Coteau du Lac Pan AM Cup Race report by Tegan

Last weekend was a really special one for me. In 2004 I took a road
trip up to Edmonton with my dad to watch the ITU Olympic qualifier
race. I was so awed and impressed by the elite women and I decided
that I one day wanted to race with them! At the time, it seemed
impossible, I was hardly making it through Kids of Steel sprint races,
and I have never been fast or a gifted as an athlete. Getting my ICC
card, and making it to the start line this weekend was a pretty big
deal for me.

Greg and I left Thursday evening. After some airport shenanigans
(where I had my hands swabbed and tried to smuggle a gigantic pair of
scissors onto the plane) we finally landed in Montreal around 2 am
local time. After a little sleep in Friday we made our way to Coteau Du
Lac. After checking into our super swanky crib, we put our bikes
together and made our way to the race site for a little pre race bike,
swim, and meeting.

I got up race morning, ate, and tried my best to relax for a few
hours. Around noon I packed my stuff up and Greg drove me down to the
race site. My nerves were just about off the hook at this point.

I checked in, where I was told that I couldn't race because I didn't
have my name or CAN or the ITU symbol on my uniform. I almost cried
and the lady then said this time she would let me. Phewf! I passed the
bike and helmet check and then set up transition. We had a swanky
little bucket all to our self. I went for a little warm up run,
stashed my bags in a corner in the 'Elite' tent and headed down to the
swim start for a warm up. An official then escorted me down, through
the fencing to the start. Haha. The perks of being elite I guess! The
water was pretty warm, 22, so it was a non-wetsuit swim. I dived in
off the pontoon and did a little 500m warm up loop. We then were
corralled and lined up by number. After a few minuets, possibly some
of the most nerve wracking of my life, the top ten girls were
announced, and then the rest of us got to run down some stairs onto
the pontoon and choose a starting spot. It was tight, but not too bad.
There were only about 25 girls racing. The officials told us we had a
few minuets and to relax. Haha. I almost sat down and cried. I was so
nervous, terrified, and really excited. I was feeling wayyyyy out of
my league! Those girls are intimidating!

The dive in start was new to me. It went well though. I came up under
two girls and after a little punching and kicking and getting knocked
around I found some bubbles. My goal was to stay with some girls on
the swim so I would have a pack to work with on the bike. I was happy
when I noticed that there were about four of us swimming together in a
little pack. I had a great draft and I was feeling good… Too good.
After a while I got a little nervous. I wasn't going hard enough. I
was swimming pretty comfortably. I wasn't working my butt off like I
had expected. Uh oh. I had to make a choice- Stick with the girls, or
go ahead on my own and try to bridge the gap to another group. I
decided to stay where I was. Not what I should have done, looking
back, but I wasn't sure what to expect out of the race and I was not
feeling confident enough to go out on my own. Going onto the second
lap, a short 500m loop, was fun. We ran up this sticky ramp across the
pontoon and then dived back into the water.

I came out of the water with the four girls I swam with and ran up a
set of steep stairs to transition. I was last into transition, but
first out. All of a sudden I was by myself on my bike. I looked back
and the girls were far back! I then biked into a pylon. Haha. I put my
shoes on while trying to quickly decide what to do. Do I wait for the
pack? Do I go hard and try to catch the girls ahead of me? Again, I
should have probably reacted faster, avoided the pylon, forgot about
my shoes and took off to catch the girls ahead. They weren't too far.
I decided to just go at my own pace and if I caught them, great, if
the girls behind caught me, good. About a km in, the four girls behind
caught up and I joined in their pack. We worked together for a bit,
caught a girl who was going pretty slow, and one of the girls in my
pack broke away. Looking back, I should have gone with her. I know I
could have, but at the time I wasn't sure, until I realized that my
pack was going a bit too slow. The bike was pretty uneventful. We
caught 2 girls who were struggling, and again, in hindsight, we should
have dropped them. When they came up to pull our speed dropped until
one of us took over. The bike course was six out and backs, one way
with a strong tail wind, the other with a strong head wind, and
included one sharp hairpin turn, one L shaped corner, and a little
cul-de-sac, and a little section through the crowd. It was actually a
lot of fun and the constant turning and change of pace kept things
interesting. On the way to transition on the last lap the girls in my
group decided that they didn't want to pull and the pace really
started to ease up. It seemed like everyone was waiting for someone
else to do the rest of the work. I was a little frustrated so I pulled
ahead and pulled the girls to transition.

Transition was speedy. Bike racked, helmet in bucket (to avoid time
penalties), shoes on, and go. The group of us was out of transition
and running at the same time, and right away two of the girls took
off. One of them went on to run a 33min 10km. Dang. I was left with
two other girls. They were holding a good pace and I was a little
concerned. Would I be able to stay with them? Could I hold that pace
for the entire run? I stayed clam and told myself that all I had to do
was to stay with them. That was it. I stuck with both girls for two
laps. At that point one of the girls dropped back significantly and
the other took off a bit. I tired to go with her but I was breathing
pretty shallow and getting back and stomach cramps. I slowed quite a
bit at this point and I was feeling pretty low. After giving myself at
little pep talk, relaxing a bit, and working on breathing, I was able
then to pick it up for the last lap, and with 500m or so to go I
figured I would give passing the two girls ahead a go. The race was
almost over, what was there to lose? I picked up the pace and I was a
little surprised at how easy it was to run a bit faster. (Which means
I was running too slow. Ooops!) I passed both girls easily and ran
into the finish.

Overall, it wasn't exactly the race I had wanted to have, but, on the
other hand, it was the experience I needed. I learned a ton about this
style of racing. It was like nothing I have done before! It was an
actually, real, race! I had no idea what to expect going into the day,
and I think that this experience will have me better prepared for my
next attempt at elite in Kelowna.
 
Tegan

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