Matt’s Mont Tremblant 70.3 Race Report

Last year after Timberman, Genine decided she wanted to choose a different race for 2012. When the Mont Tremblant 70.3 was announced, I sent her the link and she was sold on the idea pretty quickly. It looked like a pretty cool place to spend a few days.

As my training fell apart in May, the idea of going to Mont Tremblant became more and more of a concern. On the drive up to the race, I kept telling myself that the goal is to complete the event. Take it easy. Have fun. And hopefully it won’t be too much of a sufferfest.

When we arrived we were glad to find that the room we booked was as advertised. We were going to be here 4 nights. We wanted to save a few bucks by being able to prepare some of our own meals. It had very functional kitchen. It worked out perfectly.

The night we arrived it was in the 90’s but it cooled off for the rest of the weekend and we had clear skies until after the race Sunday Evening.

Friday we did a bit of biking. Went through registration. Went through the Expo. And got a feel for how everything was arranged. Later in the day, I got a text message from Jon letting us know he had arrived. Jon and I have raced many of the same NYRR races in Central Park. We’ve never been able to meet up at them tho. So instead we were finally going to catch up over dinner at the microbrew restaurant in the village.

So far this year, it’s been quite a successful beer tasting tour during race weekends. It’s really been something. I was looking forward to continuing that run. Sadly I have to report there was nothing special about the beer choices at the 5 different places we ate at throughout the weekend. It was underwhelming to be honest.  The good news is that was pretty much the only disappointing part of the entire weekend.

Saturday we got up and went over to the lake for a short swim. We were surprised to find the lake was warm! As in I decided to wear my sleeveless wetsuit for race day, warm.

A bit later Jon drove us around the bike course on Saturday. Genine really wanted to see it to know what she was getting into. Honestly, I was afraid I was going to see more hills than I could deal with right now but figured knowing the course a bit better could only help. At the very least, it would save me from making a wrong turn.

As you know, we love to get good race pictures. Well that’s really hard to do when both of us are in the race. As luck would have it, Jon’s sister Abi, who arrived in the afternoon, was willing to take our camera and take pictures for us. Which was fantastic because this really was a very fun weekend and now we’ve got a ton of pictures to help us remember it.

RACE MORNING: Seeing how we were a short walk to transition, we didn’t have to wake up hours ahead of time. It was also nice not to have to worry about parking so far away that if you forgot something, you probably wouldn’t have time to go get it. Quite the opposite, if we forgot something we would have time to stop back at room and make it to the race start easily.

You definitely wanted to make it to the race start in time. Following the singing of the American then Canadian national anthems. The Snowbirds flew by in tight formation 3 times! And the cannon to start the race? How about they just use a Howitzer? (That link is the beach on race morning). Someone said they felt like they were at the start of the Olympics. Pretty good analogy, it was emotional. 

Swim: The course was 3 sides of a rectangle, swimming clockwise. Clockwise is my nemesis, as I tend to pull left. There were too many people tight to the buoy line, so I started further to the left to keep out of the mess. Especially since it was a beach start. I think this is the first time I’ve had to run into the water.

Because I started to the outside (left) of the buoy line, I had planned on making my way towards the buoy line by the half way point to the first turn. The lake was wonderfully clear so I was able to follow feet quite well. Unfortunately, I still ended up pulling left. It seemed every time I’d look up I’d be no closer to the line than the previous check. It wasn’t until after the race that I realized part of my problem. Every time I’d go to pass someone, I’d always pass to their left. I need to remember to pass right when it’s clockwise. (Glad I finally thought of that)

Anyhow, once I got to the turn and was swimming parallel to the beach, I followed the line better. My only mistake here was when I thought I saw 2 people turning for shore after a buoy. So I started turning in. Then I realized there was nobody towards the shore ahead of them, and I corrected myself. I’m not sure what they did.

The swim towards shore was uneventful. Once I had to stand and run to the exit… Yup my hamstring cramped on me. This has happened for all 3 of my races so far this year. This one was the worst. I was standing knee deep in the water for a good 30 seconds waiting for it to stop. It would have been nice to at least make it to the timing mat to start T1. Then to make matters worse, when I crossed the mat, I decided to go with the wetsuit stripper. He got it to my ankles, then dropped the suit and looked to the next person. Which I suppose was good. I’m not sure he’d have cleared the suit off my ankles quicker than I did. I then hobbled along the path to transition. This cramping after the swim is getting old.

Swim Time 37:44.  Not surprising considering my terrible direction at the start. My lack of swim fitness certainly plays a part too.

