well. it was cold. 57 degrees cold. but that honestly didn't bother me. it was the clarify of thw water, and the swimming directly into the sun that got me. WEAR TINTED GOGGLES FOR THIS RACE. off the start i thought everything was golden, i didn't see anyone break and i thought it was just me and two other guys leading the wave. apparently i missed one guy, who swam really quickly.
i am in much better swimming shape than this time suggests. infact, its almost my slowest 70.3 swim. talked with erin (who was the first woman out of the water INCLUDING PROS) and she felt she swam close to a 25 low effort and got a 26:10. someone mentioned the possibility of a current due to the run off over the dam, but i think the most telling fact that proves it was a slow swim was last years swim record by the eventual pro women winner was 2430, this year she swam 2 minutes slower!
regardless, came out cold, but completely relaxed, really no effort was exerted, and the wave start spacing was perfect, our little group of 3 (who all beat me by ~2 seconds) had very little wave traffic to deal with

break 30.

yes they had wet suit strippers, but it was just a long transition...like running through a maze. cold brain cells didn't help :)

seems a little slow

FINALLY!!!!! a good bike split. holy crap it felt amazing. double and triple checked my wheels before the race to ensure they were true and smooth. this course was actually 58 miles. so i was actually 21.7 MPH. hell freaking yeah

first 10k is along the lake, then you take a left and head into a 25 mile country spin. the hills were there, but i was able to keep the cadence up and spin like a madman. what really has helped me is that i now train with an 11x23 and race with an 11x28, which i why i didn't need to switch into the small ring the entire ride.

the course was amazing, and despite our car ride, the course seemed to just fly by, "tricky" corners were more like sweepers, cat 5 hills seemed short and low grade, and i paced it perfectly. hit 45k in 1:21 and hit 90k in 1:19 (more hills in the first half)

couldn't be happier with this ride, very clean race as far as drafting goes, never saw any "blatant" drafting

this was my first race using EFS and liquid shot from first endurance. i am sold. i fell way behind on my EFS intake, but still managed to save the race by downing some liquid shot before the run, gotta say, no stomach issues or anything. will keep 1 bottle for water only and mix the other with the EFS. but the liquid shot is $$$$ in the bank!

break 2:40, if the last couple km weren't on a crazy bumppy road i might have been able to do it.

this took forever, but i wanted to get a solid run split, so i ended up waiting in line to use the pottacrapper before leaving t2.

dont think the 49th run is correct, but results aren't final.

started fast, running 4 min/km (did the conversion in my head around 4-5km and realized i needed to SLOW DOWN!) haha, mental note to think about what distances the courses are marked in!

highlight of my day was running my first 3km with tim odonnell, he was running his last 3km, but i was keeping up with him, it was freaking AWESOME!

ran my first 5km in 20:20 (haha) then 10k in 44, didn't see ANYONE in my age group, and was slowly picking ppl off, but not as fast as i expected. seems like everyone in calgary can freaking RUN.maybe passed 10 ppl on the way out, and had a much harder time catching ppl on the return.

kept a level head, and just pushed hard when i could. for instance, i worked the top flat section b/c i figured the final hill with ~5km to go would rock me. it ended up not being too big a deal, but i was very focused on my immediate task at hand. run.

finally caught a 28 year old on the final hill, and instead of slowing down i just climbed the hill in a good rythym and hammered the next 2km off the top. some spectator (who must be a runner) had some great words of wisdom and i just took em to heart and pushed HARD. almost got emotional, all this hard work was finally paying off, i had a freaking stellar bike (for me) and not was running hard 18km into a half ironman run. lets go baby, lets go!

well, my surge lasted about 2-3km, which left me 2km to get home. as i slowed down to a more mangable pace a 26 year old just flew past me, at like 6 minute pace (he ran 130) i was heart broken, but worked hard to keep him in sight and just limit the damage. he ended up putting 1 minute into me, but i fought hard.crossed the line and they read someone elses name, and didn't tell me my "unofficial" age group standing, so i literally had no idea where i stood i nthe field.

not much. i had a great run, not a PR, but this was a much harder course, and i rode much harder than i have ever* done.

got a huge freaking belt buckle medal and saw miss erin come running in all smile in 2nd place in her AGE GROUP!!! holy hell! now we just needed to get back to the hotel, grab our wallets and get the heck back to glenmore park for the awards!
ill skip the details regarding the bus fiasco, but regardless, we were able to get back, shower, grab money, and look up results to see that i was 6th in the age group. hmmm...vegas?

erin and i ran into trevor wurtele, him nad his wife, and their cat, are HUGE inspirations to us, and it was so cool of him to take some time and talk iwth soome AGers.

have to mention this. they awarded little trophies for top splits through the race. so overall swim/bike/run. who won the swim? my lil mermaid ERIN! the only amateur called up to the stage, all other splits were dominated by the pros, but miss erin won the swim as an age grouper, starting in wave 4 no less!! couldn't be happier for her. and the announcer and fellow racers, realized how rare it is to beat the pros at their own game, lot of respect was thrown her way, and rightfully so!!

the roll down took place and about an hour into the event, I got my spot. we had 4 slots and i took the 1st one at 6th!! couldn't believe my luck, but the guys behind me were even more thrilled. of course erin got a slot, so we are both going to VEGAS!!!! only 2 weeks after ironman canada, but thats ok!! we are so excited, and can't wait to experience this event. i knew she would have a shot, but me?! i thought i would be 55 before i got this honor.


*my PR at the half distance was set at troika (in spokane) at 446 i believe. i rode a 240 there and ran a 135 last year. but this course was harder. and longer.


great volunteers, amazing cops at the intesections, one literally walked over to an anxious driver and took the keys out of his ignition so he wouldn't try and squeeze through a gap (right infront of me) which i appreciated so much.

better water stations on the bike would have been nice (both bottles i received were pre opened and without a cap) luckily i didn't need them for my bike.
bus fiasco back to the westin was a little troublesome, but it worked out

couldn't be happier!!