The Banff Triathlon was probably the most memorable event in my life, let alone race. What was my first road trip up to Alberta turned into an incredible learning experience for me, both in triathlon and life. That being said, this was not a great race or a super comfortable inn-like holiday. This was a manly adventure with 6 other fellow UBC tri clubbers.
The race was to start at 9am(Alberta time) on Sept. 11, so we decided to go up on Thursday, see how far we could drive, ninja camp the night, then press on the next day. I must say that camping is not that uncomfortable, when you have the right equipment. As it turns out, you need a sleeping bag and a mat to camp in a tent… But no matter, there was an extra mat packed so my night’s sleep at our ninja camp site, which was an abandoned quarry, turned out great.
When we reached the Rockies the next day, I couldn’t stop gawking out the window. Never before have I ever been so speechless for so long. The only way I could describe the Rockies is simply stunning. I can see why America wanted to annex BC in 1844. The raw beauty of the Rockies portrayed in oil painting done by colonial artists hasn’t really changed that much in over 200 years. The dusted pinnacles create an almost unfathomable barrier that could only be breached by skilled mountaineers.
This picture isn’t actually in BC, probably just on the border, but nevertheless, that was the panorama I got to see for the next two days. And upon mentioning spectacular views, I just cannot ignore Lake Louise. This place, if you haven’t seen it in person, is where fairy tales originate. You have to be there to even get a grip of what this place actually does to people. When I said the Rockies made me speechless, what I actually meant was I had difficulties describing what I saw with words other than “wow” or “holy crap” or the occasional laughter of disbelief. Now to put that into perspective, Lake Louise made my jaw literally drop as I stared in a trance upon the majesty of nature. I highly recommend to anyone road tripping to Alberta to stop by Lake Louise and genuflect at nature. It is, after all, the most photographed lake in the world.
Finally, to the race. At 1383 meters above sea level, Banff proved to be quite difficult physically. I felt altitude weakness on the pre-ride before the race and what’s worse was that it was cold. Only 14°C at high noon the day before the race, which was sunny and picturesque, meant that this was going to be one cold race. Boosted by the fact that Two Jack Lake, the place where we we’re camping overnight and the place of the 1500m swim, was going to be 10°C, I quickly realized this was not a race to place. This was a race to just finish. Just like how most Ironmans test your mental and physical limits in dealing with heat, the Banff triathlon was going to strain my limits on cold.
Because the day before the race was sunny and it was mid day, cycling wasn’t at all that bad. This was the part I feared the most. I can handle long cold swims because they are still, relatively speaking, short, but when you are riding for more than an hour, the cold really starts to take its toll on you. So in my mind, I said to myself, as long as it isn’t raining I should be good.
After we unpacked and pitched up our tents, we headed into town to get the pre race talk. The only thing important that came out of that was the swims were going to be heavily reduced. The Olympic by half to 750m and the Sprint by 450m to 300m. I found this to be bad news because this swim is where I make up all my time on everyone; however, I didn’t really want to be in 10°C water for any longer than I had to, so in the end, I settled on neutrality on that decision.
I forgot to mention that we, minus Vince, were all operating on 5 hours or less of sleep so we all decided 8 hours of sleep would be a good idea. Bad news for me was that the extra mat I used when we ninja camped was saved for someone else who showed up later. This meant I either freeze to death while sleeping on the floor or tetris myself into a complacent shape so I could fit in one of the cars. I took the latter. It was terribly uncomfortable, but at least I was warm and my sleep wasn’t too agonizing, if you didn’t include the sciatica I suffered overnight. What was more terrible was the thumping I heard on the roof. Rain. So when I woke up to get ready for the race, I looked outside and it was still dark and still raining, but by 7am, it started to clear a bit, enough so that the drive down to T2 saw light peek out of the clouds. We dropped off our shoes and headed to T1 and that’s when things turned to shit. The clouds wouldn’t subside and rain started up again. Celeigh and I decided that a total dry off would be in order after exiting the water.
I don’t think water in Vancouver naturally gets to 10°C. Tap water is on the colder side of 15°C and the coldest water I’ve ever swum in with a wetsuit was around 15°C. So that being said, the swim was cold. Normally, everyone swims in the water beforehand to adjust to the water. Only a handful was willing to do that. I was one of them. It didn’t help, so I took my mark. On the sound of the siren, it was a frenzy, like always, except this time, it wasn’t as violent. Everyone was probably trying to cope with the cold. I had my head up for the first 1/6 of the swim because it was just too cold to resubmerge my head, but I had to eventually. Once I did, I wasn’t that bad. I took the whole swim incredibly conservative fearing I would go into shock at any moment. I got out of the water in 35th place. Then came the first transition. It took as long as my swim. I spent 10 minutes pealing off my wetsuit, drying off and putting on a new tri suit and in the heat of the race, which became very social in the change tent, I forgot to put on one of my biking layers. So my tip for anyone racing in cold weather is to bring a list of things to do while changing. It may seem remedial at first, but when you’re body is in survival mode, you don’t tend to think enough.
This is the worst part of the entire race. The rain, the cold, and the swim all contributed to make the bike ride the most enduring thing I’ve ever done. 40km in aero position is hard enough even in ideal conditions, but when there’s a gale trying to push you off a super slippery road during a torrential downpour and there is no feeling left in your feet and you forget a crucial layer of insulation, it isn’t fun. This was hands down the hardest bike ride I’ve ever done. I couldn’t go balls out because 1) I physically couldn’t and 2) some of the turns were so sharp as you were descending, you had to break so you wouldn’t veer into a tree. Or fall off a cliff. I was so focused on not crashing, I couldn’t focus on cadence or anticipate when the hills would appear. I have to say the worst thing about the bike was the pain and then the lack of pain in my feet, which didn’t resolve until 4km into the run. You won't experience this kind of pain unless you're riding in the rain with wet shoes in cold weather.
I need to work on my run. It was at one point the best part of my race, but now it’s garbage. I used to be able to run 10km in 42mins. It took 10mins longer this time, granted the first bit of the run was to get feeling in my legs again and enjoying the scenery. Overall, I really enjoyed the run and thought it was much shorter than 10km. My pace for the second lap was great. I averaged 4min per km and was picking off everyone who passed me on the first lap. I finished the race off strong with a 100m sprint to the finish and a final time of 2:29:55. If I had raced under my name, I would have been the fastest person in my age group, which isn’t really saying much because I beat the official first place by 6 minutes and I was a total dick about it too. When I met with him later on, I remarked that he won the U20 men’s Olympic and asked him his time. When he told me, I said to him “Aw man, if I had raced under my name, I would have placed first”. Total dick move on my part. Also later on after the race, there was a prize draw and the tri club totally cleaned up, winning the top 3 prizes, including a $2000 BLUE frame. Congratulations Andrew Wight! I also want to put out honorable mentions to Scott Chris and Winston Guo for placing 1st and 2nd in their age group respectively!
So to recap, Banff is an amazing town, the triathlon tested my breaking point, and I unofficially won my age group, but officially came 10th. Hopefully they have this race again next year because I'll definitely give it another go!
