Vancouver World Triathlon Championships

Lousy weather over the weekend (gloomy, cold, rainy) was overshadowed completely by an awesome experience at Worlds. Hanging out, training, and having fun with athletes from around the world was a true gift and getting to know folks from my own neck of the woods was just as great. The best part was having my family there to share it with me.

Race day dawned with dry streets, although a couple of showers had us nervous. In the end, it wasn’t rain and cold we had to worry about. The formerly benign waters of English Bay were being whipped into a frenzy by the tempest like winds. It looked more like the start of an Australian surf boat race, with waves rolling in and breaking onto the beach. We were swimming up and down waves, trying to figure out the right time to breathe without getting a face full of water.

Conditions got so bad that they had to rescue four women from my wave, although they allowed us to complete the swim, which had been shortened due to the cold. However, race officials postponed the next waves for an hour and then cancelled the swim for the remaining women and all the men. Their triathlon was turned into a duathlon. It was a controversial and disappointing decision for many athletes.

I was starting to get into a groove on the bike course, until just after the start of the third lap when my left TT bar slipped out and fell into the spokes of my front wheel. Got going again – holding onto the TT bar for dear life -- but realized I was stuck in the little chain ring. Stopped again to manually move the chain to the big ring, but it wouldn’t stay. No options -- I would have to finish the race in the small chain ring.

The run had been advertised as complicated, with three loops not set up in a very clear fashion, and it was! At this point I could tell that the men were running a duathlon, which made it even worse. At least it was relatively flat. For the sprint to the finish line, folks from the U.S. team handed us flags to carry to the finish. It was a proud moment.

Results: Between the run loop confusion and timing errors on the laps, the official results have not been posted, as there have been many appeals. My time of 2:25:53 matches what I had timed on my watch. I was 12^th out of the water and in the same place after the second bike loop. It looks like I lost about 4-5 minutes on the bike from the mechanical. My run clocked in at 47:05, which is my best 10K in a tri, and only 10 seconds off my best 10K. Lots of improvement on the run (4 minutes faster than my qualifying race last year), but still lots of work to do.

I finished 28^th out of 76 starters in my age group according the unofficial results. Without the mechanical it looks like I would have finished in the top 20. In any case, I am absolutely thrilled to have been able to participate and be competitive at such an incredible event with my peers from around the world.