2019 Results
Summary of Race Results
TOETT athletes competed this season in …
Wow, that was quite the season of racing!
Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon – 5km
Multisport Triathlon Series Champs
- Juan 1st (M19-)
- Gabe 10th (M19-)
- Andres 3rd (M40-49)
- Tom 3rd (M60-69)
- Carolina 7th (W40-49)
- Patricia 1st (W50-59) … 2nd yr in a row!
Kelso Cyclocross Race Series
The bell means last lap!
Its that time of year again… days are short, evenings are cool, and that can only mean… its cyclocross season! The ski lights are on and the cyclists are home on the lower slopes of Glen Eden ski hill @ Kelso Conservation Area. Novice & Beginner races start at 6:45pm and for the next 30mins the goal is to do as many laps as you can of the 2.5km loop. At 7:45pm and going for 45mins are the Sport & Expert categories who have the same goal of doing as many laps as possible of the slightly longer 3.3km loop. So far the course is dry but the tight technical corners (most of which seem to be off camber) still pose a challenge; if it gets wet and muddy… well then we are in for some serious fun, and probably some slippin’ and slidin’ too. This past Tuesday evening (Sep 10th), 8 TOETTees were out racing, and next week we look forward to a couple more making it out and joining in the fun. There is plenty of racing left with 7 more races in the series (Tues Oct 29th is the last race).
Results for all races can be found here, at the Conservation Halton website.
MEC Race #4
Bayfront Park
A beautiful September morning greeted us and from the sounds of it 700+ runners who were going to take on either the 5, 10, 15 or 30km events. Everyone on the team did the 5km, with P.B.s a plenty… time P.B.s, time vs HR P.B.s and RPE vs time P.B.s. With the challenge to become more and more efficient (i.e. train & race at lower and lower HRs), the goal remains to improve and set a time P.B. but by doing it the smart way. We all start by trying hard, sometimes trying really hard, but trying hard is a dead-end; to truly pursue your potential requires becoming smarter by training smart so you can race smart, and then even smarter.
Congratulations to Juan, Gabe & Carolina on some amazing new P.B.s!
Click here for a list of the Top3 and all TOETT athlete results
Click here to link to Speed River Timing for all race results
Canaqua Team Challenge
Open Water Relay Swim
The weather on a September morning is anything but given, thankfully we were met at the International Flatwater Centre in Welland with a beautiful morning, and then the sun broke through and warmed up the stands. Of the 13 relay teams entered, 5 are our teams… awesome turn-out! As Ian wrote in his pre-race email, last year there were 36 swimmers in all across all distances; this year there are already 89 registered. In addition to our relay teams, we have another 2 athletes in the 1km swim and 1 in the 5km swim. It was an awesome day, and the P.B.s were nothing short of stellar. We had a first ever open water swim, a few first time at longer distance swims, and a handful of swimmers who only a few years ago would have called themselves non-swimmers taking on events that surely they would not have believed possible in so short a time. Congrats team… what good fun and what a great way to close out the season.
Subaru Series/Trisport Guelph Lake II Triathlon
We will have to take this one race at a time because there were so many of us racing…
Lets start of with the Try A Tri / Super Sprint Triathlon…
Juan opted for a wetsuit for the swim, Gabe didn’t. Juan came into T1 ahead of Gabe by 25secs, but probably because of the time it took to take off the wetsuit Gabe was able to get out of T1 almost 15secs ahead of Juan. With their spread in bike splits being less than 7secs, the importance of transition efficiency came into play as Gabe again was speedier – this time in T2 – opening up the gap with Juan to over 40secs. With run splits being less than 5secs apart, Gabe was able to hold his lead into the finish to take 2nd in U19M category (i.e. Men under 19 years of age) with Juan in 3rd. Juan & Gabe : rivalry is required as its the only way we expose what we are truly capable of, but remember to keep the point of rivalry in check… its to learn more about ourselves so that we can become better versions of ourselves. Rivals can be great friends and training partners when they keep competition in this perspective. Congrats on your races.
Carolina had the fastest swim split out of all 304 competitors except for a couple U19M that posted times just a handful of seconds faster, it was then onto her MTB (that’s right… Carolina has competed this entire year using a mountain bike – just wait til next year when we get Carolina on a road bike) for the 10k course before heading out on the 2.5k run where she once again held 5min/km pace… a repeat of the pace she held on Wednesday night at Aquathlon Provincials. Not too shabby when you consider Carolina has been running for an entire 10months! Carolina finished 9th woman overall putting her onto the leaderboard, and 2nd place in the W40-49 category putting her onto the podium.
