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Photo Evidence Of The Pain
As a past photographer, I feel obliged to by at least one set of my race pics every year. Naturally, with Calgary being my main race for the season, this made sense, despite the damage reliving the events may do to my mind.
First up, here is the water start. It was much darker when I started at 6:20. If its looks hazy, its probably because of all the mosquitoes.
This is by far my favorite. Caught me right in the middle of my levitation illusion coming out of the swim. Eat your heart out Chris Angel!
Heading out of T1 now. I saw that guy with the Dr. Seus jersey a couple of times that day:
Climbing. Lots of this pose that day:
On to the run about mile 2. If I recall, I remember wondering at this time if my back was going to give out before the end of the run:
Giving my one last kick while coming down the finishers chute:
And the exact moment my mind went from looking for the finish line to looking for a beer!
58 miles, A Camera, And An Ipod: Calgary Bike Course Scouting Report.
Just got back from being in the car FOREVER. Scouting the course took much longer than I thought, but it was well worth it.
It has been quite a hectic morning here in Canada. Rose bright and early and ate a HUGE breakfast. I think I freaked out the waitress with how much I devoured. I surely got my money’s worth out of the hot buffet. After, picked up two new water bottles at the expo. Then headed out to transition 1, which was about a 45 minute drive from the hotel. Dropped off my T2 bag and my bike:
In the rack
All I can really say about T1 is that I really hope it doesn’t rain over night. Not much cover out there:
Just downhill of T1 is the swim start/exit. I got a chance to put my little toes in. Cold? Yes. Too cold? Nah.
We go straight out from the boat ramp below and hang a left to swim under the yellow bridge in the top left corner.
After setup, I hit the open road to check out a course described as “challenging” by race officials. Having completed the route, I can say that on this course you are either going downhill, or going uphill. Not much of flat to be had around these parts. Lucky for me, I like the hills, so this should play in my favor. What kind of hills you ask? Well lets take a look at some parts of the course.
Its flat enough coming out of transition. But the ups and downs start within the first three miles:
Some false flats.
Before mile 10, the real bumps start to show up:
More where that came from:
Here’s the big one coming out of Cochrane, a little over half way:
Cochrane Hill Part 1
Cochrane Hill Part 2
So in short, this race is pretty hilly. How most people were able to pull this off last year around 2:45 beats me. I heard there was a huge tailwind in 2009; maybe we will get some luck from Mother Nature tomorrow.
Okay, after all that driving, I’m ready for a nap!
