2025 Race Season

Traditionally I have written individual reports for each race that I’ve done. This year (partly due to laziness) I’m going to do a single post that summarizes my entire year of training and races. I’m hoping this might be a better format since it will capture the ups and downs of my year rather than isolated events.

In 2024 I ran my first ever triathlon and quickly followed it with another — by the end of the year I ran my first ever half marathon. I found the race atmosphere electrifying and more importantly I enjoyed discovering what my body and mind was capable of. I was hooked.

In November of 2024 I had found a triathlon coach named Jason that I wanted to work with. The main reason I found a coach was because I was planning to do both an olympic triathlon and a marathon in 2025 and I had no clue how to balance training for both. Having a coach has proved very helpful in other ways: lower mental overhead from planning each week; someone to pose very technical training or race questions to; a small boost of external motivation each week; learning about training camps and races; and someone experienced to help properly manage my weekly load.

Motivated from 2024’s races and with a coach by my side I started 2025’s training in earnest. I had two main goals for the year that I was working towards — the Vancouver Marathon and beating my brother-in-law Patrick in the Great White North Olympic Triathlon. The marathon was in May and the triathlon was in July. As such I started with a mix of strength, swimming, biking, and running training — but with a heavy focus on running.

Another benefit of having a coach was the variety and specificity of my workouts. For example a swim session for me used to look like picking an arbitrary distance, say 800 m, and trying to just swim that straight up. But, with a coach my sessions had a focus e.g. technique or intervals. They would have structured warmups, main sets, cool downs, specific timing instructions, and more.

Training with a coach also resulted in a marked increase in my weekly training volume. Previously I was training maybe five times a week. Following my coaches plan I was training maybe eight times a week. This feels normal to me now, but it took my body awhile to adjust to that big jump in volume.

Speaking of volume because I had a marathon coming up in four months my running volume was climbing rapidly to amounts I had never run before. At first this felt great, but it quickly took a turn for the worse. I would come back from runs with my glutes feeling absolutely spent. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but with hindsight this was a clear sign that injury was right around the corner.

On the first week of February during a company offsite in Cancun injury finally struck. After a run one morning the outside of my right knee felt like it had been stabbed by a knife. I was out of commission for running. Later at physio I learned that I had IT band syndrome. I immediately started rehab which consisted of strengthening my glutes and rolling out my IT band. It turned out that one specific exercise that focused on my gluteus medius was the main fix.

Thankfully even with the injury I was still able to swim and bike mostly pain free so that training continued. Running was an issue though: I desperately needed to increase my running volume if I was going to do the Vancouver Marathon but even with my rehab going well I wasn’t able to add volume back at the pace I needed. I ultimately made the tough decision to withdraw from the marathon and transfer my registration to the 8 km race the same day.

I had been planning to run the marathon with my brother-in-law Patrick and a number of his friends. We were all staying together and the energy was exciting. I was gutted that I wasn’t doing the marathon with everybody and was feeling down. In a pessimistic mood I decided that I was going to just treat the 8 km as a chill training run. One of Patrick’s friends Adam insisted that there was no way that this would happen and that once I heard the anthem I would full send it.

Adam was right. As I lined up in the starting corral the anthem began to play and something came over me. I started at about a 5:10/km which was a minute faster than I was planning to run, but also felt comfortable. After the first two kilometers I just kept picking it up and throwing down negative splits. By the last kilometer I was moving at a good 4:30/km. The pace was challenging for me and my heart was red lining at the end. I remember thinking that the finish line was so far away! But, it was only an 8 km race so I was refreshed quite quickly after and ready to watch my friends complete the marathon. Given the circumstances I was very happy with my result.

Shortly after Vancouver Patrick convinced me to do a beer mile with him and some of his friends. I was hesitant at first, but ultimately decided it’d be fun to try once. As a card carrying celiac I couldn’t drink beer and regardless I’m not much of a drinker. Instead I opted for Coca-Cola — special Quebec edition Coca-Cola with maple syrup. I would come to regret this decision.

