Happy New Years!!

Happy New Years!

We had a great Christmas despite not going anywhere, or having any family come and visit!  We did the usual visit and Christmas together with Lisas Aunt and Uncle(from Calgary).  Then also got together for New years.  The kids are now 4 and 2 so they are so pumped at Christmas time, dreaming/begging for gifts despite our explanations(they won't get everything on their list).  I only took one extra day off on the 30th(day home closed) and that was it.  My work also deferred the remembrance day off to Christmas, so it still felt like we got a solid break from work.

We did also have a lil incident where Alyssa broke her leg.  She was having a bit of a meltdown in the stroller and slid down to put her foot on the ground just as I was starting to move/turn.  It took several visits with the doctor and hospital to catch it.  They kept checking her foot, mean while the break actually took place higher on her leg.  I still feel bad myself not seeing it, or asking them to check.  The second time visit with our family doctor(first time was really just walkin) she actually looked further up saw swelling on the leg and the skin also felt warm.  So we immediately went back to emergency(the first visit to emergency, they examined it and convinced us there was no need for x-rays).  The first time we went to the Children's Hospital, the second to South Campus.  They took x-rays this time and told us she has a "buckle fracture" and put her in a cast.  That has been kinda tough as she now has to be carried everywhere.  They do a full length cast for little children as a leg only cast would just slide off.  Alyssa has had trouble being comfortable while sleeping too, which means I have to get up quite often for her.

Today hopefully she'll get to have the cast taken off!  She's going to the bone scan clinic at the hospital where they'll take another xray and determine if it's healed.  We are praying that it is completely healed and she can once again walk!  I was thinking about that the other day, she's really only been walking for a bit over a year.  Also, in a time when a 2 year old is learning so much and yet being told/guided with so many things.  They are already frustrated(hello terrible twos) then being told they cannot walk anymore(good bye to all freedom).  No wonder we've had so many tantrums, LOL!

Merry Christmas!

I doubt anyone reads this, but if you are there, and you read, Merry Christmas!  I hope you have great holidays with your family!  Remember one thing, it's not just a cliche, "Jesus is the reason for the season!"  This year has been particularly great for me in terms of running.  I had my second biggest year of mileage, and just crossed over 3000km.  I also climbed by far more than I ever have also just crossing 36,000 meters.  I'm hoping for a even bigger year in 2020 and a successful Lost Soul ultra marathon.  Here are some family pics. 

Lost soul 100k "You're in!"

Lost soul ultra "You are "In"!".  We are officially accepted, I also payed to make it totally official!  I capped the weekend off with a half marathon run.  I felt good through out, legs at least.  My stomach said otherwise as I had one small pulled pork sandwich hours before and despite it being delicious it made my stomach unhappy to run!  I survived with only a couple walk breaks near the end.  At least the weather(-13) and footing were both good.  That finished off a nice 80km week with a bunch of climbing.  I'll get the two badges from strava again and also 3000km for the year.  Only beaten that once on strava in 2013.

So I'm excited to get training for Lost soul 100k.  Three key things I know I need to work on for next years ultra:

1. More long runs, this may seem obvious as with a 100k run you can never have too many long runs.  With the young family this is the one thing I struggle with and I need to try and find time to get out more often for these long ones.  My body will appreciate it come race day.

2. Steep hikes, the hills in Lethbridge are short but steep.  Hiking hills, but I need to train them as much as I possibly can.  During short lunch runs, as well as add them to my long run.  Simulate the transition from running to steep hiking, and back to running.

3. Transition, I already mentioned this as part of 2, but it's important enough to mention as it's own point.  On many of the steep climbs I simulate the hill as I run them during the race.  Start off running into the climb, sense when to switch to hiking(so my heartrate doesn't spike too much), then as soon as I hit the top and the flats switch back to running and recover while running slowly.

4. More kms if possible, more time on my feet.  I did well last year, I did as much as I could, but I'll def. try to do more.  Nuff said!

5. Nutrition, I did pretty well here last year, but it still needs fine tuning and also when I get to the race I need to plan it out better.  Some of the aid stations we ran into, I felt lost, so many options, didn't know what I wanted.  I need to plan so I know exactly what to get/do.  Then if some craving pops up, I can always change.

