Ottawa Race Report

I had a great time doing the OAT sprint draft legal championships this past weekend! As I mentioned before, I haven't raced that distance since last year, so it was great to mix things up a bit and just go ALL OUT. I was very happy with the effort that I put forth in all 3 disciplines, but for some reason, the splits don't seem very fast. It could have been the conditions of the day, and perhaps slightly longer distances, and also the fact that the transition times were added onto the bike and run, but whatever the reason, I guess it's just relative anyway.

My goal was to minimize the amount of time between myself and a couple other competitors who I know are better swimmers than I am, just time trial the bike by myself if there was no one else around who was a stronger cyclist than myself or willing to work with me, and then try and run 4 min km's of the bike.

I was about 30s back from the lead pack of swimmers out of the water, which I was happy with. I'm definitely improving and bridging that gap between myself and my competitors. I was relieved that there were still packs behind me coming out of the water:) I biked according to my plan. I picked off a couple of girls who came out of the water ahead of me and they jumped on my back wheel as soon as they got the chance. I pulled the entire time on the bike, because no one was willing to work, but I also knew that I wasn't going to slow the pace and have someone else pull. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch the top competitors on the bike since they were working together nicely. I must say that I was very pleased with my run. I felt like I gave a hard effort the whole way, and stayed mentally tough throughout. My bruised leg was a bit achy, but I managed to come in just over 20 minutes (not including the transition time). I came third in the elite/U23 category, so I got to take home a nice placque and a nice little check too!

It was great to meet some of the other athletes in the OAT community, since I feel like a bit of an outsider having joined the sport so late compared to the other young up and coming elites. I did my first try-a -tri in 2007, while may others were already racing on the Jr or U23 Elite scene. When the awards were presented, all of the other athletes had their affiliations announced, ie they were with Barrie Shepley and C3, Kevin Mackinnon and the Hammerheads, or Craig Taylor and the Provincial Training Centre, but I was affiliation-less! It doesn't bother me, because I'm affiliated with the Darkhorse Flyers and Team Awesome:)!