We arrived in Calgary on Saturday morning and our first stop was to race headquarters at the Westin to visit the Expo and pick up my race kit. Lorna was going to be my cheering section for this year due to her crash a couple weeks earlier...but she is well on the mend and I am sure we will be hitting Richters Pass together at IMC!
After a couple of purchases at the Expo it was time to start getting race ready! A few more logistics for this race because of the 2 different transition locations. We had to transfer the bikes out to the start at Ghost Lake, which is about 60k west of Calgary. So we headed out along the bike route and checked it out. Definately very senic but also very challenging and lots of climbs. Most of the route is quite exposed so wind direction could play a big factor on race day. Fortunately the forcast called for light wind out of the NW which is ideal! Got to Ghost Lake which seems to be a glacial fed man made reservoir and met up with Duncan, Colleen and Candice from GP and heard that Darren and Amber were around also. After a last minute tuning of the ride, Duncan and I headed out for a few k to make sure things were working right....the bike was feeling awesome!
We got the wetsuits on and went for a quick swim...the water was crystal clear and about 18C so perfect conditions.
We drove back to Calgary and splurged for this weekend and checked into the Sheraton Suites in Au Clair which is downtown Calgary...a few steps up from our usual camping routine but Lorna has all the great connections (Denise!) and got a cheap rate so why not eh! Met the over 45 tri gang from GP at the Spagetti Factory for supper and back to the room, some last minute preparation....forgot my race number belt and had to scurry around for some safety pins but got to bed before nine and fell asleep right away!
4 am comes quick....some coffee and breakfast and on the road by 5 am. Shuttle busses were available to bring everybody to the start but since lorna was not running this year, we drove out in our van and her plan was to be the official Grande Prairie cheerleader/photographer. Did the usual getting things organised and air in the tires, layout the stuff, fill up the gatorade bottles and get that "why does everybody look fitter and more relaxed than I do" feeling that I am sure everybody else gets! And the portapotty lines....who could wait that long to have a crap! I scouted out the campsite across the road and had my pick of any one of two! And whats with the covering you seat with a plastic bag the night before! So your wet ass has a nice dry seat to sit on maybe? I guess everybody has their thing!
So this is a wave start depending on male, female, pro and age. I was in wave 7 with a start time of 7:50. Since the pros started at 6:45 and the first age groupers at 7:00, we were able to see the pros and the first wave age groupers finish the swim!
The swim was a 1 loop 1.9 km and started at the boat launch, under the highway bridge, up the channel, turn around and back. I seeded myself midpack at the start and started the swim with not too much congestion...since it was a wave start and only 102 in my age group...this was not an Ironman Canada mass start of 2500 so much more civilized!! To Be Continued
