Chris doesn’t listen to himself, but lets humour him and read his race report.

Congrats to all, and commiserations to you, Rick–been there and done that, right down to the race revenge plan.

My swim went well, although I have to apologize to Brian for being on his feet for the first couple of hundred meters (not drafting–on his feet in the sardine-like press of the start) until there was some open water to get by.  Then, of course, the best part of my day was over and the world started passing me by, although that was expected.

I surprised Coach Drew at his lookout spot, then saw Gabriela Speck a couple of times early on the bike (but no Esther), Jeff passed like a bullet on the way to Osoyoos, I think I saw Brian on Richter, Allie flew past on the way to Keremeos (hard to miss the coordinated jersey and helmet!) and I think I passed Amanda on the way down from Twin Lakes (the advantage of hauling all that extra mass up the bloody hill), although she got by me in T2 and smoked the run.  Then saw Dave on the Lakeshore out-and-back.

My run was, well, pedestrian.  The first half was pretty well on pace, but the bottom dropped out on the second half and “walking the aid stations” became “walking to the aid station, then walking away from it.”  Notes to self: 1) Never do this again; 2) If you do, work on run pacing.

The lowest point of the event for me was the ride up to Yellow Lake, or more correctly the bit before the climb, just after the out-and-back at Keremeos;  I was slow enough to miss the worst of the rain (three cheers for sloth!) but still hit the headwind–it was pretty demoralizing to be in a climbing gear on the relatively flat bottom portions and still muster only 12km/h.  More notes to self: 1) Really never do this again; 2) If you do, don’t fret the weather cause there’s not a darn thing you can do about it.

In all a taxing, exciting and in the end fun event, and now that the pain is subsiding and the memory grows fonder with the passage of time (i.e. I gloss over the nasty bits in my mind), I find myself thinking that, you know, it really wasn’t that bad.  Final notes to self: 1) Really, really never do this again, I mean it!; 2) If you do, smile for the camera.

See you at training next week and good luck to those going to the Worlds.  Have fun (and German beer)!

Cheers

Chris Manore