Muskoka 70.3 Race Report (Allan Faulds)

Sep 17, 2008

The short version ........ This course is really f$#@in hard. In fact, I would say that it is the most difficult half that I've ever done. The hills never stop on the bike and the run is brutal. To really make life difficult though, it rained pretty consistently all day and poured on the run, and if that wasn't enough I flatted on the bike.

The long version ..... be warned that this may be as long as a Dev Paul report:)

All week my throat has been very sore and my sinuses clogged up but I woke up this morning at 5:00 feeling pretty good. I stayed at Hidden Valley which was a 10 minute walk from Deerhurst so I began the trek over to transition in a light, misty rain. The shuttle bus picked me up on the way which was nice (and unexpected). I got to transition and the rain started to come down a little harder. As I was taking the plastic bags off of my bike I noticed that one of the rear cages was missing a bolt (maybe this was foreshadowing of annoying bike stuff for the rest of the day). I just took the cage off (saving 31g! since I don't use them in races anyway). It was cool seeing some of the guys that I used to race 7-12 years ago had come out of "retirement" to do this inaugural race so we got to catch up in the rainy tranisition zone.

The swim was pretty uneventful for me. I started way to the left and actually ran in close to shore at the start away from the crowd then cut back out into the lake. I swam completely solo with no crashing arms and legs even though there were 290 people in my wave. I didn't even come close to another swimmer until the first turn and by then things had strung out quite a bit. I just checked the results and it turns out that I was 14th out of the water in the 40-44 ag so I was quite happy with my swim since that put me exactly where I wanted to be. The run up to T1 lets you know that after the swim there are no longer any flat sections in the race. It is 300m or so of continuous uphill. I pulled a Dev Paul and got the wetsuit strippers to get me out of my suit (the 2 piece DeSoto confused them) and just ran carrying it which is much faster.

Out onto the bike and the hills (did I mention that there are a lot of hills?). The first 15 km is very slow riding with constant ups and downs and pretty rough roads. The fact that they were very slick with rain meant that you couldn't take advantage of many of the downhills. At about 6km I was worrying that I had a flat since my rear wheel started making "thumping" noises. It turned out to be the taped secton that I had over the hole in my disk cover by the valve stem. It had come loose at one end and kept catching on the seat stay. I did a quick stop, yank and go which lost me a little time early on the bike. Once the first 15k is over you get out onto some rolling roads that have a much better surface and I started to move through the riders from the previous wave pretty quickly. By 40k there were very few people around me at all and then shortly after I flatted. I went around a sharp corner right around the 40k mark and there was a stick on the road. I swerved and missed it with the front wheel but smacked it hard with the rear. About 2k later on a long downhill I got the rear tire wobble as it went flat from a slow leak. This is where my troubles started. I figured that I would have the tire changed quickly and then get back in the game but that didn't happen. The tire was really wet and slippery and my tire lever kept sliding off (it likely didn't help that I was a little ticked off and trying to rush it instead of calmly fixing the thing) but I finally got the tire clear of the rim and put the new tube in. I think that the rear cover hindered the process too since I couldn't get a good hold around the rim like I could when no cover is installed. I then attempted to inflate the tube ...... when your CO2 adapter has been sitting on the back of your Xlab holder on a rainy day with lots of crud on the road ...... check it first! I put in in place but there was crud inside so when I tried to inflate the tube it sprayed everywhere but I did manage to get a little air in the tube. At this point I checked my watch and it had been 7 minutes so I figured a podium spot in my age group was no longer possible so I just relaxed and got my other cartirdge, cleaned the adapter out and got the tube pumped up. I then took the time to round up the old tube, cartridges and crap and securely fasten them to the bike ...... as I jumped back on the bike I looked at my watch ...... 13 minutes a new record in longest tire change of the year! If you ever want to feel like a bike stud, stop and wait 13 minutes and then join in the race with people that would normally be that far behind you. The rest of the bike was uneventful except that after the flat and ultr-long tire change, I didn't have my head in the game for pushing into the suffer-zone. There are some really rough sections in the second half of the bike with some dangerous potholes at the bottom of hills where you make some sharp turns so I was being pretty cautious. I must say that I was riding in two completely different ares with respect to grouping of athletes and saw no drafting.

When I pulled into T2 I got some cheers from my wife and daughter who were stressing since I was waaaaaaaaaay longer than I told them I'd be (although my estimate would have been off anyway due to the difficulty of the course). I took my time to make sure that my socks were nicely in place since I'm running a marathon in 3 weeks and didn't want too many blisters. My wife commented that she'd never seen me do that but I told with 13 minutes on the side of the road already, that I wasn't in too much of a rush. I started the run well and got to say hi to my old "unretired" racing mates in the first few kms (maybe I was destined to flat so I could pass them on the run like old times). I was through 10k in 41:00 on a pretty hilly first part. However, at 16k the course gets crazy. You run out onto the golf course and it twists and turns and goes up and down a lot. By this point it was absolutely pouring and my knee was tightening up a lot so I basically shut it down and cruised in to try and save something for my upcoming marathon. When I checked results after getting home I found out that I had run my way into 9th place in M40-44 so I guess it wasn't a total wash out even though the 5:18 official time makes me cringe :)

If you like tough courses (and I mean really tough courses), this is a great race. I think that they should hold the championship on this one instead of Clearwater. Mitch and company did a great job in a first year race. I'd like to see some of the roads smoothed out a bit (I saw a lot of people besides myself on the side with flats) and would hope for a lot less rain but I would highly recommend this one.



Overall I liked the race but the course definitely does not play into my strengths. I race much better when I can get in a groove and just keep hammering. The constant up down, twisty turns don't allow me to get into any kind of rhythm so I'm not sure if I'll be back to race it anytime soon. I prefer Peterborough as a better test of where my fitness is. I'm also not a big fan of the "extreme" roads beating the crap out of my bike. I'm really glad that I did the first 70.3 in Ontario and raced on a course that I last did in 1993 when it was Olympic distance. For next year I registered for IM Louisville so I'll be cranking it up for much more serious training than the past two years.

Allan

ps. take 30 minutes off of your time and you'd get an estimate of what you would be on a course like Peterborough