Ironman Canada - TriathlonFull Ironman

With over 2000 people starting the swim at the same time, I was expecting the worst, most violent washing machine action ever. However, it wasn`t nearly as grabby and punchy as what I`ve heard people describe it as. There was a lot of contact throughout the swim, but I gave as much as I took.

Nothing. The swim went better than expected. I beat my expected time by at least 5 minutes.

Ran out of the water, pulled off half my wetsuit, found some strippers who threw me down and pulled off the rest of my suit and sent me on my way. Ran (I think) to get my Swim to Bike bag. Was feeling rather chilled after such a long swim in cold water. Was a bit shivery when I was changing but the wonderful volunteers really take care of you. The person helping me emptied my bag and helped me put on my socks and jersey. Everything seemed to be moving at 100 mph and is a bit of a blur still. It took a few minutes to orient myself to know what I should be doing.

The first part of the bike through town was rough. Every crosswalk was raised and I almost lost my aero drink but got that settled pretty quickly. Started cruising and got out of town quickly. The first climb came with McLean Road. This climb was tough and concerned me a bit because I knew that it was only about 1 km and Richters Pass is 11 kms long. I accelerated down every descent. If I had pedal left, I used it. Had my first support crew sighting in OK Falls. I was so pumped after flying down that hill! The rest of the road between OK Falls and Osoyoos was pretty flat, but a headwind kicked up and I just felt like I was at home. Stopped at a rest station in Oliver because my bladder was so full that it was getting really hard to be in aero position.

Next: RICHTERS PASS!! I calculated that it would take me about an hour to reach the top, but now, I`m not really sure how long it did take. I just kept spinning to get to the top. I was surprised by how many people I actually passed going uphill. Another crew sighting at the top which was really good to see. Even though, those bastards were drinking cold beer and I really wanted one by that point! I biked past the tree that I rested under when I did the bike course last year and was thrilled because of how good I felt compared to last year when I had to stop due to overheating. The climb up RP was not nearly as brutal as I had been dreading.

The section between RP and Keremeos was full of some pretty big rollers. I used every single gear on my bike. Often, I was using the easiest gear to get the to the top of the hill and then had to switch pretty quickly to the hardest one as I was flying down the hill on the other side.

You can actually see the turn-around point of the dog-leg from the highway and they seemed to be so high up... great, more climbing! Every time I had to switch from my large chain ring to my small chain ring, my hips protested. The dog-leg section had some longish climbs and some good downhills. I grabbed my special needs bag (another bottle of Infinit, spare contact lenses, and some advil). Popped the advil as whatever was going on in my hip area was really starting to hurt whenever I was climbing hills. Only 60 kms left! 2/3 done!

I was really confused at to where Yellow Lake and the other last few climbs were again, because they were not as bad as I was expecting. I kept waiting for some huge climb, but I when I saw that I was at 160 kms, I knew the worst was over. The crew was spotted a couple more times but I left them in my dust! The support along the course was priceless, especially in the big climbs. I loved it when there would be people on both sides of the road cheering and having a good time.

I was so pumped up when I realized that I was going to finish the bike with an hour to spare! Aside from overheating, my biggest worry had been not making the bike cutoff in time. I was 'whoop, whooping' all the way into town. I was still flying down Main Street over 35 kph and spinning in a really high cadence.

I had so much fun and had such a blast doing the bike course. This will surprise the people that know how much I've struggled with the bike in the past. :)

I took in salt tabs about every 30-60 minutes on the bike course, which helped a lot as the day started to heat up. Thankfully, with about 40 kms to go, the clouds rolled in and it started to rain a little. I ate and drank as much as I could, grabbing bananas at almost every aid station, water, sometimes gatorade and power bars and gels too. A couple times, I doused myself with water to keep cool, which started to cause a bit of a mess in my bento box. Luckily, not much water got into the bag with my salt tabs in it.

My top speed was 77.60 kph. If I was going to crash, I was going to make sure that it was glorious!

Go faster!!

Dismounted at the line, ran across the timing mats and handed off my bike. My legs were moving on their own at that point. They were still in a high cadence and I just booked it across the lawn to get my bag with my run gear. Again, the volunteers are awesome and really help you get on your way. Changed shorts again and my socks, jammed on my runners, I think I ate a gel then too? Ran out of the tent and was on my way.

By this time, things are starting to blur together. I had never run more than 3 hours in training and I had never covered more than 21.1 kms before. I ran as much as I could, which was mainly the downhills. I ate a lot of grapes. Everytime I started to fade, another aid station would be around the corner. It was drizzling at that point and my shoes were getting wet and all I could think about was how Highwaydogs feet were two years ago. I'm writing this 3 days later and I still have some good blisters which thankfully never got painful on the run. Walked all the climbs and ran all the downhills.

Got to the turnaround and grabbed my special needs bag which contained a jacket, a small coke, a small pringles can, gummy bears, cashew nuts, raisins, more advil, and a gel. I threw on the jacket and stuffed my pockets full of food. Took in the advil to ward off more pain, chugged part of the coke (let out some good belches), ate a few chips and handed off the can to Lisa. Caught up with Chris (Highwaydog) and walked with him for about a mile. I really enjoyed our chat! Then, I was on a mission to finish and kept going.

I had to hold my jacket pockets when I ran because of how full and heavy they were. I ate whenever I was walking and ate about half the raisins and nuts. Gummy bears and water kept me going the last 10 miles. It got really dark on the course before I got back into town. I passed several groups of people sitting under huge umbrellas and drinking beers. I think I must have said something everytime I saw that. :)

I was able to run quite a bit close to the end. I kept calculating and recalculating my potential finishing time and was really excited that it would be close to 15 hours. I ate another gel about a mile from the finish so that I could cross the line strong. Finally got to the last turnaround point and I could hear the roar of the crowd. There was no one in front of me and I kept running towards the light! The noise was incredible. My grin just kept getting bigger and bigger, the closer I got to the finish line. I had done it! I don't remember hearing my name and I lifted my arms in victory as I ran through the tape at the end.

The catchers at the end were asking me if I wanted to eat or drink anything and were surprised when I asked for gatorade. Since I hadn't had that much on the run course for the last couple hours, I wanted some. Wandered towards the exit, got my picture taken, grabbed some pizza slices, and found my crew. I ate some of the pizza and then handed it off to Lisa (who ate it!), changed out of my super sticky jersey, waited in the massage tent for about 5 minutes and then I left. I couldn't stop smiling because I was just so thrilled about how well I had done. I set a decent benchmark for next time.

It was funny passing and being passed over and over by the same people on the swim, bike and run courses.

I got several compliments on my bike, my bike colour, my butterfly jersey, my huge smile, and more!

This was the hardest and most awesome thing I've ever done in my life. I loved doing it!