Great White North 2011.

Great White North 2011.
I get dropped off at the entrance to Hubbles Lake at 7AM for the 8AM race start. It was a beautiful morning and the excitement in the transition area was building. I racked my bike and gave my T2 bag to the truck that will take my runners (I remembered them this year) to the the bike to run transition area. The line ups to the port-a-potty were very long so I opted to start the race without a pit stop. I felt good on the swim and the water was pretty clear. I could even see the bottom for most of the swim.
My transition to the bike went very well and I flew out and onto Highway 16. I was on my way on the 90K bike course.
The wind was not too bad and I pushed it pretty good for the first half of the ride and had a bit of a tailwind on the ride back. The last 10km into town ended up being straight into a strong headwind so I pushed even more and I could feel some of my leg muscles complaining that I was asking a bit much of them.
I hit T2 and slipped into my socks and runners and was on my way. My legs were tired and I wondered if I went too hard early and used up all my energy already. Some of my teammates were on the course to encourage me along so I kept going at what seemed to be a slightly faster than comfortable pace. This was going to be a long tough run.
5 hours into the race and 10K into the run I decided I need to stop at a port-a-potty and take that break I missed earlier.
I ran the rest of the run without trouble, seeing a lot of my friends along the way.
I finished the race in 5hours and 55 minutes.
The difference in my time from last year… about the length of a pit stop in a port-a-potty.


The Stats: (boring for some but I like them).

I finished in 372 in 45/67 place for my age group of 50-59
2010 I finished 390 in 44/82.
My times were:
After the swim I was in 585th place for a swim time of 49:43 and a 2:30/ 100 meter pace.
After the Bike I was in 362th place for a bike time of 3:00:02 and a 30 kph pace.
I was in 314th place for a run time of 2:05:55 and a 5:55 pace.

Total time 5:55:39
2010 time 5:54:10

44/82
562 49:18 2:28
397 3:03:48 29.4
301 2:01:06 5:45
5:54:10