The triathlon race season is now over! This weekend we finished up the Junior Series for the summer in Kelowna. It was great to return to this race for the National Championships; it's always been one of my favourites. I'm not sure why since I've never actually had a great race here. My first year I felt really sick on the run and suffered through to the finish. Last year was when I left the course in an ambulance, covered in road rash after being run off the road by a stupid stray vehicle. I was ready for redemption in Kelowna. I love the lake we swim in, the technical multi-loop bike course and the spectator friendly run.
I felt positive and focused on race day. It felt weird having so much time in the morning to prepare, but everything was going smoothly. Even though I knew my ranking would slip significantly after this race because of the best three race's points counting towards the final ranking, I came into the start list in tenth. Making the cut-off to be announced by name at the start was a minor confidence booster, but I was willing to take anything to keep my attitude positive. I knew I would have to go all out on the swim and have the best of my season if I wanted to have a good race. While there were not as many girls entered, it was a very strong field and making a good bike pack was critical.
I had a solid start and focused on keeping my stroke rate quick and my breathing even. I started next to Nicole and wanted to stay on her feet but I was pushed out of the way and ended up surrounded by other people. There was chaos at each turn buoy, but I was aggressive and knew it meant I would at least exit the water in a group if I could stay there. With one buoy to go, I could tell the group was getting away on me. I thought, that's my pack and I'm going to stay with them. I knew that girls I wanted to be with on the bike were right there, like Nicole, Elyse, Jessie, and Elsabet. Between running as hard as I could and pulling off a super smooth transition I passed four girls and was starting the bike exactly where I wanted to be.
After having several frustrating bike packs this season due to my lack of swim speed, it was quite a change to be in a fast group. There were three girls that had broken away and were leading the race followed by the main pack, then my second chase pack of about nine. The pace was hard, but I was so happy to finally be back with these girls at this point in the race that I was so determined to not let them get away. Adeline is one of the strongest cyclists I know and as she kept trying to push the group's pace, girls would start falling off and the pack would be strung out and messy. I was often the one told to close the gap to keep the group together. This meant that as I was pulling off and hoping for a bit of a break at the back I would have to keep working really hard.
Four laps later we were done the bike portion and I was really excited to exit transition second in my pack. I tried to start up a solid pace for the run, but it was somehow not happening for me. Within a kilometer, almost all the girls I rode with had passed me. This was really frustrating after finally having the swim and bike I wanted. But as each one made their move on me I couldn't respond. My legs didn't have it, maybe because of working so hard already, and my whole head felt plugged. That didn't help my breathing settle and by a certain point I could tell I wasn't going to catch anyone ahead, and hopefully no one else would get me from behind. It turned into surviving the four laps and maintaining my position with no one in sight to motivate me. I was really glad to finally see the finish line. I was in 21st place, behind Ashlyn in 20th. Unfortunately, Maddy had asthma problems and didn't finish the race. I'm proud of both you girls in your first season though.
Congrats to all the other girls in my race. It has been tons of fun getting to race almost all of them every other weekend this summer. I have made some awesome friends! A highlight for MNTC was Tyler winning his race. Way to go on becoming National Champion Tyler! Also in the guys race were Riley U in 13th, Darian 28th, Riley M 30th, and Corey 39th. Congrats to all the guys as well. Also to Emily who raced U16 and Stevie who raced Elite.
We stuck around the next day to watch the Elite race, which is always fun. Lots of friends doing the same thing. Although it's hard to see the letters written on us in the picture, our team got together to show our support for Stevie. Thanks to Dina for this photo and for being the chaperone for the trip.
Full results can be found here for junior women and men:
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