Ironman Calgary 70.3

So first things first: Thanks to all the volunteers at the race who gave up some of their long weekend to make athlete packages, set up transitions, strip wetsuits and the list goes on. Another big thank you to all the family and friends of all athletes who showed up in the blazing HEAT to cheer on the athletes. My entire family and several friends came out to watch the run portion which mean alot to me since it was my first Ironman 70.3 race!

I just checked the donations webpage and in total, our Suncor Triathlon team raised $4876.01 which will be matched by the Suncor Energy Foundation. A few non-Suncor athletes joined in raising money so in total we've raised $10 452.02!!!!!!!!!! Thank you to all my co-workers and friends who generously donated.

Now for the race summary starting with some stats:
Total time 6:02:13
1900m swim 45:13
Transition 5:36
94km bike 2:59:19
Transition2 1:40
21.1km run 2:10:26

The entire year I heard about how cold Ghost Lake would be but it was pretty much perfect! I didn't even need the thermal cap and there was no need to double cap. I started near the center of the pack which was a mistake since I got passed by a ton of people. One person kicked me in the face. Luckily they missed my nose and teeth. All I had to do was tread water for a bit as I drained the water and repositioned the goggles. I settled into my pace pretty quickly. I had troubles swimming straight on the way BACK since there was a good 600m between the two buoys. At one point I looked up and saw the kayak right in front of me, the girl pointed to the left which was the direction that I SHOULD have been travelling. Many people said their swim times were about 3 minutes long....but i'm stil happy with finishing a 1.9km swim! I had many doubts throughout the year and honestly didn't believe I could swim the entire distance. Next up is the Philippines which will be a NON-wetsuit swim which will be the REAL test to my swimming abilities.

I forgot to pack a towel, so I could get all the grass/dirt off my feet before putting socks and shoes on. It felt like a smooth transition.

I executed the bike portion as I had planned. the first 20 minutes was easy spinning until the bottom of the Grand Valley Hill. I kept the heart rate under control and also began eating and drinking fluids. The hard work on the hills (golden triangle and sylvan camp) paid off as I passed quite a few people. I looked back to the heart rate data and the only time i went above my Ceiling was coming DOWN horse creek road! I guess the fresh pavement and downhill got to my head and I hammered a little too hard.
Highway 22 Hill went really well. Honestly it was a blur and I can't remember the details. I do remember cars lined up on the right side since we had a left turn onto springbank road. As I passed one cyclist, he looked over at me. At that moment, his rear tire popped. I wonder if he thought it was my fault for making him move over to the right.....who knows.
I started to feel a little tired after the 2nd aid station and a bit of a cramp on the left quad. It wasn't because of dehydration since I had to pee a couple times. It was possibly because of electrolytes since I dropped my NUUN drink in the first 20km of the bike.

The first 10km of the run felt great and I thought I was on pace for my 1:45 half marathon. However once I was in Weasel head, I knew I would have to slow down. I felt a cramp coming in the back of my knee. Once again i'm not sure the reason why. I wasn't overly hot, was drinking ALOT. My suspects include lack of Calcium, bad positioning on the bike, not wearing compression shorts...

I saw my support crew at the 16km mark which helped get through that km. but 17-21.1 included ALOT of walking. I didn't know how i'd feel crossing the line...I wasn't super emotional, just tired. It's funny because I was more emotional on the bike, thinking about the finish than I was at the ACTUAL finish.

Thanks to Ken and Celine for the awesome photos!!

CRAZY!

Things have been insanely crazy the past few days. The combinataion of:
1) A two day wedding Aug 1,2
2) Engagement shoot/Maternity photos
3) Getting ready for Ironman Calgary on Aug 2
4) Packing and getting ready for 3 weeks vacation leaving Aug 4th.
5) Saying goodbye to 3 friends who are leaving for school before I get back from Vacation :(

I've had a rare chance to rest and take things easy. I'm sitting at KAWA having a Tanzanian coffee prepared on the clover. It's a little TOO acidic for my liking. I seriously haven't had a coffee that I've liked for 2 years. My favourite is still the Ethiopia that tasted like peaches at Phil and Sebastians a LONG time ago. I dusted off my ibook (haven't touched it for two years since I got my Macbook Pro). I need to clear up some space since I plan on travelling with this brick.

I went for a long ride which was supposed to be 90km on Saturday. I rode 1A from home to Cochrane, then turned onto Highway 22 to climb another big hill before turning back. On Crowchild near Stoney, I got my first flat of the year, and Second in my road biking 'career'. Unfortunately, I had left my tire lever at home. I improvised and used the house key to pry the tire off the rim. Patching the tube went smoothly but when I attached the CO2, it wouldn't inflate! The little pin which punctures the CO2 cartridge had broken off. I gave my brother I call since none of the motorists were stopping to lend a hand.

Shortly after calling for help...two seperate cyclists rode by without saying a word....WTF!!!! A super nice lady stopped and asked if I wanted a ride. Her husband was a cyclist as well so i think she understood my predicament. I declined since my brother was on the way. Another cyclists rode by but this one offered to help along with another gentleman who had just been picked up by his wife.

I'm extremely excited for Ironman Calgary coming up. It's been a long year of training. I've let nutrition slip a little which is funny because I've been so good all year long. There'll be alot of support on the course. I'll constantly be reminding myself to pace myself since I've never completed the full distance.

Victoria

I went to Victoria June 26-30 as part of my 7 days off. I was sitting on the fence because I knew Victoria would be amazing, but I wasn't keen on training on my own in a new city. Westjet had a seat sale for $49 which pushed me to comitt to the trip.

Luckily, after buying the tickets, Amy and Kjell told me that they'd be driving out and could meet me on the Big Island of Hawaii (I wish). My flight landed at night, so we settled into the Gaunt's place which was next to Elk Lake. In case you didn't know, Elk Lake is notorious for Rowing. National teams, and our very own olympic team row out of Elk Lake. In fact, the Gaunts were hosting two rowers, One was going to school in Princeton and the other at Toronto (i think). They were both on the Junior National Squad.

I'm pretty obsessed with Simon Whitfield and Kirsten Sweetland. I was DYING to randomly run into these two during a training ride/run. But no luck :( I was reading Bree Wee's blog last night. She's been in Victoria the past week and was running mile repeats with Mr Whitfield himself. They were doing loops around Elk Lake!! Darn it! i missed them by two weeks.

Anyways, here's a summary of the work outs and a few photos.

Victoria, Tofino, Uclulet Training including:
-140km ride Victoria to Salt Spring Island and back
-20km rain forest trail run along the ocean
-80km ride from Uclulet to Tofino and back with a stop along Long Bach
-1hr Swim in Thetis Lake which was WARM!
-15km run to the top of Mount doug (210m elevation gain) for a GREAT view of the Peninsula.
-40km ride through farmland riding pass Butchart Gardens.

Good food, Better Seafood, Great friends, and fun!

The majority of the trip was out on the WEST COAST by Tofino and Uclulet. Both were AMAZING little fishing/surfing towns. The weather worked out perfect and I couldn't have asked for more!

Fong Ting and Benny

The morning started at 5am for the girls (who stayed up well past midnight!). We took photos of the girls getting ready before the guys showed up to 'buy' the bride.
The bridemaidss play games with the groomsmens like listing 10 reasons why Benny loved Fong Ting, or making the guys share the same donut! This was followed by a chinese tea ceremony at the bride's parent's house, followed by the groom's parent's house.

A beautiful ceremony was held at the Mckenzie Towne Church. Here's are some photos from
the day which had 60% chance of rain!

Wasa Lake Olympic Triathlon

I knew that Wasa was near radium/invemere but I didn't realize was about 1.5 hours past those towns. It's a bit of a logistic nightmare since the race is in wasa, race package pick up is in Cranbrook, and our accomodations were in Kimberley.

We left at 10:30am after struggling to put Meghann's new bike rack on her car. We arrived at 4:00pm for package pick up. We attended the MANDATORY pre-race meeting which was kinda pointless....all the info was already included in the e-mails. The organizer even said "it's totally different seeing the map on the wall, versus the real thing. Tomorrow morning I'll go over transitions in a chalk talk".

We had a 3 bedroom condo in kimberley which was REALLY! nice and cheap too! A hot tub/corona party happened and I was in bed at 11:30. I slept probably a total of 10 minutes all night..it was horrible. I blame summer solstice coming up and the HUGE window on the door which had no blinds.

Alright...so actual race day.
I woke up at 5am since it's a 25 min drive to the race venue. I started out too fast in the swim and had to tread water after 300m. I always fight with doubt during the swim. I would think about the 70.3 and question myself if I could actually finish the swim. I was able to calm myself down by counting my strokes. I wanted to count to 100 before taking my next 'break'. Fortunately I caught my breath and was able to continue before needing to take another break.
I found that I COULD NOT swim straight! I'd sight, take 6 strokes, sight again, and I'd veer to the right. So i started to breath bilaterally and that fixed things a little.

The swim course ended up being short by about 200m...and I had a swim time of 27:51.

The bike course was flat and the headwind wasn't too strong. I settled into a nice pace for the first 20km and pushed a little harder on the last 20km. SO many Drafters/cheaters! and for some reason people liked to ride on the road even though there was a HUGE shoulder...so I'd yell 'pass left!' but they wouldn't move....so a few times i shoulder checked to make sure the referee wasn't there and I'd pass on the right....
I hit a bump on the bridge and was riding 1 handed (eating gel) at the time..so my aerodrink fell off the aero bars and i lost half my water. I could feel a quad cramp coming on in the last 10km so slowed up a little.

run was great! footpod wasn't working so all I had was heart rate. I held 160 and was probably moving like a turtle for the first 3km. but then my legs caught up and I started to fly! I ended up running 45 mins, but who knows maybe the course was short.

7th in my age group
125th in the mens
154th overall.

It was an interesting race because the men started 22 mins before the womens....Since the bike was out and back, and so was the run. I was able to see my placing in the men's..but could also see the lead woman gaining on me! I was able to hold her off and crossed the line 1 min before her (but really she beat me by 21 mins!)

Results here!
http://www.winningtime.ca/09/09wasa/olymale.txt