Vancouver Triathlon

All settled back onto campus here at UBC, unfortunately it's not for long, my flight home is in a little over a week.

Main thing on my mind is my last race of the season, early Monday morning in Stanely Park. The last year has gone by insanely fast, I can vividly remember writing a similar blog post 52 weeks ago on the Friday before the tri last September. Last year I was coming to the end of my first age group season and Vancouver was my last big race of the year, I took it out hard, led onto the bike and held the lead ... if just, for the whole race. My first overall win :-)

This year I'm in way better shape and coming off of a much bigger season but it is a longer race this year, the full distance as apposed to last years sprint. It was a rapid field that lined up for the Oly distance last year and I have no doubt it will be similar in 09, THREE sub 2 hour athletes finished, so I'll have to get a move on.

Not sure why I continue to "course recce" Stanely park, I've raced in it now 3 times and will ride the course at least once a week when I'm in town, but as a force of habit I headed down that way this morning and went over the laps once more. A few new potholes have appeared but nothing drastic. Main things that scared me were the crazy woman on the roundabout who simply pulled out obviously not seeing me, had to bump over the curb on the centre island...and the insane speed wobble I had while heading over the back side of the park down the hill. Must remember to be safe these days.

Everyone is slowly but surely flocking back to UBC so I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again over the next week. That said I'm also starting to look forward to heading back home and seeing everyone I've missed over the past 15 months. It will be a good winter no doubt back home in Scotland. I just hope everyone is prepared to put up with me hounding them rain or snow to train over the winter months!