2 for 1

Today i've got a deal for race reports.. 2 for 1.

I made my way over to vancouver labour day weekend to race in the vancouver triathlon in stanley park. This has been one of my favourite races mostly due to the killer bike course the event has. At what other time would you get to race around stanley park in practically your underwear?

Nolan P was grascious to have myself and felipe vande wyngard stay with him. Felipe had just finished training over here in victoria and was headed to veracruz to race the following weekend. I had this race and then would race in veracruz as well.

The tide was right out for the swim start and i made a very bad mistake of trying to be sneaky which cost me alot in terms of having a good start. My swim was not what it needed to be to have a shot at the winning the race so i was constantly playing catch up until it was too late. My bike felt strong as a positive and well the run was a gong show as the volunteers were not yet out on the course. This got people placed 2nd to about 10th i'd say lost on the run, but that is part of racing i guess. I felt bad for paul krochak who was in 2nd when things went wrong. The results are not an indication of the proper placement of the athletes. I ended up 2nd and felt it was a great prep for veracruz in 5 days.


Veracruz,

I flew down to veracruz which is located in the southern part of the gulf of mexico. One of mexico's largest ports, it escaped the hurricanes relatively unscathed. I arrived late wednesday night and quickly realized that I was more in mexico than i had ever been. The previous race i had in mexico was in a resort town, this was 'real' mexico and at night there i was honestly a little spooked.

When morning came the ghosts had disappeared and got to see some of the historical city. I got in the water as well which was very very warm (28). I enjoyed the cuisine with no glitches and come race day i was feeling recovered and ready to race.

The swim went well and i came out just off the front group. I put my head down and went ALL OUT on the first kilometers of the bike and managed to catch the lead group. The group was 4 mexicans, 1 can, 1 costa rican, 1 argentian. The mexicans would not work and were actually trying to slow the group down so that there compadres would catch up. The other three of us did all the work and actually gained time on the first two laps before losing time on the last two. We came into T2 with just over a minute on the chase pack. THe run was a brute struggle where i was so close to stopping. The heat and humidity were really getting to me. When i crossed the line i was so proud of myself for hanging in there and getting a quality result. I finished 8th scoring some valuable points.

After the race I caught a case of the taco bug and battled flu like symptoms for 5 days upon getting back to victoria. The rest of the week I have felt tired and the motivation to train is dwindling...one more race ...one more race.