Muskoka Long Course Triathlon, June 2008

Neither a marathon, nor an event that took place in Japan, but oh well...

The Muskoka Triathlon is actually quite an historical event, having debuted in 1992 as the site of the Long Course World Championships won by triathlete legend Simon Lessing. The event was put on back then by Graham Fraser,organizer of all the major Ironman races in North America, and continues to be run now by his brother Mitch. The course is a 2km swim in a lake and up a river, followed by 55km of (seemingly) never ending hills on the bike, and lastly, 15km of rolling hills on the run. Recent winners of the race include Simon Whitfield (2000 Olympic Mens Champion) and Samantha McGlone (2nd place 2007 Ironman Hawaii World Championships). Due to 2008 being an Olympic year many of the top names were missing however...

The race started in waves, and my age group was the 3rd wave. My swim of 35min10sec was poor (first 2000m continuous swim of the year for me) and included a 150m run to the transition area. I never got into a rhythm and seemed to always be running into slower swimmers in the previous wave. I had tapered my bike training for 3 days before the race knowing the course was difficult. It paid off, as my bike time of 1:39:30 was very good for this hilly course (ave 33.2km/hr). My run started well, 17:00minutes after 4km, but it was then that I realized I had mistakingly treated this event more as an Olympic Distance race than a 1/2 Ironman. I had only eaten ~500 calories up to this point of the race. I had needed more like ~1000. The 5th and 6th kilometer were both over 5min/km, and I took my last gel (100 calories) and just paced myself at 4:45min/km for the last 9km. I had run out of fuel. Kind of a rookie mistake, but this was the 1st time I had raced this distance in my life so I didn't have the experience that I could bonk on such a short race... The run took 1:09:25, and I picked up the pace the last kilometer so I didn't have a dreaded 1:10 run... (My goal had been 1:04). Overall my time was 3:26:05 and 21st in my age group (out of 125). The talent at this race is amazing so I was happy with my placing.

In September the inaugaral Muskoka Ironman 70.3 will take place, mostly along the same terrain. It is already sold out. No worries, I'll be back in Tokyo by then anyway!!!