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Monday, June 6, 2011

Milton Triathlon Race Report

Yesterday, I raced in my second triathlon of the season in Milton, and we had great weather for it! It was also the very first triathlon that my brother has ever seen in his life, and also the very first time that he has seen me race in one. He came after finishing his shift at 4am, and had to be back to work at 2:30pm for his next one (he's a paramedic), so it was so aweseome to have him there to cheer me on along with my parents!

The swim: This was the very first time that I have swam with a wetsuit this season, so I hadn't tried on my new Blue Seventy sleeveless Axis LJ yet. It felt GREAT when I put it on, except that my ankles were a little too big to fit comfortably in the suit at the very bottom, but there were no scissors around to cut off a few cm of material. I thought it might be slightly problematic in T1 when it came time to take it off, but there was nothing I could do at that point except to go warm up in it! The Axis felt awesome in the water, and after a quick warm up, my wave was lined up in the water to wait for the gun. I positioned myself directly behind Mike Greenberg, who I swim with at TMU, and who is a speed demon who once was part of the original rat pack that trained with Simon Whitfield before the Sydney Olympics. My goal was to try my best to hold on to his toes! The gun went off, and the thrashing ensued with all the Elite men taking off like lightning and me doing my best to stay in the thick of it. In the midst of all that white water, I was pretty sure that I lost Mike's toes, but I knew that I was duking it out with Jenn Amaral and Domi Jamnicky, 2 other fellow Elite competitors. That was a great sign, since they are both amazing swimmers, so I just tried to stick with them for the whole swim. All three of us came out of the water within 10 seconds of each other (and with the Pro male who ended up coming in 2nd)! I was really happy with that swim, though I know that I could improve on my sighting more. It certainly boosts my confidence going into my next ITU race in 3 weeks.

Starting the battle with the wetsuit.

T1: Oh boy, T1 gave me some trouble in Florida, and it gave me some trouble yesterday. I certainly lost time here to my competitors in my lengthy struggle to pull my wetsuit over my ankles. Not to worry though, there is nothing a pair of scissors won't cure...

Onto the bike: I got to race with my new (used) Cervelo P3C yesterday, and thanks to my friend AJ, I got to make it even fancier with a Zipp 404/808 combination. There were no excuses to go slow, so hopefully I did both AJ, and Andre (my Cervelo's previous owner) proud yesterday by posting the fastest female bike split of the day, woohoo! It was quite a challenging course with the 6th line hill thrown at you just 3km into the ride. I felt comfortable on the tri bike, and just put my head down and went hard. I was finally able to catch Dorelle on the bike around 15km, but it took a while, since her swim is so ridiculously fast! She comes out of the water with the fastest Elite men! Anyway, it was an awesome feeling to be leading the race and to head into T2 in first place!
Sweeeet! Greeted with an empty T2 rack.

The Run: As soon as you head out of T2, you run straight uphill into some trails that are very reminiscent of a cross country race. I had forgotten just how hilly and challenging this run course was, and I felt like I was just shuffling up those hills. As much as I wanted to run 4 minute pace or better, my legs weren't so happy with the uneven ground and the hills. I got to run behind the lead bike until about half way into the run, when Dorelle passed me back. Four out of my 7.5 kilometres of running were 3:51, 3:55, 4:02, and 4:02, but the other 3.5 must have been between 4:40-5:00kms on the hills! I really tried to make the gap up that Dorelle had on me in the last 2km, but I wasn't able to do it, and crossed the line in 2nd place. I was certainly very happy with the 2nd place result, but I later learned that my slow Transitions, both T1 and T2 combined, had possibly cost me the race. I have got to work on my transition skills over the next 3 weeks, because they are critical in ITU racing!
Running to the finish

All around, I had a great time in Milton, and was very happy to catch up with friends and other fellow triathletes who I haven't seen since last season. Congratulations to all who raced and a big thank you to all those who cheered me on!

Awards with Sean Bechtel & Dorelle Hinton.
                               

1 comment:

  1. Wow! Leanna ... congratulations ... 2nd, that's terrific. And isn't it satisfying to know that the hard training has paid off and all 3 of your disciplines are top notch ... you just need to work on transition. You're one of the "big dogs" now. Terrific!

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