And then there was Vicki who only joined us 6months or so ago to learn how to swim because she wanted to do a triathlon. Vicki has been one of the quickest studies ever as she put in the 17th fastest swim (/60) in the W30-39 category and 58th fastest out of all 168 women in the event… congrats Vicki well done! Vicki finished her first ever triathlon 8th in her category. Now Vicki imagine what a solid winter of training would do for racing next year!
Earlier in the day, the Sprint Triathlon and Relay events…
Andres & Patricia were missing Juan who was racing solo in the Try a Tri but they found a willing cyclist to help them make a relay team – The Tri CME Fantastics. Patricia led the team in the swim portion, Mauricio rode and Andres ran taking their team to 5th (/14 teams). Looks like Mauricio for whom this was his first triathlon event had piles of fun and is ready for more next year.
As for the Grodski ladies, the younger lady was challenged by her parents to take on for the first time ever the Sprint distance (and not just the 1/2 Olympic distance), but a longer Sprint as Guelph II has a 30km bike instead of 20km and a 7km run instead of 5km. As parents we weren’t concerned in the least knowing the volume of training and racing experience Serena has acquired over the years, but understandably the event was intimidating nonetheless. Serena shared that once she hit the turnaround of the run (@ 3.5km) then everything loosened up and she felt great knowing the finish line was in such close proximity. Serena finished in 2nd place in the U19W category out of a field of 10. The older Grodski lady had a title to defend as last year Aimee was 1st in her category. That position was not going to be held, but Aimee did finish in 2nd in the W45-49 and on the leaderboard in 9th position overall amongst all the ladies.
Last but not least the event was a full circle event for MJ : Guelph was my first triathlon when I was 16. It was just after watching Ironman legend Dave Scott and Ironman to-be legend Mark Allen racing on ABC’s Wide World of Sports telecast of the Hawaiian Ironman that I decided triathlon was all I wanted to do. I did Guelph that summer in 1990 with a wetsuit many sizes too big for me, but with enough masking tape to fix that, and a red steel Raleigh 10speed with clip-on aero bars to get me through the bike course… I wasnt going to be stopped. To return all these years later to the exact location, to the race that started if all off but this time with several TOETT families joining our own family made it way way better. I don’t recall how I finished in this race 29years ago, but this time I was able to finish 3rd /37 in the M45-49 category (there was a good back & forth with Denis on the run). The journey that I thought would take me permanently away from triathlon when I stopped racing in my early 20s actually returned me to the sport and I am now grateful for that journey as I now get to do triathlons in the way I really always wanted and help many more to train & race healthy – physically, mentally & emotionally.
Stroke & Stride Aquathlon Series Finale
Aquathlon Provincial Champs & 2020 Multisport Qualifier
Let’s start with Landyn & Leslie… what can you say about someone whose introduction to swimming was a near death (i.e. drowning) experience as a child and decided that as an adult, enough is enough, it was time to take the fear head-on, for herself and as Leslie has said herself, so that she doesn’t pass her fears onto her children. That gets a standing-O! And the result… Leslie is clearing the path that training and racing can be a fun family time where childhood fears are used to build strength and confidence (vs being avoided which only yields anguish and anxiety). Leslie competed in the 750m swim/5k run event for the first time… so its a P.B.! Since Leslie is just getting going with aquathlons, we now have a benchmark to use against next years races… swim pace 3:18/100m and a 5k time of 33:24 in a multi-sport event (Leslie broke 30mins for a standalone 5k for the first time earlier this season). Nice work Leslie, and nice way to pave the road for Landyn. Onto Landyn who having already participated in S&S Race #1 this season and having a benchmark took to setting his own P.B., and he did. With a swim & transition time identical to Race #1, Landyn’s 45sec improvement came all in the run where we splitted 3:42, 4:03, and 4:06 for each km (Landyn’s event was a 300m swim/3k run). Congrats to both of you. Loads of opportunity – especially starting the run a bit slower Landyn and negative splitting the run – to improve next year.
