MEC Langley sprint triathlon race report

I registered for the MEC Langley triathlon a little late, on a bit of a whim. I had been leaving the last half of July and first half of August open for camping trips, and so hadn’t planned on racing at all in that span of time. But since we weren’t going to go away (and if we did at the last minute I would only be out $35, yes, the registration fee was only $35!) I figured why not. It’d give me a race every month for May-October.

I was hoping my new Smashfest Queen tri kit would arrive in time. I ordered it ages ago, but in a size that wouldn’t ship until late August. Lucky for me it arrived on Friday. So in time for the race, but not in time for using it beforehand. I was OK with breaking the ‘never race in anything you haven’t trained in’ rule though. This race was just a fun one for me. I wasn’t concerned with my time or performance at all. Heck, we went to some friends’ house for dinner the night before and I even had a glass and a half of wine! 

So I got my stuff all ready the night before, ready for my 5 am wake-up call, was on the road by 5:45, and arrived at the race site by 6:30. I am so not a morning person, and find it almost painful to get up that early. But wearing my new kit helped, as did the rousing Irish modern folk music (which totally could have been Ashley MacIsaac) playing on CBC as I left the house. (I think it was a feed from Radio Ireland.) 

I wasn’t as organized as usual, but hadn’t forgotten anything, although I was so relaxed about the whole thing that I was certain I must have. The race did seem a bit disorganized, partly due to it being the first year, and partly due to a lot of last minute sign-ups I think. But once I got started it seemed to be very well run, and if I’m around, I’d totally do the race again. People were very friendly, lots of the race folks cheering the athletes along the way, as well as fellow athletes cheering each other on.

Although I wasn’t in it to win it, or anything even close, I did try my best, and was very happy with my performance. It started with a 750 pool swim. I did the swim in just under 16 minutes, which was 1:30 faster than I had anticipated. (My official swim time was 16:39, but that included the time to get from the pool to the door where the timing mat was.) My bike (a little under 20 km) clocked in at 43:10, but that included both transitions. And my run, which was a little over 5 km was 27:32. I would have been happy with that pace even if it hadn’t ended on a long, long, steep hill. The worst part of the race by far, and one that you spent the whole run dreading; the run started by going down the hill, so you knew what you had waiting for you on your return. I was very glad for all the hill training I do, both up and down. I just kept thinking to myself, I do my hill 8 times in training, I can get up this one once damnit! My total time was 1:27:19, so under 1:30 for a full sprint, which I was really happy with. (The Qualicum beach tri has a much shorter swim, an 18 km bike, and a run that’s under 5 km.)

I placed 103^rd overall, 34/100 women, and 10/29 in my age group, which was women aged 40-49.

I have one thing to add. I was so happy that my new kit arrived in time. I so wanted something bright and nice to look at to wear. But I hadn’t given any thought to how much attention such bright fun kit would get. I am an introvert. I don’t like to be noticed much. But the Sunrise kit does not fade into the background. Not at all. But it did lead to more encouragement that I might have gotten otherwise, and it did make me push myself a little harder. It sounds silly, because I have nothing to do with the brand, but I felt like I had to represent them well. So when I was flagging it gave me a little extra push to keep going, and to keep my form good to make my run better. I don’t have any photos unfortunately, as I was not going to make my son and husband get up and out of the house that early to come with me. But MEC had someone taking pictures, so there may be one or two race photos I can link to later. (As I said, the kit got noticed, so I know they took a few of me.)