Here's to 2020, lets go run!

Lost soul continued?

Hi!

Well I'm hoping this Lost Soul Chapter gets to continue.  Where did we leave off, lets see.  So last year(really this year) we hobbled in to finish the Lost Soul 100k.  Despite the trouble(and corresponding slow time), both Terry and I really enjoyed the race.  Every part of it, well except for my bros knee was awesome.  The race organization, volunteers, the course, the challenge, even the weather turned out to be supreme!

This year we figure we want another go at this race, redemption if you will.  Apparently we aren't the only ones who like this race.  Last year while signing up, it filled within minutes.  Technically, I didn't even get in, and had to plead my case to the RD to let me in.  They brought down the "ultrasignup" servers and to solve that issue this year they implemented a lottery.  Booooo, this may prevent us from getting in!  But they realize that some want to run with others, so with the lottery system you can also enter as a team.  This way we can be drawn together, either we're in or we aren't.  There won't be a situation where only one of us gets in.  I guess if we don't get in, we'll find some other adventure to do this year.

So on Saturday Dec. 7th the lottery opened up.  It opened for 1 week, closing on Dec. 14th and on the Monday after the weekend we'll find out if we're in.  Good luck to the Penner team!  I hope we get to run the Lethbridge Coulees again.  I'm not sure if they will have a waiting list, we may have to decide at that point if we're willing to wait, or enter something else.  Perhaps Ironlegs 60km, or 100km!  One things for sure, we'll be hiking hills.  I'm already training my hiking legs!  At least we don't have to wait long for the draw.  Cheers!

Here's some recent family pics!

Lost Soul 100k

Introduction:

6 years later!!  Phew, lots has happened in 6 years.  I won't start by telling you I plan to write more often and that I want to revive this old blog.  It may happen on it's own, but then again, it might not.  I just know that right now I'm writing another post because I think I have something post worthy?!

First of all a brief catchup!  A lot has changed since triathlon.  Yes that's right I don't race triathlon(Ironman) anymore and rarely do marathons.  I think I've ran one since the last marathon posting.  I ran Edmonton with my bro and I believe my time was 3:20ish with a bunch of walking in the last 10k.  I've also done the Calgary marathon ultra(50k) with a time of 4:17ish.

I'm a Daddy now too!  That's the biggest reason for the slow down(both in quantity and quality).  My kids are now 4 and almost 2 yrs old.  I still enjoy running(don't swim or bike anymore) though.  I work at a lawfirm downtown which allows me to run at lunchtime.  My brother and I have done a few long runs and races together, this year we decided to enter a longer trail ultra.  We decided that we would not "race" but just do it together, so we decided on and signed up for Lost Soul 100k.

The Race:

The race is in Lethbridge on Sept 6th at 9am.  We drove off to Lethbridge thursday evening after saying good by to the family. Terry had drove out from MB the weekend before.  So we prepared on thurs. evening, did a short walk around the start/finish area.  We conveniently stayed at the race hotel so the race was in the back parking lot, soooo nice being so close.

Race morning, I woke ready to go after a nice longish sleep(for a dad with young kids).  My throat was a bit sore and my hamstring still felt a tad tight, but other than that felt ready.  My brother Terry says he didn't sleep so well(race nerves) and he also had some niggles, but ready or not the race was upon us!  We did regular race things, breakfast, drop bags, last minute things, bathroom, etc.  I felt nervous but not too bad.  I knew our start and race would be fairly relaxed as it's such a long day, the key parts would be pacing(slowwwww), and nutrition.  Plus we were doing this together and our only goal was to finish I honestly had no idea how long it would take.  After checkout and then bringing bags to the start/finish area, we joined all the racers for a pre-race meeting.  I don't think I got anything new out of it, the usual course details, aid stations, etc then we all walked over to the start line.

