this was the race that i'd been gearing up for all season. early on in the year i'd found out that the national championships had been cancelled, and all ten of the national team qualifying spots that were available at that race had been dispersed across canada. with six spots available at this race - the ontario provincial duathlon championships in gravenhurst - i went into it completely blind as far as knowing what to expect. i started getting back into multisport in late 2007 and missed the provincial and national championships that year, as well as last year because i was traveling, so this was the first time that i would be competing against a gathering of all of ontario's and, perhaps, canada's finest duathletes. i had to place in the top 6 in my age group and, although i was pretty sure that i was capable of doing so, i'm in one of the most competitive age group categories in the sport. every time that i've been beaten this year, each of those athletes have been in my age group category. there are a lot of strong, talented duathletes out there and i was expecting every one of them to show up at this race. needless to say, i was nervous the final few days leading up to the race.
i arrived at race site early because i wanted to give myself as much time as possible to register, set up my transition area, warm up, and do everything else that needs to be done on race morning. there were only a couple of athletes there when i arrived, one of whom was larry bradley. larry and i are both avid bloggers and the two of us have been chatting back and forth online for a couple of months, so it was nice to finally have met him in person. once all of my pre-race responsibilities had been taking care of i still had plenty of time. i headed out on my bike for about 15 minutes to make sure everything was in check and to see the first kilometre of the bike course. the course starts off with a couple of challenging uphill climbs right out of transition area, makes a few short turns onto some residential streets, and then heads away from town to three main out-and-back roads just north of town. on the final return trip of the bike course you wind your way back through more residential streets before descending back down into transition area. i had finished my run warm up and stretching a few minutes before the race began when my family showed up, so i had a quick opportunity to say hello before heading off to the starting line.
as i was standing there getting ready to race i was realizing that i felt pretty good. i got a few hours of solid sleep the night before (rare for me) and had had an easy, stress free pre-race morning. everything had gone smoothly so far. however, i was feeling a little concerned with how i'd fueled my body. even though i'd been sure to keep drinking water leading right up to the start, i was feeling slightly dehydrated and a little light on prolonged, burnable energy stores. my meal the night before had been the same meal that i'd had before every other race this season and i'd stuck with it because it's always worked out well for me, but this morning i was concerned that i hadn't eaten quite enough. this race distance (10k run, 4ok bike, 5k run) was longer than the races i normally do, but not by much. i figured the same meal would be just fine as long as i fueled properly while out on course. i was also standing there thinking about my race plan. usually i'm able to sprint ahead of the field right out of the gate and can maintain a strong pace at the front of the pack, but i didn't want to do that this morning. because the field was so strong i knew that i wasn't going to be able to keep pace with the race leaders, and i didn't want to waste any unnecessary energy. i also didn't want to look like a fool, sprinting ahead of all the other athletes at the beginning of the race only to end up a couple of dozen runners back in the pack by the end of the first run. so my plan for the first 10k run was to settle into a good pace right from the beginning, conserving energy for the very technical, challenging 40k bike ride with the idea of having enough left over for a strong performance on the last 5k run.
all of the athletes at the front of the start line were shaking hands and wishing each other well as our final few seconds were counted down. as expected, kevin smith, one of only a handful of elite duathletes in ontario, took the lead right from the start. we all knew better than to try to keep pace with him because he's such a strong runner, and by the first kilometre or so the field had spread out. not much happened on the first run, things remaining almost the same for the whole run. larry bradley and i were pretty much neck and neck the entire distance. the course was rarely flat, always twisty and turny, and it was difficult to see ahead of you, the road disappearing behind tight corners. on what flat sections there were i would start to slowly pull away from larry but he was right on me and would catch right up to me and pass me whenever we got to a hill. he's much stronger than me on hills and i couldn't shake him. as we hit the 5k turnaround i was feeling pretty good so i picked things up slightly and finally put a bit of distance between the two of us. but at the first uphill climb he got me again and it got to the point where i didn't want to expend that extra energy trying to get away from him if he was just going to catch me at every hill. bruce bird, who was behind us, also picked it up at the 5k point and and put some distance between him, larry and me. there was one long, flat part of course right near the 9k mark and, feeling that i was the stronger athlete on the flats and knowing that there were no more uphill climbs ahead of us, i made a move and came into transition area in 6th spot with larry breathing down my neck.
larry had a quicker transition than me and we both came out of t1 together, larry getting ahead right away but with me catching up and overtaking him at the top of the first climb. we stayed close for the first few kilometres. so close, in fact, that when we had reached the first out and back turnaround at about the 5k point, i slowed to go around the pylon and then started counting to see how much ground i'd made on him. when you get to a turnaround spot like that the idea is that if you start counting and stop when you pass by the other athlete approaching from the other direction, you double you count to see how far ahead you are. it's a great tool to see if you're making up or losing time. anyways, i started my count and as i was watching the athletes going the other way looking for larry, larry passed me on the bike! he was right behind me and i had no idea. for those first (extremely rough and bumpy) few kilometres, we played cat and mouse, me getting ahead of him again, him getting back in front of me. i thought that it was going to stay that way for the whole ride but larry must have some hidden switch on his bike because he made a break out of nowhere and he was quickly ahead of me. i thought that i'd be able to hold the ground between us but he just kept getting further and further away.
