I managed to register for this event at the last minute, and barely. Lesson learned, if I'm yapping about a race, I should just register for the darn thing because I know I would have regretted not doing this race. After the high of Oliver, I really wanted to do the Vancouver Half Iron. Life got in the way, end-of-school madness and the like. I was all set to get the training back on track when I caught 'the cold'. 2 weeks of relative misery. So I did the Sprint instead. I really love sprints. All out, hold nothing back kind of race.
Swim - 400 m ?!?? I had far less heart pounding this time, did a lot of 'stroke-sight' for the first bit. and never really settled into a rhythm. Felt boxed in, seemed faster to do breast stroke even. Breathing never quite settled in either, lungs aren't quite up to snuff I guess. Time - 11:42
Bike - VROOM is how I felt. The weather was perfect, very little wind, not at all chilly, and not hot! I spent the majority of time tucked down into my tri bars which is a huge thing for me. I passed a lot of people not in their tri bars and every time I thought 'same speed or greater with less effort woohoo!' I realize that when I'm in a race I don't worry about cars as I obviously do when I'm out riding the roads. Organizers did a good job of traffic control to make it safer and faster for us. This was my best race yet; average speed was 29.3km (think of that big UBC hill for the first 4km!), average cadence 92, we won't talk about the avg HR (177!) as the lungs are working harder with the tail end of the cold. Time = 53:56 (26km)
Run - I basically tried to go as fast as I could the entire way. Walked one water station to catch my breath (HR was not below 185 for the first couple of km), had to stop to tie my laces at 2km mark, and just kept on pressing on. Only 2 people passed me on the run, and one of them was this girl named Kate Perry. She's in the 20-29 age group and I don't think she's 25 yet. Anyway, I've seen her on the past 3 triathlons, I beat her out of the water, and on the rides, but she has always caught me on the run right around the halfway mark. So I'm running along, thinking well, last night I told Chris that I was doing this mostly for practice (the cold), and who knew, maybe I'd surprise myself (adrenalin gets a lot done!). So after feeling pretty good on the bike, and managing my fastest pace yet, I'm thinking 'maybe I'll beat Kate Perry on this run and achieve some PR's along the way'. when I hear someone coming up behind me. At this point I had done all the passing and let's just say at that pace it's hard to not feel a little disappointed. And along comes Kate Perry. I can't help myself and say "You always pass me on the run!" she laughs and doesn't look back. "I even recognize your GAIT!" she laughs again, not looking back. sigh. Too funny though, because just as I thought she might be way back, I hear her footsteps and think crap, that's Kate. There was a cruel uphill portion in the trails, and a steep downhill shortly afterward, and after a couple more water stations I was near the finish. Saw Anna and Miller and Keegan (babysitter) waving away, Miller spotted me first. We had to run past finish and turn into the chute. Gotta love hearing the 'bee-bee-bee-beeeeep' across the mats and into the finish! Run time - 25:57 - pretty sure that it was 4.97km and not 5km. HR during the run, average about 180, max 197. oops - perhaps this is why I have a mild headache now. A couple times I thought I should maybe slow down and give the heart a break, but ...no. Running those short sprints is a good way to teach the body to say NO when the brain might be saying stop!
Overall very happy with this race, I give it a 10/10. I do think I would like to do a race sans children - to see what we all think. Anna wasn't thrilled to be there, and as a result things weren't so smooth between the kids. Plus I don't want to drag them into a sport and make them resent it and avoid it later. While I love seeing them throughout the race and at the finish, perhaps they don't need to attend every single race. Perhaps it will make them, and me, appreciate it all the more next time they do spectate.
160 46/121 F 18/50 F3039 1106 Niki Cumming 1:36:28 126 11:32 2:19 136 3:26 123 14:58 162 0:53:56 28.9 150 1:08:53 164 1:39 161 1:10:32 181 0:25:57 5:12 160 1:36:28 
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