All last week I was hemming and hawing about whether to race. I had just returned from a hectic ‘holiday’ back East to watch my brother compete at his first Ironman in Lake Placid, New York. A huge success for him.
Then I was in New York for five crazed days - which is what I expected and it was superb. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Racing isn’t what I do for a living. It is what I do to keep motivated to train and it’s a good simple measure of how fit I am at any given moment.
My definition of fit is always evolving. There’s the ‘more fit than the average guy’ versus ‘race fit’ and then what I consider to be ‘Iron fit’. Each has its part in how I assess my health.
While running and swimming in the town of Lake Placid, I felt more fit than I have so far this summer. And I finally had some summer weather to train in.
As expected, when I arrived back in the Squish, I was wiped from burning both ends of the candle in New York and then a day of travel. I wasn’t wiped for one day or two but all week I felt zapped.
So was I going to race or not? I kept going back and forth. In the end, I decided to race. Why? Because I like to race. And I don’t need to set a personal best every time I race. I don’t need to be perfectly prepared every time.
I have been far more relaxed about racing this season than the previous two when I was so focused on Ironman Canada and the outcome. I’m still learning how to balance my training and target setting. That’s part of the appeal of sport. Every single race is going to be different and adapting is a skill that takes time to acquire.
This past Sunday I don’t think I could have been more relaxed. I had low expectations. I wasn’t, in my mind, anywhere near being race fit. In fact, I have barely been on my bike this calendar year.
I’d spun for about half an hour on my bike twice last week, once while chatting on the phone with my Dad. I wasn’t hammering, simply spinning my legs. Just making sure the bike worked.
I had no illusions about cycling like a guy named Cadel did in France. Still, I always think positively. I’m open to going faster than expected.
I decided to change tactics for this race. Instead of starting the swim as hard as I could for 400m or so, I started more comfortably and then accelerated on the second loop. I swam a very respectable 32 minutes for 1.9km - without hammering it.
On the bike, I felt decent going uphill and solid on the relative flats - I did find some speed - but downhills still cost me far too much time, and momentum. I lost one group of four after about 30km and then I was on my own.
Most guys rode at least 10 minutes slower here than at Vancouver. I rode 2.43 in Vancouver - and shy of 3.04 in Sooke.
Onto the run, I felt strong. A number of guys had spun past me in the last 10km of the ride and I flew past them either in transition or within the first 2km of the run.
One objective for this race was to run more consistently - it’s been a performance limiter for me forever and I’m finally starting at a better pace and holding it.
I knew there weren’t too many guys in front of me - the field was smaller than I expected given it was the provincial championships - but I had no idea where I stood in my age group.
When I hit the finish line, I was a bit shocked at the 5.19 clocking. (I wasn’t wearing a watch.) That’s the slowest half iron I’ve done in a long, long time.
Regardless of how challenging the course, I had expected to finish Sub Five. In hindsight that was optimistic. I did go 4.53 in Vancouver and simply adding 10 mins for the bike would have pushed through the five-hour mark alone.
After a few post race photos, it was a dash back to the hotel for a shower and then back to the finish line to check on the results.
Second in my age group. Yes! I expect to be competitive but as I said earlier, I haven't done the training this season to be as competitive as I know I can.
The outcome was a reverse of the two races last month - Vancouver half iron in early July and the Squamish tri a week later - where I had visualised standing on the podium. I suppose visualisation has its limits.
There are of course a thousand ways to analyse results. I was 22nd overall. I was 20th man overall.
In my age group, I had the fastest T1 and T2 (which included going to the wrong rack). Third fastest swim, third fastest bike and fastest run. Go figure.
It’s time now to prepare for the marathon in Victoria. I’m keen to race again - already.
There are so many truisms in life and one of which I was reminded this past weekend is never count yourself out. That said, I’m keeping my perspective on this race too. There’s ample room for improvement. That’s the key return from racing for me.
