Well, would you believe it – I’ve gone and booked a spot for Team Canada for the 2010 World Championships!  Blimeney!  Today’s race was near Banff so Jase and I decided to make a weekend of it – it’s very beautiful around there, so would be rude not to really!  So, after spending a day relaxing around Canmore yesterday, we were up at 5 this morning, ready to get sorted.  The race was a little different to most in that there were 2 transition areas – made set up and sorting with Jase a little interesting!  But, as team liversidge does, we sorted it!

They split the women’s race into 2 – the 39 and under and the 40 and over (read “the oldies”!)  So, obviously, I was in the latter!  The swim went well, and within about 20m of setting off I had clear water all around me – by the finish I was about 150m ahead of the second person and she was about another 100m or so ahead of the others.  It was good to see Jase right there, and he ran beside me to transition.

Off we went on our bikes – 4 laps of a rolling hilly-ish course.  I felt good on the bike and passed quite a few from the wave in front of me.  Unfortunately, due to the set up, jase couldn’t watch any of the bike, which was a real shame, but he set off back to the run area ready for stage 3….

….so the bike ends and there’s my super buddy waiting for me to come in- yay!  The run course was held in the Nordic Ski Centre of Canmore.  It’s where the Canadian national cross country ski team train, so was a rolling run course too.  I passed quite a few on the run too, so all looking good.  It was 2 laps, and towards the end of each lap you double backed on yourself which meant I saw lots of Jase – yeha!

Before the race, we’d met one of Julie’s friends, Keith and his wife Linda, which was lovely.  Keith and I saw each other on the run just as Jase was there, so a great photo opportunity!

I already knew that if I finished in the top 2 in my age group I had a spot booked for the 2010 worlds, and by this point I knew that unless a disaster happened I had it (not quite like last time where I was running my heart out til the last!)  What I hadn’t realised though was that the second person in my age group was 24 minutes behind!  Now, I did have a good race, but it wasn’t quite world record pace as that difference suggests – but, thanks very much, I’ll take the gold medal!

So, spot of lunch and the awards starts and yep, as the photo shows that Jase will put up in a bit, I’m getting a bit more practice at this podium stuff – yay!

The best bit though was ……. at one point they thought the swim might have to be delayed as there was a moose drinking in it, and the first sign you saw on the run course was “beware – bear in area” – not something you’d normally expect!

Just 2 races left this year – one in 3 weeks near Calgary and then THE BIG ONE is just 8 weeks away – bliminey!

Show as slideshow