Pic Spocket

Monday night we had our annual fireworks display over the Detroit River, between USA and Canada. This is a pretty big event since these fireworks are usually quite nice (they have a big budget). They put 3 platforms in the middle of the river, and they launch the fireworks from there.

One of the tricks in photographing fireworks, is to be reay to shoot the first burst: often, the best shots are happening at that time because the air is still clean. After a few bursts, there are a lot of smoke in the air, reducing visibility (and thus sharpness). This was certainly the case here. Here is my favorite shot, with the Detroit Rennaissance Center in the background. It’s really worth going in the album afterwards to see the 1000 pixel version.

Here are a few more pictures:

As usual, larger versions and more pictures available in the album below:

Target Fireworks 2010

3 days after the Tomatoman ‘fiasco’ was the first installment of the T-REX sprint triathlon serie in Brighton Michigan, called ‘Triceratops’. If you remember, I participated in the complete serie last year, showing a nice progression over the 3 races.

Few days before the race, they sent an email out offering people that thought they could finish under 1:12:00, to join some type of ‘Elite’ wave start, the first one to start. I am usually not too good with pressure but I decided to join that wave anyway. I thought that this wave would probably less crowded, which could lead to a swim with less traffic. Turns out that the Elite wave was about the same size as the other ones it seems.

Weather was surprisingly nice (thunderstorms in the forecast) and we had umbrellas with us rather than sunscreen, which is what we would have actually needed. The humidex factor was really high.

Water temperature was too high (79 deg F) so wetsuits were not allowed. That was almost a relief since I think that the wetsuit has been part of the reason for my swim panic in the previous race. Overheating and the restriction over the chest contributed in loosing my cool. So I used the SpeedSuit, while they are still legal (till September).

Following the problems in my swim in Leamington just days before, I took it really easy, swimming wide around the buoys avoiding contacts as much as possible, focusing on staying calm and relaxed rather than trying to go fast. It worked! No panic in the swim this time, even if I stopped a few times. I must have come out of the water in the middle of the pack. Definitely: I can make up for some time in the next races once I solve my swim issues. Here are swim pictures.

My friend Craig also participated in the race. Corinne and Tracy came as our support group and event photographers. Tracy is only days away before delivering a baby. Corinne took some amazing pictures! Thanks, love!

The bike portion went really good, I actually cut a minute off my best time from last year on this course with many rolling hills. I did have aero wheels and helmet this time that I did not have last year. Not sure how much of the time saving can be attributed to the wheels and helmet versus my fitness. I actually posted the 4th fastest bike split of the day, putting me in the top 10 before the run. Here I am just before reaching T2, feet off the shoes, ready to jump off the bike at the dismount line.

Run was tough in the heat conditions. I still managed to do a PR on the run split by over a minute over last year. Here we are, in the run split! The last 3 pictures are on the home stretch to the finish line

Final result: 1:08:35, placing 9th / 435 participants, 3rd in age group. By far, my best result relative to the number of entries (top 2%). Awesome! My best finish at T-REX last year was 45th position. Looks like I am going to have a good season…

>> RESULTS

Here is the comparison between my splits of this race and my best result from last year on the same course:

As usual, more pictures in the album below!

Triceratops Triathlon 2010

Last Sunday, I was participating in the sprint triathlon Tomatoman in Leamington. This was marking my first anniversary in triathlon racing since this was my first race ever last year. If you read the story again, you will remember that I panicked in the swim and barely survived the race.

After my previous success at the Motor City Triathlon the week before, I was going in very confident, ready to get my revenge in Leamington. I was aiming for a top 5 finish. So I positionned myself in the middle of the group, on the front line of swim start. BAD IDEA… A few hundred meters after swim start, I ran out of breath, feeling claustrophobic in my wetsuit, falling into panic mode. I had to stop many times to catch my breath and try to calm myself without much success. Tried different swim strokes too to get through the swim. Sounds a lot like last year…

By the time I was out of the water, heart rate was racing, and the swim had sucked the life out of me. Despite all my efforts, I had no power on the bike. I was not even coming close to my power targets.

 Not better when I got to the run. I actually had to walk a few times on a freaking 5 km distance. That was weak.

