Today's race was a must if I wanted to be on the team, and a way for someone who didn't make it the first day, to prove themselves and possibly get the third spot. Thankfully, my stress of making the team was over and all I wanted to do was prove that their would be no mistake in taking me. I had a good swim, on the feet of Jackson and Aiden, swimming 1:08 100's and getting on the bike relatively with them. A super disorganized first lap, but we got it under control and kept it pretty rich for the majority of the second. A bad T2 racking my bike in the wrong rack by someone who had the same shoes as me, then my bike falling etc, left me getting onto the run in third over 5 seconds back. I sprinted onto Aiden's shoulder feeling some daja view from the day before.. Quicker than the day before, he dropped and It was up to me to catch Milic. I stayed relatively close on the way out and up keeping in touch by probably 5-6 seconds. But on the way back, Milic was able to lengthen it out better than me and I finished about 19 seconds back with a run split 13 second slower at 9:31 for the 3km which I'm pretty happy with on a hilly course. Overall, i was pleased with my performance and with being so close to a 3 year junior in my first year. Stay tuned for Ottawa in 2 and a half weeks time...
Cheers, Brock

Well, I was nervous to say the least. This one race would determine my entire season. The race format for the Canada Summer Games qualifier went as follows. A 300m swim time trial at the university, then a 7km draft legal bike staggered on the start, based on our swim times, and a 1 mile run directly off the bike. First two across the line are the automatic qualifiers for the CSG! I had a great swim I thought, swimming the 300 in 3:16, but was still 9 and 10 seconds back from Aiden and Jackson. Milic was 3 seconds back from me though. This made the bike very very interesting. After changing venues, and getting organized, I hoped on my bike when it was my turn, got into aero and rode hard, not looking back or waiting for Milic. I had my eyes on one thing, the two in front of me. Milic used some super powers to get onto my wheel, and asked me to wait for him to get into his shoes, and then we’d work together to catch…I didn’t say anything, and tried to drop him by just biking HARD. But before I knew it, he was into them and we were working together. We could them a little over 2km in, and decided to try to go around them instead of going with them. Unfortunately, it didn’t work…We came off the bike together meaning that their were now 4 extremely strong men, fighting for 2 guaranteed spots over a 1 mile run! That means leg ripping speed, guts and pain. Milic went off like a bullet, and I had to hang back and composed at the start (about as composed as you can stay when your trying to run a 4:30 mile) I hung back with Aiden, and Jackson behind us. I ran on his shoulder, bumping elbows over and over, until I started to feel controlled, then I switched sides to where I had more room, and started acting a bit stronger, upping the pace as I moved up on him. We were even at the turnaround, and thats when I put on the pace. I started thinking about the sound of our heavy breathing as we ran next to maximum, and soon realized that my shoulders were just barely ahead of his . I thought to myself, "I’m in so much pain as it is, I’m going to hold this pace, and if he drops, than happy day.” About 5 seconds later, he took a deep breath, and that was it, 5 meters became ten, 15, 20, 100, 150. I suddenly realized that Milic was getting close!   Aiden finished about 31 seconds back and I missed Milic by 5 seconds. I was so ecstatic to guarantee my spot the first day. Yah exactly, there was a hole other day of racing The next day! Stay tuned...

Well, this is the first year I am old enough to compete in this tri, so I was looking forward to it. I was confident in my ability to perform well, based on how training was going, but was still unsure of how I would do in my first Non-drafting tri race in 2 seasons.  I had the fastest seated swim time going in, so I was the first to start. I swam well, Probably about 1:11’s if you subtract the running down stairs and the time it takes going 15m sideways when moving lanes. I was able to snatch the swim coarse record so I was pleased with that. I got onto the bike and had some trouble with my shoes when the strap came out of its loop hole, I finally got it in part way into the first lap, and was relieved about that. It was a 3 lap bike course and I was trying to maximize my aerodynamics while still not getting too sore. I rode pretty hard, but still wanting to have a ripper run. Oh yah…when I was coming around for my first lap of the bike I almost got hit by a bus that pulled out right in front of me, going 39 km/hr in aero position! I had to swerve into the oncoming traffic lane on the other side of the barricade! Oddly, enough, I was mostly worried about the riders catching from behind, while riding back over the barricade and back into my lane. I got back up to speed and had to think about something else! Thankfully, it only happened once.
When I hit the run, I felt pretty good, besides a sore hip from aero on my little Draft legal tri bars, but I ran hard. On a slightly slow coarse, cause of gravel and such, I was pleased with my time of 16:25 so 3:16 per km. Big shout out to the lead bike who was most helpful throughout the run! I finished in a time of 1:02 and won the race by exactly 2 min. Very pleased with my overall performance and glad to get some learning experiences before bigger ones going up. A few tweaks and I should be ready for the CSG qualifier in 2 weeks time!