Stick a fork in it.

Since this will be my last post of  2014 (yes, you'll be spared my drivel next week - REJOICE!), I figured I'd take a look back at what the year held for this ill advised racer.

I started in January with one of my favourite events - the Frosty Trail 3-hour. It was a tough day with tricky, ever-changing conditions, and I'm pretty sure the end result was a personal worst distance to go with the bruised feet and torn up shoes.

These were in mint condition before the race.

Still, it was great fun and I actually won my division - trail racing is so subject to the conditions on the course that even a personal worst can be a decent outcome! It was widely regarded as one of the slowest days ever at that particular venue.

February was devoted to training my butt off so I'd be ready when the end of March rolled in, bringing the Around the Bay 30k with it. I had worked incredibly hard for this, and it paid off with a 10+min PR at that race and 3.5min PR at the distance. My sub-3 goal? Yeah, got that, and then some. This was probably my best performance of the entire year, and I have months of kicking my cranky arse out the door in a polar vortex to thank for that.

Vindication.

Of course, there was no time to rest on my laurels, because I had stupidly decided it would be a shame to "waste" all that run fitness and signed up for the Waterloo Marathon at the end of April. I caught a cold, soldiered through idiotically instead of resting up, and fell short of my 4:10 goal time by almost seven and a half minutes. I just did not have it in me on race day, though as much as I whine about it I still bagged a 20+min PR at both that distance and that race.

That'll do.

So with triathlon season about to start, it was time to gear the running down and ramp up the cycling. I had every intention of spending the next couple of weeks after the marathon absolutely living on my bikes, trying to translate some of the aerobic fitness into pedaling power. Then, this:

Snorky's ok.

Being hit by a car (two days after crashing my mountain bike, no less) put a significant damper on my training for the next few days, and it was weeks before I was anywhere near 100% again. Nonetheless, at less than 3 weeks post-hood ornament, I lined up for one of the coldest starts to triathlon season yet: the Woodstock Sprint.

I put together a really slow swim, a bike hampered by idiot drivers and poor fitness, and a pretty poor run to come in almost 2 full minutes later than I did in 2013, when I simply hadn't done the training I should. Who knew that playing bumper cars on a bicycle would be bad for performance?

Though I suppose finishing at all was enough of a win.
Maybe even starting counts.

Then came a crazy block of events in June - the Heels & Wheels trail 5k at which I actually took 3rd woman overall (!), the Cambridge Tour de Grand 72k (not a race, but lots of fun!), the Welland Triathlon that Tanker and I did as a relay, then an extra-poignant Together We Travel Ride for Angels in which I wore the same kit that had gone skidding across the pavement in May.

My first overall award at Heels & Wheels!

Rolling through Grand River country with my sweetheart.

Tanker off to kick the Welland bike course's ass!

Riding around Niagara Falls after the Welland relay tri

Together We Travel - Ride for Angels is a critical mass ride
to raise awareness for cycling safety, in memorial of a man
who was killed when he was hit by a car in Waterloo Region.

I finally had a couple of weeks to buckle down for some serious training before returning to the site of my unfortunate horizontal trackstand of 2012 for the Mine Over Matter Full Off-Road Triathlon on the first Saturday of July. Despite a head-on collision with another athlete during my swim warm-up, I made it through the whole race unscathed and didn't even mind too much when I had the absolute slowest bike split out of any athlete that day,

My saddle coming loose and turning skyward probably didn't help.

A couple of weeks later I was back to one of my favourite race sites for a new experience - doing the Belwood Triathlon as a lone competitor! Tanker and I had always done this race as a relay in the past, but after hearing him rave about the lovely cycle course we decided to switch it up for 2014. I had a pretty good swim, suffered in the hills on the bike, then had a breakthrough run out of nowhere! I ran faster for the final 7.5km portion of that tri than I ever have in a stand-alone 5k.

On the move!

With no further racing on the schedule until September, there were adventures to be had! We laughed and paddled through rainy days in the backcountry at Frontenac Provincial Park, covering 6 lakes in 4 days before jetting off to Bon Echo Provincial Park for another couple of days of front country camping, hiking and kayaking along the incredible heights of Mazinaw Rock.

