I'm not sure if there is something in the air over here but I seemed to wake up this morning a bit perkier than usual.
Usually when I get up at 530am I stumble out of bed and wonder off in the general direction of a swimming pool for my normal 5 or 6km I swim in the mornings but today I had a mission and I was up for the challenge.
It was the annual Vancouver city Triathlon in the gorgeous Stanley Park, the same venue as the 2008 ITU World Championships that I raced in June. More than one thousand spectators turned up, either family and friends or the huge amount of people who use the park as their morning walk, to cheer us on and it really added to the atmosphere.
I had a good run up to the race, my last this season, with a win last weekend in the Whistler Peak race and a 2nd the weekend before at the Canadian Triathlon Championships so was confident in my training and ready to go all out. We plunged into the Pacific at 0730 and I came out, in the lead, 9 minutes later with a good gap to give me the solid lead heading off into the bike. I pushed from the word go once out on the bike course, got my feet into the shoes and went on a charge. My legs were feeling great so kept the speed up 
during the massive hill on each of the two laps and just kept foccused on the fact that there were probably lots of big fast cyclists catching me up. As it turned out there weren't any guys out catching me up today and I came into transition with a 2 minute lead and the fastest bike split of the day. The run was fun as I just stayed relaxed and kept technique in mind, last years champion was chasing me down but I did enough to stay in front and sprint across the line to about 500 vancouverites cheering which was a nice feeling.
during the massive hill on each of the two laps and just kept foccused on the fact that there were probably lots of big fast cyclists catching me up. As it turned out there weren't any guys out catching me up today and I came into transition with a 2 minute lead and the fastest bike split of the day. The run was fun as I just stayed relaxed and kept technique in mind, last years champion was chasing me down but I did enough to stay in front and sprint across the line to about 500 vancouverites cheering which was a nice feeling. This was my first overall win in a triathlon and the first time I've ever set the fastest bike time so as my last race of 2008 it was great fun and a success.
I'm now more psyched up than ever to get going with off season training and put in some big miles heading into 2009,
Thanks to Blair for 2008,
All smiles from Vancouver,
Mike
2 comments:
Well done little (big) brother. Very impressed with your 1st place. I love reading your blog but it makes me wish I was there to cheer you on. I think you should aim for the Olympics. Keep writing.
Love you,
Britney xxxxx
Nice work!!!nice way to end the year!!!
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