Triathlon Planning

There are two race series in Southern Ontario that run duathlons and triathlons. There is the Multisport Series (that I love because a) they give out chocolate milk at the finish and b) they don't blast obnoxiously loud music with screaming race announcers for hours.). There is also the Subaru Triathlon series that does not give chocolate milk and that does blast obnoxiously loud music and announcers for hours...but they still have fun races.

I checked out both of their websites to see which 2013 triathlons have the option of the Olympic distance.

In the Subaru series, there is only one and it is the first (of two) Guelph Lake weekends. The Olympic tri is on Sunday, June 16th.

In the Multisport series, there are several. There is Huronia on July 6th, Gravenhurst on July 13th, Bracebridge on August 11th, Wasaga Beach on September 7th and Lakeside on September 15th.

In there is also the Welland Sprint Triathlon on June 22nd which I really want to do because a) it's local, b) it's flat and c) I like that one very much.

Before I saw the dates for the Olympic distance, I was hoping to do one at the beginning of August. It would give me most of the summer to train and, if nothing else, give me time to brush up on my cycling skills. Cycling is the longest (time-wise) portion of the race and it's also my weakest sport. Most likely because I swim 3x a week and run 3x a week - leaving one measly day a week to cycle. I can do the distance but always get passed by plenty of people with numbers higher than 60 written on the back of their calves.

Now that I've seen the dates, and the events, I'm a little torn. The two in September seem a little too late in the season for a non-wetsuit wearing swimmer like myself. The ones in June seem too early in the season for me to be in the shape I want to be in.

So it looks like either Gravenhurst or Bracebrige.

I'm guessing the deciding factor will be that Gravenhurst has the added bonus of having the start of the swim in the middle of the lake. You get there aboard the famous Seguin and then get to jump off into the lake before the mass start.

The Seguin is the boat that Doug and I were on two summers ago for my birthday brunch.

You can't actually see The Seguin in this photo but, trust me, it's there. And we're on it. And we're obviously having a ball. 

So Gravenhurst and The Seguin may, once again, be in my future. Oh, and did I mention that there is a great little market there too where they sell butter tarts by the six-pack?