As we prepared, I noticed some leakage on my back.  I thought, oh no, there's a leak in my hydration pack!  We had like 5 minutes yet so I took it off and examined the pack, seal and the hose.  Everything seemed to be fine, no noticeable leak?  Oh well the water reservoir still seemed full, so I put it back on again and prepared for the start.  Away we went!  The first leg went by pretty uneventful, a few hills, some chatting with other racers.  Because of the trail and starting out with others so close it was pretty crowded for the first leg.  At times you couldn't even pass, but I didn't panic, it's a 100k race, it will spread out!

So leg 1 was about a 7km loop and then back to the start/finish area or as they call it HQ(head quarters).  We had all we needed so we cruised straight through the aid station, 8.4km to the aid station they call Softball Valley.  Leg 2 and leg 3(9.6km) had most of the climbs in the race, almost  1000m of ascent.  We focused on hiking all the major ups and running the flat and descents.  This makes for pretty slow going, but it's ok I never even looked at the watch other than trying to schedule some eating every 30 minutes or so.  Through leg 3 we noticed we were starting to catch a bunch of fast starters.  I tried not to hurry, but it's really difficult not to concentrate on the runner in front of you and try to catch them.  Leg 3 went by as well and I was starting to feel the effects of all the climbing in a short time!  My legs were already starting to get sore and we were only 20-25km in, also it felt like I was developing blisters.  A lot of the single track was so narrow that it meant your feet were not landing flat, tough to explain, but it caused hot spots on the feet.

After leg three and from a aid station called Pavan where we could get our first drop bag.  I had packed some clothes, spare shoes for the second lap and bars and gels.  I collected some of the nutrition, filled up the hydration pack and we continued.  This is a loop that takes 16.4km and is essentially a loop around the northern most part of the course and back to Pavan.  It was also getting a bit warm, or at least I was warming up I couldn't tell which it was.  The weather was perfect really, close to 20 for the high, but lots of cloud and it was to rain later in the day, hadn't started yet.

In retrospect we should have slowed down a bit, taken more walk breaks.  I was hurting already a lot and wondered how we would do another lap of this(only 30-35km into the race).  Also the Pavan loop only had a couple hills and then it was a fairly flat return all the way back to the Start/finish.  Only 3 hills once we left Pavan for the second time and then flat.  We tried to run most of it, but started to need more and more walk breaks.  This whole time while running hills Terry appeared to be fitter/faster and having to wait a tad for me!  But at 35km, he admitted that his knee was bugging him while running so we had to walk more, which was just fine by me.

We got to the Softball aid station again(you hit all the aid stations going both directions if you look at the strava mapping you'll understand) and by that time we were walking more than running.  Each time we tried to run, Terry soon after was forced to walk again as his knee(IT band) would hurt.  This was mostly flat ground and normally we should/would be running to make up lost time, but we couldn't.  At one point Terry urged me on, but I instantly refused.  We discussed this before the race a lot and resolved that the only way we'd split up is if one of us would drop out.  I was not about to leave my bro, and I felt really bad for him.  I knew his knee was hurting him, but worse was the mental anguish of not being able to run, and holding me back?  I prayed and wished these feelings away from him.  We didn't talk much, what could I say, I've been there to know that words often do the opposite of comfort.

By now we were getting passed frequently and at times Terry would try to run a bit, but never for more than a few minutes.  The clouds had really moved in and it started raining, which felt good.  I was also able to take in more nutrition and started to feel better, even my muscles recovered a little bit from the walking.  So eventually as we neared the start/finish it really started to pour for about 20 minutes or so.  I remember taking the final climb up to the finish and starting a conversation with Terry, "Ok bro, what do we do?"  "Are you going to continue, or drop" I mentioned that we have plenty of time in the bank we would probably be able to walk the second loop and finish with in the cutoff.  Would he be able to walk without too much pain?  Cause a lot of damage?

I'll be brutally honest here I really feared him droping out.  I know he would really hurt inside and then also where would that leave me??  I still hurt physically myself and really relied on him, how would I get through a 50km on my own and through the night?  What would he do while he waited for me, we had no hotel room(we were going to drive home after the race).  I'm a Christian(Christ follower) so I talked to God about it.  Give us strength, help us to make the right decision.  I felt Terry wanted to go on and I knew if he dropped now he would always wonder if he could have completed it.  It would be too easy to drop as we passed the finish and that it wasn't a honest/true decision.  So I suggested he take it to the next aid station and get through the hills which we would be walking anyways, decide then what would be our fate.  I think Terry was relieved that I suggested that, maybe he still felt bad about me being forced to walk with him?  I'm Thankful that he didn't constantly suggest I go on without him, he only suggested it a couple times and then just left it at that.

