2008 was the 4^th time that I have competed at the Great White North Triathlon in Stony Plain Alberta.  This event has approximately 800 participants when you include all of the relay racers.  This is one of the most popular races in western Canada and registration sells out almost a year in advance.  I grew up not far from the race site, so I always enjoy coming to this event as it’s a chance to visit family and friends.  This is a very well organized and supported race.
 

We had rain for the first 35k of the bike but other than that it was a really nice day.  I had a strong race, taking the lead at about the 8k point of the run.  The season is going well and if I can loose 5 more pounds of Molson muscle, I’m hoping to be in good shape for ironman Canada.
 

Men

1. Kyle Marcotte, 3:56.30
2. Trev Williams, 4:01.08
3. Scott Curry, 4:02.42
4. Kevin Masters, 4:06.12
5. Jeff Krar, 4:07.48

Women

1. Kristina Schultz, 4:20.05
2. Annett Kamenz, 4:25.23
3. Tanya Salomon, 4:28.33
4. Sheila Gillis, 4:30.38
5. Cat Brown, 4:33.35

I had the opportunity this past weekend of racing in the Banff Bike Festival/ Stage race this past weekend.  The stage race consisted of a 21 km time trial, a 45 minute criterium and a 105km bike race.  The category ½ bike race hosted some of the top teams in western Canada.

The time trial went well.  I was hoping for a little longer of race as I seem to do better at the longer time trials.  I finished 11^th out of the 84 Cat ½ riders.  The orange Trek TTX was fast and turned a few heads.

The criterium didn’t go so well.  I was super paranoid about being involved in a crash do to my lack of criterium experience.  Well, I succeeded in my goal of avoiding any crashes, but that was because I was dropped and lapped out of this fast moving race pretty early.

As we moved into Sunday’s hilly road race, my role changed to that of a domestique for my teammate.  At 75km, there was a split in the field.  I spent approximately the next 20k trying to close the gap and pulling our team leader back to the lead pack.  The 84 start list had been reduced to an 11 man break away.  Unfortunately when it came to the last little hump in the race, I was blown and couldn’t go with the leaders, so I finished 40 seconds back but we succeeded in our goal of moving our Speed Theory club teammate Trev Williams up in the overall general classification into 9^th place. 

We were quite pleased after the race as it was both a team effort and the results were better than expected.  It’s been a while since I had done any true bike racing and was intimidated going into the race, but man was this ever fun.  The organization of the Banff Bike Festival was superb.

It was an exciting weekend of racing in near Cranbrook BC at the Wasa triathlon. The Olympic non-drafting race was also the British Columbia championships.  This event also includes a Kids-of-Steel race on the Saturday and a sprint distance triathlon on the Sunday.  Considering that most of the people are coming in from well out of the area, it’s pretty awesome that there is more than 600 people participating in this family event.

I had a good swim, not so good T1 and a solid rest of the race. I came out of the water with Jasper Blake, Grant Burwash and others but lost contact with them in T1. I moved up to as high as second place on the bike, very briefly until Adam Jensen and Matt Seeley (Team Timex alumni) blew by me on the bike at about 24k. I was able to run a couple of guys down, but also got run down by a speedy Jasper Blake (2006 IMC champion). Andrew Russell led the entire way and set another course record, no one was ever close to him. Second through fifth men were all pretty close in time.  It was a lot of fun racing some of the ITU guys in the non-drafting event.

What an intense short effort.  I’m so tired that I’m having a tough time today keeping my eyes open at the Happy Factory (work).

Results should be up at Winning Time

Men:
1. Andrew Russell (course record) 1:50.32
2. Jasper Blake 1:53.21
3. Kyle Marcotte 1:53.29
4. Matt Seeley 1:53.45 (Team Timex alumni)
5. Adam Jensen 1:54.04
6. Jordan Bryden 1:54.27

Women:
1. Kerry Spearing (course record)  2:03.14
2. Claire Goldsmith (Aus) 2:04.42
3. Sara Gross 2:07.02
4. Cat Brown 2:07.21(Team Timex alumni)
5. Tanya Salomon 2:08.28

The Oliver half was this past weekend. This was the 5th time that I have made the trip for the race and I guess it also represents the start of my 5th year in triathlon.

Although the field in Olver has always been strong, it appears to be getting stronger with each passing year. This year there was a separate “pro” start. Pros racing included, Ironman world champion Michellie Jones, multiple ironman winner Tom Evans, Sara Gross, Chris Brown, Oliver Piggin, Tracy Robertson, Adam Jensen, Michael Simpson and others. Roch Frey and Lori Bowden were there to help promote the event.

There were only 17 “pros” starting. I always find calling people a “pro” a little funny as the only person in the field who actually makes a living from racing triathlon is Michellie Jones… so there was one pro starting with 16 really fast age-groupers who checked a different box on registration. Still, there was some bumping in the first 200m. Tom went off like a lightning bolt. I settled on Michellie Jones’ feet who was following Michael Simpson. The three of us broke away from the chasers, with Tom way off the front. I didn’t do a lick of work on the swim but was able to stay on Michellie’s feet. Not much exciting after that. We had clear water, meaning that we didn’t have to swim through anyone.

I had yet another horrible transition but since it was my first triathlon in some time, it’s understandable or at least that’s the excuse I’m using today.

It rained cats and dogs on the bike. It rained pretty much the entire time until the last 10 minutes. It wasn’t that cold, but raining quite hard. One thing that a friend of mine pointed out to me a few years ago, when cold, try to stay in the aero position on the bike. There will be less exposed parts to the wind and therefore easier to stay warm.

I settled in pretty early but never really felt great on the bike. That being said, I didn’t have a bad bike, but I was never really feeling as good as I would have liked. I biked alone the entire way, other than when Oliver and Adam went by my half way like I was standing still. The second lap of the bike was a bit of a game of frogger as we were passing the age group athletes who were on their first lap of the bike.

I came off the bike 5:30 down from Tom and 2:30 down from Adam and Oliver. I felt strong on the run and was able to catch Adam by the half way point of the run. The big surprise to me was how great Oliver was running. He has really turned it up a notch this year and I wasn’t able to close the gap on him. In fact, he put time on me on the run and almost caught Tom at the end. Congrats to Olly! I always come into races wanting to win (who doesn’t?) but I was happy with my third place result with the my fastest time on that course to date.
Full results can be found here

2k swim, 93k bike, 21k run
1) Tom Evans 4:06:30
2) Olly Piggin 4:06:47
3) Kyle Marcotte 4:09:54
4) Adam Jensen 4:10:41
5) Chris Brown 4:16:58

1) Michellie Jones 4:33:54
2) Tracy Robertson 4:45:10
3) Rachel Joyce 4:49:09
4) Sara Gross 4:51:49

It was a very fun event, made even more fun by seeing so many friends there.