Wasaga Beach Duathlon

The night before the very popular Wasaga triathlon, well attended by my fellow members of the Toronto Triathlon Club, we all started realizing that we might be starting in the middle of a rainstorm. Having already had last week’s triathlon converted to a duathlon, I was really hoping that we would get a normal Olympic race this time, but I was preparing for any eventuality. The one-day event combines a sprint, an Olympic and a try-tri in close succession, so there is little room for moving things around!

It was already raining by the time I got to my MSC series race buddy ML ‘s place to carpool together to Wasaga. The race site was considerably colder than Toronto, and chaotic with anxious sprinters, who had just found out that we all, in fact, would not be swimming in the rough white caps of Georgian Bay nor in the polluted water of the back-up river. I would have a duathlon once again. Their race and ours were both delayed, and several of us stood around in the drizzle, covered by shiny emergency blankets, waiting for even the sprint race to start, let alone to find out when we would get to go, not to mention what our course would even look like.

The transition was open-rack, so after a minute of incredulous standing and looking around in the middle of the sparsely-populated Oly space, I finally tossed my bike in a primo spot right near the run exit, feeling like I got away with murder! Once again, all that went into my TA was my bright orange towel and my bike shoes, which is so weird. I didn’t want to try any mount line heroics, being out of practice. But I would get to wear socks, neat. I did a nice slow warm-up run and dynamic stretches. I tried to look out for my sprinting friend KB, thwarted yet again in her goal to complete a true triathlon, but unfortunately must have missed her going through. Waited some more with a bunch of club friends, and finally headed to the race briefing, where we were told that we have to start with a beach run to avoid the returning sprinters. It would be a 5-28-5.

I was really reserved on the first run, banking on the fact that most of these people probably hadn’t done a du before (and I’m such an expert!) The crowd rushed past me, and since we were the last wave, it seemed like I was at the very back. Got through the sluggish run with just the faintest stitch in my side.

On the bike, I was really worried about the wet roads, but it turned out the course is essentially flat, so I picked up some confidence during the ride out. Some encouraging smiles from first-wavers ML and JC got me pedalling a bit faster, although I got worried about a persistent twinge in my calf. But I found it so easy to stay in the mid-30s on this course. After the turn-around, I got into aero more often and started catching and passing people. I still felt like I was at the back, but actually it wasn’t so bad. The rain picked up, but it was more fun than anything else on the flats, and I got even faster as the back way was a very light downhill.

Finishing in the flood

Getting back on the run loop, I felt amazing within a few hundred metres. There was a young girl ahead of me, and she seemed to be running a confident but similar pace, and I let her pull me along and past a bunch of other racers. While I’d been jittery on the bike, this run was my time to shine. I told myself, “Time to start taking people out.” Thankfully I’m very aware of my own pace and ability, so I can be aggressive without over-doing it. This girl and I slowly but surely overtook a number of racers. I caught her after the turn-around, but she said nuh-uh and pulled away. At this point, we were running through ankle-deep puddles more often than not. Towards the end, it was a veritable torrential downpour, and felt pretty awesome! I shouted loud thank-yous to all the soggy cold volunteers, still manning their aid stations like pros.

Maybe 1.5km out, I caught a girl who had foolishly forgotten to turn her bib around after the bike, and I read her name. This was my current rival in MSC series point standings! She was right behind me in 7^th, but I was sure she would beat me in this race and overtake me, making it nearly impossible for me to lock up 3^rd place. I looked her up later, and although she’s a much faster swimmer and rider, she can’t run to save her life. Terrible luck for her having to do a duathlon! I calmly and slowly passed her so she wouldn’t feel threatened, and continued on.

In the final straightaway, my pacing bunny took off and was impossible to catch. I took one look back to make sure I’d dropped everyone behind me, realized that I’d beaten my rival, and put on my patented finishing sprint, taking out two more racers on the way, one of whom was in my AG.

It’s official: no matter what kind of race it is beforehand, I live for that final run. I felt incredible, physically and mentally. And I negative-split the du again.

By the time we were packing up to leave, the wind had picked up to gale-force, and while the only restriction on our bike course was the prohibition of disc wheels, the poor try-tri’ers, who had waited seemingly forever for their race to start, huddling under any tent they could, were to shortly discover that they would be neither swimming nor biking. What a mega-bummer! But ML and I were beyond much care, soaked to the bone and shaking, and we took off for sunny Toronto.

At this point, I'm 4th in the series, and if we get full Oly-level points for this effort, I'm all but assured 3rd by the end of next week's race, with a decent chance at 2nd. If we only get sprint points, it will be incredibly tough to make the series awards, but either way, I will be making the most of the Lakeside Sprint.

Run 1 - 26:29 / 5:18
T1 - 1:02
Bike - 57:44 / 29.1
T2 - 0:58
Run 2 - 24:53 / 4:59

	R	T1	B	T2	R	F
Place in Discipline	9	1	7	2	4	4
Place in Real Time	9	6	6	6	4	4

--Distance: 38km
--Duration: 1:51:03