Carolina & Gabe came to Stroke & Stride in pursuit of the 1 spot per 5yr age category available to qualify for 2020 Multisport Worlds in Almere, Netherlands. The way qualifying works is that those interested in representing Canada at Worlds must complete an EOI (Expression of Interest) note to Triathlon Canada ahead of the qualifying event, race the event and then watch the results or wait for confirmation from Triathlon Canada. With Carolina taking 2nd spot in the W45-49 category yet knowing that Aimee did not complete an EOI means that (with roll down going 8 spots) the 1 spot would roll down to Carolina.. and.. that means Carolina has qualified to race at Worlds next year in September. Gabe coming in 4th in the U19M category is going to have to wait as his competitors being on other teams, there is no way to know whether or not they were vying for the Provincial title, for a qualifying spot or both. Gabe is going to have to wait to find out. We are all hopeful that Gabe will be able to make the team and join the 7 TOETTees who have already made the team.
Last, Aimee defended her Provincial Champ title in W45-49 from last year by taking 2:15 off her time and finishing 3rd female overall (with just a couple of 20-something year olds ahead of her), MJ defended as well even though he came in a minute slower than last year, and Serena who last year was too young to compete in Provincial Champs, this year executed on a race strategy to remain relaxed and enjoy the event and took the title of U19W Provincial Aquathlon Champ as well.
Well done team! Looking forward to closing out the multisport season on Saturday with those heading out to Guelph II, otherwise, next weekend we take on MEC #3 Bayfront Park on Saturday Sep 7th, and the team is heading to Welland on Sun Sep 8th for the Canaqua 5k Team Challenge where we have 5 relay teams entered! Loads of fun still to be had before the masters indoor swim meet season starts up in November because Kelso Cyclocross Tuesdays also start up in 2 weeks.
2019 Results
Click on images to enlarge
2018 Results
Kelso Mountain Bike (MTB) Series
Results
Race #7 – results link here
Race #6 – results link here
Race #5 – results link here
Race #4 – results link here
Race #3 – results link here
Race #2 – cancelled d/t wet trails
Race #1 – results link here
Athletes by race category:
Novice:
Carolina, Gabe, Leslie, Tom, Juan, Andres & Patricia and now… Landyn (who moved up from Beginner)
Sport: Serena & Aimee
Expert: Mark & MJ
Results
Race #14 – results here
Race #13 – results here
Race #12 – results here
Race #11 – results here
Race #10 – results here & Beginner
Race #9 – cancelled d/t wet trails
Race #8 – results here & Beginner
Patricia @ Kelso MTB Series Race #12 – Novice Course
It was three years ago that Patricia decided she wanted to learn how to ride a bike… that’s right… in her 50s, Patricia decided she wanted to learn how to ride a bike so that she could go on family rides and compete in triathlons. This week, Patricia competed in the Kelso MTB Series at the Novice level for the first time! That may not seem like much to someone who started riding bikes as a kid, but three years ago, Patricia was scared of the bike skills she was learning as we practiced straight line riding, turning, braking skills, etc… in the parking lot of Brant Cycle. After crossing the finish line of Tuesday nights race I asked her… what would the Patricia of three years ago say if she was told that in 3 years she would be riding up a ski hill, following single track over roots, stumps and rocks, and then riding back down a ski hill on a trail carved to have fast sloping turns… her expression… said it all: she just achieved another amazing success, only 3 months after racing at 2019 Multisport Worlds in Spain, and only 1 month after qualifying again to race at the 2020 Multisport Worlds in the Netherlands.
To put into perspective how amazing this achievement is, I asked Patricia exactly how much riding experience she had as a child, she replied via email…
“Well, I don’t think I can call it riding. My mom tried to teach me how to ride a bike but the one that we had [in Colombia] was too big for me, so I had to be standing all the time. I tried just a couple of times and that was it. It was very stressful, I remember.”
The point : this year where Patricia has already seen success after success [and its only August] didn’t start in January of this year, nor in January 2018, but 4 years ago when Patricia decided to learn how to swim, start running, and 3 years ago when Patricia decided to learn how to bike. She gave herself permission to start at the beginning, to start at her ability, her level of skill, gave herself permission to take the time to learn, to practice, to enjoy the process and as importantly to race in events at her level. Now, after a few years of consistent training the results are starting to roll in. Start right, progress respecting the rate at which you develop technique, gain skill and build capacity and you will find that there truly is no finish line.
Congratulations Patricia, and thank you for continuing to remind us what it means to pursue joy.
Multisport Toronto Island Triathlon
What a year for triathlons… Grimsby was changed to a duathlon because Lake Ontario was too cold (mid summer) and now the Toronto Island being partially submerged required the triathlon to be changed to an aquathlon. The challenges didn’t end there, there was rain, and then lightning and thunder which caused a delay of the race start. The run was uneventful compared to everything else.
