The Adventures of Sarah in South America

It all started with a flight, then another ( longer) flight followed by a short taxi ride to another airport to catch another flight before we finally got settled into the sketchy van for a never ending 3 hour ride. That’s when we saw the “Welcome to La Paz” arch, and knew we had arrived. I was racing the next Sunday (all the travel was on Tuesday/Wednesday) so we had a few days to relax, let the training sink in and see the sights! Well, there aren’t very many sights to see in La Paz, Argentina so we mostly relaxed and trained a bit. The whole town seemed to come alive for the triathlon weekend, which is definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I’d never been to South America before but I adapted rather quickly. Don’t look for stop signs on the roads, you won’t find them. Two o’clock to four o’clock is siesta time, so better make sure you’re not hungry or out of bottled water because no one else is out to help you out! But it’s a great time to ride around the empty streets, if you can withstand the heat. We made friends with the waiters at the hotel restaurant where we ate breakfast and dinner every day, as much friends as you can be without speaking the same language. Luckily, Kathy’s Spanish was good enough to get us through, and we always got the taxi to come back and pick us up at the pool when we were done swimming. Gold star for Kathy! On Friday night we got treated to a wonderful concert complete with singing and multiple drums…at 11:30, right under our hotel window. Luckily, most age groupers were racing the next day so it didn’t last too long and we got some sleep as well.

The race ended up creeping up on us and it was go time. Few highlights: the crazy current in the river that pretty much made you swim on the spot if you didn’t put some effort into it, and quickly go backwards if you ever felt like stopping. The pontoon that wasn’t really facing the race course (dive-in followed by a 90 degree turn). The bumpy roads with the kids standing in the middle to hand out water bottles to the riders. The unforgiving, blazing sun on the run course that made us all glad to be done. The manzana flavored Powerade (really, Argentina? Let’s just stick with the “red” flavor). The rows of fans cheering us on all throughout the race, usually from shady spots on the course (smart people). The massive confetti gun during the awards ceremony while they played “We are the champions”. The random people on the streets wanting pictures, even though they don’t speak a word of English. Here's a link to some results if you don't like my ramblings and would like some hard data.

After a burger and some Dulce de Leche ice cream (Kelowna memories anyone?), it was time to pack up again and get started on the 2nd leg of our journey. Chantelle and I parted ways with some of our Canada and USA-bound friends as we boarded a plane for Chile. It was a late night but we settle into a very nice hotel on the beach in a town that is recognized as the vacation spot for wealthy Chileans and Argentineans. Of course, we picked the high-season to visit, just to make sure we were truly immersed in the culture...and the sea of people. Luckily, we met some friends on the shuttle and became quite inseparable for rest of the week of training. Carlos, Barbara and Martin joined us for training and meals, as we learned some basic Spanish and Martin improved his English. And we both improved our sign language. Training was a bit of a challenge, but since no one else really got up before noon, the streets were ours to play in for a few hours every morning. We practiced the waves a little bit since the race was going to be in the cold ocean, went for rides along the beautiful coast (not very long since we were getting ready for a race) and did a little shopping.

Race day went by much faster this time around; since the race was at 8 AM, I didn’t have all morning to agonize it. The field was similar to La Paz but the race played out a bit differently. Two girls got away on the swim, increased their lead on the bike, and were just too far up the road to be caught on the run. Still a great race and a good learning experience for me. Chile knows how to put on a professional race and Canada just missed out on having 2 on the girls podium (although the time gap was still rather substantial). More results here. We finished the day with a bit of touring, South America style, too much walking and a nice dinner and wine at the ever fancy race hotel with all our new friends (minus Ben who had to run across the neighborhood to make his bus because we got off at the wrong metro station. We all hope you made it back to Colorado Ben). A long airport day on Monday finished off the trip nicely and now it’s back to Barbados for some more training before the adventures begin again!

Here are some pictures from La Paz:

Happy training friends!

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

Sorry Forgot to mention Ben was at Folk Fest last weekend!

Hope he had a good time!


According to worldweb.com it is one of the top 10 festivals in Canada!

Last weekend's racing and on to this week!

Last weekend athletes from MNTC were racing all over the place. We had Tyler, Unger, Charles, Riley M and Janessa racing in PATCO. Stevie and Sarah racing down in San Francisco and a few of the younger athletes (Darian, Ashlyn, & Madison) made there way down to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the youth event at the Lifetime Fitness triathlon. Here is a link to some results from the weekend.

Most of MNTC met up in Kamloops, BC in between the races last weekend and the race in Penticton this weekend. We picked Kamloops because it will be the site of the Western Canada Summer Games triathlon in a few weeks. It was a very beautiful place to spend a few days and do some training. We were staying at Thompson Rivers University and have been swimming at a very nice pool near by. We checked out the site for the races at WCSG and it looks like it will be a interesting and challenging race.

Now we have moved down to Penticton which is the site of the race this weekend. There are 2 girls and 5 guys taking part. The race has a chilly swim in Lake Okanagan, a 8-loop 20km bike along the lake and a 5-loop 5km run. Briefing and relaxing is on the schedule for the rest of the day and then tomorrow the girls race at 10 and the guys at 11:15.

Cable Cars and Buses and Bikes OH MY!!!

