Ironman Canada Swim-Bike

My alarm went off at 3:55AM. I quickly drank 2 bottles of nutrition and swallowed a bunch of pills. I went back to sleep for a few minutes. We were out the door just before 5AM. Monica dropped us off a few blocks away from the start. That's what we thought until we tried to walk toward transition. It felt like we walked over a mile just to get to our gear. I set up the bike and headed over to a nice grassy area to relax and listen to some tunes. I don my XTERRA VENDETTA with 40 minutes to race start.

SWIM - 56:40 (1:29 per/100m)
I lined up slightly to the left. We were off. I tried to swim with Karen, but her pace was a little to aggressive for me. She ended up swimming over 3 minutes faster and was one of the top female swimmers. After 500 meters I started converging over to the buoys. I went around the first boat then the second boat a few minutes later. The trip back to shore was fast. We had the waves driving us back to land. The water started to get very shallow 100 meters out from shore then a little bit deeper. I  hope no one stood up there. I continue swimming. I start with a few dolphin dives and start running with high knees.

T1 - 2:09
I start stripping off the upper part of my XTERRA and let the wetsuit strippers pull it off. I ran into to transition. I put on my shoes, OAKLEY's, and start running with my SPIUK on my head. I had a slight disadvantage on bike placement. I guess my bribe wasn't good enough. I ended up having to run all the way into my rack then out and to the mount line.

BIKE - 5:13-16 (21.45mph)
I jump on the LYNSKEY and ride down Main Street. There were throngs of people cheering. It was a good feeling. I rode the first 40 miles in control. Once I hit Richter Pass, several people started to pass me. Luckily I am a good descender. I caught up to most of the people that passed me on the the downhill. I peaked at 50.9mph. I had shifting issues a few times during the seven hills. (On Friday, the mechanic from Bike Barn said it was the frame. UGH!!! Nothing I could do about it for the race, except suck it up and cross my fingers.) I caught the rest on the out and back section. I felt great. The best and worst part of the ride started near Yellow Lake. It started to rain a little. On the first climb up there were people lined up on both sides of the road. I felt like I was riding in the Tour de France. It was awesome. I probably even biked a little harder just because of all the positive energy from the spectators. At the peak it started to rain harder. The decent was scary. I think I used up a few of my nine lives on the downhill and ride back into Penticton. Combine rain, wet roads, disc rear, 808 front, 20-30mph cross winds. What do you get? The wobble. Have you ever watched a motorcycle wobble uncontrollably and then crash? That was me except for the crashing part. This is the first time I thought my chances of crashing were 99%. I'm not sure how I stayed upright, but I did. I passed a racer with 4 miles to go. He mumbled, "That was so f...in scary!!!"

I rolled into T-2 turned in my chip and changed clothes. I quickly met up with Monica and we cheered on Guy at the start and turn around. I found out I was in 50th when I came off the bike and 9th in my age group. My goal was to swim 56-59 and bike 5:05-5:15. I achieved both with only 2 days of rest. It would've been nice to see where I could have finished, but it's all good. Kona here I come!!!