With that said, the Plazas-Hernandez family finished placing like never before : everyone took 1st place in their age category and if that wasn’t enough super stardom, Juan was also the top male finisher of the event (and that was also with Patricia going off course and having to be redirected by the kayakers; it must be noted that Patricia swam off course only because she was following the course race officials instructed her to follow prior to the race start).
In a post-race review email, Juan shared that ‘breaking the tape’ was a dream he had, and getting to fulfill that dream today made him very happy. With a dream fulfilled Juan, take a moment to enjoy the memory of running down that finishing chute, of hearing your name called out and of being the top male and then… dream another dream and get to work to make that one come to life as well. Congratulations Andres, Patricia and Juan… job well done. The family is becoming quite the bunch of aquathlon experts… good thing considering all of you qualified to race the aquathlon at 2020 Multisport Worlds.
Canaqua Welland Canal OWS (Open Water Swim)
Where to begin? Beautiful day… check. Beautiful water… check (it was reportedly 24 deg but wetsuits were allowed). Beautiful venue… check. What more do you want in an open water swim event? With 100 or so athletes competing in the 4 different distances (1k, 2.5k, 5k and 10k), the Welland International Flatwater Centre was bustling. Awesome to see the sport growing. Alright, enough of the chit chat… lets get to the results of the 1k event:
- Andres [1k wetsuit] swam a time of 22:41mins improving upon last years time of 27:17 (a P.B. of 4:36mins…WOW!) & was 1st in M45-49
- Tom [1k wetsuit] swam a time of 22:20mins improving upon last years time of 23:54mins & was 1st in the M60-64
- Gabe [1k no wetsuit] swam a time of 19:02mins improving upon last years time of 20:31 & was 1st U17M
- and Carolina [1k no wetsuit] who hurt her elbow a week ago while MTB’g @ Kelso swam respecting her RT arm, focused on a new level of symmetry in her swim stroke finished in a time of 16:44, and even swimming well within her limits was 1st in W45-49. Plus to prepare for the Stroke&Strides Series Finale [aquathlon event] coming up at the end of August, Gabe & Carolina put in a 5k training run immediately after their swims.
In the 2.5k open water swim event:
- The team twins swam side by side with Tanya just nudging out Patricia at the finish timing mat by 1sec: Tanya finished in 49:58mins [wetsuit] and Patricia in 49:59mins [wetsuit], swimming pace times of 2:00/100m and both swimming this distance for the first time and both ladies were 1st in their respective age categories W40-44 and W50-54.
- Juan decided not only to challenge himself with this longer distance event, and he also challenged himself to do it no-wetsuit… wow! Juan finished in a time of 51:26 and was 3rd in the U17M category.
Absolutely amazing work team… the progress is off the charts and evidence of the work you put in all winter in dryland and more recently the sport specific work you’ve done both in the pool and training in open water. Congrats!
Click here to link to Chiptime results for all the results from the Canaqua Welland Canal Open Water Swim
Stroke & Stride Aquathlon Series, Race#2
As a warm up for Aquathlon Provincials which are also the final qualifier for 2020 Multisport Worlds, Gabe & Carolina headed out to Gullivers Lake for Race #2 in the Stroke & Stride Aquathlon race series.
Having raced on Sunday in the Trisport Niagara Triathlon (which was changed to a Duathlon – see below), and on Tuesday night in the Kelso MTB series, racing a 3rd event in 4 days was a new experience for both. Now having done this and realizing what they are capable of doing in the midst of training, imaginations should be running wild with what is possible come the end of August when tapered and rested.
Even with the aquathlon being the 3rd event in a row, Carolina ran to a 5km P.B. on Wednesday with that time besting even her stand alone 5km time from earlier this year. Cannot wait to see what happens in a few weeks time. Congrats to both of you on not just one, but three tremendous events in a row.
Trisport Subaru Series – Niagara Triathlon (Grimsby)
Summer Epic 8 Hour MTB Relay & Solo Challenge
Stroke & Stride Aquathlon Series, Race#1
Caledon Quarry Open Water Swim I
Final Results – Click to enlarge
Welland Sprint & Super Sprint Triathlons & Relay
Guelph Lake I Triathlon – Sprint Relay
Caledon Kids of Steel / C3 Triathlon
MEC Burlington Race #2 Confederation Park 5k
MEC Burlington Race #1 – Dundas Valley 3.5k, 9k & 12k
2019 Ontario Masters Swimming Champs (OMSC)
@Markham Pan Am Pool, March 22-24
What a weekend! TOESTees outperformed once again. Conquering new events or challenging ourselves to set a personal best in an event with an existing time, we did it all. Last year in Nepean, 4 TOESTees took the podium, this year… we had 6 athletes each take at least 1 podium. In addition, Kate took not only the podium twice, she is the OMSC Age Group Champ in the 50 Fly (42.91 secs) and Carolina – who medaled in each of her events – finished the meet as OMSC Age Group Champ in: the 400 IM (6:07), 800 FR (10:57), 50 FLY (33.61 secs), 200 IM (2:52), and 200 FR (2:28).