Bike: Take it easy. That’s what I had in my head. The course was closed to traffic and the pavement was in great shape for the majority of the course. The ride out to the first turnaround was great. My only disappointment was the fact that I got blocked on a couple of the descents. If I’m going to race 15-20 pounds overweight. I’d like to be able to get the gravity assist on the downhills. Instead I’d have to sit up and wind brake, and sometimes even hit the brakes. Top speed on the downhill 44mph. Of course what goes down, must crawl back to the top on the way back. It was very obvious at every climb how slow I was, as a new pack of riders would slide by each climb. I had to keep it even tho. If I started to power 90 minutes into the bike, I was going to be toast later.

As I said earlier the roads were nice and smooth. Yet I found the largest pothole on the course and hit it square on. Man did that hurt. It was in the shadows on a downhill headed towards the Bienvenue traffic circle. I really thought I was going to be dealing with a double flat. I was thinking at least it was a short walk to transition from there. Fortunately, the tires held. Now I just had to climb the last out and back. I remember thinking that it was quite possible that I could finish the bike in under 3 hours, which would be a personal best for the distance. Unfortunately my quads decided it was time to let me know that they were angry. I had to really keep it easy on my climbs, trying to keep my quads from locking up. I was successful until the 2^nd to last climb back to transition. I had to hop off the bike. (I would have fallen over otherwise). It wasn’t far to the top. So I figured I’d better walk it up so I didn’t have to try and climb the rest of the way on the bike. It had to look hilarious as I was walking without bending my knees. I couldn’t! Eventually they gave up and I got back on the bike and made it back to transition.

For the sake of record keeping. I drank my entire speedfil of Gatorade endurance and 2 bottles of perform during the ride. Guess it wasn’t enough? Or more likely the case, I pushed too hard and my muscles were not ready for the effort that I asked of them.

Bike Time 3:02:16 If I didn’t cramp and stop, I would have been under 3 hours. Grr.

The Run: I picked up a few things in transition. I took 2 salt tabs and I took a bottle of flat coke and my hand flask of flat coke. I also had a flask of mocha EFS that Jon had given me the night before.

As I started my run, I was actually surprised at how quickly I was moving. The run was feeling good. Then the first little hill showed up and my legs let me know that a full on muscle cramp was not far off. I decided to walk rather than deal with that. When I got to the first aid station, I saw that they had coke. So I was able to ditch the bottle I was carrying. I knew I needed salt more than anything. So I’d drink 2 cups of electrolyte drink they had and get moving. Eventually that became 2 electrolyte drinks and a refill of my hand flask at every aid station.

 I’m not exactly sure when my first “stop me in my tracks” cramp happened. Because the entire time I was already slowing to a walk trying to keep them at bay, every time I’d feel one was approaching. The worst one was right after I had handed someone else that was stopped a couple of my salt tabs. I made it 15 seconds past him and I was locked up. It hurt so badly that I broke into a cold sweat. I was just about to tell someone to send medical my way when it eased off. It was strange just how well I was running when I wasn’t cramped up. I tried to see if running slower would help but it didn’t matter. I can’t guess how many times I stopped completely because of muscle cramps. A dozen? More? I guess a GPS watch would have been funny to look at to find this out. It was the sufferfest that I was afraid of. Funny that the running was the easy part. It was when I wasn’t moving that was painful!

Anyhow, I was glad that I was able to run through the finish chute through the village without cramping up. So I got to get the finish line experience, which was cool.

Run Time: 2:22:14  I’m surprised this isn’t a bigger number... Later in the day, I realized that my abs were not sore as they had been after the Olympic races. Either the few rounds of ab ripper helped, or I never ran for a long enough stretch to actually cause them any distress.

My Finish

Total Time 6:10:53

This number definitely reflects where I am right now. I’ll use this as motivation. I’ve got 7-8 weeks to Timberman. I will be in a better place for that event. I’ve got 19ish weeks to NYC Marathon. I really have to be in a better place for that.

I’m really glad we decided to race this event. We really enjoyed being at a new venue. Now the question is, do we pick another new place next year? Or come back to get some revenge on this one? Or both? Or do I just give up on 70.3’s? Unfortunately, I don’t think even get to race Timberman before making the decision to sign up for next year’s IMMT 70.3. I think registration will be before then. 

PS: Craig would love this race. Everything is metric!

Here is a link to a professional video of the weekend.

Just after Genine's finish

Genine Jon and I

Jon, congrats again on a great race. Looking forward to catching up some time soon!
Please thank your sister once again for taking all these great pictures!