Race Report: Muskoka 5150

I headed up to Canada late June for the Muskoka 5150 olympic distance triathlon hoping to qualify for the HyVee 5150 championships.  Top 15 in my age group would qualify me for the race, top 5 would get me a free entry.  Courtney and I had never been to Canada so this was a mix of a summer road trip/race weekend.

Having never been to Canada, we weren't sure what to expect.  The trip was great.  Canada was great.  The race was awesome - well run and I loved the course.  It's a tough course with plenty of hills, but I really enjoyed it.  I wish this race was closer.

Warming up before the start with the fog lifting off the lake.  It turned into a really nice day, and actually my first hot race of the year.  Who knew.  I had to go to Canada for heat.

The swim:  27:17

Ouch.  The swim is kind of tough.  You swim out, then over, then back past the start upstream  toward transition.  So you swim most of the swim against the current, which isn't a strong current, but it's enough to make for slow swim times.  I didn't feel like I was swimming bad, but my time was slower than it should have been, even with the current.  

The start of my wave.  A smaller group than I expected, but it made for minimal contact.

Coming out of the water.

The first hill...coming out of the water.

The Bike:  1:04:46

I'd love to tell you what my watts were, but this was another in a streak of races where my Garmin 510 gave me trouble and I lost my data.  Garmin had an issue with the 510/810 dropping Ant+ devices that has been resolved with a firmware update, but it cost me about a half a season of race data.  Frustrating.  

I liked the bike course, but didn't feel like I rode my best.  Not bad, but not my best.  I wish I had the data to know for sure.  Either way, it is what it is and I came off the bike 2nd in my age group.

A pic I took on a preview ride the day before.  Good scenery on the course.

One of many hills on the bike course - it is hilly, but I wouldn't say it's brutal.  

Coming off the bike.

The run:  42:45

I was hoping to run better than that, but considering how tough the course was I'm happy with it.  Plus, I came off the bike with a sizable lead over 3rd in my AG and first was no where to be seen so motivation to dig really deep just wasn't there.  

Although this run course was challenging, I can't think of an olympic distance run course I've enjoyed more.  It has a little of everything - roads, hilly, gravel trails, a running track.... Lots of variety and plenty of challenges.  

It was an unusually cold spring, and it got up into the upper 80s during this race so the heat made the run tough as well.  This was the first time this year I had to deal with heat in a race.  All of my previous races were downright cold.  

Right out of transition, the first hill of the run course.  

Part of the run course.

Another shot of the run course - it's the old high school running track.

Another shot of the course.

Starting loop 2 of the run.  Oh, the humanity.  I was hurtin.

Finish:  2:15:52  19th Overall, 2nd Age group.

Done.

 Overall, I really enjoyed this race.  The course was tough, but enjoyable.  The race was well-run and the scenery was great.  The town of Huntsville is pretty cool too.  The only disappointment was that this race turned out to be much smaller than I expected.  I was hoping for that big race feel and this didn't have that.  I would definitely go back if this race was closer.

The next day I rode part of the Muskoka 70.3 course and then we packed up and headed to Niagara Falls for a day and then home.  


Up next:  Coaching.  I had a question on my last post about coaching so I'm going to write a little about that.  Then more race reports.