Race Coverage

"...I Just Wanted to Cry..."

Wednesday, 26 October 2016 23:10

By Heather Lendway (heatherlendway.com)

Mont-Tremblant 70.3 Race Report - I’m really far behind in race reporting so I’m going to implement rapid fire races reports.  They’ll be short and sweet: 10 things good, bad and/or ugly. A quick note on why I haven’t been writing… I felt my last few races have been far from stellar and I find it hard to write about disappointment.  I don’t want to be a broken record and I needed some time to process.  On top of that life outside of triathlon has been keeping me on my toes....

Quick thoughts on MT:

1. If you want the best triathlon experience there is to offer this race may be it.  They literally roll out the red carpets, not just down the finishing chute but all the way from the beach to transition for the half mile run to T1.  The town is gorgeous and has a village feel with restaurants and shops just outside your door.  They had military jets do a flyover at the end of the national anthem and the start of the race.  The course is mostly closed and they have tons of roaming bike support with spare wheels out on course.  The run course is lined with people cheering you on for about half of the course.  The finish line is epic, running down main street with people lined up 10 deep.  Probably the best produced race I’ve been to.

2. The lake was cold, low sixties but nice for wetsuit swimming.  I was able to get close to Meredith Kessler and Holly Lawrence at the start but tried to take a shorter line and lost touch so I ended up swimming solo. I really don’t like swimming right on peoples’ feet but it’s part of the sport so lesson learned – I need to stay on them.

3. Heather Wurtele and Magali Tissyre came flying by me way sooner than I would have expected on the bike.  I used them as a carrot to chase.  At about 30K Magali dropped out so my carrot was gone.  I tried to keep the hammer down but felt like I wasn’t making good ground for the effort I was putting out. READ MORE