Soggy in Frontenac

Tanker's first canoe tour!

Bon Echo's quartzite cliffs

Tanker discovering pictographs on Mazinaw Rock

August saw some training happen as I tried to ready myself for fall racing, but the final week of the month was dedicated to our annual motorcycle tour. We had a wonderful trip exploring a science centre and a shipwreck museum, camping in Killarney Provincial Park, freezing ourselves at Brimley State Park on Lake Superior's southern shore, then drinking in the rich history of Fayette State Park before leaving Michigan's Upper Peninsula to return to South Higgins Lake State Park and on to the always-enjoyable Great Lakes Rally outside Detroit. We arrived home exhausted but full of incredible memories!

Making friends at Science North

Lake Superior sunset

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

Charcoal blast ovens at Fayette State Park

Endless dunes on the north shore of Lake Michigan

Huge campsite at South Higgins Lake

Riding with friends at GLR

Suffice to say over a week of almost no training was not precisely helpful on the tough course of the Lakeside Olympic Triathlon in September. It was cold, I had navigation issues during the swim, a minor mechanical problem (that fortunately resolved itself) and a major fitness fail (which did not resolve itself) on the bike, and a somewhat redeeming run. Overall, a bit meh, but I'll take that 1sec Olympic distance run PR!

This bit, on the other hand, sucked pretty badly.

Since I hadn't entered any fall trail races other than my traditional season-ender, I was able to take the last weekend of September and join seemingly the entire province in Algonquin Park for a weekend of camping & solo backpacking. The weather suddenly turned hot and dry as the fall colours hit their peak, and I ended up exceeding all expectations I had of myself on the trail while seeing some incredible sights along the way.

Falls on the Madawaska River.

Sunrise over Head Lake

The Starling Lake lookout

Forest ablaze with colours

Two weeks after that, it was back to the woods for Campsgiving at Valens Lake Conservation area. We thoroughly enjoyed discovering this local gem, and will assuredly be back in the future to enjoy its beautiful lake, trails and boardwalks.

Overlooking the reservoir

Marsh boardwalk

I started to back off training to taper for my one and only ultra for 2014, and seemed to be running really well when I got hit with a calf injury out of nowhere right before the race. With an aggressive rehab strategy and absolutely no running in the few days before the event, I lined up at the start of the Horror Hill 6-hour with zero expectations other than to try and see. Much to my surprise, I made it through the entire race and even posted a PR distance!

Who would've thought?

Now ordinarily my season ends with Horror Hill. After you've run for 6 hours, what else is there really to do? Once again, I'd hatched a crack-brained scheme so I wouldn't "waste" my run fitness, culminating in a failed 10k PR attempt at the Kona Chocolate Run. Fortunately, I had so much spending the weekend with friends we dearly love and pacing one of said friends through the subsequent 5k race to a huge PR for him that it's impossible to think of doing the Chocolate Double as anything but a win.

This moment here is worth more than any medal.

Overall, I wouldn't say this year's race results were terribly impressive. I'm quite proud of the huge PR at Around the Bay and I have most assuredly taken my running to a new level this year, but between the lack of cycling and some other poor decision making, I wasn't really able to translate that into racing performance throughout the season.

I can, however, take away at least one positive thing from each race I did, and each one has fond memories or silly stories attached to it. Furthermore, there were almost no points I can think of in which I gave anything less than the best I had in me to give on the day. Since I'm just a Joe Schmo athlete that pays to enter these athletic events for the fun and challenge of them, I think that's more important than the final numbers anyway.

Wishing you all the best of the holiday season - peace, joy and a wonderful new year. I'll see you in 2015!

Merry Dorkmas to all, and to all a good night!

Welland Relay Triathlon - Saturday, June 14th, 2014

So. Much. Fun.

We were up at the crack of stupid, persuading ourselves to prep for the race and giving the air temperature some really nasty side-eye. Even after arriving at the race site an hour and a half before gun time, the weather stayed obstinately cloudy, cool and windy.

Even Tanker stayed in his hoodie until the last minute, and was very happy I suggested a wool base layer.

Stuffing myself in my wetsuit just to stay warm.

