Guest Race Report: Duathlon Provincial Championships 2016

As I mentioned in my last post, I raced the Duathlon Provincial Championships this past weekend.

Although I had a strong enough race, it was fairly formulaic and you hear about my races all the time so I thought I would hand this one over to my training partner and bad ass athlete, Mark Cullen.

Having just raced the IM 70.3 Muskoka the weekend prior, I wasn’t sure what my legs were going to have going into this one. That being said, I was prepared to lay it on the line as I knew this was a 2017 World Championships Qualifier and was an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine to compete for Canada at an international event.

My initial goals were to try and average 4:00/km on the run portions and 33ish km/h on the bike. As we blasted off on the run, my legs felt great and after a few conservative KMs to start, I started to dial it in and worked with a fellow competitor to hammer the back half of the run. I was very surprised when I looked down at my watch at the end of the 10k run leg to see that I had ran 38:07.

After a seamless transition, it was onto the bike. I worked really hard out there and was passed by a few quick guys and made the pass on a few others as well.

The coolest part of the bike leg for me was when I came around a corner and there was a deer just standing 2 feet off the road chewing some grass, seemingly unphased by the numerous bikes that were zipping by. I was pleased with my bike split, averaging 34km/h.

The 5k run was going to be the interesting section as I had really ripped my legs on the bike and was hoping I could hold on for a solid run. My first km of the run, I was just trying to find my rhythm and open up my stride. After the first km passed, I was able to find a groove, I felt I was working hard but I was able to maintain a great leg turnover. I rode the pain train for the last 2km and had a little battle with one of the high placing triathletes who was carrying some serious speed late in the run.

I was ecstatic to look down at my watch to see an 18:37 5K coming in.

I didn’t really look at my watch during this race at all until the end of each leg, so it was nice to find that going by feel I was able to exceed my expectations.

I came away with an AG win and a Worlds Qualifying Spot for Penticton 2017. While the competition to qualify in my AG wasn’t very stiff I felt as though I had executed a really strong race and has truly earned that spot for Worlds. I am looking forward to many more duathlons in the future and setting my sights on Penticton 2017.

Check back later this month see the full team recap on Muskoka IM 70.3!

Also, have you done any awesome races or adventures lately? I would love to do a blog post featuring a round up of your awesomeness. Send me an email of your epic event at lacesandlattes@gmail.com.