Ironman Canada - TriathlonFull Ironman

Was shocked at my time. I thought I could finish between an hour ten and an hour twenty but was shocked when I actually made the time I thought I could. The draft was amazing! It was also pretty cool to see the divers at the first turn. Not so cool to find out after that thats the area where one guy lost his life.
I left the swim with an amazing feeling of hope that maybe this whole day is going to go a lot better than the painful experience I was initially expecting....

Nothing, felt I did everything just right...oh....except maybe a little more body glide on the back of the neck, that hurt for a day or two after the race!

The transition was quick, there are so many volunteers. I liked having the wetsuit strippers as I usually always get stuck pulling the thing off on my own. I had no trouble finding my bag, a volunteer ended up seeing my number and handing it to me before I could even get to it. In the tent they helped me get dressed and put the sunscreen on. Grabbed my bike and got ready for a long day ahead!

Nothing, transition went smoothly.

The bike was amazing, it was pretty cool to be riding with that many people. I was also pretty proud of my time, again the very high end of what I expected I was capable of. I did well overall on the bike except for the last hour. After the special needs exchange I started to go down hill a bit. I started slacking on taking in water and food, just didn't feel like it. It also started to seem really hard on the bike at that point, later I found out it was because the last hour of the race was into a bad headwind. The last hour of the bike I was in a bit of a haze and couldn't recognize that I was having such trouble because of my water intake, I just kept thinking I'll be on the run soon and then I could deal with getting more fluids and food into me. Little did I know this last hour of poor nutrition would cause me great pains on the run.
Overall the bike was so much fun! I reached up to 76 km/hr in the aero bars on the way back into town, as well the climb up yellow lake with all the spectators on the road made it feel like a true bike race.

Make sure I don't give up on my nutrition in the last hour of the bike, take in more fluids.

Transition was good, it was nice having someone take your bike from you and not having to worry about racking it. The volunteers were amazing, I don't even remember too much from the transition but some how they got me changed and sent me out for the run!

Nothing.

The first hour of the run was really frustraiting. I couldn't take in any water, I felt sick (there were so many people throwing up at the side of the road) and I couldn't get into a running rhythem. At this point I saw three ambulances go by with people in the back. That was when I thought "what the heck have I gotten myself into, am I going to die?!". It was after an hour that I realized I may have had heat stroke. After I recognized that I told myself its okay to walk, that I needed to cool down in order to be able to start running again. After two hours into the run the sun went behind some clouds and I cooled down. All of a sudden I was able to drink water and run. So I started a run/walk for the rest of the race. I actually tag teamed a girl in a pink race top. She had to power walk the whole thing. When I'd run I'd pass her but then she'd pass me when I was walking. We did this for the entire race and gave each other words of encouragement when we'd pass. I ended up seeing her in the finish area at the end and we had a good chat.
Later I found out that the high that day was 38 degrees C. It all began to make sense why I started to feel sick and stopped taking in fluids. Overall the run was in the range of time I thought I could make, although this time it was the tail end of the time I thought it would take!

Pay more attention to fluid intake. Try and get a handle of whats going on with my surroundings so that I could figure out sooner whats going on with my body.

After I crossed the finish line I got two catchers who led me to all the food! They brought me cookies/fruit/chips and a whole bunch of other stuff and I ate it all! Eventually I found my family who were all too proud that I had crossed the finish line. To tell you the truth, when I crossed I was happy, but happy that it was all done. I didn't have an ah-ha moment that most people talk about. I had one earlier in the run when I wasn't sure I'd finish, but it wasn't at the finish line.
We went back to the hotel where I did some stretches and showered. I really wanted to go back to the finish line but I was crashing so I just ended up watching the rest of the race on the local tv channel.


Nutrition. Needed to recognize how hot it was out and that it was even more important to stay on top of fluid intake.


It was amazing to be apart of Ironman Canada. The course is beautiful and challanging.