Two triathlons in two days: what could possibly go wrong? As part of our goal to do all of the Multisport Canada triathlons this summer, I would have to do the Ontario Women’s Triathlon and the Toronto Island Triathlon on the same weekend. Saturday’s Ontario Women’s Triathlon went great, with me ending up 2nd female aged 40-44. I wasn’t sure how my legs would hold up for the next race.
It was another early morning, with a 4 AM alarm, 6ish race kit pick-up and 6:30 ferry to Hanlan’s Point. This time, Alasdair would be racing with me. With 800 athletes racing, start times were quite staggered, with the first athletes starting at 8 and the last at 9:20. This was to reduce congestion on the bike course. Alasdair’s start time was 8:40, and me 9:08.
Ready to go! Billy Bishop airport in the background.
After we were all set up, an announcement was made that the water temperature was too warm for wetsuits, so if an athlete wore one, they wouldn’t be eligible for prizes (and the official results would show an asterix next to their names). I had never done a triathlon swim without a wetsuit, but both Alasdair and I decided not to wear them, and see how much slower we were without them. And then, a few minutes later, the swim gods took pity on us and the decision was reversed. Wetsuits it was!
Everything ready.
We headed for the water, and after Alasdair’s race had started, I asked someone to zip my wetsuit up and I did a very short warm-up swim. Then I just sat on the shore until it was my turn. Unfortunately, while putting on my wetsuit a kid stood on my goggles. Fortunately, they seemed undamaged. Unfortunately, I later learned this was not the case.
750m swim
My swim started out okay, but it wasn’t long before water was seeping into my left lens. I tried to ignore it for a while, but eventually I had to stop and adjust them. I resumed swimming, and sure enough, it happened again. I delayed fixing them as long as possible. On the home stretch, with about 250m to go, I decided to just close my eyes and swim like that – I probably should have adjusted them again, but I had had enough of goggle adjustments!
After messing up my watch the day before, I was careful to press the right buttons this time. I was 18+ minutes in the water, which is pretty much what I expected.
After the 400m run through the sand and grass to the transition zone, I quickly got my wetsuit off and put my socks, shoes, sunglasses, and helmet on. I took off for the bike mount line.
20k bike
At the start of the bike, I was surprised at how good my legs felt, despite the race the day before. I decided to push it and see if I could beat my previous time. The bike course was 2 loops of a 10k course, slightly uphill on the way out. The difference in this race was that there were far more cyclists on the course at a time. I never had trouble with other riders. I passed many many cyclists, always saying “on your left”! with plenty of warning. I was passed by other riders, but far fewer than the number I passed. And for this race, the road was dry, with one very tiny exception. When I peeked at my watch, I saw that I was holding 30.6 or 30.4 or 30.3 km/h, so I was pretty happy. I never saw Alasdair, because he finished biking before I even started, having begun his race 28 minutes before me. On my second loop, just after the turnaround heading back there were 3 riders in front of me, 2 very close together. A race vehicle passed us, and a garbage truck approached us. There wasn’t room for the vehicles to pass one another, so the race vehicle stopped. The two riders that were close together nearly rode right into the back of the vehicle. Thankfully, no one crashed! Otherwise, there were no vehicles on the race course at all.
Back at the transition zone, I racked my bike, then changed my shoes, and tried to put my running hat on top of my helmet – oops! I forgot that it was still on my head.
5k run
I headed out for the run, which was an out, 4 times around a small loop, and then a back section. My legs felt pretty good starting out the run, so again, I decided to try to beat my time from the day before. As there were many cyclists on the course at the same time, there were many runners on the course at the same time, but I never found it too congested. When I glanced at my watched, I noticed that I was holding a 5:45 min/km pace, which was slightly faster than the day before. By the end I think I slowed a bit, but I still felt good.
I crossed the finish line in 1:31:14, good for 3rd place in my age category! I was a little faster on the bike than the day before (40 seconds), but slightly slower on the run (25 seconds). Happy with my race!
3/12 women 40-44.
What a weekend!
Race stats:
Race stats:
Kyra On The Go 
You have to do more back to back races in my expert opinion
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Ha!
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