Well, I’m home from my race in China and wanted to give you all a full re-cap of how the race went.

For those looking for the Coles Notes version of the race, here it is. The longer version to follow.

Swim – 4 km in 1:10. Fastest swim in my age group.

Bike – 115 km in 4:25. Three loops around a very hilly course (seriously, people were walking their bikes up this one monster by the third lap). Battled a headache and unsettled tummy for most of the ride but pulled through. Hit my power goals for this leg of the race.

Run – 20 km in 1:55. Four loops with a few out-and-back sections. Headache was gone but my legs were dying. Not quite as fast as I wanted but I’ll take it.

Total time: 7:36:50 (including transitions). Placing: 5th in my age group

Ok and here’s the long version:

Swim – Everything about this swim was awesome. The course was well marked (small buoys all the way around the course, spaced about 10-15 m apart). No issues with sun or glare. Wetsuit legal (almost wasn’t) but not too hot. All the women started together, about 10 minutes after the men. Within about 200 meters I was already catching up to some of the slower men (who were swimming breast-stroke with buoys tied around their waists – I kid you not).The first lap was spent trying to swim around the slower men (apparently there were a lot of them). I stuck with a few other women around my speed, which was great motivation for keeping up the pace. The second loop was uneventful, with less people to swim around. I exited the water after about 68 min of swimming and ran up into transition with one of the other Canadian women who happened to be swimming along-side me. Turns out we were the second and third Canadians out of the water (including the men).

Bike – Transition to the bike was slow as there was a pretty long run to get to my bike. Keith managed to snag a spectators spot right in front of my bike (like 4 meters away), which helped me find my bike. Then off I went and up the first hill (right out of transition). The course had a little bit of everything: curvy roads with lots of rollers, hairpin turns, flat sections (which were coupled with a head-wind), coastal views, and one epic climb that is about 1.5-2 km long with an average grade of 6.2% (but it pitches up more in the last km). It was a beautiful course. Unfortunately for the racers, it was hot, humid and the only “aid” at the aid stations was water. Thankfully, the organizers allowed for one team manager/coach per team to be at a designated spot on the bike course to hand out “personal food/nutrition” to their country’s athletes. Team Canada did not send any team manager (we were a team of 19 people). However, we decided as a team to elect Keith as our “team manager”. He went to the race briefing for us and gave us all the important information that wasn’t in the pre-race guides/material. And he was out there on the bike and run courses handing us our own nutrition (I’m so glad I brought everything I needed… there was NO expo with stuff, and finding CO2 was even tricky for most people). Throughout the bike (and swim) I battled a headache and an upset tummy. But I just kept my fluid intake high and ate even when I didn’t feel like it know it would be in my best interest to do so. I came off the bike with another girl in my age group after three laps and was hoping my running legs would come through. Only a very few number of women went sub 4 hours on the bike so although I was hoping for a MUCH faster bike time, everyone’s time was slow.

Run – The first of my four loops was pretty strong. I fell into a good rhythm, but after that the wheels kinda fell off. My legs were shot even though I hit all my targets on the bike (stuck to my goal power target the whole time, worked the downhills, managed my effort on the uphills). In hindsight, maybe I didn’t take in enough fuel on the run. But I just kept putting one foot in front of the other to move myself closer to the finish line. Keith was out there on the run course fueling us Canadians with our fuel of choice (and some flat coke, because everyone was hoping to have flat coke on the run). The rest of the Team Canada support team was fabulous! And running down that blue carpet to the finish line was everything I dreamed it would be.

Thank you all for your support, encouragement and help throughout this whole process.    Ruth-Anne