Brazil FAST Triathlon
TEAM CANADA COMES HOME WITH THE GOLD! Wow, what an incredible experience in Brazil. A very special thanks to Virgilio and all the race organizers and sponsors who put this on. I must say, I didn't want to come home! But would've rather stayed on the sandy beach under the cloudless sky with my doce de leite churro (only allowed after the race of course)....
The days leading up to the race were spent acclimatizing to the warmth and humidity of Brazil as well as some quality team-building time with teammates Lauren Groves and Kerry Spearing- not to mention some hilarious antics with Team USA (Jasmine Oeinck, Jillian Petersen and Kim Ketover). The press coverage was quite impressive prior to the race. Check out Lauren's YouTube video of us watching (and laughing at) one particular news broadcast.
Race day was surprisingly stormy- with cloud cover and rain, making the roads a bit slick and sketchy. For those who have never heard of this race, it basically entails 3 "Super sprint" triathlons (250m swim/4km bike in 4x1km loops/1.3km 2-loop run) separated by about 15 mins (depending on the TV station's commercial breaks!). Needless to say, this requires some speedy fast-twitch muscle fibre, which yours truly does not have! However it also requires some good stamina- I improved with each race as I got "warmed up." Also motivating was the fact that Team Canada was winning from the get-go as my incredible teammates locked in 2nd and 3rd place finishes in the first two races. The energy of the Brazilian crowd was also quite impressive, if not overwhelming. After the race *everyone* was grabbing us for photo-ops. One women even handed me her baby over the railing for a picture! Yikes.
We have also received a warm welcome upon returning to Canada, including another front page news item at Triathlon Canada. It was an honour to be invited to this race and to race with Kerry and Lauren.
Lauren graciously let me snag all her photos from our trip. I've put a few up in my gallery and will get some more up soon.