Tales from the Other Side: Shawnigan Lake 1/2 Ironman

It was a good day of racing yesterday.
Heather and Trevor Wurtele and myself did the race as a relay.
Rachel Kiers did the whole thing and a posse of my friends and athletes were out there on relay teams and in the sprint - or both in one case.
Rachel lead the race from wire to wire to take her first ever win. Steve King announced that Rachel had knocked over 30' off her time from the previous year. Rachel thought it was closer to 40'. I told her I was going with King's memory on the matter. Of course, King was right. The time was 33'. An awesome improvement.
Though Rachel took the race handily she didn't do it without some pressure. There was a female relay team out there pushing her hard. She didn't know they were a relay team until about 7K into the run when she realized the strong Caucasian cyclist who had gotten into the transition in front of her had turned into a petite Asian speedster. Now that's a transition!
My man Irvin Tang along with the newest member of the roster, Roland Neville and Team X'er Korey Gendron put in a relay team for the ½. The fun thing was Irvin was also signed up for the sprint, which was scheduled to go 40' after the start of the full. Irvin would have to do the swim - hand off his chip, put on a new chip and switch his swim cap. By my calculation, he would have about 7'.
I was spot on with my estimate. Irvin swam 32:59. He raced up the ramp, handed Roland his chip - and then promptly peeled off his wetsuit out of habit. Bad move. He now had about 4' to get his wetsuit back on. Have you ever tried to put a wet wetsuit on a wet body? There were three of us trying to wedge him back into that thing. We just managed to do up the zipper and give Irvin a whole 30 seconds to get back in the water for the gun.
Lysanne Lavigne, also doing a relay was in a fun situation as well. ITU stud Lisa Mensink was in town and her coach, Paul Regensburg, had called me earlier in the week to see if I had a cyclist to race with Lisa, who would swim and run. I know lots of guys who can ride at a very high level but Paul wanted someone competitive, though not too competitive - someone who would put Lisa in a position to have to do some chasing on the run. Lysanne is a tough little nut but she's been racing short course. The 90k would be new territory for her. A few people caught her out there but she ended up cycling a 2:43! I had her at least 10' slower that was a hell of a nice surprise. She also said she felt like she never really got going. I love it when an athlete makes that complaint - and they still ride well. It tells me when they "really get going" they can do some special things!
I was running on our relay after Heather swam and Trevor rode. I knew Lisa would be just one of the relay runners out there who would be gunning for me. That's not hubris. Heather was on the last day of a MONSTER build. She was deathly tired but she's been swimming well and I knew she'd start us out strong. The swim was a bit of a gong show due to a couple of small factors that ended up large factors for some. Swimming WAY out in front were Andrew McCartney, Brent McMahon and Daniel "Dano" Wells. Three of the best swimmers in the game. A minute or two behind was Lisa and Jazz Blake. The problem was they were all so far in front of everyone else that they were the only ones to benefit by the canoe. Everyone else had to go by the buoys, which unfortunately were the same colour as the swim caps. Also there were a few separate buoys out there for the sprint race to follow. There was a lot of chaos out there but it's a good lesson - know the swim course. Had an athlete really studied the proper course they would have had far fewer problems. Heather is pro enough to have done that and she swam "pretty" straight but she also swam completely alone as everyone else was all over the map.
26' into the swim I could see her coming in from a hundred meters away - completely solo.
She finished in 27:30 - 5:15 behind Brent (also in a relay where he was biking as well) and 2:50 behind Lisa. That put us third relay on the road. Trevor launched and by the time the dust had settled he'd caught everyone (individuals included) except Jordon Rapp, who had an awesome race and would go on to win the day. Trevor blazed a stunning 2:12 out there!!!
I was 2nd out of the transition and 1st relay team but I had no idea how much of a lead I had over Brent's runner - who happened to be Rachel's husband, Mike. Brent had called me two days earlier looking for someone to run for him and I'd hooked him and Mike up. Now I was wishing I'd lined him up someone a little slower. In Mike's last 1/2 he'd run 1:34. That was about exactly what I thought I could pull off!
I felt good starting out and except for a quick pee break in the first K (who does that!?!?!) I was going okay. I started to fantasize about winning.
The course was an interesting one. It was shaped like a mutant letter 'T' with a tiny stem and a really long top. You ran out of the transition and hooked a right for a 6k out and back. When you got back to the stem of the T you kept going straight for another 5k out and back. It was all gravel and I'd been warned that the 2nd out and back was loose and rocky. No worries - same for everyone.
So I hit the first 6k and I felt like I was going strong. The K markers were way off but I knew I was running well. I hit the turn around and instantly deflated. Mike was RIGHT there - less than a minute back of me. He looked smooth and loose.
I knew he'd catch me so I went through the decision process that everyone goes through at this point - do I ease up, let him catch and see if I could run with him? He'd run hard to bridge. I'd be somewhat recovered and maybe I could break him after that.
The other choice was to pick it up a bit and make him pay to catch me. If I did that I knew that once he did catch me I'd likely have little to respond with. It would be up to him to crack on his own after that. I figured I had more experience than he did and maybe he'd gone out too hard too soon to catch me. If I made him pay hard to bridge that final minute, it might be too much. I picked it up a notch - and the Ks ticked by.
I hit the 12k mark. At the top of the T. Lance Watson was standing there with a small group. I heard someone say "He looks strong." as I went by. That made me feel pretty good. That would almost be the last "good" moment on this run. I could hear Mike getting closer. Soon I started to feel crappy - really crappy. I was slowing up and the legs were screaming. There was still 8k to go.
At the 13k Trevor was standing on the side of the road. I knew I was failing and it disappointed me to think that all of his and Heather's hard work would only be good enough for 2nd - provided Korey didn't catch me as well. Roland had biked an impressive 2:24 to put them comfortably in 3rd. I could hear Mike's footsteps on my shoulder and was further humiliated to know that Trevor would be there to bear witness to the pass. I went by Trevor with a sad shake of my head. Trevor said "Keep going, You're all alone!!" What??
I glanced back for the first time and there was no one there!!
I couldn't let up now. 8K but all alone! I did my best to focus on the drills I'd been doing and keep moving forward.
But with each passing step things got worse. The pain increased. I was drinking at every station and pouring water over my head - and now I really could hear him coming!
The path dropped down about 50 meters to the 2nd turn around. I did my best to straighten up, look strong and hopefully discourage him a bit as we crossed paths.
I U turned and came face to face with Chris Brown! YAY! Another reprieve - but short lived. Mike showed up only moments later. This was still a race and he still looked good!
A second reprieve came when I realized that for the last 4k we'd been running up a false flat. The switch to downhill gave my legs a break they were looking for but I knew they'd give Mike a break as well.
At the 17k I felt myself starting to slow and only moments later came the sound of fast moving footsteps behind me once again. Damn - 4k was too long to try and pick it up!
Adrian Walton ran past me. I hadn't even seen him coming the other way.
At the 18k my pace deteriorated further and would continue to deteriorate all the way to the finish. But I never got caught and we held on for the victory.
Mike came in a few minutes later and Korey a few minutes after that.