News
World Masters Games!
Posted August 6, 2005 07:17 PM
The following race report was written by Jeremy McLeod.
Mission accomplished. Who would have thought that a goal set over a year ago of completing a triathlon at the World Masters Games would have arrived with such excellent results? This journey has helped me complete a marathon, as well as numerous triathlons, all leading up to doing my personal best in Edmonton at the Masters Games on Saturday, July 23rd.
Let me start by saying that this course was more than daunting from the beginning. Between hearing horror stories about both the cycle and the swim course (also known as 'The Pond') I was nervous about completing the race. However, nerves turned to excitement as I arrived on Friday night at the stadium for the opening ceremonies. It was here that I realized just how large an event this truly was. There were speeches from the Deputy Prime Minister, a fly-by from the Snowbirds, musical performances...but the most amazing feeling was being surrounded by 22,000 athletes from over 80 countries. Needless to say the energy in the stadium was amazing! Unfortunately, I was forced to leave the opening ceremonies early as I was to compete the following morning.
My mother (who was also competing) and I arrived obscenely early on Saturday morning, mostly because my heat started at 9:40am and also because the transition area closed at 8am. After ensuring that my transition area was setup perfectly, I took the extra time to calm down and prepare for the race by watching the other heats start in the water. Nervous chatter with the other athletes soon lead me to the knowledge that the organizers had to 'shock treatment' the lake with copious amounts of chlorine, leaving all living things that (I guess) one does not want to swim with to disappear. Through this chatter I heard numerous stories about dead leaches that were on the bottom of the pond. Now I am thinking...do I really want to swim here? But soon after, the officials came to escort my heat to the water and my fear of dead things soon became a fear of surviving the swim. The great news is that at any point I had the option to walk the swim course as it was completely shallow...the bad news is...I did not want my feet anywhere near the bottom of that lake!
After a little more stretching and praying it was my turn. I tried to minimize my kicking so that my legs would not be as tired later. In the end, I had a great swim and then headed out of the water for my first transition.
I got on the bike and, without much effort, started covering a lot of distance. Really, (and somewhat surprisingly) I felt quite strong. I was sure that I was going to have issues with the hills but instead I found myself passing people. In fact, I felt very strong going up the hills and I found myself thinking... Maybe I really was made for triathlons; I think that I could give Simon Whitfield a run for his money!
Unfortunately, about 22 minutes later as I was going up Groat Road, I realized that Simon Whitfield did not need to worry about me stealing Olympic gold from him. Instead, I had to focus on 'eating the hill' (as my bro would say)! The winds were really strong during the bike and I found myself focusing on being balanced with unexpected gusts of wind coming from everywhere!
The final event, of course, was the run. I had another great transition and I really wanted to push my pace and bring it home to the finish line. This time however, my legs were able to keep the pace that I trained with, but not able to give me anymore for race day. But that did not bother me as I crossed the finish line with a huge smile on my face and a personal best time! And better yet, I can now say that in my age group I am 7th in the World!
By the way, after it was over, I enjoyed a leg massage and massive quantities of bagels!!!
I owe a big thanks to Carolyn Gebbie for her coaching and support in preparing me for my goal race. Her knowledge and experience that she shared with me was irreplaceable on race day. Thanks Carolyn!
I am heading to Sydney, Australia for the World Masters in 2009...any takers???
