Mission Accomplished!

Yesterday was the big race. I woke up to rain here in Toronto and as I was leaving around 6:30 a.m. it got quite heavy and I was sorely tempted to turn around and crawl back into bed rather than brave the elements. But in the back of my mind I kept thinking, but what if in Grimsby this has all blown through already and the weather's fine? So I pushed on and sure enough by the time I got there the rain had stopped. The course site was a sloppy mess, the sun never did appear and there was a couple of short bouts of light rain during the race, but I'm glad I went. Here's the official breakdown:

1. The Swim - was relatively disastrous. I've been doing really well in the pool, my usual time to complete 750 meters is 16-17 minutes. Unfortunately swimming in an open lake is entirely different and as much as I had hoped to get at least one open water swim in before the race, my schedule didn't allow it. So cold lake water, waves and the restrictions of a wetsuit, made breathing difficult and I felt like I couldn't get enough air, which is a scary feeling when you're in deep lake water. Twice I had to stop and gasp for air while clinging to a rescue kayak and seriously thought I was going to have to abandon the swim. But thankfully, the kayakers were really great, calming and supportive and about half way through when my nerves settled and I got into my groove and swam quite well - if only I could have done that the whole way.
2. The Bike - went really well. I maintained an average speed of 26 km/hr throughout and so finished in under an hour which was my goal. As luck would have it, because of the rain they altered the bike course to remove the hill affectionately dubbed "The Beast", so the whole bike course was a nice flat stretch.
3. The Run - also went well. I managed to run at about the same pace as I had 8 years ago the last time I did a triathlon, so I was happy with that.

My goal had been to beat my time in my last triathlon which was 2 hours 27 minutes and 6 seconds. In public, I was aiming for 2 hours and 17 minutes, privately in my own mind I was hoping to finish in 2 hours and 5 minutes. My time (even with a horrible swim) was....drum roll please...2 hours and 7 minutes and 41 seconds. So all in all I'm pretty pleased and even after my near death experience in the swim, I'm trying to set my next race. There's a tri in Guelph lake at the end of August, but I'm not sure I want to do another that soon. I may aim for a duathlon in September. I'll keep you posted!