News
Wild and Wacky Weather at the Worlds!
Posted June 11, 2008 01:09 PM
In June of 2007 Vancouver hosted a triathlon to test the course in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Distance World Championships for elites and age-groupers. Last year's race was held in wet, windy and challenging conditions and was fraught with organizational problems (including a run course, for the age-groupers, that was 14.7km long instead of the required 10km!) Everyone thought that this year the kinks would have been worked out and the weather would at least cooperate...unfortunately we were all wrong...
Our first hint that the weather would play a big part in this year's race came on the ferry ride over to Vancouver on Wednesday prior to the race. Rain and wind lashed the car the whole way on the highways and the ferry trip. The next morning we headed down to the race headquarters to take part in the Team Canada luncheon and race briefing. At the briefing it was announced that the Olympic distance race swim on Saturday would be reduced from 1500m to 900m due to the extreme cold of the water (11.5 degrees). Though a lot of people were cheering with enthusiasm, I was disappointed as the swim leg of any triathlon is usually my strongest one. The Athlete's Parade and Opening Ceremonies scheduled for that afternoon were cancelled because of the terrible weather. We did all head outside for a Team Canada photo in the rain - I'm sure we looked like drowned rats though...
Thursday night we attended the Pasta Party at the Vancouver Aquarium. This was a highlight of our time in Vancouver, and I was told that one athlete (who had competed at many World Championships before and at other triathlons around the world) thought that it was the best "carbo-load" party that they had ever attended. The format was a moving buffet. Upon entering the aquarium we were directed to enjoy the various exhibits and to eat at various stations throughout. So we had our salad by the dolphins, pasta by the belugas, and dessert was served in another section of the aquarium with amazing displays of sealife. It was incredible!
There were different races scheduled on different days. Thursday morning was the Junior World Championships. Apparently the distance of their swim was incorrectly measured and they ended up swimming 1200m instead of 750m. A number of the Juniors were pulled out of the water with hypothermia. On Friday morning it was raining during the Sprint Distance Worlds and once again swimmers experienced distress in the cold water plus there were some nasty bike crashes due to the slick road conditions in Stanley Park.
Saturday morning was the Age Group Olympic Distance Worlds. We arrived at English Bay in Stanley Park at 6:30am. The water was as still and calm as a pond. We were so happy to see this and thought that the swim portion of the race was going to be excellent as a result. As we had taken our bikes in to transition the afternoon before, we made our way there to lay out our racing gear. The distance between English Bay (where the swim was to take place) and the transition area was a 15 min walk along the waterfront. About 10 minutes after arriving at transition the leaves on the nearby trees began to flutter and chop began to form on the water's surface. 5 minutes later they were blowing wildly as an extreme wind storm blew across the area. Looking out to English Bay we could see the chop on the water turning into rolling waves with whitecaps. An underlying sense of panic began to set in...!
My swim heat was scheduled for 8:05am and Bob's was to take place 30 minutes later. As we made our way back to the swim start area we could see the AWAD athletes and younger women from earlier swim heats battling the waves and making very slow and laboured progress towards the swim exit. Arriving at the athlete's tent at the swim start I put on my wetsuit. Bob and I headed down to the water so that I could have a 5 minute "warmup" swim prior to my swim heat. I lasted about 1 minute in the water before coming back to shore to tell Bob that the swim was going to be a nightmare. My hands and feet were numb already and the space between my swim caps (neoprene underneath the race cap) and my goggles felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my forehead - major brain freeze! I adjusted the swimcaps down so that they butted against my goggles and this helped a lot in the race.
My heat consisted of the W45-49 and W50-54 groups - a total of approx 150 women. We were directed to stand on a long mat on the beach. I chose to go to the far right and stand at the back of the #1 spot. From there it seemed like the shortest line to the first buoy. When the horn sounded we ran down to the water and waded in to our hips before swimming and dolphin diving to get some depth under us. The waves began to pummel and it was extremely difficult to sight and get a sense of where I was. Bob was standing on shore watching the start of the race and apparently there was one woman behind him that was crying and saying that she wasn't going to swim under those conditions. Another woman started the swim heat but stopped after about 100m and waded back to shore. Luckily I avoided being banged by anyone and swam in clear water to the first buoy. From there it was a case of "guessing" the line to the next one as it was impossible to see over the waves. I kept swallowing water but thankfully, due to the fact that fresh water from the Fraser River makes its way into English Bay depending on the tides, that day the water was more fresh than salt. I felt like I was getting nowhere fast as I could only breathe on the right to avoid getting pummelled by the waves in the face if I turned my face to the left. Getting into a swim rhythm was also impossible as every couple of strokes the waves would catch my left arm and wrench it out of alignment. I kept thinking of the older women to come in the following swim heats and wondering how they could possibly manage in the terrible conditions we were experiencing.
