Gravenhurst Olympic-2'nd OA 1:59:57

The Gravenhurst triathlon is one of the more unique races in Ontario.  The race starts with a steamship ride to the middle of the lake, where you are dropped, lined up, and then required to swim back to land.

Loading the boats

I had the pleasure of staying over with the McCoy family at their cottage for the weekend.  They were extremely hospitable, and it made for a very nice weekend up in Muskoka.

Race Summary

The long run up to transition

The swim segment was pretty typical with no real surprises.  Jackson Laundry and I headed onto the bikes about the same time, and headed onto the hilly/winding bike course.

The bike course proved to be much more eventful, with a lot of fast, tight turns, small/steep hills, and a fair amount of loose gravel.  I saw one of the women favourites Emma Plater (her race report here) got an untimely flat midway on the course.

Out on the bike

I was back from Jackson the whole bike, but near the end, I lost sight of him completely. I thought he just hammered out a big lead, but it turns out he got hit by a car!  There is much more detail to the story, and you can find his report here.

I didn't see the incident, so when I headed out onto the run, I thought I was in second.  It was only at the halfway point when Jackson went by me that I found out what happened.

I guess I was too fast on the bike, so the camera man wasn't in position and only got my back

He didn't seem significantly hurt, and must have had a huge adrenaline surge, because he ran by me fast.  It was good to see he was ok and was able to claim his rightful win.  I finished a bit of a ways back of him in second (where I got tripped up on the finish banner).

I was good to see Jackson was alright.  Huge props to him for such a strong finish!

The race went well and issue free, which is good for this point in the season.  Up next I'll be racing in Kingston for the long course race, and then looking to give another 70.3 a go.