Pic Spocket

This last Saturday was 7th and last Triathlon race of the season. The race was “Automn Colors” organized by “3 Disciplines Racing” in a park near Holly Michigan. Craig also participated. When we got there at 7h30 am, it was freezing cold! There was a crazy amount of fog over the lake due to the water temperature being higher than the air. We could not even see where the buoys were. The fog lifted before race start.

This was the longest triathlon race for us since we started in multisport earlier this year: 1000 m swim | 30 km Bike | 9 km run (there was also a shorter sprint distance, but we went for the long course). Turned out the challenge was much more than in the distance numbers… The course was HILLY!

The swim, while not smooth sailing went decently good for me. I still could not hold my crawl for the whole time.  This is definitely my weakest sport. I came out of the water in 0:19:05, in 24th position (90 participants)

The bike course was 3 laps on a very hilly road. Right after transition a hill was waiting. I have never changed gears so much in a ride. Some hills, I needed to go on my largest ratio (which I have never used before) and stand on the bike to climb at what seemed to be walking speed. That was a tough course for us since we pretty much only trained on flat land (that’s all we have in Windsor!). It took me 0:53:39 to cover the distance, the 6th best bike split of all participants. The bike is still my strongest discipline. Click this link to see the GPS track of the bike.

The run was also different and much tougher than anything we have done before in race or in practice: a path in the woods with roots and stumps sticking out everywhere, with a lot of hills again. I do not remember running on a flat section for more than a few hundred meters. The whole time I just kept thinking how hard the course was and Muskoka, a race we considered doing next year that is known for hills. I did not lose any position this time on the run (passed one guy, another one passed me) and I still made a good time on the run with 0:44:49, the 10th best run split of the day. Click this link to see the GPS track of the run.

Craig was not lucky with his run split: he actually turned an ankle in the middle of the run over something on the course and fell. He could finish the race, but he could barely walk on it afterwards. He still had enough energy to stop and do a couple of pushups before the finish line to entertain the spectators…

I crossed the finish line with a time of 1:59:51, good for 8th position overall (90 participants, in top 10% again) and 1st position in my age group, first time for me!  Let’s just say I am more than happy with these results to end my first TRI season after starting in all 3 sports earlier this year.

Link to highlighted results is below.

>>> Automn Colors Triathlon – Long Course – Overall Results

Here are a few pictures of the event.

Finally, more pictures in the album below.

Automn Colors Tri 09

What does the end of the season means? It means we start to train for next season More on that topic later. I am thinking to go toward longer races next year.  I’ll keep you posted.

It’s been a while since I brought the camera to one of our (many) walks with Newton. Today was the perfect day to do so. The sun was out and it was a very nice day.

Here are a few snapshots of my 2 loves

There was some kind of dog day at the park with agility demonstrations. One of the poor pooch was tinted in pink. Quite funny actually!

Please take a few minutes to look at the other pictures in the album!

Newton at Malden Park

Following tradition, we passed Labor Day on Pelee Island. We have been doing that for the last 3 years. In 2007, we went with our friend Patty and we did the island by bike (see the blog post here). Last year, we went with the car abd our dog Newton.

This year, we invited our friends Craig and Tracy (and of course Trails) to join us. The weather was not as nice as the last 2 years, but we still had a very decent day and got the chance to do some beach time. We did the Fish Point hike in the morning. It was so hot! Everybody was happy to stop at the winery for lunch after that, where we fired up the barbecues.

After the beach, we quicly stopped at the lighthouse. Newton took the opportunity to do his favorite activity: digging! Fortunately, the rain only hit us on the boat during the return trip.

This was a great day!

Here is the complete album:

Pelee Island 2009