Swim
The swim was rather uneventful for 1900m. The last 100m though was a 3 way sprint between who I believe was Marc Prud'Homme and Larry Hasson with Ang right behind. All I was thinking about was the bonus points for leading the swim because it is looking like it will be close race between myself and Jack Laundry for the series. I think I managed to touch the dock first, but the timing mat isn't the dock. My terrible upper body strength let me down, and I rolled onto to the dock something like a beached whale. There is my first excuse, but from now on at swim the end of swim practices I will jump onto deck instead of being so exhausted I have to use the ladder.
T1
Excuse number 2 - When taking my wetsuit off my chip came off with it. In 99% of my races I will put a safety pin through the chip to make sure it stays on. I was lazy this morning and decided not to and it cost me. Lesson 2 don't be lazy with race set up, it doesn't matter how important a race is.
Bike
The plan for the bike was to go out a bit harder than half-ironman (him) pace then ease into him pace during the second half. The first 20k of the bike was going really well. My normalized power was about 230w which is about 10w over him pace and right where I wanted to be, leading the race. Excuse 3 - However, at about the 20k mark I hear a whistling sound, and the first thought that came into my head was that I had a tack or nail stuck in one of my tires. I slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road checked my front tire, didn't see anything and it felt normal. Felt the back tire it felt normal gave it a spin to see if anything was sticking in it, and that is when I saw the sticker that covers the valve hole in my disc came off and got stuck in my brakes. This once again goes back to just being a little bit carefree and not paying attention to small details when setting my bike up. Looking back at it I have used that sticker for all the races this year, and should have just replaced it. Looking at my Strava file it looks like I was on the side of the road for just over a minute and during that time Andrew and Jordan flew by. The next 5k I put the hammer down riding about 240w trying to catch back up. I think I managed to close the gap down a little bit, but just after making the turn around my legs went POP! If you missed it that was excuse number 4 and the lesson here is that if something happens during a race don't panic and stick to the plan. The power steadily dropped over the last 20k of the race, and Marc caught me at about 40k.
T2
My last mistake. Running out of transition I was carrying my number, hat, a gel, and my watch as I was still panicking and trying to catch up. During my panic I dropped my watch and had to stop and go back for it. Once again panicking doesn't make anything better relax and do what is in your control.
Run
Leaving transition I was a little bit surprised to hear I was 4:30 minutes down from the leaders as I was expecting maybe 2-3. At this point I thought about just tossing in the towel and saving up for next weeks battle in Bracebridge, but I told myself I need to get a longer run in anyway and my as well do it on a supported course. At the turn around I was about 2 min behind Andrew, and thought I had a chance to catch him. Jordan's lead stayed pretty steady so I knew I wasn't going to catch him. With about 2k to go Andrew's green tri suit stood out amongst the short course racers heading back in, and I found an extra gear. About 200m from the finish I came up on Andrew's shoulder just as he was receiving the news that him and Jordan missed part of the course and were being dq'd. I guess the missed the sign for a small triangle section that added on maybe 1k I'll make excuse number 6 for them that the sign wasn't very big, but you should also have a rough idea of the course route. I'm sure MSC will have some much larger signs next year as they do a wonderful job at their races and do a great job listening to feedback to make the races even better, no one is perfect. In the end I got the win, but you never want to win because someone got dq'd hopefully I can race these guys again soon and none of us make mistakes and we will all be in for a great battle.
Kingston is one of my favourites races in Ontario with its urban setting. I find it really motivating to races when there is a ton of people around cheering throughout the entire course. I want to thank all my sponsors. Vorgee for their amazing swim equipment, Nineteen for a speedy wetsuit, Infinit for simplifying my nutrition, CicloWerks for keeping my bike running smoothly, Smith Optics for keeping my eyes safe, MultiSport Canada for allowing me to race on a pro triathletes budget, and Franklin Terrazzo for their support.
Here is an interview Ang and I did with Roger from Triathlon Magazine Canada. Always great chatting with him after a hard day of work
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