annett kamenz - triathlete

Lake Half Ironman - why again do I live in Edmonton?

When I left Edmonton to fly to Victoria on another chilly day in May (8 degrees) I joked to my girlfriends that I wouldn’t come back unless we have at least 15 degrees. Once I stepped outside the Victoria airport and had to wait for a shuttle, I was truly asking myself how come I live in Edmonton by choice, when there are such beautiful, green and sunny places on Earth? And, those roads….they are sooo smooth, no big pot holes. I want to bike here... (I will come back to that first impression…).

My homestay at the Hendersons made this trip so much more enjoyable. They took good care of me and made me feel at home.The day prior to race day I drove out to Shawnigan Lake to check-in, and to drive the racecourse. Good thing I did, as I was surprised about a) how much up and down the course was and b) how much the roads reminded me of Edmonton. There it went, my anticipation of a smooth bike on race day. Out of all roads I have seen during my 4-day stay on Vancouver Island, the racecourse was the roughest by far. Too bad, but at least the course was very beautiful – 4 times around the lake (I know, no time to look at the scenery while racing ;-)!).

Race morning was beautiful, the lake was calm, and temperatures where ideal. There was a strong women’s field on the line…e.g. Lisa Mensink, Rachel Kiers, and Katya Meyers. I was not that nervous as I thought I would be, telling myself that I can only do what I can do! My swim was typical for me: I lose contact in the first 200m, and then swim mostly on my own, sometimes zig-zag or of-course. Considering the extra meters, and the fact that this was my first outdoor swim of the year, my time was still ok, not brilliant, but ok.

Happily I hopped onto my bike, and felt good right from the start. To my surprise the race course felt way better on my bike, than what it looked like through my car window. I passed about three athletes, got passed by one myself, and than never saw any other Half Ironman athlete (lots of Sprint and Olympic racers) until 7km into the run. So I had no idea really where I was positioned. My goal was to keep my bike loops pretty consistent, which I did (within half a minute). Overall, good bike.

The first couple steps off my bike felt as usual not that great. I noticed then, that my feet were numb from the “cold”. However, by now though it was so warm (for my taste anyway, coming from cold Edmonton), that my feet would get back to normal pretty quick. The second slight irritation besides numb feet was that I had to pee. Still not knowing my exact position (and gaps to the other females) I was debating over the first 2km whether or not I should skip the nature break to avoid getting passed in the mean-time. Well, nature was stronger, and at the first opportunity (i.e. a closer bush of trail) I took my break. Feels way better to run with an empty bladder. No female had passed me, puuh. Finally, at km 7 I could see the runners infront of me…1 female (Lisa), 2 (Rachel), and then me already.. Great, I was in third place. The same check in the other direction showed that my 3rd place was pretty save. If I wouldn’t die on the run, it would be hard to lose place no. 3. Very nice feeling. Lisa and Rachel seemed out of reach, so I just tried to run my own race, find my rhythm and concentrating on form. With 3 km to go there was the second turn around point and I could see that I was now way closer to Rachel, and still out of reach for number 4. There was not enough time for me to catch Rachel, and I finished a happy third, one minute behind her. Overall, Lake Shawnigan Half Ironman was a very well organized race, on a beautiful (even if on the bike a bit rough) course.