I just finished the Ironman 70.3 up in Mont Tremblant,
Quebec and had a great day. Kelly and I arrived up here on Thursday night,
picked up a car from my bike sponsor Argon 18 – which like their bikes was the
fastest airport transition ever… Thanks
guys! We didn’t see much driving in from Montreal as it was midnight, but
navigating via a Google map print out felt a little old school, but after a few
wrong turns we made it to the amazing Mont Tremblant. The town in the winter is
a ski resort which I could imagine is unbelievable beautiful, Kelly and I both
felt we had left north America and were hanging out in the Swiss alps.
About a week ago Ironman announced that this race would be the
venue for the Ironman 70.3 World Champs next year once it moves from Vegas and
let me tell you, it was worth seeing the course first hand.
The swim was the usual 1.9km lake swim and there must have
been 3 Aqua Sphere wetsuits in the front group. I snuck into 3rd
spot and settled in there for the duration while fellow kiwi Tom Davison led
pretty much from start to finish.
There was a massive 1km run up to our bikes and Brent
McMahon must have thought it was an ITU race cause he had the burners on full.
But soon the front group formed and we had 6 guys up there. I tried to keep the
pressure on as much as possible as I knew we had a few good runners further
back in the field so I ended up leading most of the 90km super hilly bike, that
was until Romain thought it would be good idea to attack me up the hills. I
guess good on him for racing to his strengths, but after riding hard at the
front that was the last thing I felt like responding to – especially in the
last 20kms where it was near impossible to find any rhythm.
I was a little unsure if I had left too much out on the bike
and the run was going to be a bit of a mystery. McMahon who has been having a
great year went out strong, I managed to get on his shoulder and let him repay
the favor. He set a good fast tempo and at the half way mark we had managed to
close the gap to Romain who had built a minute lead coming off the bike. The
run was basically 5km hilly, 10km on a gravel trail then 5km hilly to finish
off. I think everyone struggled a little those last 5km.
I made my move with 2km to go and thought I would test the
water and see what McMahon had in the tank and to be honest I was thankful when
he didn’t react and come after me. There were still a couple good hills before
the race was over but the adrenaline and the lively crowd gave my legs a little
extra gas to take it out.
Now I am back in my routine of trying to recover as quickly
as possible and nothing beats my 2XU compression Quads sleeves, socks and
tights combo along with some Clif Bar Builders protein bars to get the legs
back in shape for the Lubbock 70.3 race in Texas next weekend where Kelly and I
are looking forward to catching up with our regular homestay out that way – the
Holloways and catching up with the Bowstead boys.
Until next week
Au Revoir
