World Triathlon Championships 2008

Vancouver 2008 Race Report

by Claudia Shand

This is written from a somewhat `I'm all right Jack' perspective, as I was "fortunate" enough to be in the last wave to actually do the swim course. However, this was the toughest race I have ever done, mainly because of the cold.

The weather in Vancouver, and consequently the ocean temperature, was the coldest at this time of year since 1954. The water temperature was 11.8C : 2C colder than the sea in E Sussex at the beginning of May. During two practice swims before race day the water was so cold on my face that it caused an `ice-cream headache' type pain over my whole head – to the extent that I seriously considered taking painkillers before the race. On race day itself, however, I think the adrenaline flow stopped me feeling it.

On Friday 6 June the age-group sprint races were held. The outside air temperature was about 8C, and it was pouring with rain throughout the entire race. The swim was far longer than 750m, and many were treated for hypothermia. Due to some steep downhill bends there were a lot of bike crashes, and the ambulances were busy. We witnessed many falls at the end of the bike course, where many competitors approached the finish too fast for the wet, slippery conditions. Nevertheless, Gabi, Haydn and Christian all managed to complete the race safely, albeit with a degree of hypothermia.

The next day was the age-group Olympic distance race. I was very relieved that it was dry, but not so happy when I realised it was very windy and cold. By the time of the start of my wave at 0805, the wave size and swell on the water had increased rapidly. Never had I been less keen to start a race. If it had been a local race I'd have withdrawn, but in this instance I knew there was no way I could wimp out.

The swim was hard; I didn't really notice the cold once I'd got going, but the waves were big – I had to be careful to sight only while on top of a wave, and to breathe only to the right. A total of about 8 women had to be rescued from the swim. The rescue boats, mainly canoes, had difficulty staying upright and difficulty in actually getting people out of the water. In view of this, the organisers probably had no choice but to stop any more swim waves from starting. However, I agree with Rob that had there been an adequate number of rescue boats, and had my wave not been double the size of most other waves (all 45-49 and 50-54 women together), the swim could have continued. The vast majority of competitors would have been sufficiently competent to handle the conditions.

On struggling out of the water, the coldness hit: my limbs were so numb it took a long time to get out of the wetsuit, and pulling a jacket on was difficult but essential. I also prolonged T1 by spending what seemed like about 5 minutes pulling gloves on – I felt this was essential, having witnessed Christian the previous day with white hands, unable to undo his helmet in T2!

For the first two of the four 10k bike laps my legs were completely numb and just wouldn't work properly – I felt I was going much more slowly than normal. By the third lap I had warmed up more, and it was then that it dawned on me that there were very few people left on the bike course, and the expected hordes of men overtaking me hadn't materialised. I guessed that the swim had been stopped because of the conditions, and one of the first thoughts I had was how p---ed off Rob H would be – wasn't wrong there then!!

It was a relief to get to the run, though I was apprehensive about running 10k, as I've been off running for most of this year with calf injuries, hadn't run at all for 3 weeks before the race, and thought I was likely to end up walking the course. However, I managed to keep up a shuffling run for the whole course, with no injury recurrence. I finished in well over my hoped-for time, but was very relieved and pleased to have been able to complete the race.

Good points:

All the Farnham Tri team finished their races without injury.

The support from fellow GB competitors.

The size of the GB team: at over 500 triathletes, our team was second only to the Canadians in size, and we got an excellent haul of medals.

The chip timing of every lap that enabled my family at home to track my progress and watch me cross the finishing line live online.

The champagne in Ali and Steve's room afterwards.

Getting home to warm English weather (!)

Bad points:

The weather.

The water temperature.

Generally poor organisation and facilities.

The disappointment of all those competitors who had travelled thousands of miles to compete in a triathlon, and were forced to do a duathlon instead.

Most valuable item of clothing I took with me on the trip: Waterproof rain jacket

Most useless item of clothing taken: Bikini

Item of clothing I most wished I had taken: Farnham Tri long sleeve cycle top for the race.

Claudia