I think both of our spirits rose a little bit as we left, we were not done yet!!  We were not about to give up!  Team Penner still in tact!  I continued to talk to God and thank him for this Adventure, I was at peace with our decision(a Thankful heart is always a glass half full type of attitude no matter what you believe).  I also secretly knew we would not be dropping at the next aid station(Terry tells me he felt the same).  We started to enjoy the race more too, walking allowed us to keep our stomachs happy, and to cheer on those around us.  I still felt at times like I wanted to run, but it was ok this race had always been about finishing and we stuck to that.  We didn't always talk and as the two hilly legs continued we slowed down a bit more.  I had to wait a bunch and felt bad about that.  But what do you say, I tried to be encouraging, but didn't want to annoy Terry so I kept quiet a bunch of the time.  It was only drizzling slightly, I hoped the steep downhills wouldn't become treacherous.

Before the race, I had wanted to get to Pavan before dark and now because of all the walking we didn't quite make it.  At one point someone passing us asked me to take her headlight out of her pack, which I did happily and then resolved to take out mine as well.  Sometimes I get stubborn about the smallest things, I had wanted to get to the aid station before I do that, however now it was already pitch black out.  Not the smartest as you could easily trip on a rock and go tumbling down a steep hill.  The course was amazingly well marked.  All the markers had reflectors so you could just look up and see sometimes up to 5 markers in a row, especially on the climbs and descents.  Terry had some more problems in the dark as he is a little afraid of heights and now with the knee trouble he favored this even more so that his foot swelled up(I didn't know this at the time).

We passed through Pavan and then started the north loop walking and chatting briefly with other runners.  With the majority of the hills behind us and according to my calculations enough time to walk it in, a finish was almost a guarantee!  Still had 20km to go though and my legs were starting to really hurt, it's a long time on your feet whether you are walking or running!  At the second Pavan stop we stayed a little long and as we got going I suddenly started to get cold.  I knew that if I start shaking it would be game over so I quickly took off my pack and got my jacket out.  Terry went ahead during my stop as he figured I would just catch up.  Thankfully the jacket helped quickly and I did not start to shake yet.  The 3 hills on the way back helped too, and I was warm and even a lil too warm in no time.

Because of the drizzle the lower part(return flat section) got quite muddy and it actually got pretty tough to walk.  I can't imagine trying to run it at that point(75kms) in the race.  The shoes got clogged with mud and I almost went down a couple times, but managed to stay upright.  The rest of the race is pretty uneventful, we walked it in, I picked up some Perogies at the last couple aid stations and they tasted good.  In long races like this gels/bars start to taste awful and your body craves some real food.  Finally we got to the last climb, up and up to the finish!  As we got closer to the lights, we saw a shadow waddle across our path, a porky pine!  He/she was no doubt thinking why are there so many people invading my personal space.  As we came in along the chute I realized that we did it!  We finished what we started, not a super fast run, but an adventure completed!

After the finish we sat for a bit, took in some food and Terry went for the car.  We got to collect our "finisher's rocks" and prepared for the second adventure, how would we get home?!?!  We, or rather Terry had 2 hours to drive home yet.  I wish I could say I was a great brother and helped him stay awake, but I wasn't.  I got in the car and immediately fell asleep(after a quick prayer for safety), sorry bro!  I woke up once as he stopped for a short cat nap, and then again when we pulled up on my drive way back in Calgary.  It was morning and as soon as we entered Lukas was on us!  "Uncle Terry, can we go downstairs to play?"  Actually I don't think he even asked(rather demanding it).  Terry and I just kinda chuckled and asked if we could first have a little nap?  I went and said hello, talked a little with family and went upstairs for a shower and nap.

