World Triathlon Championships, 2008, Part 2, Race Report

I woke up before the phone rang for the wake up call and lay there, drinking my 700 calorie breakfast bottle. Around 430am I started getting dressed and then the GI started rumbling. It has happened absolutely every race day since I started this crazy triathlon thing. It hasnt affected my race start (knock on wood) before and I just deal with it the best way I know how which I wont get into for obvious reasons. We got in a cab at 515am and we were at the TZ 10 minutes later.

I unpacked all my gear, laid it out, covered my shoes with a plastic bag and checked my tires. There was enough there to get me around but I wanted more. Zipp's are finicky, at least mine are. I have to take off the valve extender, poke the nipple so it is freed up, then try and pump some more into it. I tried for five minutes to get the extender back on, then I started getting nervous because we still had to walk back to the start, about 1km away. I ran and got the mechanic and he tried but had no luck either. He checked my tires and he said that I probably had the proper amount for this particular course due to the road conditions. Thank you for local knowledge. Turned out, he was right, I was just fine. I grabbed my wetsuit, made one more sweep of my area, and left with my "handler" for the start line.

There was a tent there to change in and I skin lubed and got into my wetsuit. We all had to go and get our chip checked out so we got in line and made our way through the sensor. Except the French guy in my category, he didnt wait in line, just walked up to the front...... OK, I wont go into that.

Myself and a few brave souls wandered into the water. It was 12 degrees celsius. Damn cold, around 53F. The air temp was the same. I swam about 20 strokes, turned around, went back to shore all while hyperventilating. I stood there letting the water get into my suit. Then the starter called us over to get lined up. They shortened the swim to 1100m which at first I was mad about as I feel I am a good swimmer and the cold water doesnt bother me but after the gun went off and we got farther out where the water was even colder, I was fine with it. I think I did the swim in about 19 minutes but since the results arent out yet, I dont know. As most of you know, the swim portion was canceled due to rough seas after our group and most of the women's waves had gone. From my viewpoint, the waves were starting to pick up with about 200m to go but it really wasnt noticeable to me.

T1 was a bit of a bear. My sister wasnt able to get back into the TZ in time to help me but one of the ITU guys was there and he stripped my wetsuit off. My fingers and toes were numb as was most of my face. I couldnt smile, frown, or much of anything. I pulled on my new aero Giro helmet (thanks Jen), my Oakley's, and my shoes, stood up, looked around, and decided my other glasses were a better choice due to the lens colour.

Then, get this, about a 400m run in bike shoes, to the bike mount line. This sucked. Not so much for me, but for the amputees. They had to run in their bike leg, way too far in my opinion (as well as many others that watched this). Well, I got on, got clipped in, (which wasnt easy due to the grass and mud that got in my cleats on the 3 minute run, from the bike rack) and quickly got up to speed. Im not looking forward to seeing my T1 time (or T2 for that matter).

Lap 1 seemed slow according to my computer but then I remembered that it started as soon as I unracked my bike and started running for the exit. I averaged 17mph or so according to the computer but I know it was a bit faster. The wind was picking up a bit on the ride and my Zipp 808's were reminding me of that. Thankfully Im as big as I am otherwise Im thinking I would have been thrown all over the road. The hill wasnt as bad as I thought it might be and I averaged 9mph on the climb. On the descent, I was able to get up to 35mph and maintained 24-25 up to the turn for the next lap. I got into a groove and tried to maintain the same output on each lap. I said hi to all the volunteers on the hill on each lap, made people laugh, had a lot of fun. My hip was starting to hurt but not too bad (maybe that last treatment did make a difference afterall) on each successive climb. On the 4th and final lap, the climb got a little tougher but I gutted out a good cadence and maintained the same speed as the last three laps. I said my last farewell to the volunteers and just as I was about to head downhill, some of the 20-24AG females came by. I flew by two of them and slowly went by a third, a chick from Holland judging from her uniform colours. I think I descend very well and I was leaning hard into the turns. After the steep part, there is still a 2% downhill to the turn/end of the bike course and this girl passed me. We were maintaining the same speed and as I was trying to not draft her, I drifted to the right (the way to the finish) and she turned around and started yelling at me for trying to pass her on the right. I held my tongue, smiled and said bye bye, Im done but I dont think she heard me. I had some other things for her if I saw her on the run but I didnt so, I didnt, get it??

