Sunday - Peterborough Half - That Sucked!

I was looking forward to the race in Peterborough yesterday. When I’d done it a couple of years ago, and Adam had me not finish the run (too close to the upcoming Ironman race) I ended up with a DNF for the race. I don’t DNF, so that always drove me crazy. This year, I had it beat though. I’d have a friend run. We’d do it as a relay.

Nadia and I headed off to Peterborough at about 5:00 in the morning. We got to there about 6:20. Lots of time to park, fill up water bottles, rack the bike and lay everything out, and still have time to find friends and chat a bit. I guess I chatted a bit too much. I ended up with only about a 5 minute warm up before the swim. I needed about 10 or 15 minutes!

The swim was . . . . interesting. Adam told me to ‘mix it up a bit’ with the other swimmers in the beginning so I charged on ahead into the middle of the pack. I got the crap kicked, punched and slapped out of me of course. I did remember to put an extra set of goggles inside my wetsuit, just in case I lost my good set, but I didn’t need them.

The water was warm enough, but the weeds for the first 200 meters of so were incredible. I felt like I was harvesting crops a lot of the way. I had seaweed tangled in my goggles, around my hands and feet. Crazy!

For some reason, I couldn’t get my breath properly and my heart was racing. I stopped a few times trying to get relaxed. I was on my way back to shore before I got comfortable at all. I’d glanced back and realized there weren’t too many people behind me.

I thought “Oh well. It is what it is. I’ll just settle into a grove and see what happens”. That thought seems to work for me. I concentrated on long easy full strokes and soon was catching up to folks ahead of me. I wish I had time splits for each of the loops. I’m sure I was 5 minutes quicker on the second loop than the first. A two and a half minute transition and I was off on the bike. This was going to be a once in a lifetime bike ride for me. Because I wasn’t doing the run, I was going to be able to give it my all. I was really hoping to get as close to an overall average speed of 30kph for the first time.

Oh well. “Best made plans . . . . “ The first hill was at the 5k mark. I’d gone into it in a little heavier gear than I should have, but I wanted to stretch my legs a bit, so I stood and peddled a few times. I say back down, eased up on the peddles as I geared up a bit. I felt the gears change, but the second I put more pressure on the peddles, BANG, and the chain was gone! I’m glad I was sitting at the time. The boys and I were fine!

I looked around a bit for my chain and thought about what to do. I’d actually had my chain tool in my hand earlier in the week but I’d thought that, well, I haven’t used it since that one lesson about 4 years ago, and it’s heavy, so . . . I didn’t bring it. I found the chin, walked over to the other side of the road and started to walk back. Simon, Cathie and a few others asked if I was OK. I was shocked that apparently, at that point anyway, I’d been a bit ahead of them. That was unusual to say the least!

A farmer eventually picked me up and gave me a ride back to town. I handed in my chip and went to meet Nadia who was sleeping in he sunshine at the bike rack. I’ve never been the first guy in from the bike! It sure is easy to rack the bike when the racks are empty like that :-) .

Nadia and I found my buddy Allan finishing his bike ride. He was doing the Sprint Duathlon. We ran a bit with him and cheered him on to the finish line then headed back to the bike finish to watch for the rest of the gang. I’m useless at picking out friends on the bike. We saw Cathie and Linda finish. I talked to John for a bit. He was waiting for Cathie and Linda too to go out and bike a second loop.

I never found anyone else. We left the part about 12:30 or so.

I’ll be interested in seeing what Bike Sports in Newmarket do about the chain. I think I may pick up a spare link and carry that tool in Lake Placid also!