The MNTC had to split up this weekend to attend various races (PATCO, Minneapolis race, folk fest) and Stevie and I got the best part of this deal as we’re chilling in San Francisco for a few days before we race a Pan-American Cup on Treasure Island on Saturday. We made it to our hotel with all our belongings yesterday. We took the BART train from the airport to the heart of San Francisco where our hotel was. We had to be quick to get all our luggage and bikes out before the doors closed, but we made it!
We’re quite impressed with the biking skills of the many commuters zooming through the downtown streets here. Although it’s hard to really pay attention with all the cars, other bikers, buses, streetcars, cable cars, taxis, pedestrians moving about.

We found food – (Whole foods store!) and we made it out to the course today. We had to take the transit bus across the bridge to get to the Island. We got to rack our bikes to the front of the bus and hope that they would be safe will we drove out. We sat in the front of the bus (where handicapped and/or elderly people are supposed to have priority seating) to make sure nothing would happen to them. We did realize that there wasn’t much we could do if indeed something horrible happened, but it still made us feel better to be able to see them.

The bike course is rather twisty but our superior map-reading skills allowed us to successfully navigate the old naval base. It’s quite the location for a triathlon. All military buildings are shut down so our half of the Island is very much empty (which made it great to bike around, especially after the crowds of downtown San Fran).

Our next challenge was finding a pool to get some swimming in. We decided the best way to get there would be, again, public transit! We got on the bus with about 1000 short Asian people. After driving throughout Chinatown (who needs to fly to China when you can go to San Francisco and get the same experience), and little Italy, missing our stop and going around the building twice to find the pool door we got in and were told it was closed for another hour. But we were ready! We went for a run instead, and we made the decision to go one after the other so that one could watch the bags while the other ran. We both ended up going approximately in the same direction, by the fisherman’s wharf (which we plan on exploring Sunday after the race). Sadly, I decided to rely my sense of direction to get me back to the pool instead of following the logic that would say “take the same route out and back since you are all by yourself with no phone/money in a big, foreign city”. But no. I ended finding a cliff where the street I was following should have gone and had to go around the mountain. Stevie didn’t worry too much but it cut our time in the pool a little bit. The pool was quite crowded but we managed not to hit anyone and get most of our workout in, after being told to take a shower and to NOT jump in the shallow end (that was Stevie, she's a rebel). We also made a few new friends.

To get back to the hotel, we decided to go the scenic route and take the Cable Car. The terminal is right below the window of our hotel so it was perfect! Except for the long lines and the rather relaxed drivers who took quite the eternity to get everyone loaded, payed and ready to roll. We got a great “driver” who made everyone on the trolley aware that Stevie was Stevie. She got applause after NOT falling off the wagon during a particularly sharp turn and got a nice goodbye from everyone once we got to the terminal. Great experience.

Also, there are enough weird people in San Francisco that walking around in the summer wearing a tuque and drinking tea out of biking water bottles (to warm up from the cold ocean breeze on the cable car) will never get a second look. That’s not surprising when we have to compete with bongo playing bike riders (playing and riding at the SAME time!)


Pictures and results to follow…

St. Malo - Race 1

Just yesterday all junior elite athletes competed in the first of four Junior Teck National Series races. It was slightly cloudy, although humid and warm. Luckily, the water was warm enough that wet suits weren't an option. After a successful start the men were off, quickly followed by the women. It was obvious from the start that the swim would not break into that many small groups. Onto the bike it turned out to be one lead pack containing fifteen athletes, some stragglers, then another chase pack a couple minutes behind containing seven athletes. On the female side it looked like a lead group of three or four girls, followed by some stragglers, then another small pack or two. The run was fast in both races. It tough to say how things played out there. It was a hot and long run though.
Congrats to Tristan Woodfine and Ellen Pennock for clinching their first victories in the junior series. Also congrats to Francis Lefebvre, and Marc Christin for second and third place finishes. And also Christine Ridenour, and Gabrielle Edwards for second and third as well.
It was a great effort by all the athletes competing.
Congratulations are also in order for all the MNTC athletes. Tyler leading the men in seventh place, followed by Riley Mac in tenth, Charles in thirteenth, Unger in fourteenth, and Ben in nineteenth. On the female side we had Janessa finishing with a strong twentieth place finish. Also a congrats to Patrick Naylor for placing twenty-sixth, and Kevin Macduff of Manitoba for thirty-third place, and Kaitlyn Weins for a solid twenty-sixth performance considering it was their first draft legal race ever.
Age groupers are never to old to be forgotten.... Sarah-Anne Brault. Congrats for the easy victory in the age-group sprint distance. We promise not to judge you to harshly...
Let us not forget the KOS athletes of MNTC that competed on the Saturday. Congratulations to Ashlyn and Madison for finishing first and third, respectively. Our best wishes go out to Darian for a speedy recovery after a bike crash on race day, we wish you all the best.
That's all for the race report! I hope I didn't forget anybody. Check back in a week or two for the Penticton race report!

Yay Sarah!

Recently there was NCAA and Canadian Nationals.  First was NCAA's where sarah placed an astounding 71st, unfortunately her team did not qualify so she ran individually.  Shortly after Sarah hopped on the plane and headed to Canadian Cross Country Nationals in Guelph.  She placed 8th in the senior women category.

Here's  a picture from NCAAs:

and a video of the senior women's race at Nationals: