I started on the far right as it looked like there was less congestion and about a row back from the front. We took off pretty quickly, but the pace felt smooth and easy and I was determined to hang onto a good draft for once. I managed to find some feet that were going at a pace that was almost perfect and I just sat in and tried to keep it comfortable. No problem until we hit the first houseboat when I got smacked in the head a couple of times by an overly aggressive guy trying to pass. Oh well, no problem, except that he must have whacked my goggles as I now had a weird pressure on the bridge of my nose that was giving me a killer sinus headache!!! This made the last half of the course a little tougher than the first bit as I was feeling a bit dizzy, although I manged to maintain focus and stick with the pack I was in. Finally hit the shore and I was very happy with my time, my goal swim time had been 1:08.

Nothing, I had a better than expected swim, manged to stick with a good draft, so no complaints.

Took a little longer here then I wanted, I had a bad headache from the goggle pressure, but once I took off the goggles I felt good so I just made sure I was calm and got my stuff together for the ride.

I should have been faster, but the extra minute to regain focus was needed at that point.

Speaking with a bunch of people who have gone sub 9.5 hours on this course helped bigtime. Every one of them said to take it easy to Richter even though people would be hammering past me. They said all these people who hammered to Richter would die by the end of the bike. I was glad I followed this advice, the ride to Richter was fairly uneventful, just made sure to get my nutrition and hydration dialed in, and to make sure I was feeling good. Richter was a good climb, but nothing too hard, just long and consistent. Once over Richter I started to pick up the pace and catch some of the early speed demons from the start of the ride. This was good mentally and I was riding strong. I ran out of gels and had to grab some chocolate power gels which caused some concern as these never sit well with me, but I had to get in some calories so I downed 2 of those and kept up my pace. Got to the out and back section, grabbed my cliff bar in special needs(Peanut Toffee Buzz, it was damn good after those crappy gels!!!) and kept on going. Had to hit up a porta potty at the next aid station as I really had to go pee. No lineup so no big wait which was good. Next up was the tough section to Yellow Lake and the climb, man driving this section just does not do this justice as it was a tough section mentally, but once over the top the ride back to Penticton was awesome. I was flying and realised I was going to have a pretty good bike split so that made me happy and I didn't feel like I had pushed too hard. The crowds on the course were great as well!!!

I'm not sure. I really need to think about my nutrition more, those power gels come back to haunt me on the run so I may have to play around with nutrition a bit more next year. Other than that I think the ride was pretty damn good, and I am happy with the time I got.

Not much to do here, body glided my feet to ward of blisters, threw on my shoes and off I went.

Nothing.

I strted out with the goal of holding 5 min km's for as long as I could. The problem was I went out fast for the first 5km and no matter what I told myself I couldn't slow down. I was holding 4:30's for the first 5km's which I knew was doom. Sure enough, at about 6.5 km's I was in trouble. A combination of stomach pain(chocolate pwer gels maybe? I'm not sure) and fatigue kicked in and I knew it would be a slog for the rest of the way. I ran with the occasional walk break, but my pace was falling off, and I was in the porta potties every couple of km's for the next 15k which didn't help me at all. Somehow with about 12 km's to go I started to feel good again and was running well between aid stations while walking the aid stations and taking in whatever I felt I needed. It was a pretty general rotation of pepsi, water, gatorade and the occasional soup. Before I knew it I was back in town with only a few km's togo and feeling great, my running had come around and for the last 5km's I had been holding 5 min km pace again. I ran down to lakeshore, cursed everyone I could think of for putting in that cruel out and back turnaround on lakeshore, and then cruised in to the finsih high fiving everyone in sight!!! What a scene at the finish line, it was awesome, people screaming, yelling, high fiving, man I love this sport!!!

It's hard to say what I would do differently. I need to work at controlling my pace early in the run as this could have paid off bigtime on a day like today. If I had beeen able to keep a steady manageable pace at the start, who knows what would have beeen possible. All in all though I am very happy with this run, and glad I finished it the way I did. I didn't give up on myself and kept trying to get it going and it came around in the end.

Grabbed some pizza, ate 2 bites, tossed it, and got into my warm clothes as fast as possible.


Overall I am very happy with how my day went. My goal was 11 hours, I beat it. Can't ask for much more. PLus I took an hour and 45 minutes plus off my first Ironman time. Here are the comparing times from my first Ironman distance race:
Swim: 1:08:40, T1: 3:23, Bike: 6:55:03, T2: 4:47, Run: 4:32:21, Total Time: 12:44:13
Compare that to today and I have made some good progress. Now I just have to keep that going. Thanks to everyone who wished me luck and sent me notes of encouragement all through race week, it means the world to me. And congartulations to all the other BT'ers who had such solid races on Sunday, well done everyone.