Coronation Triathlon 2007

Just like last year, I did the Coronation Triathlon at the end of May. I was a bit concerned leading up to it, in that I had been doing mostly bike training but little running and only a bit of swimming. Then in the week before, when I was trying to run with my new orthotics they gave me blisters on the very bottom of my feet (in the longitudinal arch) even after only a very short time of running. So, I had resolved to myself that my main goal was to get a better bike time (and my rationale in entering was that I wanted to ride the bike course on Groat Road with it closed to traffic) - and decided not to worry about the swim or run.

They improved lots of the organizational things this year compared to last year. I keep hoping that I'll get a later start time, but something always changes to prevent that - last year they had mountain bikes first so I thought I'd be later now that I have my road bike. But, they decided to go teams first then women then men, so I ended up starting about the same time anyway (scheduled for 8am, compared to around 7:30 am last year I think). The swim went pretty well, best time this year and only about 45 seconds off my overall best time for 1 km.

And the weather was nice - sunny, not too cold in the morning, but didn't get too hot through the race either. I cut about 10 minutes off last year's bike time (and went under 1 hour for the 25.3 km), so I achieved my main goal for the race :-).

Then there was the run. I was starting to have some back pain on the bike (just like when I was going up the Maligne Lake Road at cycling camp a few weeks before), so my legs felt really stiff when I started to run and my back was sore as well. My overall fitness has improved greatly and my bike fitness had obviously helped me for running, because I managed to do my first 8:1 interval okay. By the time I was at the bottom of the hill towards the turn-around point, I was actually feeling quite good on the run - except the blisters seemed to be recurring. Between the blisters on my feet and my back being sore, the run back uphill was mostly done in 1 and 2 minute intervals I'm sure - yet when I finished, I had an overall PB of 2:24 and an apparent PB for an 8 km run (though I later found out that the run course was shorter than it was supposed to be, which didn't surprise me - I had thought the turnaround point seemed to be closer than the year before).

So, overall I was happy with my race. Not so happy when the bandaid on one foot ripped off some skin from a blister when I took my socks off (the bandaid was stuck to the sock) and by 2 days later it was infected and I needed antibiotics :-( , but I was able to ride again by the following weekend. And, I managed my fluids much better - not dehydrated, but didn't have to stop to use the bathroom on the run course and probably didn't need to have my own water bottle with me either. Also, minimal abdominal cramps on the run - yay! I think I found out how much I can eat prior to a race without having problems.

More pics here...