Finally the swim exit buoys came into sight and I swam as close to shore as possible. Upon standing up I was slammed with vertigo and felt like I was reeling, not knowing what was up and what was down. Thankfully after a few seconds this passed and I was able to continue to transition on feet that felt like frozen blocks. The time on my watch, for the swim, was 24 mins and some seconds. I calculated that I had either had a really slow 900m or that the swim distance had been changed before the start of the race. As it turns out the swim was apparently 1100m, so while my swim was slower than normal it wasn't as horrible as I'd calculated. Upon checking the results, post-race, my swim time was 19th fastest of the 72 in the W50-54 category, so I was really pleased with that. Of course, it was all downhill from there...!
After a sluggish T1, frozen hands do not function well, I grabbed my bike and headed out to the mount area. As I clipped in and started to pedal nothing happened...I looked down to see that my chain had fallen off. Good grief, what now?! There was not enough room to coast & try to flip the chain back up using the big ring/little ring trick that always works for me, so I pulled over to the side and manually got the chain back onto the chain ring, after wasting valuable time.
Finally I was out onto the 4 x 10km bike course having dropped to 36th position. I had thrown a jacket on over my racing outfit before leaving transition but had not put on my leg warmers which ended up being a mistake. It was so cold and windy on the bike course. I felt as if my legs and brain were not connected in any way until the middle of the third loop when some warmth finally began to seep its way back in to my body. After the bike I was in 41st position and coming back into transition I saw that someone's bike had fallen off the rack right into the my space. Another delay while I leaned my bike again the bike rack end support, racked the other bike and then finally racked my bike. Heading out of T2 I was in 44th place.
While on the 3rd and 4th loop of the bike course I felt like I was riding almost alone. I couldn't understand why there were no subsequent heats coming onto the course with us. As I headed out onto the first loop of the run I suddenly saw Bob in a big group of men running the opposite direction. As it had turned out, my swim heat was the final one. As there were so many swimmers requiring assistance the rescue boats had to follow closely along with our group as they couldn't see over the waves to check on everyone's status. With the watercraft occupied the organizers couldn't take the risk of sending subsequent heats out into the water. Women 55+ plus all the men's heats were cancelled and the race was turned into a duathlon. This worked well for Bob as he is such a strong runner. There was a 3k first run, followed by the standard 40km bike leg and 10km final run leg. Bob had a really strong race and placed 24th out of 64 men in his age group!
Meanwhile out on the run course my knees were "screaming" with bursitis. The cold from the bike ride had really done a number on them, and the run felt very sluggish (it's always my weakest leg of any race - I'm fine with endurance but not great with speed). Coming back on my first loop I was surrounded by the duathlon men. I ran in the middle of a big pack until suddenly a volunteer jumped in front of me and pointed behind me, telling me that I had missed my turnoff and that I had to go back. The men were running a different first loop than the women were. Another silly delay in my race! By the time I'd crossed the finish line I had fallen to 58th position out of the 73 women registered in my age group and 66 women who actually finished. Given the challenges of the day I was very pleased not to have been the last one across the finish line!
By the time Bob's race was over the wind began to die down and the sun started peeking through the clouds. As we left the race site to head back to our friend's condo it was actually warm for the first time in 4 days. Of course this didn't last long and the rain returned overnight and before the women and male U23 races in the morning. Luckily the conditions improved in the late morning and the pro World Championships on Sunday afternoon ended up being overcast, cool but dry.
Watching those races on Sunday was very intense. A surprise winner in the female pro race, and an expected winner in the male race. Simon Whitfield - Canada's best hope at another medal at the Olympics in August - placed 6th, less than a minute behind the winner Javier Gomez. While it would have been amazing if Simon had won the World Championships before heading into Beijing, the "big show" is in August and there's no doubt that that is where all his energy and training is currently directed.
On Sunday evening we attended the Banquet and Closing Ceremonies at GM Place to cap off an eventful few days in Vancouver. This World Championships felt very different from the one that Bob did in Honolulu in 2005. The fact that the temperature was so cold throughout made a huge impact - we felt very sorry for anyone participating from a warmer climate. In Honolulu the athlete's parade plus the opening and closing ceremonies were outdoors and full of playful pomp & ceremony. With the cancellation of the Vancouver parade and opening ceremonies, and the closing ceremonies being indoor in the big stadium (and unfortunately fairly poorly attended due to lack of communication from the organizers) we never really had the sense that we were taking part in a world class event. However, we did realize that if we try to qualify for another WC in the future the race destination will have to be located in a warm location. No more shivering for 4 days solid!
