Queen - "We are the Champions"

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions...

- Queen - "We are the Champions"

Day 44: Owen Sound – REST DAY – TRIATHLON

Rather than the sound of zippers unzipping I awoke to the sound of the boys outside chopping wood to prepare the fire for breakfast..! It was an absolutely stunning morning with clear blue skies and a heavy dew. I slept wonderfully well and was mentally ready for the swim and the big handover to Graham for the bike who would then hand over to Eve for the run. The triathlon didn’t start until 3pm so we had some time in the morning to get ready, practise our massage techniques, have a hearty breakfast and head out early to register and get used to our new environment. It was a funny sort of morning as we’re usually chatty and full of jokes and laughs. This was still the case however you could certainly notice that there was a degree of ‘tension’ or ‘nerves’ in the air. James’ parents gave us a 5-star treatment again as around 9am the cars pulled up and a HUGE warm breakfast of bacon, eggs, potatoes and orange juice was served up. Breakfast of champions..! I am overwhelmed at their hospitality and it has definitely made the whole triathlon experience so special.

We biked out to Owen Sound and the race course at around noon just in time to see the junior athletes finishing their race and also register for our events. It was incredibly well organised as we picked up our ‘goodie bags’, signed our waiver forms (I feel as though I’m signing a lot of waiver forms these days…!), and were given our numbers. ‘Team Polly’ (Graham, Eve and I) was team 720 and ‘Team Cool’ (Andrew, Brendan and Yao) was 719. A highlight of the morning (which seemed to break some of the tension!) was a huge shopping spree as we bought new cycling wear and Eve bought her running gear (she was originally going to run in her cycling shorts). There were running shoes for sale as well but Brendan had managed to borrow Tony’s for the run so he was geared up in the shoe department. After picking up a special professional looking purple swim cap for my ‘Wave’ or ‘Heat’ I was also set and ready to go. Unfortunately it clashed with my red wet suit.

The triathlon made us all feel like professional athletes – there were sponsors everywhere and loads of supporters out to enjoy the day. Everyone had their numbers written on their arms and we picked up our electronic tags which would serve as the ‘baton’ during the hand over from the swim to the bike to the run. I did a bit of reconnaissance and went out to check out the starting area for the swim. Much to my dismay, the water looked INCREDIBLY choppy (we’re talking Hawaii-sized surfing waves) with whitecaps starting for form along the crest of each wave. Whilst the course didn’t seem too far on paper, in ‘real life’ it was an entirely different matter. The buoys seemed like miles away and, combined with the choppy water and the number of people who would be swimming in the two heats ahead of mine, I realised that I might be in over my head (literally… gulp!). Perhaps I should have taken the swimming part of the event a bit more seriously and tried to at least train… once… or at least do one or two hundred meters of front crawl as practise. I hadn’t swum that far doing front crawl for at least 10 – 15 years..!! Oh dear.

I bit my nails nervously and headed back to our ‘meeting point’ to put on my wetsuit and see how the others were getting on in their preparations and stretching. I confessed to Graham and Eve that they’d have to bike and run VERY fast to make up for what would be an extremely challenging swim..! To make matters worse, I was due to swim against Andrew who confessed to being one of the top swimmers in Kenya in his youth. Oh dear. Was I ever in trouble..! I realised that if he beat me I’d never ever hear the end of it.

By this stage some of the TdC riders had arrived at the race to cheer us on which was so incredibly awesome of them..! It was like we had our own giant cheering section. Peter arrived first to give us some coaching and was followed shortly thereafter by Sandy, Carmen, Gary, Michael, Bob, Ned, Tak and a number of others. They’d all sped down to Owen Sound from Tobermory that morning to meet us and support us in this endeavour. It felt fantastic to have so much support and feel the enthusiasm from everyone. Really, really cool and it made the experience extra-special.

It was nearing 3pm so Andrew and I made our way to the start of the swimming course. Everyone was pulling on their wet-suits and smiling nervously. As I edged my way to the water with about 400 others I realised what I was about to do but tried to stay positive about things. It was ONLY 750meters… It could be worse. It could be 760… or 770…

Now, looking back on hindsight, I realise that it was in fact a blessing that I hadn’t trained and that there is quite a lot of truth in the expression, ‘Ignorance is bliss’. I could go through the play-by-play of the way the afternoon swim unfolded however it would take pages and pages of text that would never quite sum up the experience or the thoughts running through my head… In one word, it was ‘HARD’. Actually, make that two words, ‘EXTREMELY CHALLENGING’. I didn’t quite think that death by drowning or being kicked in the head was imminent however whilst drinking pints and pints of Owen Sound Baywater the thought,

‘Why the hell did I get stuck doing the swimming leg...’ did cross my mind once or twice.

This thought was followed closely by:

‘Oh dear… I don’t think I am going to make it’.