Notable performances…
The teams’ set of twins – Patricia & Tanya – both set personal records in the 400FR, Patricia swam a time of 7:23 (a 24sec P.B.) and Tanya swam 7:17 (a 17sec P.B.); they also both swam to personal bests in the 800FR with Tanya finishing in 14:52 and Patricia in 15:03.
Tom swam at his first ever Provincial Champs and challenged himself for the first time with the 100FR and the 50BR events and swam on all 3 relays helping the team score valuable points for overall standings.
Most notably: in only his 2nd year of competing (and 2nd full season of swimming…he learnt how to swim in 2017) Andres took 16secs off his 100FR time posting a new time of 1:40.53, 18secs off his 200BR (4:11.86), and completed for the first time the 200FR event.
Congratulations team! Next up we finish the year at the Milton Masters Spring Splash. Lets try out some new events, bring out some new swimmers and have a great time in Milton as we always do.
Chilly 1/2 Marathon & Frosty 5k
You could not have asked for a more beautiful day… a fresh coat of snow everywhere but on the streets which were clear and ready for running, blue skies with the sun shining. Temperature at race time was also an ideal -4 with little if any wind… well, it is after all the day of the Chilly Half, Frosty 5k and Frigid 10k.
The Hernandez and Plazas family showed up in full force, with Andres just a few seconds of all his p.b., Patricia took 1:40 off her p.b. running sub 26 for the first time, and Juan… well lets just say that this is a perfect lesson to contrast what happens when you put in consistent training and when you don’t. Capable of running a sub 24min 5k with ease, today Juan demonstrated what happens when you take a break, a prolonged break from running. Still, his time of 26:02 was 40secs faster than his prior p.b. (26:42) which shows how despite not running, the swimming and dryland training has paid off. Hopefully this is the incentive needed to restart consistent running so that when triathlon season arrives… Juan will be ready to run, and run fast.
Carolina ran her first 5k in many many years putting in a benchmark time to remind herself down the road where she started from, and Tom ran the Chilly 1/2 cracking the 2hr barrier. Congrats to all. Great way to open up the season with an unrested and untapered event to test training.
Click here to link to online results
Click on the results image to enlarge
Dare 2 Tri PB-C3-Embrace Indoor Triathlon
As a warmup event for Multisport Worlds in Spain, Patricia competed in Triathlon Ontario Indoor Tri series Race#2. The event was made of 15mins of each swimming, cycling and running with 5min transitions between. Distance from each segment is recorded and allocated points. Patricia put in an amazing performance with splits equivalent to her personal bests in standalone 800m swim and 5k run events and in so doing took 2nd place in the masters woman category. Nicely done!
Alderwood Teddy Bares 44th Annual
Short Course Yards Meet – Etobicoke
What a showing by TOEST athletes! Results build as more and more TOESTees come out to swim meets to put their training to the test. With Alderwoods being a yards meet, personal bests were set as many events were first time swims for many. For Leslie & Tom with this being their 2nd and 3rd meets ever, they tested out not only new events but longer events. For Leslie the meet was a blow out with a personal best in the 50y BR & 50y FR and only minutes later swimming in her first relay ever – as anchor no less – Leslie reset her personal best by taking 4secs off her 50y FR time. Congratulations to all. Next stop… MSO Provincials in March.
The plan by Carolina for Alderwood: attempt records in 4 events; the outcome…
Carolina rewrote all 4 Masters Swimming Ontario Age Category Records
New Ontario Records in: 1000 FR, 200 IM, 50 FLY and 200 FR (scy)
Carolina now holds records in 7 of the 18 events in the W45-49 category, including all 3 FLY records (50, 100 & 200y). What a performance Carolina, it was amazing to be part of it.
ABOVE: 4×50 (200y) Medley Relay team – Aimee (BK), Patricia (BR), Tanya (FLY), Leslie (FR); LEFT: TOESTees sporting their new team hockey jerseys. Click to enlarge either image.