it was around this point that i started to notice that, as i'd suspected, my fuel levels were getting low. i was realizing that a) i definitely did not eat enough the night before, and b) i didn't have enough food with me on course to consume to top up my tank. i wasn't feeling weak because i didn't feel like i'd pushed myself too hard on the first run, i just felt like my tank was emptying fast. because of my diet i avoid using popular, brand name processed energy drinks, gels and bars at all costs and have been experimenting with my own energy bars and gels, but today, for some stupid, totally unexplainable reason, all i had with me out on my bike with me as fuel was half a banana. even while i was out there racing i was realizing how ridiculous it was to think that that would be enough for me on a day when i was going to burn nearly 2500 calories in two hours.
but i continued to pedal. i fought through it and stayed as strong as i could. as the race wore on larry continued to create some distance between the two of us and i got overtaken by one more duathlete. because there were three out-and-back turnaround sections i could see that i was falling behind. it didn't help that i got pushed off of the road by a cube van and almost crashed into someone at the side of the road. the van pushed me to the outside of a corner as it unsympathetically tried to pass me while i was out there racing. i went straight into the soft dirt at the side of the road, wobbled frantically as i tried to maintain control of my bike and stopped just in time to avoid hitting a woman out for a morning run. extremely frustrated i made my way back to the road, clipped into my pedals and was on my way again.
my strength continued to disappear and at one point i was saying to myself, you can go faster than this. you know you can go faster than this. i finally made it to my favourite section of the course and put in as much strength as i had left for the last 8k and headed back to transition area in 6th spot, feeling light years behind the leaders. as i came down the last hill and dismounted my bike, i heard my family cheering. "Go Tommy," they all sang out. "You're in 6th position! You're looking great!" the crowd always amps you up, especially when you have the people there you love pushing you on. with a quick couple of swigs from my water bottle in transition, i left t2 for the last leg of the race anxious to see what the situation was out there on the run course. i felt like i hadn't seen any of my competitors in a long time so i was practically expecting them all to be coming into the finish as i left to start my run.
as i found my legs and made my way past a few triathletes on course i started getting closer and closer to the 2.5k turnaround point. because of those blind twists and turns i needed that turnaround point to tell me where i was in the field. i still hadn't seen any of the duathlon leaders coming back in yet, and as i approached the last 500m before heading back home i realized that i wasn't actually that far behind all the leaders. or, at least, not as far behind as i'd feared. this gave me back some of the confidence that i needed to carry on strong. i finally saw the duathletes ahead of me and my nearest competitor was still larry. he had about 500 metres on me and as i reached the turnaround i'd decided that it was possible for me to catch him but i was running out of time, so if i wanted to make it into the top 5 overall i was going to have to push a little harder. i picked up my pace and tried to keep my eye on him. he would disappear behind a corner and then he would reappear again, each time seeming like i hadn't made up any ground. it was finally at about the same point on course where it flattens and straightens, the same point in the first run where i'd made my move, that i really hit it. i knew that i could catch him on the flats if i pushed hard and i started to make some ground. i lost him again around another turn only to realize that he was now on a downhill section getting away from me, so as soon as i crested that same hill i hit it even harder. this was the last descent before the course flattened off into the three final sharp turns to the finish.
he was now within about 20 metres of me. we both got held up by some poorly managed traffic and on the last long straight section of the run i got him and moved past him quickly. i had made my move and started my sprint to the finish and my heart rate was skyrocketing and my breathing was quick. i barely had enough wind to say "thanks!" as larry congratulated me as i passed him. i kept on it because i was expecting larry to make his own sprint to the finish and was concerned that i'd started my last sprint too soon. as i came into the final section of the race, the finish line right there in sight, i kept looking back over my shoulder expecting to get one last sprint out of larry. whether or not he was tapped out i'm not sure but i came across the line 5th overall in a time of 2.03.17, a time that i was extremely happy with, ten seconds ahead. i also finished 1st in my age group and with that secured a spot on the national team. mission accomplished!
after congratulating larry and all of the other athletes that were hanging out post-race at the finish line, sharing our race stories and patting each other on the back, i went over to see my family and thanked them all for coming out to watch and for cheering me on. with my national team spot secured, i left there that day with my wife and took the next week off from work and training. i spent a relaxing week recovering, eating, and enjoying some incredible wine. with the provincials behind me i can now focus on the rest of the season and hope to improve my race times as the year goes on. it was so great to have been able to race in a field of such talented athletes and i can't wait till we can all get together to do it again. it's rare for everyone to be able to gather at the same venue and a provincial championship is such a great opportunity to race alongside those people.
congratulations to all of the athletes out there that obtained a national team spot and if i don't see you at any races in the meantime, i'll see you at the world championships in 2010!