>> RESULTS : 19th / 105  (details)

 Anyhow.. Despite these problems, I still managed to cut a lot of time from last year:

>> 2009 - 1:35:17    |  2010 - 1:13:54   

That’s almost a 22 minutes improvement. The Triceratops triathlon is 3 days later, a chance for me to redeem myself (once again).

My friend Craig also participated in his “triathlon racing anniversary” and did very good, also improving a lot on his time from last year.

Pictures in the album below:

Tomatoman 2010

Last Sunday, I was taking a crack at the Olympic Distance triathlon for the first time ever. I had done much shorter races last year (sprints)  and one longer race (Ironman 70.3 last month). I raced at the Motor City Triathlon, on Belle Isle in Detroit, MI. They had a short course and a long course race. I went with the latter.

The race went REALLY well. I had my best race swim so far. I stayed focused and I could hold my freestyle stroke for the entire race.  This was my 2nd longest race swim so far.

The bike was crazy fast. It was 4 loops around the island, with almost no wind. The course was pretty empty on my first lap, but got a bit crowded on the last 2 laps with all the people from the sprint race joining us. I averaged some crazy high speed number: 39.1 km/h (24.4 mph). As far as I know, nobody passed me on the bike.

The 10 km run (actually, the course was longer) was great too, where I ran at 4:16 min/km. That’s an improvement over last year, where the best I got was 4:23 on a sprint distance (5km run). So I was able to go faster over twice the distance. All that training paid off. Also, as far as I know, nobody from the Olympic distance race passed me on the run either.  So whoever was in front of me at the finish line, were there since the end of the swim. The last few kms were tough, trying to hold my pace. During this tough section where I was starting to feel really uncomfortable, I actually asked myself why I was putting myself through this… I did finish the run with a big smile on my face. I was happy to see the finish line.

All that being said, I had no idea during the run where I was standing as far as position goes because the 2-loop course was crowded with all the people also doing the shorter races. So I was watching for the result boards at the end of the race.

On the first printout of results I found, I was in 25th place out of 207 participants. Bah.. Not bad for a first Olympic Distance race. Top 12%. My best results last year were top 9%. When I went back to look again, then I realized that this chart was for the SWIM split only!!!! I came out of the water in 25:36 minutes. How freaking amazing is that? I could barely place in the top half of the swimmers last year! And that’s over a 1500m distance too!

So then I look over some other temporary race result page they have, with only about 20 names on it at that point.. And then I find myself in 6th position. Out of 207 athletes. That’s top 2.9% of the field! I actually got a chill when I saw that. I really had no idea. I am stoked and I can’t wait to see where I stand in the shorter sprint races now. 

There is no doubt in my mind that working with a good coach is the biggest reason for this improvement in my performance this year. This is a much better investment than any type of go-fast gear such as race wheels… I knew I was much better than last year in the swim, but I was not sure yet about the bike and run. Now I know I improved in all 3 sports. Thanks LPC!!! Sounds like I’ll have a good racing season if I can manage to stay injury-free!

Last weekend was the 2010 edition of the 2010 Red Bull Air Race stop in Windsor. Just back from Europe, I made some time to go with Corinne at the river to attend the qualification day and photograph this unusual event for the 3rd year in a row. I do not get to use the big camera anymore (no time!), so this was the perfect opportunity.

I have the collection of shots quite similar to the previous years. While very fast shutter speed is good to freeze the action, it makes the pictures look a bit static…

The red bull helicopter is never far, getting footage for television broadcast.

Teams on boats are always ready to put air pylons back in shape after a plane hit them.

This year, I also made sure to capture a few shots of the overall scene, to get a better sense of scale. These are really looking better in 1000 pixel wide (see album link at the bottom of the post)

Finally, I got a serie of very nice shots using a panning technique: deliberately using a slow shutter speed while tracking the subject so that you get the motion blur effect on the background. It’s hard to do, and you get a lot of missed pictures, but the ones that come out good are usually very dynamic. Here is a collection of these successful shots.

Finally, many more pictures and larger versions available in the album below!

2010 Red Bull Air Race

Next photo opportunity: Fireworks on the Detroit River on June 21. Stay tuned!