Race day

Race day means an early wake up call for a 2 hour drive to Welland. 4:30 am and it come way too quick. I had a restless sleep, not sure if it was because I went to bed much earlier than normal or if I was excited about competing again but I felt pretty tired getting up. This is the first race of the season and I'm feeling excited about competing again and seeing if my winter's training has had a positive effect. The truck's been loaded since last night and I just have to get dressed and throw in some water and a bit of fruit into a cooler bag and head off. First stop though was in Mississuaga to pick up Justin. From there we head to the race. We get there and go through the usual pre-race routine, set-up and psyching and make our way to the swim start. Its a time trial start which I like as there isn't that mass of humanity charging into the water and arms and legs flailing and churning it all up and smacking you in the face. We line up in competitor number order and slowly make our way to the start. Justin starts about 175 bodies and 15 minutes ahead of me so it's my objective to catch him before the end of the race. The swim goes well but my arms are getting tired due to fighting with my wetsuit. Every stroke my arms are tugging against the tightness and they're fatiguing but I try to put it out of my mind. On exiting the water I have a 450 metre run to T1 and the inevitable struggle with my wetsuit. I really have to do something about it. Its too long and bunches up around my ankles and really difficult to get off. I think I have to get it cut shorter. Off it comes (eventually), helmet and shoes on and zoom ...... off I go. Nothing exciting on the ride, flat, little wind, I see Justin heading back at my 12 kilometre mark and urge him on. So I guess he's about 6 k ahead of me. I put the hammer down the rest of the ride and average 34 kph. T2 is much better and I get out onto the run pretty quickly and set my sights on Justin. At about 3 k I see his familiar backwards worn visor and hunt him down. A couple minutes later I catch him, pull up next to him, call out that I'm passing him on his left and remind him not to forget to take his gel (which I find out late he does forget). By now I've found my stride , I'm feeling good and picking up the pace. I have no idea what my pace is though because my Garmin isn't showing it, just distance and time elapsed. I gotta figure that out. After the results go up I see my pace was 4:49 per kilometre and my final time was 1:51:47 including a 2:14 time for the run from the swim exit to T1. I'm happy with that and especially with my run split.