Ironman Canada - TriathlonFull Ironman

Swim was great, fastest time in 8 tries! Stayed right along the bouy line going out, i got crowded at each bouy, but otherwise was fine, took 2 kicks to the face! Seemed to swim out pretty straight. the turns were rough, have to protect yourself there. On the way back i stayed more to the left, and had nobody around me at all. I pushed pretty good, took in break to see where i was but otherwise just stayed in the front crawl the whole way, sighting every 6 strokes or so. I kept kicking a 4 beat kick the entire way, it just felt natural to kick. Liked the new wetuit

I went well, perhaps push even harder for a few 100m at a time. Never really felt out of breath.

I wanted a pretty fast transition, last race ws around 7-8 min so once i got into the tent, i tried to go as fast as i could. Grabbed my helmet and went. Stopped to get sunscreen on and headed to the bike. It is a long way though t1. I actually passed Jan in transition. He was 1 min faster in the swim but i was 2 min faster in t1, so i started the bike 1 min ahead of him.

Gloves were hard to get on, put on while running to bike. Only thing to speed it up would be less time toweling off.

Bike started well, roads were crowded through town, and pretty much all the way to Richter. or this first section i rodestrong, passing plenty of people. I had my alarm go off every 30 min and tried to take a gel or cliff shot everytime it went off. this went pretty well for the first 100 km, i would slow down a bit when eating, then once finished pick it up again and pass a bunch of people. Going up richter, we had a tailwind, so that was not so bad. Through the rollers, i was doing pretty well again, the tailwind helped. i basically powered down them and spun up the other side, was pretty slow on the climbs but felt good until the out and back. The turn off caught me by surprise. I was expecing to ride past the police station and make the turn in where we come out, but the turn is well before that. Once going back into the wind my riding slowed right down. Here is where i was passed by many, including Jan, Brandi and Laura. But i was still quite happy to stay infront of jan for over 100km with only a 1 minute lead. At this point i was nt feeling reat, i had a hard time riding in aero position. this continued all the way to the start of the climb up yellow lake. I got passed by soooo many people here. I must have been doing 20kmh while everbody else was doing 30. Once on the climb, 4km long passing lane, i didn't feel great but i was happy to be on this section. knowing where it ends helps so much. The crowds here were great, just like the Tour de France. i dropped off a full bottle at the bottom of the climb to lighten the load. Picked up 2 full ones at the top. It took a while for the road to start heading down again, but once it did i was able to fly again. All the way to the intersection, then got pushed back along the side of Skaha by the winds. Was able to get some cliff shots in while flying do the hill. Going throught town was slow again, but still being pushed by the wind.

More training. I felt great for the first 100km or so, and felt strong on the downhills, but the last 60 km climbing and the out and back i was way to slow. I did not get in enough long training rides and bricks. This was probabl why my back got sore. AS well i was not able to eat as much as i would have liked the last 60km, alarm went off during the climb so i did not eat then, then it went off again on the descent, so i did not want to eat as i was going to fast. Should scout out a location to eat before the climb starts, ie half way between the out and back and the start of the climb. Then be sure to eat again while going past the lakes. And finally eat while going down past Skaha and again in town. Forget the alarms at this point, just get the nutrition in before the run

Tried to finish eating with about 2km to go, once into the downtown core i tried to take my gloves off and put in pocket. it got difficult with the crowds, so perhaps do this sooner. with a few blocks left, i tried to take my feet out of the shoes, again hard with the crowds, but was ok, got to the dismount line and hoped off, no problem. Gave my bike to volunteer, and moved relatively well thru T2. grabbed my bag and got into the change tent. I took a bit more time here that i wanted, but i went steady and got some water to clean myself up for the run. had a towel to wipe myself down. felt good. Kinda had to go to the toilet, but decided i wanted to get out on the run first, so i grabbed my hat and left. was able to run ok grabbed a bit of water and gatorade and left t2

go faster, but still it felt good to take a small break, wipe off all the sweat and grim etc.

RUn plan was to walk each aid station and run as much as possible between them. I hit the first mile marker in just over 9 min, so i was happy with that. after about 3-4 miles i finally tried to go to the toilet, peed a little but not much. was pretty much ablt to stay on about 11 min mile pace for first 10 miles. I tried to eat a gel about mile 4 and on the second slurp it all came back up. not whole stomach but just the gel. so here goes that plan of eating gels for the run. I kept drinking water and gatorage mixed together. Luckily it was cool, i felt hungry for food so i tried pretty much everything out there, some pretzels, chicken soup grapes. no watermelon though. It all did not sit well in my stomach, nothing as bad as last time, but still i never felt right in the stomach. At least my legs felt fine. I was not running fast, but i was able to run. no injuries flaing up like at oliver. After 10 miles, i started to slow down. walked the hills, and i took longer to get running again. i got my sport beans at the turnaround, but had no water to take them with so, i carried them to the next aid station. i was able to eat them and felt better for i little while. i should plan to take more of these next time on the run. coming back it was raining pretty hard, but i felt warm enough. with ten mile to go i tried to figure out my pace needed to break 13 hours. it looked like it was 12 min miles. the first one was on 12, then the next was around 12, then the third one had alot of hills which i walked, and this took 15. at this point i was walking about half the time, and new i would be hard pressed to make 13 hours, so i decided to stop looking at my watch and just keep moving. I knew at this point i would be able to keep moving at a steady pace of arounf 13-15 min miles, and that would get me in well under 13.5 hours. and if it wasn't so gloomy sky, i would finish in daylight which was a big goal of mine. I kept going with my walk run, trying to take in any nutrition that i could, but knowing i was going to finish with my best time in 15 years. Once i got back into town, i felt the energy of the crowd, but i just wanted to finish with a strong run. i ran though the busier crowds, and made sure i ran when i saw anybody i knew, but walked a bunch of section of the last few kms. i ran past the finish corner out on lakeshore, and a few 100 m up the road, then walked up to the turnaround, i plannd to run all the way back, but even then i i was only up to running for a few 100m, i walked just until the crowd started to ick up again, and until i knew i would be able to run the rest of the way, then i picked up the pace and ran to the finish. i had a clear chute, chked back a few tears, then crossed the line.

Again more training and more bricks - my running felt good during the year, but the Brick training was lacking as well as the nutrition prep while running

After the race i had a powerbar recovery drink, and the vollies brought me Pizza, i made it to the massage tent and had my family pick up all me gear, and got out of there pretty fast. very well organized finish area.


Lack of long training rides and bricks. as well as nutrition still not 100% there. was beter than past but still needs some tweaking.


Another great Ironman. Was disappoined with the food at the athelete meeting, Worst food ever, and was dissapointed that they did away with there tradition of having people stand up to honor how many times they finished the race. THey really could have used Steve King. I get bored of hearing "You are an Ironman!' all day long by Mike Reilly, I was sad to see such traditions of Steve King and the Bike barn passed by, but other wise it was another great ironman race.