I think I'm going to drown my worries in a guacamole hat. Over and out!

Toronto Triathlon Festival Race Report

I know that it's been 10 days since the event and I am fashionably late with a race report, but if you just want to know whether I finished or not, I can make it really easy for you : I am now officially a triathlete for having crossed the finish line of the inaugural Toronto Triathlon Festival in 3:12:14. Below are the official results.

Are we good? Okay, I can blog my brain away now, yay! (grab a coffee, this is kinda long)

A year ago, if you asked me what a triathlon was, I would have babbled something about 3 sports, not quite sure which ones and in which order, bet it was a cousin with the pentathlon and the decathlon... that was all I knew about triathlons, until I came across Steve in a Speedo's blog while googling some random running  stuff. And then I started reading more and not only I got hooked on reading his hilarious stories and race reports full of TMIs, but also discovered a whole other world out there that looked like a lot of fun, going from water to 2 wheels and then onto your two legs without changing clothes, or very little of them. That looked intriguing and totally in reach, but back then, triathlon still didn't seem like something that I would  want to try.

The months went on and I continued training for my first marathon, had my share of ups and downs in the process and in September I started working with coach Dave who felt like a perfect fit for me for being a crazy nut himself, fresh of becoming an Ironman at Coeur d'Alene a few months prior. I told myself, he must understand me, know what it is to train for endurance, so he should definitely be able to help me shed a few pounds and cross that marathon finish line as well. After watching the Ironman championships in Kona a month later though, a seed was being planted in my brain. All those people like you and me who wanted it bad enough, they conquered the hardest of all, the Ironman. So maybe an overweight, slow poke, injury prone, mom of two like me may be able to finish a sprint or an olympic triathlon one day... and why not?

Fast forward a few months, I finish not only one, but two marathons and all of a sudden, EVERYTHING seems possible. Signed up for my first triathlon and here I am now, craving for more. This is just the start, but how well did it go?

I had been counting the days up to this event for sure, but because each individual distance was relatively short compared to how far I went in my training, it didn't feel as scary as the marathon. This was also the reason why I didn't sign up for the sprint distance, it just wasn't challenging enough for me. I don't want to sound pompous or over confident, but to keep moving forward, I need challenges that I know would make me suffer in the process (ok, now I sound totally masochistic, but anyway, what I mean is... gosh, forget it). Training for a sprint would have felt too easy and I was scared that my fitness level would actually decrease and I would have to start all over if I wanted to do another marathon (which I am actually signed up for, the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on October 14). Coach Dave sure knew to keep the bar high for me though and at times it did feel like I was training for an Ironman, so on Sunday morning when my alarm went off, I knew I was ready. But was I going to hurt?

It didn't help that on Friday I got sick with a nasty summer cold that just went downhill from there. I tried to retaliate immediately by doubling my Vitamin C intake and by starting an All-in-One Benylin regimen right away, but on Saturday when I went to pick up my race kit downtown Toronto I was still feeling feverish, nauseous, dizzy and overall pretty weak. My cough was in full crescendo and I knew that I would not be able to participate without a good dose of cough medicine in me.

But there was no way I was going to back up because of this cold. As long as I was able to breathe and stand vertical, I was a go. So I set a few alarm clocks all around 4:30am and after a sleep that felt quite mediocre, I got up, showered, had an oatmeal frittata and banana for breakfast, woke up hubbs at 5:30 and off we went to Ontario Place where the starting line was. Hubbs dropped me off with a tire check and a kiss, then I made my way to transition where I set up my little piece of real estate and racked my bike for the first time ever, just steps away from Canada's Olympians - Simon Whitfield and Paula Findlay (man, those people are fit). I couldn't have asked for a better spot, the organizers must have given them by age groups, I swear, the oldest closest to the exit ramp, just in case Alzheimer kicked in.

I was in the last swim wave, all females 35 years old and up, plus the parathlete(s). Waited 18 minutes until the gun went off, but before that we got about 5 minutes in the water for warm up thanks to a moment of confusion during which the organizers contemplated starting the last 2 waves together, then changed their mind. The swim was rather uneventful, not much contact as the wave was thin and there was plenty of space for all of us in the canal, the water was the perfect temperature and I got in the groove rather quickly, my mind being distracted by the vegetation at the bottom of the canal, along with pieces of concrete and a few scared fish. All this resulted in a 35:55 time, the fastest for me so far.

In my first transition ever, I could not find my right biking shoe. It was there though, like THERE, under my eyes, but I just couldn't see it. Brain fart. I started panicking and turning every item on my towel over until it magically appeared to me. Not sure how much time it cost me, but compared to the other women in my AG, it felt like forever. Anyway, I regained my composure and after a T1 of 3:06, I was finally on the bike.

However, the panic never left me. Coach said to start the bike for 10min in Z2, but heart was in the 170bpm, which is Z4 and it never went down as much as I tried to relax. I got passed a few times on the bike, but some of these people were mashing hard while I was doing my spin uphill. I passed a few of them back on my way down, but also fought a headwind for the entire second half, which made me a little cranky. I wasn't sure how fast I was going, I had ran out of water in my aero bottle and I was too focussed on staying upright on the bike and eating my chomps so I don't pass out. Did I mention that it was HOT? Eventually I made it back to transition without incident and zoomed through it in 1:13, leaving with a banana in hand.

The run felt much longer than expected and the damn heart rate was still up in the 170s. It definitely decided that I wouldn't get a break. I kept on drinking every other water station and pouring water on my head, back and chest to keep cool. At the turn around I still had my banana unopened in my hand and one of the volunteers shouted - time to eat the banana! - so I opened it and managed to eat about half of it over the next 2km. Stomach wasn't feeling so great, but I knew that was going to be my only fuel for the run, so I kept on taking little bites until I felt full enough. Because of my heart rate being so high for the entire time, I never tried to pick up the pace, but rather tried to keep a constant forward motion and make sure I don't go into cardiac arrest. I felt like dragging my feet at times, but in the end I was pretty satisfied with the 1:03:13, very close to my goal of 1h.

For the last 2km a cramp also installed itself under my ribcage on the right and it became really hard to breathe. From that moment on I knew I was counting the steps to the finish line. Thankfully I saw hubbs and my boys and put on my best run in the last hundred meters for them.

Overall this has been an amazing experience, I loved being in the race, I loved the challenge and the fact that my training felt worthwhile. I am not sure why I couldn't relax or my heart rate never went down to a manageable zone, it may have been the cough medicine I took or the double dose of Vitamin C - bottom line is that the illness made this race harder than it should have been and I can't wait to sign up for another one where I can enjoy myself more.

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