The One With The Toronto Island Sprint Triathlon
I finished my first sprint triathlon on Toronto Island! Woohoo!
TL;DR The event went well, a couple of surprises but nothing I couldn't handle. It was a gorgeous day on the island, and my family came out to support me. Thanks for everyone who cheered me in person and virtually, you made a huge difference to my day. I finished top half overall and I was happy with my results. First sprint triathlon in the bag, time to think about what to do next in my racing career...
Excited to start racing
And now for a more detailed LONG report.
I was quite excited about the race today, so excited that I woke up at 4:30am for a 8am race. After all, I registered back in February and have been training for a good part of the past half a year. I forced myself to stay in bed until my alarm went off, because I wanted to make sure I was as rested as I could be. Turns out, I barely made it to the ferry on time even though I was up at an ungodly hour.
I left the house with Lizzie around 5:45am ish after we were both ready and met my family at the ferry terminal. The race instructions said to be at the ferry terminal an hour before our sailing time1. I had no issues last year for the Try-A-Tri, but boy I was wrong about today. When we got there, there was a line up all the from ferry ticketing booth to Queens Quay W. I had about 30 mins to get on the boat and I had no idea if I could make my race start time. Not to mention getting all the race kit like time chip, bib and body marking... before lining up for the actual ferry itself... omg...
Through some miracle, we managed got into the ferry gates by 7am ish. Quite a few people were disembarking, so I had a chance to use the washroom desperately before hopping on the boat. I split up with my family temporarily and planned to meet them on the ferry. I was one of the last couple of people to get on the boat, before the boat crew fenced off the entrance plank. It was fantastic! Except that my family didn't make it on, and that my brother had my bike 🫠
Luckily they had another ferry boat coming shortly after. It was to Hanlan's point, which was a much further trek for the rest of the gang. My brother and Lizzie both had bikes at this point, so they could still make it to me before my race heat started if they hurried.
I chatted with a fellow triathlete on the way to the starting area. He said he felt unprepared because he didn't get safety pins for his bib (I gave him two of mine), I felt unprepared because I didn't have my bike that I needed in less than 30 minutes. I started to warm up, and shortly after Lizzie and my brother Joey showed up with my bike and things. Phew...
After setting up, there was an announcement that all starts were delayed by 30 minutes... What a relief, I suppose there was nothing to stress about in the first place this morning. The guy I was chatting with earlier said he was on one of the first waves, I thought his wave was starting as we were talking. He was very nonchalant about the whole ordeal. What a casual 😏, although he certainly had the right mentality.
Pre-Race
I got a chance to look at the water before I started. My god, the wind made the waves so big it looked like we were at an ocean. I thought we were screwed for sure for the swim, and started to think how great it'd be to have stayed in my cozy bed this weekend and slept in. It was still before 8am at this point. Luckily again, the event coordinators were merciful and benevolent beings that did not want us to all drown. They reconfigured the course to be behind the breakwater structure (rock things to block waves) as well as reducing the entire swim distance. It went from 750m to ~600m, which was fairly significant. So once again, it worked out and it was nothing to panic about.
I was fairly familiar with the course overall. It was the same as the try-a-tri I did last year, just double the distance. I got a chance to do a quick rekkie to see the new shortened swim course. I was also able to mentally go through what I had to do for the transition stages. Before I knew it, I was already in the water getting ready to start in my wave, literally.
Since I got into the water early, I did a few practice strokes and acclimatize to the water. Strangely, water kept getting into my left eye every time I put my face in. I realized my goggle's seal was breaking apart. oasidfjoaisdfjlk. Not panicking (I was panicking), I managed to squeeze the seal back into the goggle itself. I tightened everything less than 2 minutes before my start, and gave it a try. No water getting my eyes. Thank goodness... I guess if I couldn't fix it, I'd just have to rough it out. Unexpected things always happens, you have to expect the unexpected!
Swim
I get why some people complain about choppy water in the swim now
As the my heat/wave was about to start, my group swam to the starting buoys. It felt like we were at a wave pool despite the course reconfiguration. We were all treading water at this point because we can no longer touch the ground. Cool waves hit me in the face, reminding me that I could've stayed in bed today and I chose to be here.
We got counted down faintly from the speaker on the beach, before hearing a loud train horn. It was go time. My group frantically began to kick water and started to swim. I took my time and tried to get a steady rhythm, before trying to keep up with my group. In the beginning, the waves were still pushing my group around a little, before we got to the breakwater structure. It got calmer and shallower as we went on, and I was able to see the ground as I swam and even stand up if I needed to. This was very comforting, because I normally can't see anything at the bottom when I swim at my usual secret swim spot.
I really paced myself, but my group eventually dropped me at some point of the swim. I didn't mind too much, because the swim is generally the shortest part of the race and I wanted to be consistent and not blow up my heart rate.
Overall the swim went well and there were no further issues. I got kicked once in the ribs by another swimmer, but I half expected these things to happen and didn't really care. I took a bit of time on the transition trying to put shoes on. Someone messed with my setup at the bike rack, but it only cost me a few seconds and mild annoyance. My neighbour competitor was more annoyed and cussed about the same situation.
T1, Bike
I fidgeted with my watch a bit too much after switching to the bike. It's an older apple model and doesn't have all fancy features. I wanted to get a rough estimate of my speed and heart rate, to pace myself for the ride. I knew the bike rules from last year, so no issues here.
The bike portion went well. I was able to deliver a consistent effort, and I felt more prepared and fitter on the bike than last year. I have been riding weekly for the past two months after all. I passed people, and people passed me. I noticed that there really is big variety of age with all the competitors as we looped around the western part of the island. Competitors ranged from early 20s to late 40s, and some even in their 50-60s. Most people passing me had nicer road bikes with the skinny tires. I could beat them or keep up with them if I had a nicer road bike, at least that's what I told myself as people passed me.
