Buses, Planking, Crunchy Pillows....Oh and a Race

This past weekend part of the team went to Ottawa to race the Junior Series race #3/Elite/U15 Ontario Provincials. The group stayed in the Carleton University residence which was one the street from the race course. Madison and Darian were on their first Big Trip Draft Legal Race Triathlon and Ben and Charles were racing the Junior Series Race. Stevie and Sarah got to join the fun and join the juniors as part of Ontario Provincials.

After a few unexpected travelling delays, the team made it to Carleton on Wednesday but waited for Sarah on Thursday to go explore the university grounds (AKA go planking).

This one got an A+ grade.

Our new friend. He informed us Carleton is a No Planking Zone. Especially for people wearing too much spandex.

After a full day of pre-race training which included a trip to the pool to avoid the ecoli infestation in the lake and some confusion trying to follow course maps we bused our way to the pre-race meeting. Darian’s dad gave us step by step instruction which didn’t seem to be enough since we had to ask every 2^nd person we saw for extra help. And we still missed our transfer. Luckily, we forgot all our troubles when the bus had an accordion centre we could play on. East Side Mario’s provided us with a lovely dinner after the short and sweet meeting. We splurged on the way back home and taxied back to Carleton. We informed our driver that a triathlon consist of swim-bike-run and NOT Swim-bike-run-swim. The pillows created quite a conundrum with the Team. Some of them were crunchier than others

Charles with the “pillows” to the front desk lady: Can I exchange these for pillows?

Front Last Lady: These are pillows.

Race morning came too quickly. A 7AM start for the boys meant 4:50 wake up time. Ben’s mother donated a toaster for our pre-race breakfast which greatly improved its quality. We biked our way to the course and everyone warmed up together. Before we knew it, the boys were herded into the water with no respect for pre-race rankings for their deep water start. The girls followed 3 whole minutes later and the Minis went at 7:30 and 7:33 respectively.

The deep water start on the boy’s side was really rough and everyone was fighting for positions even before the horn went off. With all the U23 athletes in the race, the field was big. Charles and Ben were in the middle but eventually kept getting pushed back. With about 20 seconds until the start Charles decided to move all the way to the end to have a clear start which really helped. Our turn around was a kayak which was…different. Coming out of the water Charles just missed the lead pack and ended up in a group of five that were very close to lead pack and chased hard. Ben had a strong swim and came out a bit further back than Charles. The bike went without any trouble and with all the U23s pulling hard in lead no one caught them and Charles’s pack got caught by a bigger pack. All the other packs stayed fairly stable throughout the 20km. Charles and Ben had a strong run on a rather hot course with no water being given out and finished 8^th and 23^rd junior respectively.

The swim start was the same for the girls. There were only five Elites entered in the Junior race, but it still increased the quality and depth of race. Sarah and Stevie came out of the water together just a few seconds behind the lead group of swimmers. They also caught a few of the Junior guys at the end of the swim. The bike was very challenging with all the guys on the course. Sarah nearly crashed going around the first 180 turn because of a huge pack of boys that we going around the cone at the same time. Sarah, Stevie and four other girls formed the lead pack and all worked strong together and battled with the other gender to keep there own lines. The run course was hot and was very challenging, but in the end Sarah ended up with the win for the day and Stevie ended up third.

In the U15 race Darian and Madison represented very well! Darian missed out on the lead pack because of a sighting error that made him swim wide. He soloed the bike and ran himself in to 2^nd place! Madison had a swim that was expected for only starting swimming four months ago. She biked strong with one other girl and they ended up with a pack of four after catching two other girls. Coming in to T2 she had trouble locating her spot, which resulted in a slower transition. Fierce competitor that she is, she chased down the girls ahead of her and placed 2^nd!

The team is now very split up across the country. Good luck to our WCG teams heading out to Kamloops next week. The athletes racing are Riley, Unger and Tyler for the guys; Ashlyn, Janessa and Jane on the girls’ side. We’re sure they’ll do a great job! Ben is at his Grandma’s cottage in the middle of nowhere with no running water. Hope you catch lots of fish Ben! The Brault’s are heading to their home province and decided to bring Stevie along for a solid week of training with the Quebec team. Hopefully her french will improve a bit... Darian and Madison are back home for a solid block of training before Kelowna. Enjoy everyone!

here is a link to Bramwell's photos
https://picasaweb.google.com/102356770393916246846/TeckJuniorNationalSeries3OttawaON?authuser=0&feat=directlink