World Age Group Olympic Distance Triathlon Championships, Vancouver, BC

When one considers competing in a World Championships, one imagines great conditions, great competition and, given the amount of thought and training I'd put in for this since December, a great race. Sometimes, though, the best laid plans don't exactly happen.

Vancouver would be a nice venue for this race - if the weather had cooperated. Unfortunately, it rained and was 55 degrees from the moment we all arrived, soaking the junior races and the sprint world championships on Thursday and Friday (the pro women also had a miserable morning on Sunday; the pro men had very good weather in the afternoon). We were also anxious about the 54-55 degree water, but most of us had swum in cold water and were prepared for our race in it on Saturday morning.

However, the ITU in its wisdom canceled the swim for just over half the age groupers, citing surf conditions that prevented boats from being able to pull people out if need be. Yes, they did pull about 13 people from the water in early races (womens races were first, and those pulled were likley in older age groups), but this is the World Championships! We laughed when we thought about Sunday's Alcatraz race, where 2000 people swim in EXACTLY the same conditions for a longer time.

Anyway, we were first told that our races would be delayed an hour and then told around 9:00 that the swim was cancelled and the race was being turned into a duathlon - 3K-40K-10K. Not what I wanted, despite being a former runner, since a fast 3K would not be kind to my recently healed achilles tendon. At any rate, I found some stuff to eat before my race was due to start at 11:15 (instead of 9:45).

I ended up racing to a 1:51:11. I was 4th after the first run coming into T1 (it wasn't 3K either - it was short - I ran about 7:40). I lost a few seconds as my bike pedal caught my bag, but got out. I biked a 1:02 - almost 3 minutes faster than I ever have before - but I don't think I drank enough as, surprisingly, the weather turned warm and sunny after 3 days of chill and rain. Got off the bike and ran. I did a 38:03 10K but was cramping a bit in the last of 3 laps we ran...drank gatorade and took GU and it helped, but I couldn't really fly like I wanted.

Unfortunately, I have no idea yet what actual place I did get as the results for the M40 group were officially still "incorrect" as of last night's awards. For instance, the guy in first place in the unofficial results is down for a 23 minute 10K run; there are athletes with 50 minute and 52 minute bike times; and people apparently missed laps on the run and/or the bike (bike was 4 loops of 10K; run was 3 loops with 5 180 degree turns). I heard they are going through video to try and sort it out.

I will say that the whole thing was very inspiring. Seeing the 60s, 70s and (yes) 80s athletes was pretty cool, not to mention being able to wear the TeamUSA gear (sorry, Rick) and represent the country. Except during the opening ceremonies, which were cancelled due to rain.