Muskoka Grind

You know what isn't the best pre- race?? Sleeping in a tent during thunderstorms. Everybody can thank us for the recent rain as we made the choice to camp. I am not superstitious but I am convinced that us in a tent=rain.

To back up a bit we traveled Saturday up to Muskoka- officially known as the longest drive ever. We encountered projectile vomiting, a parade, x3 construction delays, and a 15min wait at Weber's burgers. Thus a three hour drive became five.

The race was being held at Limberlost reserve- which is quite beautiful. As most local hotels were requiring a two night minimum  we opted to donate $40 to the reserve and camp on the race site. This in its self was fun. Got to check out transition the night before and met some other racers  and commiserated to each other on our overall lack of fitness and Mtn biking skills. The kids met up other other kids which give Luke and I a chance to pre-ride the course. Mentally I gave me a boost to know that I could handle it, but overwhelming know the next day I was to ride it at race pace, twice. I should mention I have no race pace. I also appreciated seeing some other females doing the full who were not women I knew had competed at the Xterra worlds.

It didn't matter that we stayed on site, I was still scrambling to be ready in the morning. Mostly I was consumed with trying to find coffee, and deciding if I should wear a camel back, and getting the all important bathroom visit out of the way. Basically I had to run to the swim start.  As well the most supportive partner in the world is Luke, except in the mornings. Which does not make for a happy morning.

 

Swim- 1k.

The picture of me coming out of the water with nobody behind me kinda speaks for itself. Doesn't help that the last time I swam 1k was in May prior to hurting my shoulder. But whatever, I swam the best I could. Sighting better would have helped.

I also passed about four women in transition so time differential wasn't too bad.

The Bike- 16.64

Basically, I think this was a course that favored a MTN biker. I think alot of the competitors were hard core mTN bikers- well at least in my eyes, and there I was in my entry level hard tail.Thankfully I was ok by that. I found it interesting that one hard corer was complaining about a minor muddy section. I didn't realise that MTN bikers didn't like mud as it mucked up the components on the bike. I laughed to his face about the absolute stupidity to his comment. The course was two laps with  two long uphill sections that I basically had to walk... and I had to walk other sections as well. It would have helped if my front de-railer would have allowed me to dip into my granny gear.  I thought it was reasonably technical but again the hard corers didn't.

I was quite slow, as in out of 40 people completing the course I was 37th OA. On my last lap I was all alone out there and just assumed that the few people that were behind me had dropped out, so I told all the volunteers on course I was the last one out there.

While I was biking I think I set new heart rate records. Felt like I was at my max heart rate for most of the race, and definitely could not catch my breath.

Run- 8.64

The only competitive goal I had for this race was to be in the top five of woman racers for the run. I was fourth. I came off the bike in like I said last or close to last position. I managed to run down I think five people. Including a women in my age group two seconds before the finish line. Which meant 3rd in my age group. Sure there were only five, but who cares,  I got a metal in a off road triathlon!!!