Race Report Victoria 70.3

Summary for those who have better things to do: Perfect lake swim conditions. Tough bike course, up and down all the time but cool with a light breeze which picked up towards the end. Run was on a gravel/forest trail, shaded and cool and very scenic, two laps of the lake we swam in. Swim 0:33, Bike 3:19 (I know right), Run 1:50 overall 5:51 chip time. Considering my fitness level I'm happy with the result. 

Alright...I tried to sneak this race in under the radar but word got out so I guess I'm obligated to do a report. 

My old friend ,Bill McFarland from Cayman, signed up for the race and Rebecca told me Scott was flying over to watch his son Nathan compete. Flights were going pretty cheap so I thought it would be a good little warm up for IM Cork that I'm doing in 3 weeks time with Bill and some other friends from Cayman. Plus Victoria is on my list of places to see and it's always good to see old friends (yes, I said old twice)

Thursday: The plane was packed with bug eyed,  malnourished triathletes heading in the same direction. I sat next to a nice couple also doing the race. After landing in Victoria I went over to Bills, assembled my bike on the street and hit the road for one of the best bike rides I've ever been on. Victoria is cycling heaven, and if you like hills and trees, well, this is the place for you. Bill is in supreme cycling shape so he put me through the wringer.

Friday was a day for sightseeing and I did some hiking and snapped some pics. Registered and took a dip in the lake then caught up with Scott, Nathan and Jamie. In the evening Bill and I got stuck into some fine Jamaican rum he had in his cupboard before heading out to a local brewery. Let's just say I felt a little rough the next day. 

Saturday: cycled to bike check-in with Bill and Nathan, on the way hitting the steepest climb I've ever been up. Hangover cured. 

Headed home with Bill and Jody, time for a nap and some chill time, well, that was the plan but I'm a bonehead. I get to my car at Bills and my keys are nowhere to be found. After some frantic searching it dawn's on me, my keys are in my bike top tube bag, in transition, 20k away and it's hell for traffic at the venue. Jody very, very kindly braved hell for the second time to help me retrieve my keys. So dumb. 

Sunday. The race kicked off at 6am, with transition opening at 4am. It sucked to have to wake up at 3am but it was also nice to finish before noon. 

Scott looking for Nathan, he didnt see him.

Swim: 

I passed the camera over to Scott who snapped some great pics

The water was the perfect temp, around 72, not too hot, not too cold. It was fairly uneventful due to the self seeding and the staggered entry of 3 at a time. I only had one clown bashing into me. I got fed up and swam him off the course before getting back on the toes that I'd been following the whole way. If you had an orange wetsuit and really big feet and are reading this : thank you 

33:26 . I'll take it. 

Bike:

Nathan hammering the bike leg

Definitely the best bike course I've ever been on. Just amazing. If it wasn't so scenic I'd definitely be complaining about how hard it is. Over 3000 ft of climbing and the bulk of it was in the second half. My knee was aching so popped a pain killer. I got passed A LOT!!! Oh, and I don't usually included boring details about watts, nutrition and peeing, but get this. I peed 3 times on the swim and 4 times on the bike, unreal. A cool breeze would hit me and I'd be busting. I could have shaved 10 mins on bathroom breaks alone. But it was also good to stretch the knee out so no excuses. (Avg power 170w, NP 192w, ate and drank race provided Gus and BASE sports drink)

Looking at the left right balance, my left was taking up some of the work, which I felt the effects of on the run.

3:20, not great but looking at the numbers I put in a bigger effort than I originally thought I could sustain.

Having said that looking at my placing, 354th on the Swim, 1011th on the Bike and 362nd on the run - my biking needs A LOT of work.

Run:

Popped another painkiller in transition and headed out on the run.  The run was the best run course I've ever done too, although it was hard to get a rhythm and pace. It also felt like the kms ticked by slowly, somehow time slows in the trails. 

 1: 50 for the run. Again, not amazing but I'm actually pretty happy with it. My knee pain faded and after about 15 mins I felt okay.  And I passed a lot of people, the most notable being Bill, who managed to stay ahead of me the whole race till 3k on the run.  There was a fair amount of smack talk over beers Friday night. I gave him a 15 minute handicap and still managed to beat his sorry old ass by a long way. Lol, suck it McFarland. 

Nathan smashed it coming in at 5:23, the kid's a beast. 

I don't often repeat races but I'd definitely do this one again. Victoria is a great city, the people are polite and friendly, cyclists are everywhere and the infrastructure makes cycling a lot safer. The race was amazing and I couldn't fault it if I tried. 

Thanks for reading.