Anyway, the dismount area wasnt clear, and as I was flying up to it, volunteers are yelling to stop, etc. I managed to get one shoe off before I realized I had to stop and then I just clipped out of my other shoe. My feet were FROZEN and after I took the other shoe off and started trying to run, my weak leg was dragging on the sidewalk and it was messing up my toes so I hopped onto the grassy area next to the side walk for the 3-400m run to my running gear. I didnt trip but I sure didnt have an easy time of it. I stumbled many times before I got there and had to run through a very muddy area. In the interest of not having mud in my socks, I took my time in T2 and got most of the crap off me before trying to put shoes on my icicles. I had unsnapped my helmet but was told I had to do it up before I could go to my things, 20 feet away. I had to stop to do that. The ITU was very nice and gave all the AWAD's chairs for their TZ so I didnt have to sit on the grass to get my gear on. I havent yet mastered running without socks so my T2's are always longer. I have to wear a sock with my ankle brace anyway so I just use the pair.

After getting my shoes on, I was running out of the TZ, hoping my feet would thaw out soon. I seriously could not feel my toes at all. Granted, I cant feel my right foot anyway, but I knew it was very cold because I couldnt move my toes. There were three out/back sections and we had to do each one three times. I wasnt 200m into the run when my quad and inner thigh started to cramp. I stopped at the first feed station, leaned on one of the volunteers and stretched. I didnt cramp the rest of the day.

By the first out/back section, the feeling was starting to return and I was able to maintain a steady, but slow, rhythm. It was awesome and very motivating to hear people cheering, calling your name, your country's name. "Go Canada" was probably the only thing that kept me from walking at times. Everyone was cheering for everyone. I heard many different accents yelling "go 138, go Canada, you're doing great".

I saw my sister on each lap of the bike and the run encouraging me and on the second lap, I heard my mom yelling and that sent me into a faster pace..... for about 200m. I was so happy that she made it. She wasnt sure she could come but it made me extremely happy that she and my sister were there to share this experience with me.

I passed a group of Kiwi supporters and asked if they had a second wind I could borrow to which they all cheered, called my number and more than enough encouragement to get me through another lap. Im a bit of a ham so every time I went past a big group, regardless of the country they were from, I threw up my hands and got them to cheer me on, it was fun.... I sound like a five year old right now, but oh well, Im immature, deal with it.

I saw Lindsay on my second lap and she looked like she was doing great. I also saw some of my competitors and one of them was walking, only about 200m ahead of me, but I couldnt catch him. I high fived most of my fellow AWADs (the wheelie guys didnt really have time to high five nor did the arm amputees, hmmmm) and was enjoying the experience. I knew I wasnt going to medal and regardless if I did, I still have fun when I race.

The last lap was hell. I was dragging my foot, shuffling, more than I had in the past lap but when I ran down the final stretch to the finish, I probably went from 11 min/mile to 8 min/mile because of all the cheering fans and my family, waiting at the finish line.

I think I was overwhelmed by all of it and when I got past the line and was with the finish line volunteers, I started wheezing. I couldnt catch my breath and it scared the hell out of me so I told Mom and Michelle I would meet them out front in a while. I sat in the medical tent for about 5 minutes while they checked me over and by this time, my breathing was back to normal. I had never experienced this before but I dont think I have put out this much effort at an event before (or at least for a long time). I had to laugh though. The nurse that was checking me over, asked me what country I was from..... I had on my team Canada kit, its red with white and says CAN on the front..... Perhaps it was a question to see if I was aware, but it still made me laugh. I left the med tent and went to the "athlete lounge". They had hard, green bananas, PowerBar products, cookies, salty snacks, and liquids which I took one of everything. I quickly threw out the banana because I couldnt open it, too green. I found Mom and sis and we wandered down to the TZ to pick up my gear.

All in all, it was a great day. I thank my sister, Michelle, and my mom, Val, for being there, my wife, Stacey, and our two wonderful boys, Kelton and Taguen, for their support in my training schedule, my coach, Scott, who helped me get here, the Challenged Athletes Foundation from whom I received a generous grant for this event, and of course the rest of my family, friends, and Ironhead team mates for their support and encouragement. Oh, I cant forget Meyrick Jones, a fellow Team Canada AWAD, because without him, I wouldnt have known I could fulfill my dream of being on the National Team (Team Canada hockey was my original dream but triathlon is just as good), let alone compete at a World Championship.