Oliver Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I tried to seed myself in the middle of the pack as I feel much more confident in my swimming as I did last year. The start of the swim was good, I powered through the pack and was left pretty much unscathed. There was some pretty good bumping and pushing but I had great vision and could see arms and legs coming before any serious contact was made. Rounding the first buoy I was kicked in the face which just loosened one of my goggles and moved my nose clip. No biggie I suffered though the 550 meters until I got back to the beach for the out and around, adjusted everything, waved at Kari and was back at it. I was 17 mins in the first loop and the second seemed a bit faster but was almost the exact same. I did swim WAY off course on my way to the first buoy which I think may have added on a minute or so but thats what happens when you fall asleep at the wheel.

Just more time in the water...I like how far I've come and the swim was good for me so if things change for the better then good, if not then I'm happy with 2:00min/100's

I was pretty winded and had a bad cramp in my quad as I exited the water. Very strange and weird, never experienced that before. I had to take my time getting to the shore, along the grass and then had to limp up the hill towards the entrance of the transition. My bike was racked about 500' away so it took some time to get there, I didn't want to hurt myself so I had to take it easy. Once I got to my bike, the cramp went away and I got to business. I already had my suit off thanks to the strippers (awesome!!) as we got out of the water, never done this before and it was great, the old guy that got me tried twice to get my suit off my ankles before REEFING on the suit, it came off and he almost fell into the lake. Other than the cramp everything was good, the rain made getting the gloves and arm warmers on tougher but it all worked out.

Need to train more for this. 4 minutes is a bit ridiculous. You hear it all the time that you should practice T's but I never do. Tomorrow for sure.

So as usual I had a plan for the bike...and as usual I threw that plan in the garbage in 18 minutes and I was making a new plan up as i went. The rain was coming down pretty good for 75% of the ride and even after it stopped I still ran into spats of showers here and there. I was a great course for me and I managed to pass a lot of the people that kicked my ass in the swim. I took a page from both Crazypop and Crazylegs for the hills " the bike knows where to go, you just have to let it go" and then just thought of Dan cannonballing it down the hills. 71Km/h on a wet hill littered with sponges, water bottles and aerobar pads. I was loving it! As per the end results I averaged 34.5 K/hr but for 71 Kms I averaged 36.4. My legs were cramping and I was fighting myself so stop hammering so hard. So at 72K I locked on my Small ring and spun out for 20K's. Even on downhills I stayed with the small ring because I knew I'd stay in the big ring. I knew I was going to be in trouble on the run because I was going so hard on the bike and had not trained enough on bike to run bricks and it was going to burn me today if I didn't do something smart to change it. It really sucked being pasted by all these bikers I had fought so hard to chase down and pass. Then for me just to sit there and spin away hurt my pride. They were probably all sitting there thinking "ha, idiot, gave too much and now he's all burned out." All these guys and girls all had tricked out bikes, most with carbon disks and highend components. That hurt the most that I had these guys all beat on the bike but I had to give up. I gave solace to myself saying that I was saving myself for the run and I would sacrifice time now to save myself for the run. I prayed out loud that it stopped in time to save the run.

More brick training. I refuse to believe that I can't go harder or faster and still not run (double negative?) a strong run. My quads are still seizing so that tells me that I am stretching no where near enough. I want my next 1/2 to be closer to 2:30

Again, super long transition zone, but I was at the entrance this time. 2:45??? No idea. I thought it was faster than this. I was in and out. I will look at the other T2 #'s to see if others are in line with this. I gathered from people at the awards that they all had a hard time getting out of the transition areas due to the rain and distance. Sounds like excuses to me!

Practice, practice, practice.

So the run. What used to be my friend seems to have turned into my nemesis. I have learned my lessons though. I did slow down my power output on the bike, saving my legs. I left for the run feeling fairly fresh. I'd say a 7/10. I just kept saying to myself, "21K's, just 2 laps around the lake (Burnaby), you run it all the time. You run it hung over. You run it when you're injured. This will be easy." Actually I was talking to myself a lot during the first loop. It seemed to last forever. I had messed up my lap time on my watch so I had no idea how long it had taken me run 10.5 K, I had no one to pace, as people were either too slow or too fast. I was all by myself. I started to try to do the math in my head for my super secret goal. Sub 5. I told Kari I wanted Sub 5:30. A lie. I could go on and on with this but to make an already long story a bit shorter. I struggled even harder on the second lap, had no idea of where I was for time. I started cramping up and started losing my motivation. I was walking. Earlier I past some big guys suffering on the sidewalk trying to get rid of a giant leg cramp. The next thing I know he's back and riding my ass to start running. Let's do this together he says. 9 K's to go. We are both suffering but we both have the same goal. Sub 5. We start running again. Too fast maybe but after 1 K we both start feeling better. We hit the turn around, start back and eventualy are down to 2 K's! The down side. There is no way we can hit the 5 Hour mark. 4:58:25 on my watch as we pass the marker. We push it on anyway. Coming up the corner to the finish was awesome, I cramped up running down the finisher chute but hardly felt anything. I say the clock running up towards 5:10. I had to save a bit of dignity. I sprinted the final 100 meters and say 5:09:10, I put my head down and sprinted. I'll take it. I was /am upset I didn't make my super secret goal for a sub 5, but with what I've learned from this race, the extra 9 minutes and 52 seconds can't weight to heavy.

I took a pee leaving for the run that lasted about 5 minutes, NO SHIT! Probably longer, I wish I'd timed it. So I'd have to say don't pee for so long.

I ate every Famous Amos cookie I could find, took my NASA solar blankie (things are AMAZING!!) found Kari and the dog, got big kisses from both, Kari made me a sandwich. I showered, we went over to the Rec. Center where I shut down the Oliver Sanitation Department, got a rub down and ate enough food to last most people 4 days. Then I found the Famous Amos cookies again...I blacked out somewhere after the 4th bag. Good times.


Lack of heart I guess. Too many other things to list. Too personal of a question.


Good race. Lots of good looking people wearing tight clothing. Compared to other races. Again, I won NOTHING for draw prizes! Brutal