"Once Discovered, Never Forgotten" -- 5th in Muskoka!

Alright, let’s start this post off with a BING, BANG, BOOM (Siri!) -- 5TH AT MUSKOKA 5i50!! Yea!! Muskoka's motto: "Once discovered, never forgotten." My sentiments exactly!

I carried my momentum from NYC 5i50 north to Ontario and tallied some much needed points for the series!

The race—it did not start out well and I’ll tell you why. Triathlons based in Canada, despite being a part of the 5i50 race series, go by the tune of their own drum or rather, the ITU drum. In other words, anything you wear in the water must be worn during the entirety of the race (assuming it’s a non-wetsuit swim which it was)! There was no pre-race meeting the day before, so you can imagine how dismayed I was to find out the morning of, in transition, that I couldn’t wear my Xterra Wetsuits speed suit in the swim! To add insult to injury, I chose to wear my two-piece Champion Systems race suit, which I normally wear for Olympic non-draft races, because I assumed I would also be wearing my speed suit! Let’s just say the top piece of my uniform was like a parachute in the water! Swimming up-river didn’t help either..! To add further insult to injury, they chose to put all elite-age groupers and pros in the first wave but because pros and age-groupers have different water temperature requirements for wearing wetsuits, all of the age-groupers were in wetsuits!! This day was starting off WONDERFULLY…!

I exited the water in 20th, totally demoralized. I just had the worst swim of my season and I was frustrated about ALL OF THE ABOVE but I chose to forget about it and continue on. It took a bit to get into a groove on the bike, but once I did, I started putting people in my rear view, for good! At the 20k turn-around point, I was sitting in 10th and having seen the other riders not to far up the road ahead of me, I had a newfound motivation. I kept pressing and made sure my last 10-15k was a solid effort heading into T2.

I started the run in 9th. The legs took a few km’s to wake-up, but I eventually moved into 8th around the 3k mark. Almost halfway through the run, I caught a glimpse of 5th, 6th and 7th up the road. At this point, 5th had about a ½ mile on me so it was no easy task ahead. It was a two-lap run course and by the second lap, age-groupers were just heading out onto the run which meant my 5th, 6th and 7th guys were now lost in a sea of competitors! I put my head down and pressed on nonetheless, eventually catching 5th with about 1k to go! I crossed the line in 2:01:48 and en route, posted the fastest run split of the day! Certainly could not have done that without my Skechers GoRun’s!

I’m elated about my first top-5! I’ve put in the work as of late with Coach Siri and Team Sirius and it’s starting to pay dividends! Again, this was a triathlon of attrition. I was met with adversity in the beginning and could have easily thrown in the towel. Siri, always tells us – “Never give up until you cross that finish line. If you have a bad swim or a bad bike, what can you do RIGHT NOW in this race to turn that around and change the result?” I literally used that as fuel for the last two races and it’s worked out. TO THE LINE!

As usual, a HUGE thanks to all my sponsors: Skechers, Zico, Xterra Wetsuits, Champion Systems, and Gu! Thank you to Siri and Team Sirius for making me work! Keep it up!

Looking forward to carrying this momentum to the great state of Ohio for the Giant Eagle Tri next weekend! It’s the final stop in the 5i50 series before the finale. I’m still on the cusp so I need another strong performance in Ohio to try and sneak my way in!

Race results can be found HERE.

Thanks for checking in, talk soon and…let’s get into it – to the line!

-HH