Calgary marathon pics

Calgary marathon RR

Hey there,

Well that's it, all she wrote.  Finally here and gone, it feels good, kinda empty, but alright.  I guess I took the cards that were dealt and did the best I could on the day.  Sure the time 3:03 is a great time, but my fitness was definitely better than that.

Weeks before I ran the police half and did a really big week immediately after.  I felt alright then, but a little later I strained my hamstring(about 2 weeks ago) my hip had been bugging me as well(which I think caused the hamstring strain) and also some sore calves, and even quads.  It might have been my peaking that was slightly off, my body def. needed rest and I tapered as much as I dared to try to heal up properly.  I tapered so much that I was afraid I was loosing fitness.

So with all that going on you know the background going into this race.  I went with a formal carbo loading regime written up by powerbar, and used and really recommeded by my good buddy Chris Hooper.  I hadn't really used any plan before this.  So Saturday I aimed at consuming 700-900grams of carbs.  Wow is that ever hard to do, I took in nearly 4000 calories and still only hit about 750carbs.  Yikes that's a lot of carbs!!  I went to bed about 10 and woke up bright an early ready to go.  I went to bed actually feeling sick from all the food I ate.  I was a bit worried that it was too much, but I trusted Chris.  I had to take some advil as my head was hurting too!

The morning started at about 4:30, got some coffee going and I got my race stuff on, prepared my small breakfast.  Then I sipped my coffee while Lisa got some last minute ZZZzzzs.  She took me to the stampede area and dropped me off and I walked to the race site.  I had no clue if we would be able to stay somewhere warm and I was delighted to see that we could hang out inside the stampede grand stands area.  I went to the washroom on the main floor, then discovered there was more washrooms upstairs with no lines.  NICE!!  I lined up for the start just before, spotted Chris and Melissa, wished them both well and got ready for the start.  Anndddd off we go.  I settled in at a pretty good pace, well I hoped it would be ok, the first 10ks I was running 4:10s-ish, sometimes a lil under sometimes a touch over.

Near 12km we turned south away from the 20km course.  That's where we started climbing up and up.  None of it steep, but it was def. noticeble.  And I could already start feeling my hamstring, not favoring it, just knew it was there!  Right around 14km the 10 person all connected with surgical tubing guiness book record attempt team ALL stopped for a nature break!!  It was the funniest thing I've ever seen in a marathon.  10 of them all side by side, feet against the curb and peeing into the bushes.  lol there were people taking pictures, just wait till those surface online.  That'll make good slowtwitch discussion.  So I passed them while they were pissing as I was just behind them till that point.  I had read that they were aiming at a sub 3 hour time for the record.  I ran for about 3km further before they came up behind me and went by.  I stayed with them for a km or two and actually drafted them for a bit.  But they're pace was a bit too tough for me so I let them go just before we came to mount royal.  We had to run up that false flat all the way to the far end of Mount Royal, turn the corner there and that was the half way point.  My split 1:27:XX, pretty good, maybe a bit fast, but I usually need some in the bank to loose in the second half.  Although as we started hitting some downhills I could feel more and more of the hamstring.  The pace was still good at this point I was right on 4:15s which is right on the 3 hour pace.

Then back over crowchild, where we had a false flat downhill, then turned north and down a steep hill.  Wow that really messed up my quads.  Shortly after that and at about the 28km point my hamstring started really hurting and the quads didn't have anymore power.  My pace started slipping, first 4:20, then 4:25, which would be ok, I thought if I could just hold onto that pace I'd still finish under 3.  But it kept slipping although I felt really good!  My stomach wasn't upset(which is usually a problem) and I was able to eat gel as needed.  I carried a flask with about 5 gels in there, I probably ate 4 of them throughout the race, which was perfect.  Anyways the carbo loading really worked too as I never bonked and physically I felt great!  My quads and hamstring were just done and I gritted my teeth and pushed as hard as I could.  Then my calves also started twitching, now this is completely normal, I always get the calf cramps.  I kept sipping my gels, taking gaterade at aid stations, hoping they wouldn't cramp up.

