Race Report: Cornwall Transit Triathlon 2007

The Race: Cornwall Transit Sprint Triathlon. My backyard. 2.5 km down from my house. This is a lovely, small-town, local race. Almost exclusively local participants – some may call it a poser race… but hey, us mid-packers got have some glimmer of glory.

The Plan: Balls to the Wall. All out. Swim hard, bike harder and run with all I got left.

The Goal: 1:15:00. I can’t remember how I arrived at that, but I’m sure I had a bike split of over 33 km/hr in there.

The Hope: Podium spot in M30-39 category.

The Reality: Went about 95% on the swim, 100% on the bike, and 100% on the run.

The Swim: 750 meters - in the St. Lawrence River. Swim + T1 : 14:40 (1:58/100m) – I’m guessing at least a minute for T1; thereby actual swim pace was more like 1:49/100m (8/57 Overall, 3/12 AG).

Swim Notes: Swam well. Water was calm. Swam neck-and-neck with an Orca Sonar for about 300meters, decided to save energy and tuck in behind for a free draft… got dropped like a hot potato. Exited water pretty tired but generally happy with my effort.

T1 Notes: Got stuck in the wetsuit (again). Mounted bike like a pro: barefoot; proud of that, although debatable if it actually saved any time overall.

The Bike: 20 K - 2 loops of a figure-8 type course, mostly flat, but with some technical portions. Bike + T2: 41:13 (29.1 km/hr) – I’m guessing at least a minute for T2; thereby actual bike was 29.8 km/hr. (15/57 Overall, 6/12 AG).

Bike Notes: Yikes! Clearly, humbled by this course. Maybe a tad longer than 20K? My half-iron average was faster. I did get caught 3 times in a no-passing zone, and had to sit up – I lost momentum, but gheesh. I also fought my aerobars for the second half (the right one coming loose). My nutrition strategy on the bike included 2 sips of water… in retrospect probably could have done better than that.

T2 Notes: Unstrapped shoes and rode in one-legged like a pro: again, proud of that, although debatable if it actually saves time overall.

The Run: 5K – Out and back – 22:53 (4:35/km) – 16/57 Overall, 7/12 AG.

Run Notes: Gave 100%. Went as fast as I could out of the gate, which didn’t feel very fast at all. Managed to pass a few people. Got taken by Rob L at about 1.5 km. Saw Joe McN at the turnaround, he was about 100m behind me. That kept me motivated. I was hoping to delay the inevitable pass by as much as possible… it never came, which surprised the bejeepers out of me.

The Final Time: 1:18:46 (9/57 Overall, 4/12 AG).

The Post Script: a good race. I’ll be honest, I was mildly disappointed with my time, and mildly disappointed at just missing the podium – but on the other hand, it’s an honour to be sandwiched by local speed-runners Rob L and Joe Mc. I can honestly say that I didn’t hold back. I could not have gone any faster. So this race, is one of the few where I do not have any regrets…

…now, if only I could figure out sprint triathlon nutrition, and work on my bike splits, and shave a minute off my swim time.

The Photos:

Complete lack of aggressive posture on the bike. No excuse for this! Look at my shadow, I may as well be out for a Sunday ride.


OK show off, concentrate on running. What's with the back kick!?!?


200 meters to go. Sprinting pretty fast. I like this shot. No one in front to chase down, and no one behind, but I'm still going 100%. I'm proud of that.