At some point, there was this girl, Laura, who was passing me, just for me to catch up and pass her. Aha! This was going to be my pacer and my ride buddy for the rest of the ride. I made sure to keep my distance, hydrating at select spots so I don't cramp up and that I am ready for the run portion. Laura was a tough opponent, we passed each other back and forth a few times. Maybe I need to practice drinking water on the bike, because I found she always snuck up on me when I was drinking something.
On the last lap of the bike, I passed Laura again thinking that it was the last time I'd see her before I leave her in the dust. I said to her "Let's go, Laura!" to start a bit of a rivalry. She caught up to me almost a quarter way of the last lap, I ended up eating her dust instead. Ooof. I kept up with her the rest of the way, keeping about a 10-15m of gap between us. It worked out really well, because I didn't have to think about how fast to cycle. My heart rate was already around 180bpm on my watch, riding around 26km/h. I knew at this speed and effort, it was as fast as I could go without completely destroying myself for later. Come to think.. something like this back and forth rivalry situation happened last year too.
T2, Run
As I finished my 4 laps, I began to dismount. I must've been going fairly fast, because Lizzie was surprised to see me at the transition area. She was shocked and hardly got her phone camera out in time to film me. It was really heart warming to see her support me for my race. I needed all the motivation I could get at this point.
One thing I didn't train too well this year was going from biking to running. For those of you that don't know, these are called brick workouts. It seems like that when you bike hard for some time, you get these things called bike legs/jelly legs where your legs feel heavy and wobbly. Your leg muscles essentially forget how to run - effectively turning your legs into bricks.
Thankfully, 20km is not too long of a distance to bike. I was still dreading it, because I only did brick workouts maybe 3 times this whole season. I was already starting to feel a bit of fatigue, and I had a whole 5km to run. I tried to convince myself, okay, no big deal, I've done 5km many times.
After setting my bike down and helmet off, I sipped on some secret liquid formula (electrolyte mix) and started moving to the run. Lizzie cheered me on and I was off. I saw Joey at the beginning of the race, he joined me and ran as a bystander for as long as he could. It was a comical image, because he was wearing a full black outfit with a long jacket, and I was in my tri-suit. One looked like a fish out of water, and the other one looked like he was about to hack the matrix.
I started getting calf cramps in the first 200m. Shit. I had this before but never figured out why. I drank enough water and sipped electrolytes. Must be my body trying to tell me running after biking is forbidden, and that it didn't like it. I stopped to retie my shoe lace. Joey said something to me like, "come on, you are lettings a girl pass you?" Between the calf cramp, tying shoes, and fatigue from biking, I wanted to slap him. I composed myself and we kept on running together. Joey decided he had enough just shy of 1km. Good for him, I don't think we've ever run this long together without him stopping. I hope he finds joy in jogging and running in the future, and that he's inspired by all these people doing the triathlon.
Shifting my attention, I feel that my calves complained less and less as I moved. I took it easy at the first 1km so I didn't get a full cramp. I started to step on the gas a little and got a cup of water from the aid section without stopping. God bless the volunteers, one of them was cheering all of us on, and that renewed me with determination.
Last year they had the electrolyte drinks, but I guess they didn't have the sponsor this year. I was counting on it, since I didn't know if my mild calf cramps were from dehydration or just from biking. Fortunately once again, it didn't come back after the first two kilometres.
I began to gradually pick up my pace. I started around 5:30min/km, and gradually started to shave off time as each kilometre went on. I wanted to make sure I didn't leave too much in the tank towards the end of the race. My virtual coach on the Runna app told me I shouldn't go faster than 5:08min/km until I established a rhythm well into the race. As if I could hit that even on fresh legs.
My strategy for racing is generally "negative splits". Where I run at a pace I know I could go faster . Once I get to the half way point, I know exactly how much breath and energy I still have left, before I really apply myself. Just after the half way point, two runners passed me. It was a very gradual pass. They were certainly faster than me, but I wanted to keep pace with them. I used them as my pacers just like the bike segment, and tried to keep my distance before they got too far. They really pushed me at this point.
I marked a couple of spots in my mind in the previous loop. Where to empty the tank and go at my full speed. I kept up with the one of the people that passed me until the last 500m. I closed the distance and passed her, before trying to catch up to the other person who passed me earlier. I was trying to do some kind of breath work here to get my breathing under control, but I felt like I just couldn't establish a rhythm. Not that I really knew what I was doing, but I think it helped me mentally somewhat. I was truly racing at this point and my breathing felt like it was on manual mode. The other person was too far ahead, and I never managed to catch up to him. I started to get glimpses of the finish line around the last 250m and I bolted as hard as I could.
I heard my name and my city get announced as I sprinted through the finish line. 26.5mins for the run. Not bad! I actually hit a 4:58min/km pace for the last 1km. Probably my personal record overall in recent years2, on top of doing all the swimming and biking. I was gasping for air at the finish line, and happy I finished the race.
Just like that, my first sprint tri was all over. I managed to recover shortly after and caught up with my family after that for pictures. I even saw someone I knew, as well as a coworker today.
I was pretty happy with how well I performed this year. For someone that was training only 3ish sessions a week, I think I did alright. There was certainly lots of room for improvement, but the biggest goal today was to finish the race in a fashionable manner.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to stick around the island too long after. My family had to leave and I was also their ride home. I hope that if I get to do this event again, I can spend the whole day on the island and bask in the self inflicted glory of this race.
Ready to go home and sleep, but very happy and glad to have done this event
My time for this race