No significant pre-race drama - we were able to help out a fellow relay racer with a bike tool, as his rear hydration rack had come loose. Tanker got me zipped up, gave me a kiss, and I headed down to the water. I did get in about 150m of swim warm-up (ha!), then due to the time-trial start and relay teams going last, I had to stand around shivering for over half an hour after the first athlete took off at 8:30am. I ran into a fellow accountant and Vanderkitten VIP while I waited - she'd arrived early for the Give-it-a-Tri event starting at 10:30am, in which she'd be doing her first-ever 3-sport race after spending 18 months learning to swim.

Kittens before the races

The athletes ahead took off one-by one, and I finally got back down into the water. It was warmer than the air (and certainly warmer than the cold wind!), but I still made sure to give my face a good dunk a minute before my turn came to set off. I hoped this would go better than my unreasonably slow swim at Woodstock last month - I'd finally managed to get my catch working again the week before (after having lost it due to the 10 days I spent out of swim training commission near the beginning of May), but I wasn't really feeling 100% back to form yet.

Nonetheless, I took my sendoff from MultiSport Canada series technical director Jason Vurma, and started stroking away. There were only 4 athletes due to enter the water behind me, so odds were I wouldn't have anyone swimming overtop of me - the time trial start gives everyone lots of clear water.

The time trail start - 5 seconds apart.
Photo credit to Cathy

I basically focused on trying to keep my elbows high and just gave'er. No navigation issues - I came up on a few people as I approached the first turn buoy, but no problems getting around them. Made the second buoy, and came down so bang on top of it that I actually whacked it with my hand during my recovery stroke. I was feeling like I was swimming decently, but then again I felt I'd swam well at Woodstock, so I'd just have to wait and see. I'd told Tank initially that with bib # 415 and the start being in bib number order, I'd be delayed about 7mins from the actual horn. I am, however, an idiot - that would've been true if we'd gone off 1 second apart, but at 5s apart it would take 34.5mins. I hoped he wasn't worrying about me.

Rubbery leviathan emerging from the deeps

I almost swam overtop of a lady as I made my way to the final turn, but apologized as best I could. Again, bang on top of the big green buoy (which let me avoid a fair-sized group of swimmers taking the turn wide), and just 85m left to the exit. My arms were fatiguing a bit but I gave it all I had since I knew I'd get a rest after the run up to T1. Reaching the exit at last, the volunteers were all occupied with other people as I stood up, so I didn't get my usual helping hand. I did ok, though, and got moving toward the timing mat. It turned out later I actually came out of the water with 29 people behind me, so I guess I managed to pass quite a few!

Holy crap - I don't look like a total mess!

750m swim: 15:20 @ 2:03/100m

8/12 relay teams

Ah, ok - there's the derpyness.

I ran my freakin' arse off on the way to T1 - it's a long slog, but I passed a number of people since I didn't have to worry about getting my wetsuit off.

425m run-up: 1:36

Into transition puffing and blowing, I got Tanker to hold out his left leg so I could whip the timing chip strap off my ankle and onto his (nearly falling over in the process - well done, K), then sent him off with a kiss and attempted to get my breath back.

T1: 00:55

Off he goes to kill it!

The wind was still quite nasty and the cloud cover persisted, though some sunny gaps had finally started to open just before I got in the water.

Clouds over transition as I wait for my honey to finish kicking ass

A moment to breathe.

I did my best to get myself dried off with a towel I'd left in transition, but still had to put my hoodie on to try to keep warm - it still hadn't made it over about 17c/63f yet, and being wet with no way to get out of the wind had me shivering! I did put some sunblock on, though, and finally did my bodymarking; I'd figured there wasn't much point in doing it before the swim, only to have it smeared by my wetsuit.

I also made a small addition.

I did some dynamic stretching plus some high knees and butt kicks, partly to try to keep myself loose and partly to stave off hypothermia. I also drank a bottle of eLoad sport drink to keep myself hydrated and get a few calories into me, but not too many. I was rather amused by one of the other relay teams needing to be informed that the bike had to be racked again before the chip could be handed off to the runner - does noone read the website or listen to the pre-race announcements? Then, just over an hour after I sent him off, Tanker came hammering back into transition!

