Calgary's MacKenzie Lake Triathlon - pre-race report
Captain Error
I'd try another one of my own. It might be a bit disjointed and rambling,
please have patience. (Caution - loose prose, fragmented thoughts, dangling
participles. Hard hat area.)
I did my second triathlon on Sunday, July 23. It was an Olympic distance
race, slightly shorter than my first. My goals were a bit different here
as well, considering that I'd already finished one. The new approach was
to find a reasonable time goal and try to achieve it. Just what's
reasonable is always difficult to decide.
I've been maintaining a fairly consistent training regimen - run 3x a
week: 13 km, 11 km and a faster 6 km, bike 2x: one about 65 km and one
about 25 km, swim 3x a week: 1250 m twice and 2000 m once. I put the
shorter bike and run together for a brick on Wednesday mornings. This is
a Good Idea. My long run and both bikes have fun hills* along their
respective routes. Swimming was a big problem during my first triathlon -
partly navigational difficulties - so I've been trying to improve on that
over the past year. I'm a much better pool swimmer now than I was then,
but I hadn't tried open water since, as there's just not a whole lot of
spots close by to do something so silly. I really enjoy the racing, but
the main reason I do triathlons (I can use the plural now) is so that I
have a focus for my training.
I'd like to do more training - mostly so that I can go longer distances,
but I'm trying to write a thesis now and it seems to suck up most of my
time. This too shall pass, but I suspect that it'll feel a lot like a
kidney stone when it does.
I've never been much of a swimmer. I started swimming regularly last spring
in order to prepare for the triathlon and didn't much like it. Now it's my
favourite part of training. That's at least partly because the lovely and
talented Pam (tlatp - Hi Scott**) digs the swim thing too, so we get a
chance to work out together at least three times a week. She cares not for
long training rides or running, but that's just fine. She's a magnificent
coach/enthusiast/support crew/fabulous babe.
Cycling is something to which I think I'm physically suited (big thighs, big
butt - hey just check out my home page), but I've never really done much
in a serious way. I find it harder to free up time for this than any other
aspect of the training. It takes a couple of hours to do a "long" bike, and
when I have that much free time, it's usually hard to find a reason not to
spend it with tlatp. I should have done a couple of sprint tris earlier in
the year, but I just hadn't put in the time on the bike at that point.
Foolish, no?
Running. I am at least mediocre at running. That's what I did before I tried
triathlon. Still do it, actually. I'm a solid mid-pack 10 k runner; my pace
runs at just under 7:00 miles in a typical running only race. Thing is, the
run happens last in triathlon and I'm bagged when I start. Of course, so is
everyone else (relatively speaking).
My original tri plans this summer were focussed on the same triathlon I did
last year. My sister wanted to do it with me, and I thought that would be
really very grand. Then I found out I might be out of town working that
weekend and so had to revise my plans. AGT (the Alberta telephone oligopoly)
runs a series of races culminating in the Lake MacKenzie triathlon, and as I
had already spent a day as a volunteer marshall for one of their earlier
sprint tris I knew that their organisation was fairly good. The timing was
right, too. If I could still make it to the other triathlon, I'd have 2 weeks
to recover, train and maybe retool.
I took my high long distance paces as a guide and decided I could probably
go ~29/1:18/45 minutes for each leg plus some transition time. But those were
all individual event paces, so I thought 2:45 was reasonable.
So I got the forms and put together a harder than usual day the week prior
to the race. On the Tuesday preceding the race I realised that I'd probably
need a wetsuit (duh) and promptly called the university outdoor equipment
centre, they'd not let me down before. Of course they had already booked
_all_ of their triathlon wetsuits. Bummer. So I call Sports Rent, the only
other place in Calgary that rents trisuits. Sure enough, they had some left,
but I had to come down forthwith. I did, tried the suit on and paid my money.
They told me I could pick it up Friday night. Whew! I felt quite fortunate to
not have to brave the water bare skinned (not to mention that I can use
whatever buoyancy I can get).
Of course, when I returned on Friday to pick the suit up, we just had to go
through the formalities of giving them a credit card deposit and away we go.
When I got back to the car I realised that there was a tear at the seam of
the suit and, not wanting to be charged for it, I returned to the store to
let them know. It was then that I discovered they had given me an XL suit.
