When I got out of bed Saturday morning at 5:00pm it was raining. I was not due to start my race until about 9:20 so was not too worried. Transition was closing at 7:30 so I wanted to get to Leduc in plenty of time to set everything up and watch the Olympic participants start. My blood sugars were 6.2 which I was very happy about. This is the first race where they have been in range first thing in the morning. I ate my breakfast and only bolused for 3/4 of the meal. I packed up my stuff, put the bike in the car and slithered into my brand new tri-suit. By 6:00pm I was on the road and off to the races.
When I got to the race site it was drizzling but not too badly. I set up my transition area and made sure I covered everything with a towel in case it rained. In hindsight I should have covered it in plastic. I made my way inside to the pool area and waited, and waited. They were running an hour behind. Luckily my blood sugars were behaving nicely and at 9:30 I set my basal rate back by 50% for 2 hours. Here is how it all went down.
The Swim - 750m - 15:21
I felt pretty good during the swim and my breathing was in sync. The only issue I did encounter was that the two other people in my lane had clearly not calculated their times correctly. I ended up lapping each of them twice and had to slow down a lot in order to pass them at the end of the lanes. This is the frustrating part of doing these races in the pool. All in all I did enjoy the swim and felt excited getting out of the pool. I know I can swim this distance faster and for my next race I am going to seed myself in a faster wave.
Transition 1 - 2:23
Once I got out of the pool, I had to run out the back doors, up a slight hill, down the hill and then over the parking lot (which had some gravel) to my bike. It was just over 350m running barefoot. Interesting to say the least. Oh, and it was pouring rain. I managed a quick blood sugar check, was at 7.2, ate a shot bloc, changed into my bike shoes and helmet and was off.
The Bike - 20km - 42:90
The bike course was a two looped course, 10km per loop. It was raining pretty hard at this point but on the way out the wind was at my back. I pushed hard and really had to slow down around the corners. I witnessed a few people bail on their bikes due to not slowing down enough. I certainly did not want to do that! I enjoyed the ride and smiled and sang the whole way. Was a great feeling. I was happy because I knew that if I had not had to slow down due to the rain on corners I would have easily gotten a better time. I pushed hard when I could and it felt great. I ended up passing 23 people on the bike which gave me a great ego boost. I dismounted successfully (saw a few people bail while stopping) and started the awkward run in bike shoes to transition.
Transition 2 - 1:47
This transition was pretty uneventful. Ryan and his mom were there cheering me on which made me excited. By then everything was soaking wet and I hopped around a bit to get my running shoes on. Quick blood sugar check showed 9.4. Drank some Nuun and was off and running.
The Run - 25:04
I have to say that I really enjoyed the run. It was a 2.5km out and back through a pretty treed reserve area. I kept a steady pace the whole way and could not believe how quick it seemed to go. I sprinted the last 200m or so to the finish. Seeing Ryan and his mom cheering me on made me go faster :) They took my chip off, gave me some water and I was done. I finished with a blood sugar of 8.2 (which later spiked up to 13.0) and was happy with that!
The race took me 1:27:24 which I am happy with. I know that if it had not been raining this could have easily been a sub 1:25 for me. I ended up finishing 8th out of the 31 women in my age group. I loved doing the event in my tri-suit, it was so comfortable and stayed in place. I am happy that I made the decision to do the sprint and am looking forward to my next race in two weeks.
