Forgot my watch with the time & HR in the car so I'll update those later.
Muskoka Grind - offroad Triathlon - short course
Limberlost Forest
This was such a great event!! I've not been to Limberlost before (pronounced Limberloast by my GPS). What a beautiful part of Muskoka! It's about 15mins beyond Huntsville and is private property and clearly hasn't been overrun with swarms of tourists.
I was able to camp onsite with other racers which was a nice feature as well. I expected to see Chief and FunRun but they hadn't appeared by nightfall so I turned in. The night was super stormy though so I can't say I slept well. By 3:30am I put in earplugs figuring the light and the noise from the event would wake me. I was wrong. I woke up about 7:30. The long course started at 8 so I pulled myself together and hussled down to the lake to catch the start. I couldn't tell who was who in the wetsuits but Chief and FunRun are in there somewhere!
I did manage to catch them at transition though. Needless to say they didn't stay still long enough for a great photo (I had my adventure cam which just isn't as good at fast shots).
I missed the finishes unfortunately as I had to get ready for the short course.
The lakes were amazingly clear. The trails were generally very loamy which made riding kind of slow and a bit nerve wracking on corners and the run was cushy soft!
I had one goal and one goal alone for this race: get through the swim. I've been nervous about it since I signed up. In fact, I had signed up for the full tri two years ago at Kelso and switch to the Du about a week before the race because I was so nervous about the swim.
Racing, as they say, is 90% mental.
The swim went fabulously! Conditions were pretty choppy as there was thunderstorm on it's way. I did a 15min warm up in the water to test things out and work out some of my nerves. At the start I waited until everyone went and then I followed. Much to my surprise I passed a good number of people. Some of whom just took a bad line. I took a few breaks while doing breast stroke then continued with the crawl. As I expected the way back to shore was fast thanks to the wind.
From there I jogged to transition and quickly jumped out my wetsuit into a shirt, shorts and shoes and off for the MTB. The Muskoka Grind got it's name from from the first bike climb called "Ski Hill". It was moderately steep for about 70% and then the grade increased for the last 30%. In addition to the tough grade it was lose dirt - despite the rain - making it a challenge not to spin. I made it up but then dismounted at the turn. Partly because of the gang of people at the top who had stopped dead and were recovering but mostly because I didn't have it in me to push through the dip onto slick rock. I was able to hike it quicker than the others and managed to stay ahead of them for the balance of the ride.
I had preriden the trail the day before so I had a sense of where I could push and where I wanted to be cautious. Discussing with Chief and FunRun after, it was pointed out that the stakes of wiping out on this trail were a little higher than usual with numerous drops and some seriously rocky sections. Mostly though I found the soft red earth and lake side trails mesmerizingly beautiful and fun to ride. Very few super tight turns so my 29er was the perfect bike for these trails.
Back to transition and another quick change of shoes, grabbed my water bottle and hat and off I went on the run. I had two guys with me starting the run as well and saw one woman pulling into the transition with her bike. Heading out someone shouted to me that I was the 3rd woman through which caught me totally off guard. Placing just hadn't been part of my plan. Of course at that moment I switched my gameplan and focused all my energy on not letting any women pass me. No problem there. No women. No men (the one guy pulled way ahead and the other one dropped right back). In fact, I was along pretty much the entire run. It was a new experience running on such a soft trail, all pine needles and loam. Footing was soft and slightly less stable for it. And it was dead quiet apart from the sloshing of my water bottle and breathing. If someone had been nearby I highly doubt I would have heard them coming. I just assumed they were coming and kept my pace going as fast as I could (which seemed unbelieveably slow). I even did a bit of a kick at the finish. I turned around at the finish line and there was no one in sight. Ha! Well I like the push at the finish anyway. Not like I need to save the energy then for anything anyway.
So in the end I placed 1st in my division and 3rd woman overall. I did NOT see that coming.
One rainy awards ceremony. Fine with me as long as I have my post race Coke. :)