The Toronto Triathlon Festival (TTF) (http://www.torontotriathlonfestival.com/) was held earlier than usual this year, due to scheduling conflicts with the Pan Am games being held in the city this July. The organizers and participants were all a little concerned that the water temperature might not meet the mandatory minimum 13C for the swim so early in the season, as the week before the water temp measured a chilly 9C, but a week of warmer than average weather ensured the water temp reached 14.4C for our race held on the first day of summer, much to everybody’s relief.
I was particularly relieved as if the water temp had not warmed up to 13C, we would’ve been forced to modify the course into a modified duathlon (run – bike – run) which I had not been training for. The aspect of triathlon that I like is that the swim enables you to engage your shoulder and back muscles for an entire third of the race, taking some of the pressure off the legs so that they are fresher for the bike and run. In a duathlon you exhaust your legs running before heading onto the bike and then running again, which is a form of torture in my opinion!
Overall the weather was perfect for racing that Sunday. Just enough clouds to protect you from the sun, the starting air temp was 17C and reached 22C by finish line crossing at 10am. The forecasted thunderstorms from tropical depression Bill stayed to the south of the Lake. Ideal racing conditions.
Unlike the time trial start in Welland last weekend, TTF had a mass swim start per each age group wave. So for this swim all 21 ladies in my age group started at the same time off the dock down at Ontario Place. It was a cold and crowded swim, and it took me about 400m to find a nice pace once the pack evened out and I found my rhythm in the cool water. I paced at 2:13/100m, and the 1.5km swim took me 33:01 to complete. This was an improvement from my last 1.5km open water swim by 1min, 50sec (when I did the Toronto Island Lake Swim in 34:51).
Despite my wetsuit, my feet were a little numb from the cold water and I felt I stumbled in transition a little bit getting my cycling cleats on but I was up and through transition in 3:15. Hopefully I’ll get that time down to 2 min when the water is warmer and I have better dexterity in T1!
I really enjoyed the cycling course. TTF is the only triathlon that the city closes the Gardiner (EB) and DVP (NB) for us to race on. I’m familiar with this course from doing the Ride for Heart the last 2 years, so I had confidence going onto the bike course and I didn’t hold back. I paced at 28.7km/hr and completed the 40km cycle in 1:23:36. I’m happy with that time – I managed to pace over 1km/hr faster than my last race in Welland (27.65km/hr), so I feel I’m making good progress early in the season.
I was nice and warm when I reached T2, so it only took me 1:50 to swap the cycling gear for running shoes, and I was off on the Martin Goodman Trail to run out the last 10km of the race. I don’t like trying new drinks on race day, and I was surprised to find that the aid stations didn’t have the Gatorade or HEED (High Energy Electrolyte Drink) sports drinks I was used to, but was featuring a new sponsor this season - Honeymaxx. I didn’t have much of a choice but to take it as I needed the fluid energy for the run, but I found it was rather nice and easy on my tummy. Every endurance athlete has a fear of GI issues on the run, and stick to tried and true products for that reason. I can add Honeymaxx to this list now too. It’s good to have options I suppose. I paced at 5:06/km and completed the run in 50:54. Not my fastest 10km run of the season, but this was the longest course I’ve done this season so I’m ok with that, for now.
Overall I finished the Olympic distance triathlon (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run) in 2:52:34.
Its worth noting that there was some very tough competition at the TTF this year, as the top 3 spots per age group would qualify for the ITU world championship race in 2016. I gave it my all and ended up 17th out of 21 very fast ladies. Not too shabby for the olympic distance category in a group of ladies fighting for a spot at worlds!
My next race will be in 3 weeks at MSC Belwood on July 11. Here’s hoping I can pace even faster on my bike at this race and finally break onto the podium at this event after my 4th place finish there last season.
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