Canadian Sprint Championships - Bronze Medalist!

This Canada Day long weekend proved to be a very good weekend of racing for me. Saturday I ran my way to the podium in the National Sprint Championships (finishing in 3rd) and then won the Barry's Bay triathlon on Monday. What feels especially good about Saturday's race was the fact that I was able to run pretty hard. Finally my running is getting back up to speed!

This Canada Day long weekend proved to be a very good weekend of racing for me. Saturday I ran my way to the podium in the National Sprint Championships (finishing in 3rd) and then won the Barry's Bay triathlon on Monday. What feels especially good about Saturday's race was the fact that I was able to run pretty hard. Finally my running is getting back up to speed!

Saturday's sprint race was beautifully organized - I cant say enough about the great job that Barrie and the C3 crew did in putting on this event. Every last detail was thought of and covered off. If you ever get the chance to do this race in the future, I would recommend adding it to your calendar.

The race itself went well - I did what I was hoping to do in the swim and that was to stick with the big 3 - David-James Tache, Sean Bechtel and James Loaring. I knew that if these guys had any sort of a gap out of the water they would be gone. I was happy to finish the swim right on D-J's feet. Unfortunately I had a pretty slow transition and missed getting in their pack. I tried for the first lap (of 4) to catch back up but there was no catching those guys. Eventually I joined back up with some guys and we finished the bike in a group of 5. The run started off pretty fast! At first I thought I would be in trouble, but stuck to my pace and eventually moved up through the group to 3rd place. I am very proud to call myself a bronze medalist from a national championship event!

After such an intense event it was a lot of fun to race the The Bary's Bay triathlon. Here is another superbly organized event! This race is a throwback to the old days - it reminds me of how races used to be. The race was well run, the volunteers were a plenty, the T-Shirts were great, the food was delicious and the prizes were impressive.

I wasn’t sure how Saturday’s hard effort was going to affect me in the bike and run so the plan was to start the swim off hard and try to build a bit of a cushion. I knew that there were going to be several talented bikers/runners coming after me, including the very talented Ryan Grant (who has a pb of under 30 mins for the 10km!!!). To make things more interesting, I had forgotten to bring my aerobars (since I don’t use any bars in draft legal races). Luckily I survived the bike by riding my brake hoods and had a lead going into T2. The run felt good - with a bit of a lead I was able to relax and run comfortably. During the awards they announced that my time was a new course record. It was a great end to a great weekend of racing!