ROSE CITY HALF

Half Iron Swim-Bike: 2000m/90km

As the race loomed closer, I knew I had not fully prepared physically for what would be coming up for the half iron distance triathlon. I decided that my plan would be to work on preparing nutritionally for the race, and see how I felt at the end of the bike as to whether I would continue onto the run or call it quits there.

I began my summer job shortly after coming back from university. In previous years, work has not had a huge impact on my training, however my commute is now around 2 hours in both directions. This sudden change in day time available made adjusting my training schedule difficult. I managed to scrape together smaller workouts but nothing longer.In the end, my longest ride had been 55km and my longest run only 12km. Despite lack of training, I knew that I was doing this race to see how I would feel, and help prepare mentally for the MSC Barrelman in September.

Swim

Rose City Swim Start

Having done the Rose City half (previously Welland half) for 3 years now, I found this year to be the nicest swim by far. I set out on the shore side of the main pack of swimmers to try and get some space and it worked out perfectly. With only a bit of shuffling near the start, I had virtually no collisions in the race. Unfortunately I put my wet suit on badly, and with no body glide, I began to get chaffing on the back of my neck near 1500m, making the rest of the swim a little bit uncomfortable. Finishing within a minute of my time in previous years, I was content with my swim and took a relaxing transition, making sure I had everything before setting out on the bike.

Bike

Rose City Bike

I wanted to make sure I started easy on the bike to try and hold off fading until as late as possible. Thankfully with a nice tail wind and flat course, the bike was going extremely well and I had my average pace above 35 for the first hour.

At around 40km, we turned into a headwind that slowed down my pace slightly, but nothing I was too worried about as I was still feeling very comfortable, with only some moderate neck pains which I was attributing to not having swam and biked together very much. As 60km rolled around, I knew that I was going to be hurting before the race was done, because of this I was pretty certain I would be finishing my race after the bike was complete. I managed to hold off any major discomfort until around 80km when we turned onto the final stretch of road and there was another headwind facing us. Looking at my bike time I knew I could get a new best time for myself on the course and decided to give it one last push into transition. I was happy with my time especially with my lack of training, and with that I decided there was no point in forcing myself through the discomfort of the run as well when I had nothing to gain. 

In the end, I was quite happy with the outcome of the race (despite getting bad sunburn on my shoulders). I set out to show myself how hard Niagara would be, and how hard I would have to work to set a personal best at it. I want to thank my mom for driving me out, and volunteering at the 60km aid station on the bike; all of the rest of the volunteers giving up their day to help the athletes on the course, and of course Recharge with Milk and MultiSport Canada for putting on another great race.