2010 Shawnigan Lake Half Ironman Race Report

4:20:25 (New PR)
5/177 Overall - 2/11 M30-34

http://www.triseries.ca/shawnigan_lake/index.php
http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2010/multi/ShawniganHalf2010.html

Good Strong result. This was race 6 for the year and was the last "racing" hit out before the A Race for the year in Ironman Coeur d'Alene which is 4 weeks away. Even though still things to improve on felt like I actually got into the race for the first time ever in a triathlon rather than it being essentially an Individual time trial. This was a lot of fun and part of the racing experience that due to coming out of the swim behind the action I have not gotten much exposure to.

Was actually a little nervous coming into this race the day before which is unusual for me, but showed i had something invested in this. Camped about 15 minutes drive away a got a good 8 hours sleep the night so the nerves had gone away once had finished my pre race workouts.

Swim (1.9km) – 33:26
(1:46 per 100m) (35/177)

Swam well but swam badly. What this means is thought I swam strong with a good work rate but directionally was getting wrong more times than I got it right. Missed making a jump into a decent pack form the start and felt like I was passing people form that point forward. Add to that swimming like a drunk snake I figure I may have swum around 150 bonus metres. Some open water work to do ahead of IM CDA along with the knowledge that I find it easier to navigate in the big fields. Was hoping to swim around 31 minutes so a little disappointed with this, think the directional stuff is possible to work out so are taking the positive side out of this effort.

T1 – 2:30 (Estimate)

No Transition times this year so is an estimate. Longer transition than years past as well as the race grows in size. Got going pretty quick out the water, so so on the wetsuit removal but pretty slick overall. Ran up to the mount line and most probably made at least 5 spots in T1 and the run to the mount line.

Bike (88km) – 2:19:39 (New PR)
(37.8km/h) – 3/177

There is something fun about bombing around on a bike at high speed. Shawinigan is a 4 lap course full of rolling hills and a total of 2500 feet of climbing across the journey. Worked this pretty hard and attacked the hills. Normally i don’t catch up with my main competition until the run but was started coming upon people I knew pretty early on. Still pretty much rode the whole ride on my own although did have a little back and forth with Wade Carlson for the last 1.5 laps. On the last lap it was getting pretty slick so took some sections a little easier so took it a little easy and got ready to run which let Wade re overtake and open a little gap before T2. Figured I should be able to go between 2:16 and 2:20 so happy with this bike.

T2 2:00 (estimate)

Pretty slick, took a extra 10 seconds finding my rack as a wetsuit was covering my Newton's. Got them on quickly even though right foot was frozen (Like many of my brick runs in the cold this year) grabbed my nutrition and got out of there. Made up about 30 seconds and a pass on Wade through transition and hit the run course one second ahead.

Run (21.1km) – 1:22:50 (New PR)
(3.56 min/km) 5/177

This was painful but fun. Legs were pretty smashed form the bike and took a little while to come clear as well as get feeling back into my feet. Did not know where I was at until the first turnaround (6.5km), could tell that was a long way from 3rd but only just in front of 5th through 8th. At about 8km Colin McArthur came up on my shoulder and was running strong.

Made the decision to make this my race (Top 3 Guys were Pro’s) and went with him to try and fight for the AG and M30-34 Win. Ran side by side for about the next 8km, I knew based on how my legs were feeling was going to struggle on the loose gravel at about 16km (the whole run course is gravel but this section is particularly rough) so through in a few surges here and there when thought it was worth a shot to create a break. Colin was strong enough to hold on and then gapped me on the loose stuff. Ended up holding the gap of about 40 seconds from 17km to the finish but couldn’t find a way to close it back in. Once I knew was not going to catch him eased it back a little and took the slippery last 500m easier.

Happy with my run, I find I can not run as well on the gravel vs the road but happy with a time on the loose stuff only 8% slower than my current Open Half Marathon PR. Was hoping for something between 1:20 and 1:24 so this was in that range. Added bonus was that ran an even to negative split over the half marathon.

Other Thoughts

Being in the mix to some degree was fun. Gives even more incentive to get the swim up to standard so are in it from the start. Nutrition was a bit different in the cold but got done around 215 cal per hour on the bike and 150 cal per hour on the run which is fine for a Half IM.

Next up is Ironman Coeur d'Alene  on June 27th. More training to go but this has been the focus and are looking forward to laying down a strong performance and hopefully executing a really strong run

Thanks to Sponsors, Supporters, Friends

Firstly to my Sponsors for 2010;

• Speed Theory - Why support your LBS? Well had a good example over the last two weeks. Jeremy and the crew at Speed Theory helped out a lot following getting knocked of my road bike by a SUV about 10 days ago. This saved me a lot of stress in the days post getting hit. Even got a phone call post race from Doug passing on congratulations to the Speed Theory athletes who had raced. Bike also did its job taking me to the 3rd overall fastest bike split of the day
  

• Forerunners - Is a great group of people down there. I lead one of their run groups every Wed night and are going to be involved in their Fall Marathon clinic (Chief Waterboy!). A lot of racing knowledge in that store and have gained a lot of information just by chatting to the guys at the store.

• Newton Running - I do 99% of my running in Newton Performance Racers or Newton Performance Trainer and the product works well for me. I find my feet get a lot less beat up than they used and find them comfy pairs of kicks to race and train in.

Some other thanks to my support network;

• Clint my coach from Mercury Rising Triathlon. As well as running a camp that week, helping set up half the race site it seemed he was also out there cheering come race day. Learning a lot and having fun doing it as well.

• Dr Carla Cupido - Have been working with her as my Chiropractor for the last 16 months and has helped how I recover day in day out. Especially helpful over the last few days after having been hit at a key time of my race year.

To friends, training partners

• Thanks for everyone who wished me well and congrats to all who had good races on Sunday. Was quite a big Vancouver crew across on the island and was luckily enough to know quite a few of them. Had a good battle with Colin on the run and hopefully we can both hold a similar pace (without the surges) if we meet up on the run course in 4 weeks time. Rachel Kiers won the women’s race and Mike put in great effort on his road to IMC. We even had 12 people at the buffet dinner on the ferry back to Vancouver.

Last but not least

• Mum and Dad will catch up again on skype this week. Think the Tasmania winter is warmer than the Vancouver Summer at the moment
• To Leslie – see you in July!!! – Wait wrong answer, in the off chance that you read this thanks again for the support. Will try to be unpacked before I go to bed tonight :)