Barrelman 2023 – Race Report
“No killer training days. No crazy volume. Just consistent training.” – Coach Miranda Tomenson
This was my second year in a row racing here in beautiful Welland, ON and Niagara Falls and I’m always thrilled to support local races!
Total surprised Personal Best for me! While not an exact 70.3 distance, we had to endure a 2km swim, 87km bike, and 20km run. I honestly was not expecting anything spectacular as I did not do any insane hero workout or massive volume. I just had a really rare and fortunate consistent build with no injuries, missed workout, or illness. Very grateful!
Last year I completed this exact same course in 5:41:23. So I took off about 38 minutes!
The RACE: [Official Time: 05:04:22]
SportStats: https://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.xhtml?raceid=118022&status=results&bib=153
SWIM (2.0 km) – 0:44:10mins @ 2:12/100m
Okay well, in the actual swim itself, I thought I was doing poorly and slow!! A good amount of people passed me. But around the area with 800 left, I realized that I was starting to pass some people (I literally rarely pass anyone in the swim!) Anyways, I was feeling a bit demotivated initially, but when I looked at my watch I was pretty shocked 2:12/100m pace for 2K OWS is my PB!
Other than the usual kicking and grabbing from other people, this was pretty standard. I just did a pretty easy/moderate effort level. No panic. If I can pull this kind of swim off at IMFL in 6 week, I’d be so delighted. We’ll see!
T1 – 0:04:05
BIKE (87km) – 2:34:45 hr @ 33.73 kph
This was flat and fast! 33.73km/h is my fastest outdoor ride pace for over 50K! and this was close to 90! There actually wasn’t a super big tail wind like last year (which I was looking forward to, but alas) Avg 175W (higher at beginning with some headwind, and lower in back end) I managed to take ALL my nutrition compared to my failure at Muskoka 70.3 a few months ago. This was a HUGE difference in my overall race.
T2 – 0:03:03:11
RUN (20km) – 01:38:11 hr @ 4:57/km
While I gladly accept the PB from the swim and the bike, This run was probably the biggest surprise of the day. Coach Miranda Tomenson said to start at 6:15/km pace, and to me that just meant “go easy”. So I started off what felt “easy” for 5 mins, then I looked at my watch and it says 4:50km pace right off the bat. I thought it was wrong because I felt so fresh! Anyways this somehow continued for the entire course, I thought I would blow up at some point too. I followed exactly what coach said on how to approach the Burning Hill first and second encounter and that worked, it didn’t even really feel that hard. All those weeks of increased hill repeats helped a lot I think! It was wild because the entire time I was nostril breathing in. I only switched to mouth in the last 5k when I emptied the tank to the finish!! No niggles, no cramps!
In Conclusion
Overall, this is the best rank I ever got in a triathlon ever. In the Top 28% (17/60) for my AG. Top 22% (132/600) overall. I still need to work on my T1 and T2! Could potentially save another 4 minutes to go sub-5 next time! Congrats to everyone who raced! Thank you to John Salt, race organizers, police, and volunteers for making this all happen so is crazy folks can do this to ourselves! ? While I would have loved to end on a high note, my season is NOT over. All eyes on Ironman Florida in just 6 weeks! Taking a few days to recover and reflect, then it’s back to work. Bread and butter.