One down.

The Kelowna Apple Triathlon is the National Championships and will be for the next few years. The Nationals changes venues on occasion but Kelowna has got it through 2010. I have to say it's not the best run event I've been to and I think I'm being nice in saying it that way. Either way I made it through and finished 6th over all in the Age group race and 2nd for my age group of 35-39. Some guy from Winnipeg beat me, I didn't know there were even triathletes in Winnipeg?

A brief race report:
The swim was no wet suit because the water temp was to high. This favored me because I think I swim just as fast without it. Usually it gives people an advantage, so by not having the wetsuit it puts most people at a disadvantage. I had a good set of feet to draft behind.
The bike-- My legs are still sore from the peach classic a month ago and another race I did in between the peach and now. I really had no sustained power that I had in the peach. I was only 1 minute off the fastest bike split so it couldn't have been that bad. There was a nice little climb that split the field up nicely. 3 loops
The run---- I think the leg fatigue from the previous races filtered into a very poor run. I think the run was longer than 10km. I ran off course and missed a little out and back section. Thank goodness a volunteer let me do it twice on the second lap so I didn't get disqualified.

Link to the results page. http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2008/multi/KAT2008Olympic.html
Either way, I am a bit disappointed that I didn't place higher. I know I am capable of faster times. This year has been hard and I didn't really plan to do these short races so as a result I wasn't very well prepared for them. I just went off the fitness I gained for the Ironman which is totally different training. Some people say the Olympic and Ironman triathlons are totally different sports like Tennis and squash. In some ways they are. I'm not sure what to focus on? After the descent results in short course without preparing I kinda want to see how fast I can get for next year. Maybe I can win the National title for Age group. A goal, or maybe more of a dream, has been to go under 2 hours for an Olympic distance race. Ive done 2 in 2:04ish. If I could get my swimming back to before my injury, I'm sure that's almost 2 minutes right there. I have Ironman goals as well and maybe those are a bit harder but possibly more recognized in the Triathlon world. I will ponder these over the next 2 months before training starts in November for the 2009.