10 cm of rain on the day of my tri?

[Grog]

Wow. Tomorrow afternoon I'm racing in a sprint tri. (With an indoor swim.)

Not only are there heavy winds,

but there's also a forecast to 60 to 120mm of rain. Yes, that's 3-5 inches. I'm always joking that I could drown on the swim but actually I might drown on the bike segment!!

Send me good vibes!!!

[LBTC]

Ah, Grog! I saw that heavy rainfall warning! I can't imagine doing a tri in the first place, let alone in weather like that! I'll picture you surrounded by butterflies keeping you dry with the beat of their wings.

Hugs and butterflies!
~T~

[crazycanuck]

Oh dear!

I'm sure that the Race Director will be keeping an eye on the weather. (funny that's immediately what i thought of..i just did a level 1 tech officials course)

Just remember to keep left & keep it safe as always.

C

[rocknrollgirl]

last season it rained like that before , during , and after EVERY race that we had. It really stinks, especially when you have trained for an event. I will send some good vibes your way.

Good Luck.....

[Grog]

last season it rained like that before , during , and after EVERY race that we had. It really stinks, especially when you have trained for an event. I will send some good vibes your way.

Well I've trained in the rain so I guess it's my... reward??

Now they have added "destructive winds" to the forecast.

The race directors will stop the race if necessary but I doubt it will be necessary. People here are very used to riding in those conditions. However if trees start being blown on the street they'll probably stop.

My heat is not until 2:50pm. I'm doing a sprint so thankfully I'll be out only for about 1h15m (plus the swim time, but that's indoor). I'll go cheer for my friends who are suffering in the rain doing the olympic just now.

It's a geared up triathlon, for sure. I'm not going to rush in and out of transition!!

LBTC: thanks for the butterflies, I'll be imagining them while on the ride (I might get hallucinations).

[kelownagirl]

Wow, Grog, sounds miserable! Dumb question but you don't have fenders on your bike do you? I get a steady stream of muddy water in my face when I ride on wet roads. I can barely see thru my glasses within a few minutes, not to mention the muddy wet stripe up my back. How do you handle that on a regular basis, and in a race??

[Grog]

Wow, Grog, sounds miserable! Dumb question but you don't have fenders on your bike do you? I get a steady stream of muddy water in my face when I ride on wet roads. I can barely see thru my glasses within a few minutes, not to mention the muddy wet stripe up my back. How do you handle that on a regular basis, and in a race??

I have fenders on my bike from the end of October to mid-April. They're mandatory for club rides (that spray in the face of the person behind you could be quite dangerous).

Serious racers take off their fenders but I'm keeping mine on. They're a pain to put on and off, and it's not like I'm 30 seconds from a podium!!! So on they stay. But I was just out there watching the folks doing the olympic and few had fenders.

Ok I'm going to get ready now. It's still pouring rain but winds are not worst than 25-30 km/h. Others have survived so far, why shouldn't I?

[LBTC]

Wow, Grog, you rock! Go, Grog, Go!!

H&B
~T~

[Pika]

Good Luck Grog!
Getting out to ride in that wind or rain made my whining about sailing in this weather a bit pathetic.
At least I get to bundle up with rain gear- too bad the wind hadn't hit here yet- we bobbed around for 2.5hrs drifting toward the marks before we called it a day- definitely a shake down race.
Hope all went well with you!

[Grog]

Well, I survived my second tri, and here is the story. It's not that entertaining and no great adventures happened, but maybe new triathletes will find it useful.

It is the same triathlon as I did last year, the University of British Columbia triathlon. Very popular with first-timers but most people I think are not beginner. It's also the very first triathlon of the year in BC. It's a pool swim so there are heats starting every 20 minutes from 7:30 in the morning to about 4pm in the afternoon, including Olympic distance, Sprint distance, Short distance, Kids, Relay, and Duathlon. I was in the Sprint, and my start was at 2:50pm.

Forecast was pretty bad, and it turned out exactly so. Very heavy rain, that got worse and worse during the day, and winds that gained force as well, but nothing faster than 30 km/h (17mph?). The good part was that we had a tailwing on the hardest part of the course, which I much appreciated.

SWIM - 800 m or 16 laps of a 50 m pool.
Before my heat, as I was watching the other swimmers, there was a guy who was escorted to the start. Turns out he was blind. He started last of his heat, did all of his laps in only one lane (instead of changing lanes), with one person at each lane sort of tapping him on the shoulder with some giant Q-Tip (!) to notify him that he had to turn around. Impressive. A very good swimmer, too.

My heat's time came. We lined up according to our numbers (which are set following our estimated time for 800 m), only I had given the wrong time (thinking 600m!!!) so I moved down the file. Still, there were as many people behind me as before me, which scared me at first because I'm not a good swimmer.

