Below is the race report of could have's and should have's .
The goal of this race was to get some confidence back after I had some mechanical problems at Calgary 70.3 at the beginning of August.
I was lucky enough to crash with Larry Bradley from Ontario, as well as the great Fletcher Meadow’s triathlon club who had rented some cottages on Lake Winnipesauke. The trip was pretty uneventful until realizing I had lost a piece for my headset. The town of Gilford was pretty small so I had to hope after the race meeting on Saturday I would be able to get it fixed. I managed to get it fixed late Saturday afternoon as best as it could be. I think it is time for a new bike soon but more on that later, sometimes we need to do the best we can with what we have.
Starting the race my only goal was to take each leg at a time and to really put it out there. Lining up on the left side with Potts, O’Donnell, TJ and my self with the rest of the field on the right side I figured I would get a good clean start. I had a great start but I knew Tim was trying to swim with Andy and I was going to have a hard time swimming on Tim’s feet. About half way to the first turn I made a move to get over to the right side. I wasn’t completely dropped by T.J and Tim but I didn’t want to be left on my own with a huge train on the other side of us. I managed to gap over and exit the water very easily on the back of that chasing pack behind Andy, Tim, and T.J. Exiting the water the next plan was to have a fast transition ahead of the group and blast up the road so I would be ready for a big group to ride with.
Everything was good except when I reached down my Oakley’s were gone and had fallen off my bike where I had them attached to so I didn’t have to put them on in transition. I don’t think I was meant to have Jawbones. The first 30miles was pretty uneventful I was riding in a large group that had Gambles, Rix, White, Allen, Tissink and I knew everyone was working hard to catch Tim who I think was only 30seconds up the road. On the first major descend on the course I started to feel my headset being really loose as I was breaking ever so slightly with a huge left hand turn I didn’t want to risk crashing so I backed off and rode 200m or so behind the large group. I chased like this for another 15 miles or so and then I dropped off as I could no longer maintain the pace. I haven’t been really happy with my position this year and I actually believe I am loosing a lot of hard earned wattage to wind resistance but back to the whole I need to use what I have part of life.
At mile 50 I was caught by T.J who I knew was a great athlete having a rough ride but he was some extra motivation to get me into T2. I still knew if I had a ripper of a run I would be able to run into that large group. Well I had stomach problems for the first time this year, and I was forced to run super fast between stops to go to the rest room. Not ideal and I was a bit disappointed but my fitness is where it needs to be and I am getting closer to the front of the race. I spent the next 2 hours after the race stuck in a port-a-potty, not sure really where the GI issues came from. I finished off the race 8th with another top 10 finish so at least there is a bit of consistency even on a bad day. I would like to congratulate all who raced at Timberman. It was extremely motivating to watch everyone on the run having a great time and really pushing they’re limits. I would like to thank K-SWISS, Colonels Bikes, Powerbar and HTFU and a special thanks to my Coach Cliff English. Also thanks to Carley for the loads of laundry you are currently in the process of doing, along with everything else.
The next couple of weeks will be crazy with my WEDDING DAY, and Branson 70.3.
Thanks for reading,
Brent
