Milton Triathlon

What a windy and cold day. Why couldn't we have a day like Saturday afternoon? But lets get to the race report.

Like most people the 1st thing I did was went over to the start list to see who was racing. The 1st name I saw was Wolfgang. I knew he would be hard to beat. And then I saw Len Gushe. I HUGE threat!!!! I knew these were the guys that would be giving me a race. The night before James Loaring was telling me about this kid named Ryan Smith. I didn't think much of him, but boy did he race well. Watch out for this kid. He is going to be fast.
I was looking to have a good swim and come out with Len and just head of Wolfgang. Now that didn't workout. lol I ended up swimming next to Wolfgang the whole way and we started the bike in 3rd and 4th. Ryan and Len were about 20" up. Len started to pull away right away and put 2 1/2' on me over 30km. I was trying to catch Ryan who was riding in 2nd, but he rode just as strong as me. Going into the run I was feeling good. I finally caught Ryan around 2km and ran with him till 4.5km. When I turned around and saw Wolfgang coming fast. I decided to start my push from here. But Wolfgang was to strong and passed me with about a mile from the finish. And I couldn't go with him. Then I started looking back to see where Ryan was because now he was starting to push to catch me, but I held him off and came 3rd overall. I would of like to come 2nd, but I'm still very happy with how I raced. When we were standing on the podium, I had to think back about 5 years, because Len used to coach Wolfgang and I back then. The coach was giving his athletes a lesson on how to swim and bike fast. My next race will be a relay in Muskoka with my Mom and James Loaring. Then it's off to Montreal for the ITU race. I really need to think about my swim and come out with at least the 2nd pack. I will try for the 1st pack, but I'm finding out that I'm not a good open water swimmer.

Dave