And then, there was no swim.

This was the news we received at the athlete briefing:

 

Given the extreme weather conditions that we face, ITU and FFTRI communicated their decisions on the content of events for athletes during the technical briefing this afternoon. Regarding the World Championship , given the air / water and bad weather temperatures, it was decided to cancel the swim. The race will take place on the following format: - 9.5 km Running - 87km bike - 20km Running " Please Note That due to current temperatures and bad weather forecasts, in Accordance with ITU rules to be able to Ensure athlete's safety, the race Have Been changed to a duathlon event 9.5km run / 87km bike / 20km run " said tonight delegated ITU. Full details of the journey, the planning ... can be downloaded at the following link: www.triathlon.org / about / downloads / category / race_briefings

So, very interesting. I really wanted a swim of minimum 1500m to even out the field. So they eliminate the swim out right, move the 1st loop of the 3 loop 30km run in its place and shorten the bike from 112km to 87km. Word for the bike shortening is to take-away some advantage of the stronger bikers (so I as a middle of the pack swimmer get penalized for being front of the pack cyclist) So the pure runners gain all the advantage.

So the news left us re-thinking our hydration/nutrition plans, what our clothing will be, how most of us who swim-bike-run will figure out run-bike-run. We had to be educated about Duathlon rules and protocol. 

 

 They have lots of rules regarding what we can wear but left it in the hands of each athlete to ensure they feel safe and warm.

It will be wet and it will be cold (perhpas 4-5degrees when we start and 12degrees when we finish) and it will be interesting competition. 

From the athlete briefing we suited up for opening ceremonies. Kind of big scale in a small venue. The musical entertainment seen a French celebrity who impersonates singers (of all genres and generations). Quite good, perhaps a little long. Then the teams were paraded by for pictures.

 Vancouver Island gang

 Stage

 Team Canada

 Team Japan was the biggest