Two Trips, Two Very Different Battles
How two race days somehow ended with a waterslide
As we are reaching the end of this part of my triathlon journey, this post is going to cover two events, two stories that took place at the same location coincidentally with active participation from Mother Nature. One event that never happened and the following, which was literally a nightmare for any endurance athlete, but at the same time made my mind even stronger and gave an amazing confidence boost, for what was going to be my first full distance Ironman afterwards.
Let’s “bike” in…
Mont-Tremblant 70.3, 2023 Smoke, Ash, and Cancellation
My third 70.3 event, famous and beautiful location in Quebec, a ski resort, a very nice place to go with the family. Also, very well-known for the hard bike leg as this is not plain/flat Toronto, but instead very hilly and lots of elevation. It is a very traditional event here in Canada. As usual, I went with couple of friends and respective families, rented a cool hotel for the all the kids to also have a good time. Please always remember this when going to a triathlon event out of town:
When travelling with family and little kids to these events, it’s very important to book a place family-friendly, amenities, especially with a pool!
Now, if you recall, 2023 was a very tough year during the summertime due to all the wildfires that were going on at the time, especially also in Quebec. They were out of control basically. Nonetheless, we arrived there 2 days prior, hot summer day for sure, did my athlete check-in, dropped off the bike (yeah, still with my pretty beat up Specialized Allez), not very well suited for this type of bike leg, but still there I was! Following morning, my friends and I woke up, had our breakfast, another friend picked us up and headed towards the venue. If I had to describe the situation, outside it smelled as if someone was doing a barbecue roasting some burgers or doing a bonfire somewhere. Skies totally gray, full of smog.
I thought about it right away: this is going to get cancelled! Still, to our surprise, they let us in the transition area and when we got to the bikes they were all literally covered with ashes, as if a volcano had been active nearby and was spitting out ashes all night along. Again, nobody said anything, so I continued doing the whole prep before, until time came to walk to the lake and start the swim with wetsuit on. And then, that’s when it finally happened, event staff started to yell out: CANCELLED, CANCELLED!
Officially, event had been cancelled, which made sense of course. Naturally, it was so disappointing, but at the same time, it was seriously too dangerous to do an event like this. Again, this is a 70.3 event and never to be taken lightly. People were crying, pissed off, sad, overwhelmed, upset, angry, you name it! And some relieved in a way! I was relieved! So, that was it…took the bike, did a 10km ride to the hotel, made peace with it and just enjoyed the rest of the weekend with my family and friends. I got a deferral of course from Ironman for 2024 and this is where the story takes another meaning.
70.3 Mont-Tremblant 2024: Die Hard with a Vengeance!
A year later, once again, we come back to same place, same people, same hotel with awesome waterslide! 😉. Yes, also same bike! Hot summer also. Everything seemed like a Deja-Vu, been here, done that already! I checked in on Saturday as usual, enjoyed the scenery at the village, enjoyed lunch, the amazing vibe going on. You could see the faces of a lot of people that had come back again from previous year to finish what was already started. I was totally one of them! I had to finish this event and at this point, to be honest, just get it over with.
Again, that Sunday, I woke up, not a Deja-vu this time, no barbecue going on; but instead it was pouring like crazy, torrential rain, windy and a bit chilly. I really couldn’t believe this was happening…Saturday had been gorgeous, and now this…we waited in the car hoping it would ease down a bit before heading out to the transition area, but never happened. So, we just walked to the transition area, got there already drenched, stuff was flying away from all over, bike were moving side to side. Again, same thought popped into my mind…this is going to get cancelled! Actually, some people just took off the timing chip and took off!! They just left, they said it was not worth it! In a way, they were right. It didn’t make sense. But this time I think, the organization was going to try to push it and make it happen, since cancelling two years in a row wouldn’t look good.
I got ready, walked to the swim start, shivering! Until they announced the swim was going to be cut to 1300m instead of the usual 1900m. I saw the pros took off, so I said, ok…this is happening!! No way out now! I got into the water and it was like swimming in the middle of a hurricane, it was crazy choppy, lots of current! It was really scary, I couldn’t properly breathe. I thought, maybe after seeing this, event is going to get cancelled. It didn’t, although the swim was cancelled and some people just did bike-run leg. Since I got early in the water I was one of the few people that got to swim and actually finish it, some people got pulled out by local boats, complete madness is putting it mildly. (If you are curious and want to read more, feel free to read some of the comments that were posted on Reddit after the race…it was totally INSANE).
https://www.reddit.com/r/triathlon/comments/1dnd1gf/anyone_else_race_at_703_mont_tremblant/
I got out of what was the scariest open water swim ever, saw people taking off the timing chips and just calling it quits. Me, well, I have that triathlon bug very buried inside, took the bike, everything was drenched, shoes, socks, bike and went off for the 90 Km leg. I guess the adrenaline was so high that I couldn’t stop at this point. It was survival now. The roads were just full of puddles, wind blowing in every direction and I thought the bike leg was going to get cut short, but it didn’t! haha…I wasn’t that lucky. The bike leg is famous for its last ascent from the 70th km to the 80th mark, which took me like 20 minutes to do. I was scared and anxious for the way down, but just applied brakes all the way, otherwise I was going to end up going off the road and running into a deer or something in the woods. Managed to finish!
Then came the run, shoes also completely drenched, but my strategy of taking it easy on the bike paid off on the run. Fortunately, by 1pm when my run started, the rain eased down a bit for the first 10km and was able to maintain and push at a good pace. The other half, again, raining like crazy! This was too much! Finally, I reached the finish line and this was the first time I did a sub 2 hours half marathon in a 70.3 event and considering the conditions this is something I’m really proud of!!! I met up with a friend in the tents and we hugged and basically cried after finishing the nightmare we had just been through. Here my final results:
I warmed up a bit, picked up our stuff, I called my wife, and she picked us up right away. (Again, she rescued me). If you haven’t read about my first rescue. Feel free to read.
We went ahead to enjoy the main feature of the hotel…the waterslide! Haha.
What I took from a race that refused to go as planned
There you have it, two stories: one that never even got the chance to finish, and another that I wouldn’t call a happy ending, more like an emotional, overwhelming, life-changing ending. Lessons learned? Honestly…I’m not sure. You can’t plan around Mother Nature. And in this case, it really came down to personality. Even with everything going on, something in me kept pushing forward. That’s just how I’m built.
Some people called it quits earlier, and that’s totally fine. No shame in that at all, we’re all different. But that’s the thing I love about triathlon. Days like that create these crazy strong bonds. The stories you share, the people you survive it with, the memories, even the painful ones, they all become part of who you are. And nobody can take that away from you.