WellanDQ

A couple of days late, but here's the report from the Welland Sprint Triathlon Sunday June 29.


Lessons learned, lessons learned. The day broke warm, but not too warm, wind-free and sunny. I rolled into the parking lot with plenty of time to get to transition and also go through the process of race morning registration. Lesson #1: if you can avoid race-day registration, do so. Not that it was overly terrible - in fact the young women in charge were very helpful. It's just one more thing on the list of things to organize that's not required on the day. Lesson #2: race wheels cannot be inflated with Schrader valve adapters. A big thanks to the dude (racer #143) who saved my bacon that morning. Just goes to show that even when anarchy, disorganization and chaos reign, there remain small islands of civilization, hope and good favour.


The Welland tri goes off in a time-trial format, in bib number order and at five-second intervals. Owing to the fact that I registered on race morning I was bib #429, which meant that factoring in five seconds for every starter beginning with #1 (really, where else would you start?) at 8:30 a.m. or thereabouts, I would be going off just before lunch. Okay, I'm slightly exaggerating, but you get the general idea. Lined up in wetsuits like sausages on a grill, waiting to start the race a great number of swimmers had already started and finished the swim before I managed to get in the water.


I had no expectations for this race. My training has been sporadic this spring and I really just wanted to work on some things in transition and so forth to work out the bugs before PBO this weekend. It was therefore with great surprise that I found I chopped nearly 3 minutes off my 750m time from last year - 13:30 this year vs. 16:24 last year. This makes no sense, so I went back and read my race report from last year. Aha - managed to not get my goggles kicked off this year - that'll certainly shorten the time in the water. Also I made a conscious effort to sight early, sight often and sight repeatedly, as I have often found myself well off-course, swimming on my own. Not this year. I laid down some pretty straight lines from buoy-to-buoy and it looks like it shows. Now I understand that 13:30 is not blazing fast, but I've never claimed to be fast in the water, and a 1:48/100m is more than respectable for me.

Rant point #1: there's just no need for a 400m or longer run from the water to transition. I do understand the attraction for a paved transition area (i.e. in a closed parking lot). I just don't understand why I have to run barefoot across gravel, cinders and then circle the parking lot before I'm allowed in. On to the bike...

...where I got the second surprise of the day. If you've been following along, you know of course there's a new ride in town for this season. It definitely showed in this year's bike split, and I'm sure the dorky teardrop helmet didn't hurt either. The only downer on the bike was that I managed to launch my water bottle, out there in the gloamin' somewhere. This comes into play later on...
Last year's bike split for 30km: 51.42 min (avg. 34.8 km/h)
This year's bike split for 30(?)km: 48:05 (avg. 37.4 km/h) KABOOM!

Last year this race was three weeks before Lake Placid, when I was fully trained to the teeth (in fact, sick and tired of training as I recall). This year, of course, not so much training. One can only wonder, "if I had just put in the kilometrage...."The "?" is only because my bike computer measured the course at 27.12 km. I'm not saying, I'm just saying...

The run: this is where it all started to unravel. How so? Follow along, young Jedi, and ye shall see...
Lesson #3: a morning with only a bagel and a coffee for breakfast is a sign of bad things to come. There are not enough matches in the matchbook. Lesson #4: wearing last year's race shoes, because they have the speed laces is a risk that might be better to avoid. Lesson #5: added to lesson #4, wearing old shoes with no socks, even for a short (and in this case, shorter than advertised) run is well, the technical term would be, stupid. I'm currently wearing the height of band-aid fashion - three different blisters and a pair of shoes so bloody as to be unworthy for even a future in lawn-mowing.

By now, you've probably assumed that the run did not go so well. Even with two short stops (for minor dizzy spells) I was on pace to be within shouting distance of last year's finish time. And then, I missed the last loop of the pretzel.

This year's run course circles the Welland canal on what was referred to as a "double out and back". This is not the same run course as last year. The course went out past the swim over the bridge, around the canal, crosses over another bridge and turns around to recircle once again before running "in" back down the "out" trail, across the bridge one more time and finishing in the arena. Confusing? Yep, even more so on the course, with no km markers after 2 km (none that I saw), and a grand total of one run course marshal issuing instructions out loud to duathletes, triathletes on the first lap and triathletes on the second lap.

To make a long story short, I missed the second loop of the run, so my 7.5 km run was more in the neighbourhood of 5 km. The one marshal was shouting instruction as I passed through what (in retrospect) must have been the turnaround, but I didn't hear him clearly - the aforementioned dizziness probably didn't help.

2007 run - 7.5 km (est. - my raised eyebrow wrt this claim is well-documented... 32:27 (4:20/km)
2008 run - 5.0 km (again, est.) - 29:59 (6:00/km).

Clearly, I over-hammered the bike and under-fueled for the day, in addition to missing the sparse run directions.

Race results show me finishing in 8th place overall (and 4th in the AG). Clearly, that's a load of hooey. If I had been able to find a race official afterward I would have voluntarily DQ'd myself (and we're not talking Dairy Queen). I spoke to several other people at the finish who had the same confusion with run course markings.

Overall, although the end result was not A-one there were good positive learning experiences to take from this course. The swim sighting clearly assisted in putting together a better swim. I've probably also found the upper limit beyond which hammering on the bike has a significantly detrimental effect on the run.

All good things to "get out of my system" before gran-daddy #1: Peterborough in four days!

Peace.