And he brought the sunshine with him!

Flying!

28.8km bike: 1:03:15 @ 27.3kph

6/12 relay teams

So much kickassery.

With just one last thing to do, I grabbed the chip off Tanker's leg (once his bike was racked, of course), slammed it onto my own ankle, gave him a kiss that he described as "being more like a headbutt with your lips", then sped off at a totally untenable pace out of transition.

T2: 00:50

Artist's conception

See ya!

I started my watch as I crossed the timing mat on the way out through the run exit and figured I'd get some splits. I knew I had taken off way too quickly, but wasn't sure how bad it was or if I was going to blow myself up. The Welland sprint run course is a bit of a bother as there as 2 turn-around points and endless corners, but all I could do is keep my legs moving and see. I passed the queue of Give-it-a-Tri athletes waiting for their swim start and screamed something like "HAVE A GREAT RACE CATHY!" as I went by. I sincerely doubt she heard me, but the effort was there.

Saying hi to Larry, who took 2nd O/A in the duathlon.

As I passed onto the bridge toward the first out-and-back, I noted the 7k marker right at the final turn to the finish line. Ok, all I had to do was make it there and I could try to kick. I ripped up toward the first turn-around on the pathway, passing some people as I went, then hit my lap button as I passed the 2k mark. Split time: 10:22.

Um, I'm running at my open 5k pace.

This is not sustainable.

Urgh.

Back along the West side of the recreational canal on the pathway, my left hamstring started to complain about ill treatment. WHAT A WHINER! There was nothing I could do about it, so I just had to hope that it wouldn't get any worse. The second portion of the course does have some tiny little lumps to it, and the hammy didn't like inclines, but it held together. I whipped across the canal again with a tailwind, hitting the 4k mark in 21:17 - the second 2km split was a much more realistic 10:55, at a pace of 5:27/km.

Realistic, but still not sustainable.

From 4-5k I may have been distracted watching Give-it-a-Tri cyclists heading out on the bike, and by the rowers out on the canal. I also really, really wanted to be finished because I'd been death whistling since kilometer 1 and was starting to think I'd blown myself up and would have to walk. I made the turn-around, then hit the 5k mark at 26:56 - I'd slowed down to a 5:39/km pace and my disintegration showed no signs of relenting. At least I was now headed directly for the finish line, though there were still 4 turns to go.

Hurt. Freakin'. Bagged.

My worst kilometer was from 5-6k, taking me 5:49 as I struggled with the headwind on the bridge back to the West side of the canal and all the 90-degree turns. The 2k split from 4-6km was a pathetic 11:28 at 5:44/km. I might well have benefited from a sip of water or sport drink, but I didn't want to slow myself down any more than I already had. Fortunately, while the sun was out in full force, it stayed relatively cool out on the recreational trail, so I was still passing some people - if it had heated up, I'd have been in much worse shape. As it was, my hamstring was very grumpy about all of these corners.

I finally made the final turn at the 7k mark, and it was mostly a false-flat downhill to the finish, so I tried to pick up the pace as best I could. I'd come through the last full kilometer in 5:34 for a 7km total time of 38:19, and was hoping I could push and bring it in to finish under 41mins. I made the last half-kilometer in a rather astonishing 2:30, just barely making that goal.

Done at last!

7.5km run: 40:49 @ 5:27/km

5/12 relay teams

Official time: 2:02:42 - 7/12 relay teams

(Full results here)

Post-race group shot!

We met up with Cathy and Amy after their race was finished, and found out later that they both won their age groups - great job ladies!

For the perfect addition to a fun morning of racing, we then drove down to Niagara Falls and did some super-leisurely cycling along the Niagara Parkway. A bike is the perfect way to get around that world-famous tourist destination: just park the car and roll around, stopping or diverting anywhere you like to check out the sights. We cycled across the King's Bridge, through some of the Dufferin Island trails, hit a gluten-free bakery in Chippewa, and had a really wonderful time. A really good steak and a campfire later, we were both ready for bed after a truly transporting day spent in the best of company.

Thank you for an incredible day sweetheart - I'm so happy we could share this!