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 On Sunday, Sept. 25th, Margaret was 14th across the line at her first elite-level international competition. She was the 3rd North American, behind top American Laura Bennett (nee Reback, 6th), and Kim Hager (12th) who encouraged her on certain tough hills midway through the bike leg. Despite a few glitches--an unfortunate transition onto the bike, some poor gearing choices going into the trickiest 90-degree turn-- Margaret hung tough and managed to catch one competitor in the final kilometres of the race. At the end of the day, racing in the elite category was a challenging and satisfying experience.
Read Margaret's full recap of her trip and race here.
How can I sum up this thrilling event in two paragraphs? Let’s just say that this year’s world championships in Géel were an occasion when all the pieces came together at exactly the right moment. Obviously the good wishes and support from friends and family around the world all helped. My 6-day trip to Belgium went smoothly for the most part, with only minor mechanical glitches and a few hours of rain. I had the honour of being named captain of the Canadian women’s team, and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my fellow Team Canada duathletes over the course of the weekend.
My race took place on the morning of Monday, May 31st. I felt surprisingly relaxed and strong, and took the lead halfway through the 10-km run. My beautiful blue Temple stood me in good stead on the 3 flat loops of the bike course, and I was able to push through to a strong finish on the final 5 km run. I ended up winning the women's age-group race overall, in a time of 2:03:16. I had the fastest run and bike legs of the day: 37:36 for the (slightly long) 10-km run, 1:07:18 for the 40+ km bike, and 16:51 for the final 5-km run (while this final leg was somewhat short, my time ranked me 62nd of the 700+ age group athletes, male and female, who competed today).
For those of you who are curious--and patient!--I have posted the full recap of my trip and the race [here].
(June 10, 2004)
A Report from the Duathlon World Championships
Affoltern-am-Albis, Switzerland
August 27-Sept. 1, 2003
Grüzi, as they say in Switzerland! I have just returned from the Duathlon World Championships, and am happy to report that the race, and indeed the entire trip, was a great success. Faced with a very hilly course and absolutely miserable weather, I managed to finish as the bronze medallist in my age group (women 25-29), and in a field of approximately 200 women from 31 countries, I was sixth overall. [Read more]
Northeast AIDSRide 2002
Bear Mountain, NY – Boston, MA
June 20-23, 2002
We made it! Heather and I actually biked the entire way to Boston—320 miles (550 km) in 4 days! It was a fantastic experience, although I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that there were times when I didn’t think I’d make it all the way. We started from Bear Mountain (60 miles north of NYC) bright and early on the morning of Thursday, June 20th, a flashy parade of 1500 cyclists of all shapes and sizes, some on spiffy road bikes, others on old clunkers, two couples on tandems, and even a few guys on recumbent bikes, where you sit low to the ground and pedal with your arms. We were very fortunate to have gorgeous weather virtually the whole time—at times the sun was almost too warm, but we just kept hydrating with Gatorade and splashing water over our heads at every Pit Stop. [Read more]
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