North Bay Race Report

So on Saturday we made our way over to North Bay for the weekend to race in the triathlon. We were staying at my Aunt and Uncle's house but they were to not be home until around 10pm Saturday night so we had the house to ourselfs to have the biggest party North Bay has ever seen. Well not quite but I know my aunt will love reading that. So we stopped in at the house first and unloaded all our stuff. I got my bike ready and biked over to the race site as I knew the kids race would be starting shortly and I could all register then. Lea drove over and met me there. I got registered and we watch the kids race for a little bit then we headed back. My sister Molly was there by that time as she was staying with us also to watch me race the next day. We went to the grocery store to get some steaks for supper on the BBQ and picked up a movie. Wasn't too happy with the movie selection as I had no input what so ever...it turned out to be about some girl who gets pregnant and decides to keep it and give it up for adoption. Not exactly what I had in mind. So my aunt and uncle got home around 10pm and we visited with them for a bit and then finished the movie.
Race day:
I was up and eating my breakfast at 6am for a 9am start. I usually like to get up and eat three hours before the start. Again I biked over to the race site but I left way too early and was totally bored after I set everything up and warmed up for about an hour. Oh well it was relaxing. So on the swim start I didnt have a great start running into the water as I tripped and a few guys got ahead of me. As soon as I started to swim one guy cut me off really bad and after the race everyone said it looked like I punched him in the head...lol but really I think it was more of a gentle tap on the shoulder. The swim was good, I took the lead right away and kept throughout the swim. I didn't feel amazing in the water...it was like I was kind of just going through the motions. I didn't have the feel of somebody right at my feet like in Muskoka. Transition was "ok" I didn't rush it and just made sure everything went nice and smooth. The bike was pretty good again. I'm really loving how far along my bike has come this year. I always used to think it was my weakest and now I just feel so strong. So there's a long big hill at the begining of the bike that just seems to keep going and going and as soon as you hit a little bit of a flat for a second its over and you're climbing again! I have no complaints really about the bike, I could see myself pulling away even more and I was really just enjoying myself. Then came the run again....definetely no where near as bad as in Muskoka but I think because of my foot I've been compensating for the pain and the last few days my left hamstring has been really tight and I could feel it wanted to just cramp right up the first couple km's on the run. I had a pretty big lead and wasn't in too much of a panik so I took the first half of the run pretty easy and once I got to the turn around it started to loosen up and I was able to pick up my speed. I for sure negative split the run by a couple of minutes at least. I was pretty windy today too and on the run I was wearing a visor and the blew it right off my head at one point and I turned around and picked it up...lol I ended up winning overall by about 5-6 minutes so I was happy with that for what I put into it and it was another great training race that I can only keep building on and getting stronger.
After the race we all went back to my aunt and uncles house for a fish fry with some fresh pickeral that they caught just this week up at the cottage. It was so good!!
Thank you to all the people who came and watched me race today, everyone from back home in Sudbury and all the family and friends in North Bay. It means a lot to have you guys come out and cheer me on.
I will post a bunch of pics soon because we got some good ones and I want to get them up as soon as they're downloaded!

"Thank you to the people who said I couldn't, you have been what has defined me, never give up, and never back down".