I started out doing front crawl but ended up swimming on top of quite a few swimmers and then being kicked in the face and kicking a few others… Thinking that this ‘kicking people thing’ was very ‘unCanadian-like’ (it was hard to say ‘Oos – I’m soooo sorry’ between mouthfuls of water and desperate gasps of air) I decided to change my tactics and swim breast-stroke the entire way so that I could swallow significantly less water, navigate my way around the other swimmers and mentally wrap my head around the distance left to go. The waves were huge and it was clear that A LOT of the swimmers were struggling – there were quite a few people swimming backstroke, holding onto the buoys for rests, putting up their arms for help from the rescue kayaks and I passed a lot of people who had stopped to catch their breath by treading water.

About 300 meters into the race I spotted a man with a purple cap carefully and quickly navigating his way through the water swimming a nice, neat, professional looking crawl. He wasn’t wearing a wet suit and looked like Andrew. I smiled smugly to myself and decided to employ a strategy - to pace myself by swimming behind ‘Andrew’ for the next 400 meters of the race and then overtaking him in the final 20 meters – catch him by surprise. Boy was Andrew ever going to be surprised when he was passed by me. He’d never hear the end of it..!! A cunning plan. It got to the point where I was giggling nervously in the water and mentally preparing the attack and take over and then the moves to my celebration dance on-shore when I beat him.

On hindsight I should have perhaps spent a bit more energy swimming…

As we neared the shore I was just about to do the sprint take over using my last few drops of energy and smile smugly at Andrew when ‘Andrew’ stood up to start to dash out of the water. My heart stopped - I realised that it wasn’t Andrew..!! Men in speedos, goggles and purple bathing caps all look alike in the water… the giant maple leaf tattoo on this guys back wasn’t visible in the water but it was certainly noticeable out of the water! Last time I checked Andrew didn’t have a giant maple leaf tattoo on his back… Oops. A case of mistaken identity. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at my stupid mistake and also stood up to give everyone on shore a broad, white pearly smile. Where was the paparazzi..? CBC news? CBS? Radio-Canada…?

This is when I realised that I had no idea what to do next now that I was done my swim.

Standing in the water looking a bit like an idiot with a giant smile on my face I wondered what to do. I didn’t see anyone on the shore with a bike, I didn’t know where I was supposed to go and I had no idea how the electronic bracelet on my ankle was supposed to get on Graham’s ankle. In fact, where was Graham..?? Clearly these were things I should have considered before I got into the water and started swimming.

SO, I did what all professional, experienced triatheletes do and followed the others as they ran out of the water, up a gravel running course and suddenly found myself in a giant parking lot full of shiney bikes wondering what to do next. Fortunately I suddenly heard Graham and Eve screaming,

‘Heeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttthhhhhhhhhherrrrrrrrrr’.

Oh thank god. Saved.

I ran as quickly as I could over to Graham and Eve, ripped off the electronic bracelet from my ankle and handed it over to Graham who strapped it on his ankle, threw on his helmet, hopped on his bike and was off like a rabbit, eager to catch up with Yao who had already sped off during the handover with Andrew… about 3 minutes before mine…! Andrew was present for the handover with Graham and when I told him about the mix- up with the other swimmer he couldn’t stop laughing.

When we saw Yao coming back on the bike from his leg of the race we all started screaming and cheering. Full of adrenaline, he raced into the parking area, racked his bike, and stripped off the tag for the handover to Brendan who raced off for the run. About 3 minutes after Yao’s arrival Graham frantically raced in and followed the same scenario, handing the ankle tag over to Eve who raced off after Brendan. We stood screaming our hearts out on the sidelines. We then headed over to the finish area where the first runners were already coming in from earlier heats. Incredible athletes. We cheered everyone on as they came in and the crowd went wild when Brendan, Eve, Erik, James, Laura, and Wing crossed the finish line in the run. Everyone finished and everyone made fantastic time. In fact, Laura placed first in her age group for the duathalon (run, bike, run) and ‘Team Cool’ placed 4th in the mixed tri and we placed 7th out of 14 teams. Not bad considering that the only leg we ‘trained’ for was the bike..!

I’ve never done anything like a ‘triathlon’ before but I must say that I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s been one of the highlights of the journey so far. It has been a highlight for many reasons – some ‘individual’ but also a huge part of it was ‘group’ or ‘team’ related. It felt amazing to do something as a team and realise that to be successful we all had to work together. The whole is only as good as the sum of its parts. It was also incredible to have the support of the rest of the TdC group who came to watch us and cheer us on even after their long cycle into Owen Sound. Everyone was so positive and supportive that it was overwhelming. From the cheering, to the words of advice and encouragement, to the photo taking to the laughs to the hugs… Awesome.

That night we celebrated at Montana’s – the all you can eat ribs restaurant. It was so much fun and everyone ate their fill between lots of laughs, stories and pitchers of beer. Post dinner we cycled into camp for more hugs and congratulatory words and dove into our tents. I was exhausted but so happy. A wicked day and one that I will remember forever.