To: Carleton Coaches (11 addresses)
Bcc: Those Registered for Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall 2004 plus "Alumni": High Intensity (14 members), 6:30am Earlybirds (46 Members), 7:30am Earlybirds (49 addresses), 8:30am Earlybirds (19 addresses), 6pm Whitecaps (100 addresses), Nightcaps (34 addresses), Masters "Alumni" (35 members).
So, I raced for the first time this season over the weekend in Wasaga Beach
(about an hour or so north of Toronto on Georgian Bay). It was part of the
MultiSport race series. Normally, by this time of the season, I am winding down
my training and racing, but after taking up Andrew Jones's challenge to do an
Ironman, I am gearing up for Florida in 2 months.
I had avoided racing
through the summer, more from a cost perspective than anything else (Ironman
racing in another country is expensive), but decided I needed some races under
my belt this season before Florida. Wasaga Beach sounded like a nice option. I
wouldn't know anybody, I could just practice a few minor things and be off.
The race (registering on race day) cost 76 dollars. There didn't seem to
be too much different from most races as I wandered around pre-race. The start
time was announced as being delayed by 10 minutes, but I didn't think too much
of it. I then realized I hadn't brought any goggles with me (this, after
realizing on the drive down that I'd already forgotten my wetsuit), fortunately
there were some retailers on site that I could make a purchase from. I picked up
a timing chip, despite no one telling me to do so. The only reason I thought to
do so was because I walked down to the beach to get a look at the swim course
and walked across a mat. That's when I realized there must be timing chips. When
I picked my chip up, I asked the 14 year old girl manning the area by herself if
she knew which way the chip had to go (the only chips I have used in the past
have been from Championchip and they have a long-end-down/short-end-up thing
going on). She looked at me like I had two heads and wandered away. I asked
someone else in the registration tent and he said he'd used this circular chip
before and had never concerned himself with up or down and everything seemed to
be fine. I said alright and went on about my prep.
I then ran in to
Heather McBurney who was there participating in the relay. She hung out with me
by my transition spot as I got ready. I hadn't paid too much attention to the
activity going on around me, but soon a guy wandered by and asked me which age
group I was racing in (30-34) and he told me that my group was about to start.
That I had about a minute to get to the start line. There had been no
announcement out of the PA system prior, in fact, the music was so loud, I could
hardly tell that a person was talking most of the time. I ran down to the beach
to find the start was actually about a hundred metres out into the water, being
that the water was quite shallow. I reached the group just in time to hear the
announcer begin the 10 second countdown (Thanks to the guy in transition that
got me out there). Now, forgetting my wetsuit was not too big a deal, I had swam
all summer without it at Meech and was still pulling in one hour times. I
figured I'd lose a minute! or so to the leaders, maybe two. Trouble was, I wore
my shirt into the water, not thinking about the pockets in the back which acted
nicely as drag over the course of the swim. I thought I'd had a fairly relaxed
swim, and saw most of my fellow age groupers were behind me, so I figured it
didn't make too much of a difference (as well, just a couple of weeks earlier I
had done a relaxed 21 minute 1500 time trial at Carleton Masters), I figured I
had swam about a 22 or 23 (somehow, it ended up as a 27, I haven't swam that
slow since high school). Now, the trouble with starting the race a hundred
metres out is that you have to run a hundred metres through the water to get
back to the beach. You want to talk about tiring.
Alright, this has gone
on long enough, and I've displayed most of my idiocy for all to see. Suffice to
say, I had a flat on the bike with a little less than a km to go and had to run
my bike in (first time flatting in a race). The run was uneventful, but hot,
along the boardwalk. Now, to the point of this message. I've taken part in a lot
of Somersault events, 5 years straight of the KTown tri, a Subaru event, the OAC
triathlon, etc, etc. This was my first MultiSport event. It will probably be my
last. They bite off way more than they can chew. A triathlon takes an army of
volunteers to run properly, and they didn't have half of what they needed. I saw
them recruit spectators to help direct cyclists to the bike course out of
transition, mid-race! As far as I could tell, they had one guy on a jet ski in
the water for the swim. The course buoys were merely suggestions to most racers,
as they'd cut them to the inside. People rode their bikes in the transition
area. ! A run course official let a racer run by her, veer off-course, until
another racer behind him yelled at the guy that he was off-course. I finished
70th overall, or something like that, out of almost 300 racers doing the Olympic
distance. They also had an international Du, an Olympic relay, a sprint, and
maybe a tri a tri. I finished, and less than 5 minutes later headed for the food
tent (which, previously was the registration tent) for some post race chow. When
I got there, all the cold drinks were gone, they were out of watermelon,
although they said 5 more were on their way - half an hour later they still
hadn't shown up (not to mention, 5 more for probably 3 or 400 racers still out
on the course?). What they had available were halves of chocolate chip bagels
and some cut up bananas. Boy, did I ever lament the OAC triathlon and their Lone
Star Catering at that point.
All I am getting at is that we in the Ottawa
area are far more fortunate than we know to have the excellent races we have.
The level of professionalism and event planning far exceeds what I saw this
weekend for the Toronto triathlon market. Yes, the triathlon community has
exploded in the last 5 years, but so has the race availability. You could race
every weekend of the summer with very little travel if you wanted to. If race
directors want this to continue and want their races to be events that people
put on their calendars, they have to satisfy the needs of the majority of
racers. Not always an easy thing to do, but I think certainly
achievable.
In conclusion, thanks to the local race coordinators for your
efforts and keep up the good work, you've achieved a level beyond those of many
others. Here's hoping it continues to improve.
Corry
For those who want to take semi-private lessons (2-3 students), the cost per student for Carleton Members is $22.05 for 1 hour, $40.95 for 2, $56.70 for 3, $70.56 for 4, and $83.16 for 5 hours, all plus GST. Semi-private lessons for non-Members cost (per person) $31.50 for 1 hour, $53.55 for 2, $72.45 for 3, $89.46 for 4, and $102.06 for 5 hours, all plus GST.
Contact Lynn for availability and bookings.
RemindersInterested in Copies of the Workouts?: Are you interested in getting copies of Lynn's workouts ahead of time? Let me know. I usually e-mail out the week’s workouts on Sunday.
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Your input to this newsletter is most welcome, especially for the Swimmer Notes, Race Results and Ask the Coach sections! To be added to or removed from the receiver list, just let me know (lynnmarshall@sympatico.ca).
Happy lengths!