We started by chugging our first bottle. I quickly was reminded that Coca-Cola burns when you try to drink it fast. Not an issue for my fellow beer drinkers. Worse than the burn though was the sickly sweetness. My four opponents were fast drinkers and runners so right off the bat I was left in the dust by all but one. No worries though. I was just hoping to not come in last. The laps came and past quickly with each bottle of Coke getting harder to down. Much to my joy one of my opponents DNF’d on the first bottle so I was guaranteed at least second last. Towards the end I made a surprising leap to third last as another opponent DNF’d for puking. Not too shabby.

Immediately following the race I was riding an insane sugar high. I was buzzing with energy while my fellow beer drinkers were down in the dumps. However, as my sugar high wore off and the alcohol set in the mood reversed pretty quickly. All things considered I would do it again.

The next race on the calendar was the Great White North Olympic Triathlon in July where I was hoping to beat my brother-in-law Patrick. In late June my coach Jason organized a three day open water swim camp that I attended with Patrick. Historically I’ve been terrified of open water swimming and mass starts so this was a great learning opportunity. The most memorable part was the repeated mass start practice we did where the coaches kept corralling us closer and closer together as we floated in pack formation in the middle of the lake. Then they’d shout go and we’d all start swimming like mad. There were people beside me, in front of me, over me, under me and everywhere else you could imagine. Limbs flailed around carelessly. It was terrifying. But, doing it so many times removed the terror from it. I learned to be okay with not having my own personal space for swimming. I also enjoyed learning to draft and the overall bump in my swim volume for that week.

Eventually race day came. It was a rainy morning, but that cleared up and made for cool race conditions. In the warmup swim the water was pleasantly warm. Patrick and I did our pre-race prayer together and then got to the start line. The start was pretty hectic and I quickly got ahead of Patrick. Thanks to my open water practice I didn’t panic this time. Instead I kept calm by talking to myself and negotiating with my lizard brain that everything was okay. On the aussie exit coming into the second lap I got too excited and ran to fast. As I got back in the water I had to slow down a bit to catch my breath. Towards the end of the second lap I picked up my pace though. Overall I was quite happy with the swim.

T1 went well and I enjoyed experiencing the ease of a trisuit for the first time. The bike was a pretty straightforward affair where I focused on hydrating and eating well. The first time I saw Patrick he was only a few minutes behind me which lit a fire under my butt. However, the next time I saw him he was tens of minutes behind me. At the time I thought he was just slow, but in fact he had to deal with a flat. Regardless, I knew I was basically guaranteed to win at this point.

Out on the run I ran my fastest ever 10k while still feeling well within my limits. No visits to the pain cave were made. For a good chunk I was following directly on the heels of my now friend Kurt — I didn’t know him at the time. When he eventually blew up I powered through and sprinted to the finish line.

The rest of the summer was filled with some fun B races. The first was the St. Albert Sprint Triathlon. In this race I pushed a lot closer to the edge than I had in other races. I was the first out of the water in my lane after a hard driving swim on a 2-stroke breathing pattern. On the bike I pushed harder than I ever had before passing lots of people. Although, once the faster racers in the following heats got on the course they quickly passed me. My intensity was high enough on the bike that I took in very little water and nutrition because my gut couldn’t tolerate it. Out on the run I learned I had overcooked the bike because I was dying to barely hold on to a sub 5 min/km pace. I couldn’t stop looking at my watch! The pacing wasn’t perfect, but the results were a noticeable improvement.

The second B race was the Do North Sprint Triathlon. This is one of my favorite sprint triathlon courses. My brother Jon was also racing in a different heat. In the swim I felt exceptionally exhausted but it turns out that was just because I was setting a new PB. I had forgotten to pre-untie my runners so that waylaid me in T2. Out on the run course I held on to a sub 5 min/km pace more manageably this time. Best of all a whole gaggle of people I knew were at the finish line were there to cheer me on. Having that many fans was a rare and special treat for me.

