Muskoka Long course - chase race
After racing the Muskoka Long Course this past weekend, I am still trying to convince myself that my results were good. The race began very well but I struggled on the bike and in the latter portions of the run. Even though the times seemed to be slower across the board, I was still expecting a faster time and a higher placing.
The game plan going in was to swim hard and build up as much of a cushion as I could on the faster bikers/runners. My biking has been feeling very good lately so I thought I could also pull off a decent bike and "minimize the damage". After spending much of the winter on the sidelines with injuries, I knew my running would not be as sharp as in previous years (especially since this race was a 15km run - much farther than I am used to) So the plan was to run well through 10km and then try to hang as best as I could on in the last 5km.
The gun went off and I was happy to have a clean start and be in good position to hop into the lead pack. More than 100m went by and nobody seemed to be taking the lead. It felt like guys were looking around, trying to see who would lead out. I waited a little longer and quickly became frustrated. So I decided to go to the front and take it out as hard as I could. I thought to myself "OK, just get to the first turn and let someone else take over from there". I rounded the first corner and no one seemed all that interested in jumping up, so I kept going. To my surprise no one ever passed me - I ended up leading a group of 3 others into transition. I was a little surprised to see the likes of Len Gushe, Sean Bechtel, and David-James Tache sitting on my feet - all of whom are much better swimmers than me. In hindsight I should have been more patient at the start - it may have resulted in a faster swim time. We exited the water around 25 minutes flat which is a little slow for those other guys but not bad for me. Len pulled a bit of a move on the run up to the transition and was the first to cross the timing mat. After all that hard work in the water I was a little disappointed not to be rewarded on the stats sheet with the fastest swim. but all 3 guys gave me a "good job" which was thanks enough!
Our group of 4 left transition together and stayed bunched up for the first 5km until Len and Sean started to pull away. I used David-James as my inspiration and tried to keep him within sight since he is also a much better biker than me. I seem to hang tough for the first 35 or 40km. Until that point not too many guys went by and I was feeling really good. My average speed at 30km was close to 40km/hr and had only dropped a little by 40km. But then we hit the hilly section and that just seemed to knock the wind right out of my sails. At that point I lost sight of David-James and about 5 guys went screaming past me like I was standing still! The last 15km were pretty bad and I lost a LOT of time on the rest of the pro guys.
I floated into T2 feeling a little deflated for loosing so much time on the bike. I was really expecting better. But I consoled myself with the thought that I had run pretty well on this course before and I knew it was still possible to gain back some of the lost ground with a good run. I started off at a fairly moderate pace for the first 2km then started ramping it up. The next 7 or 8 km seemed to breeze by. Every KM marker seemed to come quicker than the last. I split through 10km at 36:50 which was a little slower than I had hoped for but I was feeling good at that point so I thought I could pick it up even more. Jeff Beech went by me just before 10km and I hooked onto his feet for 1500m or so. he pulled me through a 3:23 km from 10 to 11km which might have tipped me over the edge. I started to feel the wheels fall off around 12km and the rest became a huge struggle! James Hadley went by me at about 13km and my legs just wouldn�t take me with him - even though he wasn�t running much faster. By 14km I was pretty much done and looked back over my shoulder to see a large enough gap between me and the next guy. This gave me the green light to saunter my way in for the last km. Luckily the race finishes on a downhill which can make the worst of runs look not all that bad!
And so my day finished - not a bad race but not quite as quick as I had planned. And the 13th place finish was lower than my previous placing of 8th (in 2004). The most troubling fact for me was that my run split (55:59) was only 1 second faster than my time in 2003 and over a minute slower than my split from 2004. I would hope that I have improved since then! But considering that my injuries forced me to take so much time off running and that I was having trouble even walking this winter, I guess I have to be happy with the progress. I know that each race will continue to get better as I continue to work hard. So I look forward to the next event!
On a side note... We stayed at the best B&B in Huntsville. If you are ever planning a trip to the Muskokas, I HIGHLY recommend checking out the Algonquin Moon Bed & Breakfast.
