Lakeside Duathlon

This race was held at lake Sunova which is a very small lake at Lakeside Resort which is north west of Woodstock Ontario.

I had to register again when I arrived at Lakeside this morning to my surprise I was not on the pre-registered list nor the master list. In the confusion I was put down for the Sprint Triathlon in error. I did not get in the lake however I did get my feet very wet.

We started the first leg on the road standing in the cold rain. I waited and shivered even though I did a warm up run. I put on a jacket then put a vest over the jack to keep warm while waiting for the start of the race. My wife toll me to suck it up and give her the jacket, which I handed over. I still had my vest but I had to pin my bib number to it as it was covering my number.

I looked over the competitors to see if I was in the spot that would be most advantageous to me based on my running abilities. No point in getting in the front of the pack and then get run over or being too far back and having to work my way through a pack of runners.

The race started at 8am and their was about 800 meters of paved road then it turned into a rolling gravely dirt road, it seemed more mucky than I expected. There were 3 aid stations, I did not stop at any as I planned to re-hydrate while on the bike. The 5km run took 24min @ 4:55pace, I was being conservative as I did not know what to expect on the course since I did not have a chance to check out the route, I knew I was dragging and would have to make up time on the bike.

Back in the transition I decided to loose my vest and realized that my bib number was pinned through it. having trouble I had to loose my gloves to get the safety pins out and re-positioned. I grabbed my bike shoes out of the plastic container and found elastics stuck in one of the shoes, off it came and dumped the elastics out on the ground. That means I forgot to setup my pedals for a quick launch at the bike mounting zone. I was finally off after 2:40min in transition.

I mounted the bike quickly and took off as fast as possible. I focused on taking every downhill as fast as possible to knock some time off wasted during my run and transition. I moved along very well feeling pleased at the pace as I felt I was make up some good time but not so fast as to cause injury of leg soreness as I still have one run to go. When I was within one kilometer of finishing the bike segment I backed off and took one last drink and stretched out my calf’s to release and tightness. Last race I had muscle cramps that messed up the last run. I went side saddle and stopped just at the dismount line and ran very well passing going into the transition area. I was felling good now.

I racked my bike and put my second pair of dry running shoes on and headed towards the transition, I felt something bouncing on my head. I quickly ran back to my bike to take my bike helmet off and tossed it on the ground next to my bike.

Still quick i headed out of the transition and headed down the 800mt of paved road to the muddy road that now looks like a heard of buffalo had passed through. I tried to avoid slipping and stayed to the shoulder where it was less mucky. I did find I had to move over to the middle of the road to avoid muddy pot holes. Most runners had a trail of mud going up their backs and legs. I tried not to worry about too much a I tried to identify some runners I may recognize. I yelled out to a fellow athlete go!

Thanks to Multisport for such an interesting first time with them.

The morning ended strange after the race during the awards ceremony, when it clicked in to find out how I did. Turns out I left just as my name was called out for the Sprint Tri. When I looked on the Duathlon board I could not find my name listed. Strange and confused I looked at the Sprint Tri list and found my name there. First thought was someone should have gotten 3rd not me. I went back to the podium to tell them the error and they said to talk to sports stats, the man there quickly sorted and said that’s what happens when you register at the last minute. I laughed inside. He asked me to walk with him back to the podium. I was hoping he would tell me how I did, but silence and scratching things on the announcers clip board, I just wanted to know how I did so I could get in the car to warm up. Then the announcer asked me to come forward and told me to get on the 3rd spot on the podium. I was in shock.

It was a really interesting.

I hope the next race with Multisport is just as fun.
If you only knew the blunders in transition, it’s good fun!

The Sprint Duathlon was a 5km Run – 20km Bike – 2.5km Run

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