After my failed marathon attempt earlier in the season I was determined to make it happen within the year. I was looking for a race late enough in the year to give me enough time to build the running volume I needed. I was considering doing the Regina marathon but the timing was tight. I was also considering just running a marathon in the river valley by myself just to say I had done it. In a fortunate turn of events though I had learned from a fellow racer at the Great White North that the Victoria marathon still had some last minute openings so I pulled the trigger and signed up.

Training for the marathon entered me into new territory for running volumes which was a little scary from an injury perspective. I missed the relative comfort of multi-modal triathlon training. Marathon training was just a lot of pounding pavement which was hard on my legs. Thankfully no injuries ruined my build though. I peaked at 70 km week, but realistically was holding something closer to 40 km a week for a sustained period of time. My peak weeks ended up being during some travel to Europe. For my biggest long run I had some niggles I was worried about so I opted to run it around a track I found in Paris to avoid any irregularities in the ground. It was raining that day too. Quite the test of my mental fortitude running 29 km around a track. I fondly remember this one French boy who would cheer me on each lap though!

When the time came I flew to Victoria and was lucky enough to stay with some old friend who lived right near the start line. One of the friends Rebecca was also taking part in the half marathon. Unfortunately I had become really sick with a head cold the night before and the race and I was not sure how I would fair. Miraculously I woke up on race day feeling ok — as if my body sensed I just needed to feel good for the morning. The day ended up being on and off rainy which typically means I run faster because I don’t over heat.

For the first few kilometers I felt nervous and sluggish, but I quickly settled into a very comfortable pace and felt great. I was following the 3:50 pacer and was about 100 meters behind them because it was so congested with runners. My baseline goal was to get sub four hours, but ambitiously I really wanted to beat my brother-in-law’s marathon PB which required a much more ambitious. I ended up running with a sticky note that told me the new target pace I would have to run to beat his PB depending on how late I started that pace. As I continued to feel good I decided that if I still felt fine at 20 km I would break off from the pacer group and go for it. Note that by that point I had started to run right by the pacer and he was amazing — really encouraging and talkative.

As I had promised myself I was still feeling good at 20 km and I picked up my pace. In hindsight I didn’t pick up the pace as much as thought I did. I remember running around a square park and seeing the pacer group not that far behind me. Aerobically I continued to feel amazing, but at 38 km I discovered what a beast the marathon is and my legs started to catch up to me. They not only felt heavy but I slowly felt both my IT bands tightening up and seizing. Eventually I reached a point where I just physically couldn’t keep running. For the rest of the race I walk/ran in lots of pain.

All the people I had passed started reeling in me. Then the pacer group passed me. I tried running with them for a bit but just couldn’t manage it. This was devastating because if I hadn’t been so ambitious I probably would have finished with them. It was around this point that a family friend was spectating and ran with me for a bit. That certainly urged me on and to be honest I was embarrassed to walk in front of them so I just kept running. On top of my legs completely falling apart my left shoulder was bothering me and had become extremely painful. In the last kilometer and fan chute all I could think about was crossing that finish line and stopping running.

Once I crossed the finish line I was in shambles. My body was shivering from the rain, my legs and shoulder were destroyed, and I was definitely in a state of shock. I remember just lying down on the grass not knowing if I should be laughing or crying. It sounds silly but it was an amazing experience pushing both my body and mind so far.

Post race my friends helped me shamble back to their place and then I spent the rest of the day sitting on the couch eating and watching the F1 movie. The next day I ended up on a redeye flight to Montreal which I can tell you is not ideal post-marathon recovery.

To cap off the year I ended up doing a week long indoor swim camp with my coach Jason. My technique improved massively during this concentrated effort.

It was a big year and I’m really proud of everything I did. It was exhausting at times, but I grew so much and enjoyed racing and training with my brothers.