Sunday, August 20th was the Northern Triathlon, held in Orillia, ON. This was the eighth stop on the Subaru series, and not coincidentally, my eighth race of the year.

After racing on own own for a while, my good friend Blair (who happens to be the only person who I REALLY want to beat) was also doing this race. We discussed heading up on Saturday, but due to our lack of foresight and unavailability of hotel rooms, we were stuck driving up on Sunday morning. Now, for those of you who don’t know Ontario geography, it is approximately 200km from my home in Kitchener to Orillia. 200km makes for a two hour drive!!! With the nice early 8am race start time, this meant a 4:30am departure and a 4am wakeup!!!

So, with all of four hours sleep under my belt, I hauled myself and my gear down to the car and got on the road. My friend Derek, who really must not have a life anymore, decided he also wanted to get up at 4am so he could come cheer us on!!

Arriving in Orillia at 6:45am, the weather was overcast and cool. I was very happy to have my wetsuit this fine morning!! However, I was also looking forward to a race where we didn’t have to worry about getting baked by the heat!!

My main goal for this race was to push myself on the run. In my recent sprint distance races, I have gotten off the bike and kept a relatively slow pace over the first few kilometres of the run, not wanting to crash and burn. So I wanted to really try to hammer out a fast run in this one!

SWIM: 750m – 15:24 (2:04/100m)
8/27 M25-29, 124/652 Overall

The water was pretty choppy, and judging from my rankings, I think the swim times were slow for everyone. I managed to get through relatively well, and took off on the bike a minute and a half behind Blair.

BIKE: 33 km – 59:17 (33.4 km/h)
8/27 M25-29, 124/652 Overall

The bike course started with a long, slow incline, and I struggled to get my bike shoes on and strapped up. I may need to work on that a little more to smooth things out, since I think I lost some time there. The bike course had a lot of turns, and it was pretty technical. However, I hammered it out as best I could, and to my surprise, I caught up with Blair around the 30km mark. I quickly learned why – his hand was bloody and knee scraped up from the wipeout he took, riding up a hill of all things!! We rode the last 3km together, and I knew I had a good shot at taking him on the run. Check us out coming into T2 – I’m laughing because Blair was trash-talking about me running like a “baby” with my bare feet!

RUN: 7 km – 27:42 (3:58/km)
7/27 M25-29, 60/652 Overall

I came out of T2 with Blair a step behind. Here’s another great shot – thanks Wolfgang!

I pushed the run right from the start, and quickly lost Blair. I hovered around 4:00/km the whole way through, and was passing quite a few people on the run. I pushed hard at the end, and cruised in just under 28 minutes – my first sub-4:00/km run split yet in a triathlon!

Total: 1:43:53, 7/27 M25-29, 83/652 Overall (Full Results )

It was nice to finally beat Blair!! Though this victory will have a little * beside it, since he wiped out on the bike. He was pretty bloodied up, and his leg was scraped and bruised. At least he was going up hill though, so it could have been worse. I finally had a fast run, and I’ll have to see how much more I can push it!!

I spent the first week of August up at a cottage in Haliburton with my parents and siblings. I would be an amazing triathlete if I spent more time up there!! We were in a great little bay, which was perfect for swimming, and the area was full of hills, which made for some great biking and running. I swam nearly every day, and was looking forward to a good swim split.

This would be the first race of 2006 where I would be able to compare myself to last year. I did my first sprint-distance tri at Belwood last year, and was hoping to knock at least five minutes off of last year’s time of 1:55:41 (see results here).

SWIM: 1 km – 18:39 (1:52/100m)
16/22 M25-29, 94/348 Overall

With all the swimming I had done up at the cottage, I felt smooth and comfortable in the water. I had worked on breathing every third stroke instead of every second one, and was more balanced and efficient in the water. It was great to be well under the 2:00/100m pace, and I came out of the swim feeling good!

BIKE: 33 km – 57:18 (34.6 km/h)
11/22 M25-29, 85/348 Overall

I had a pretty good bike ride last year, and I was actually hoping to be a little faster on the bike than I was. It was a little windy, and the course seemed a lot tougher than I remembered. I still rolled in with a 34.6km/h average, which was a new best for me!!

RUN: 7 km – 29:41 (4:15/km)
5/22 M25-29, 57/348 Overall

After my sub-28 minute run at Niagara, I was looking for another fast run here. However, the extra 9km on the bike combined with a hot, sunny day must have taken their toll, because I didn’t feel real strong for most of the run. I did manage to track down the 11th place finisher in my age group in the last 250m, and blew him away with a strong sprint to the line to finish in 10th place.

Total: 1:47:22, 10/22 M25-29, 66/348 Overall (Full Results )

Well, comparing things to last year, I’ve certainly improved in all areas of the triathlons. I was over 8 minutes faster this year!! Most of it came on the swim, but I also knocked a minute off in T1 (it’s amazing what taking the wetsuit off fast and putting your shoes on while you’re pedalling can do), and another two minutes off on the bike. My run was a little faster as well. All in all, a pretty good race – it was great to see how far I’ve come in a year! If I can take another 8 minutes off by next year, I may be able to climb into the top 30 or so!!