Nonetheless, it went pretty well. I had a cheering squad of about 5 friends plus my sweet partner on the pool deck, which helped. I passed a person or two (!!), had to stop to fix my leaking goggles so they passed me again, I re-passed them... I decided that I was swimming at about the same speed as the next guy ahead of me and just stayed in his "draft" in the water. I knew that if I passed him I would be working harder and that he'd have to pass me again. So whatever. I ended up breastoking about 1/4 if not more of the time because when crawling I'd bump into his ankles, not nice.

I chose to use a breathing-every-other-stroke strategy instead of every-third. I just feel more in control like that.

So it went surprisingly well. I think my time was around 18 minutes but it's not published yet, and the time includes a significant chunk of T1.

T1
Out of the pool and into the ladies' changing tent. After grabbing my "wetbag" from a nice volunteer, I dried myself really superficially and pulled on tights and a longsleeve jersey, with my longsleeve Gore jacket, plus socks. I had a pair of sneakers in there which I pulled on. Out I was and I ran the 300m to the bike racks, unwrapped my bike shoes (which were miraculously dry), saddle (!) gloves and shades, strapped on my helmet, and I was gone!

BIKE
The bike is 20 km in two loops. The course is rather flat, although I heard another woman yelling at her friends "Whoever said this course is flat LIED". She was obviously pissed off. However it's a road I ride many times a week, and I know every change in incline on it very well. There is one short 6% hill (maybe 300m?) and one very long 1-2% incline which we rode in both directions.

Once I was on the flattish part I struggled to free some Cliff Bloks out of the package that was taped to my frame. I need to make this installation better, it didn't work too well, but I still got to eat about 4 bloks. I also had a gel there but I didn't take it. I drank about half a water bottle, and spat A LOT of stuff (swimming makes me feel terrible, plus it was rainy and cold).

It was a pretty lonely ride. I was passed by two people and passed about half a dozen (most of whom were on much heavier bikes). I didn't take the time to check out if the eagles were out, but if I was an eagle I would have stayed on a well-covered branch instead of watching humans ride around in the rain.

On the second loop I felt pretty strong and I was happy about that. Again I don't know my time but I averaged between 28 and 29 km/h, which for me is pretty good - but the wind was helping, I must say. I was not as well trained for the bike as last year. During most of the second loop I was looking forward to the run, for some reason.

T2
That's so quick, I was sure I was forgetting something, yet, no. Just dropped the bike stuff (didn't unstrap the helmet too early this time), pulled on the running shoes (I'm not crazy about the fit of the shoes with the elastic laces but they are so convenient), left the gloves out there but pulled on a hat. I would later regret taking my jacket.

RUN
No jelly legs. I had spun nicely at the end of the bike and felt pretty good running. However I didn't feel too fast, even though I think I averaged a 5m05s kilometer. On the pictures I look like I'm barely lifting my legs, a very conservative stride, energy-wise. I passed two people (including a woman that passed me on the bike - ye!) and happily wasn't passed except at the very finish where some girl coming out of nowhere (probably doing a different distance) smoked me 300m from the finish.

It was still pouring rain although I had almost forgotten by then. I happily found my sweet partner, a few friends and my sweetie's parents who had magically appeared, bearing a DRY towel to wrap me in! That was nice.

I think my overall time was something like 1h34m, about 2 minutes faster than last year!!!

Here are some pics.
http://picasaweb.google.fr/BrigitteG...CTriathlon2007

[LBTC]

Yay, Grog! Sounds like you had a darned good race after all! I'd love to see the pics, but my computer says they are "Forbidden". Just what are they pictures of? heehee

Did you feel those butterflies? They kept the towel dry for you!

Glad you made it and you did so well! Congratulations!

H&B
~T~

[Grog]

Oops sorry about that! I made the album public now.

Here are the pics!
http://picasaweb.google.fr/BrigitteG...CTriathlon2007

[kelownagirl]

That's excellent Grog! I loved the pictures!
I'd like to try a tri someday but I'm afraid to do the lake swim. I wish they had one with a pool swim here...

[Grog]

That's excellent Grog! I loved the pictures!
I'd like to try a tri someday but I'm afraid to do the lake swim. I wish they had one with a pool swim here...

You shouldn't have spoken so quickly!!

http://www.appletriathlon.com/

The Appel Triathlon in Kelowna (July) has a Try-A-Tri version for those who "didn’t feel comfortable with the swim component even though they could handle the bike and run."

It's a pool swim (only 300m, 12X25m).

You're all set!

[kelownagirl]

Oh I missed that it's a pool swim!! I had checked out the Apple Triathlon and that's how I got interested in the Try-a-Tri. I thought it was still in the lake though. Off to go look more closely. Can't go this year because I'll be in France. . And I need to learn to swim better.