I had tried on a medium, which was a little too tight, and a large which was
a smidgen too big for me. XL was not going to do at all. When I pointed out
the discrepancy to the troll behind the counter, he fixed me with a
quizzical look and said, "But that's the only one we have left" and went
back to his mouth breathing and drooling. I pointed out to him that I had
booked and _paid for_ a large suit, and that is what I wanted. He seemed
puzzled by the whole concept and suggested that I try on the remaining
unrented suit, a ladies size 16. It didn't fit. It was at this point that
he suggested I take the medium that had not yet been picked up (it had been
booked for the next day). I refused - why should somebody else get screwed
over for their incompetence? I was not a happy guy.
There is a lesson in there somewhere although I'm not quite clear on what
its details are. Once again, the store's name is Sports Rent***. They are no
longer on my Christmas card list.
Now I had to face the prospect of swimming nearly naked.
I started off sleeping really well on Saturday night. When my intensive
hydration scheme kicked in at 5:00 am Sunday morning, I should have just
stayed up after draining some fluids, but I went back to bed to lay there
daydreaming and dozing. I believe I swam the 1500 m four or five times
during that last hour and a half. That's a new personal best, by the way.
Then we got up and had some oatmeal and took off for Calgary's deep south.
The race start was scheduled for 10:00 am so I wanted to be there by 8:00
in order to get the bike racked, get registered and get a nearby parking
spot. The sky was overcast, but They (the ethereal They, that They) had
forecast a pleasant day, with no rain and a high of 24 degrees C (75 F). I
made the mistake of accepting that as likely.
I was among the first 30 or so participants to arrive. I had my pick of
bike locations and so chose one immediately adjacent to the grass (nice cushy
place to sit while drying off and donning socks) and close to the exit.
I laid out my towel, vaseline, singlet, helmet, gloves, etc. "Great,"
thought I, "there's one more thing done." After zeroing the tripmeter, I
went and registered and got marked (#34, that marking stuff is way cool) and
picked up my race kit. By now the weather was starting to look a bit
menacing, but my nervousness was actually starting to decline. I only had
about an hour and a half to wait.
The registration line kept getting longer and longer. At 9:30, they told us
that the start had to be pushed back to 10:30 to accomodate the people still
in line. It takes a bit longer to register 350 people than was expected. The
sky got darker.
Through all of this, tlatp was doing her best to keep a stiff upper lip, but
she was pretty chilly. We sat in the car for a bit to warm up, but then I had
to do _something_ to take the edge off. I went for a brief, slow run to warm
up a bit. It was getting closer to 10:30, and the sky was getting darker.
The course setup for this tri is a two-lap criterium swim course in Lake
MacKenzie, an out east and back west flat and fast ride on Highway 22X, and a
three-lap criterium run course through the Lake MacKenzie subdivision. I'm
not sure if these things exist elsewhere, but in Calgary we have a number
(about 7) of communities built around man-made lakes. Well, ponds really.
Lake MacKenzie is one of these. The developer is a sponsor for this triathlon
series and so there are triathlons held in two other of their developments as
well as Lake MacKenzie (way to go Carma, and thanks). The "lakes" are small
enough that a 1500 m swim requires the two laps. It's not easy getting out of
the water and then getting back in halfway through the swim, but that's
what's required. (In fairness, a 1500 m loop is probably possible in Lake
MacKenzie, but it would mean that the swimmers would be out of sight of the
spectators for at least 500 m.)
10:15 - time to get to the swim start. Butterflies had laid claim to my
stomach and were trying to take over my esophagus. I held them at bay best
that I could. The rain had started falling lightly.
There were the usual conversations on the beach - and some unusual (to me)
ones.
"Which buoy do we swim to first?"
"We have to get out of the water between laps?"
"I just want to get the swim over without drowning - then I'll
be fine."
"Whoa, brave man."
"Yeah, maybe, but going wetsuitless wasn't my idea."
"Good luck."
I had decided to forego the swim warmup because I wasn't keen to stand
around wet. It worked out okay.
When the countdown started I was near the back in the middle of the
starting crowd. The sky was getting a little darker now and the rain was
falling with a bit more vigour. But then, I was about to get _real_ wet soon
anyway.
Darryl.
Race report coming up ...
--
Darryl Parry | "As Canadian as possible, under the circumstances."
pa...@geo.ucalgary.ca | - E. Heather Scott
http://www-crewes.geo.ucalgary.ca/~parry/caperr.html