Carbonear Sprint, The Race  

THE PLAN

I had some race goals in mind including passing some of the guys that I was close to at the Paradise Sprint. My plan was to swim hard and come out of the water with enough of a lead that I wouldn’t get caught on the bike until late enough that I could catch them on the run. That meant hard swim, hard bike, and hang on in the run.

That's me on the far right.



SWIM

The race is a point to point race, The swim is also point to point, so after you drive to the T2 site, and get the bike ready, you put on your wetsuit, and walk down the road 500m to the start of the swim.

The water was calm, and reasonably warm. A lot of people swam with no wetsuit. I swam hard, and fooled up my watch so I wasn’t sure of the split, but I think it was in the low 9 minutes. Out of the water, I climbed up the steep bank, and changed into my bike gear



BIKE

The route is mostly flat except for a long uphill grade at about 3k, and THE RIDGE at about 10k, just before the turn into Freshwater. I gauge my bike ride on how many people pass me, and on this day, I managed to ride past 2 people near the start, and another guy climbing the RIDGE before the turnoff into Freshwater.

I was passed by only 3 riders which is a big bonus for me. Again not sure the split, but it was pretty fast. Into T2, and a pretty quick change into my Newtons. Had to get it in there.

RUN

Once I headed out on the run, It started to rain hard, which was good for staying cool. I started out within range to catch a couple of the guys in my age group, and I thought I was running well, but I just couldn’t make ground on them.

My turnover was fast, and although I was in pain, I think I kept pace. I just couldn’t make up ground on the two or three guys in my agegroup that I was focusing on.


FINAL ANALYSIS 1:09:48

Solid race, good swim good ride decent run, but still behind the guys that I wanted to place in front of. Overall, our agegroup was probably the toughest in the race, partly because because of the divisions, having the agegroups divided into 10 year increments, first and third overall as well as fifth or sixth came from our group.

I am still awaiting the posted results to get my placing and see what I have to make up before the last race of the year in 2 and a half weeks. I have some hard work ahead in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully a good taper and good conditions will get me a good result next race day.