Today’s race was a fun anniversary race for me – it was exactly one year ago that I did my first full Xterra triathlon race back after baby number two, 3 months after Nico was born. So this morning I was hoping I would show my 3 month postpartum self how much farther I could come with another 12 months of work! And finishing today on almost the identical course, with the few muddy spots from last year nice and dry, I was able to take 23 minutes off my time, very satisfying! Here is how the day unfolded….

I feel like I’m sounding like a broken record in these race reports about Canmore, but once again it was a PERFECT and absolutely beautiful day to race out in the mountains! And with over 250 racers out (so I heard and so it seemed!) it felt like a big event with tons of spectators too, it was an awesome atmosphere!

At 9:15 it was the coolest sight watching the Sprint distance Xterra racers start the swim, while at the same time, the duathlon runners ran alongside Quarry lake beginning their 5km run! At 9:30 everyone doing the full distance dove in. I had great feet to draft all around me, but my zig zagging between trying to choose left me on my own in between, doh!! Luckily by the half way part of the 1000m swim I caught on to some fast feet to hang on to for lap two.

After that 15:33 splash in the lake and coming out in about 12th overall, it was a good long run down the green carpet to transition. Getting on the bike I was excited to race for the first time with some custom Mavic shoes with triathlon tops and mountain bike soles! They were easier to get on, and way faster getting off coming into T2 so I’m sure I shaved a few seconds there! Of course, the most comments I get on the bike are always, I love your shoes! 🙂

Thanks Mavic for the Xterra-made shoes!

With a nice road warm-up to the Nordic Centre, the climbing continued and I was feeling 100x better than last weekend on the same course! It was great to feel springy in the legs again, and with some places gained and lost I came off the bike in 1h27min with the 7th fastest bike split of the day, and a whopping 15minutes faster than a year ago, yeah!

JF missed me with the camera as usual but did catch Zoe ripping it up today!

Then it was on the identical and my most favourite Xterra run course! With only a few double track sections, the two-lap run course is full of rooty twisty, fun single track that takes so much focus to navigate that you can forget that you’re actually suffering at race pace. I ended the day with the 4th fastest run split (and knocking 7 minutes off of last years time), and 5th overall behind Mike Vine, Luke Way, Calvin Zaryski (my coach), and Mike Cabigon. Thanks again to race director Tony Smith for yet another “World Class Multisport Event in a Spectacular Location!”

Men and Women’s top 3 overall. Congrats to Tanis Tomlin (2nd) and Kelly Geisheimer (3rd)