I gotta say I'm impressed with the race here.  They always had problems with the marathoners running into the back of the 5k, 10k, half mary race.  So we're hitting the back of those races, the walkers and I have nothing against walkers, but the last ones seem to string themselves across the entire road giving no room for us to get by.  Not this year, they actually gave us a separate lane to run in!!!  Much kudos to the race for that, at first it took me a bit to catch on that the pilon'd off middle lane was for me!  How special, ha ha.  So I ran in that lane and got some nice cheers from people on memorial and I was hurting, specially with 4km to go I was running about 4:40 pace by then and I fought tooth an nail to try and speed it up.  A few runners passed me in the last 5km, got chicked a couple times.  But I ran proud, I was NOT going to walk today.  My last stand alone marathons haven't been pleasant, and this one wasn't quite at my ability, but I kept fighting!  That's really what makes me proud, I had the mental strength to fight through, despite the slipping pace.  Then we hit the last km and turned into the stadium, my calves nearly locked up here.  I was just hoping they wouldn't cramp up and I would fall on my face.  My pace plummeted here as you can see the last 0.3km was above 5min pace.  But w/e I had already established at about 8km to go that I wouldn't be able to go under 3 hours, and I got close, BQ'd so that's alright I just didn't want to loose teeth when my face hit the concrete.  So I slowed down to try and prevent that and crossed the finish in 3:03:XX.  Not too bad, happy it's over.  Now as I write this I'm wondering how long the recovery will take.  Marathons are pure torture for the muscles.  I cannot walk down stairs I have to hobble down them sideways, and walking is really tough.  Could be 2-3 weeks before I can run at all??  Oh and the weather was great!  There was almost no wind and the temp started at about 5 degrees and only went up to maybe 10-12?  Cheers,

DP

Police Half marathon race report

Well this certainly deserves a race report.  I ran quite well yesterday.  Curtis my long time running buddy can attest to how often I've wined about my PBs being too difficult
and that they were out of reach!!  So the last couple of years my running has finally improved, also lost a bit of weight(although am up a bit from last year).  And with my half mary time being the "softest" I knew this would be the first to go... maybe?  I've worked hard from January on, building up mileage and doing my weekly tempos/intervals.  It certainly doesn't help that I usually only run a half in spring and it's on a tough course!!  It also often has snow still on the course, if it isn't snowing the day of the race!

The day before Lisa and I had Keith and Linda over for dinner.  We had a great time and it really helped to keep the race nerves away.  The wine helped calm the nerves too, maybe not so much for the race.  :P  This is only a B type of race, did I mention that?  I did get forced to taper more than I had planned because of some aches that I didn't want to turn into injuries.  So I was pretty rested, although worried about my achilles acting up the week before

Ok so race morning I woke up around quarter to 6.  I got a small breakfast of some oatmeal ready and made some coffee.  Got my planned race clothes ready, checked the weather, yep seemed ok for shorts and a t-shirt.  I had plenty of time and once I'd changed got all fed and coffee'd up I still had some time to pace the floor before heading out the door.

The drive to Mount Royal is super simple and parking is even easier.  What an awesome venue as you can also warmup inside on the track and continue to stay warm up untill 5 minutes before the start.  I lined up maybe 5 rows back on the left side, close to a couple friends, Melissa and Mike.  I wanted to keep an eye on Mike as I thought I'd at least be able to keep up for some of the race.  It ended up being great pacing!  The gun went off and away we went.  It was a bit chilly, but I didn't freeze too much, and with the increased effort kept warm enough.  Mike pulled ahead, but I could see him the entire time, no need to panic I Like starting out slower and gradually picking up the pace later as I get into my race.

My first km was 3:46, hmmm a lil fast!  My aim was 4:05, but the first km is slightly downhill plus I seemed to be quite within myself so I didn't worry too much about it.  I slowed a touch after that, but not much.  As we approached the first corner I noticed the front guys kept going??  I wondered where they were taking us, why did the course change?  And as I came to the corner I saw they had made a mistake, doh!  The race organizers either weren't there yet, or there was some confusion, so they had to direct about 20-30 runners to turn around and head back to the corner just in front of me.  I clued in right away and was actually the first one brought correctly around the corner.  I had to yell at one guy to turn.  That must have been a bummer for the leaders, they soon came flying by me on their way back to the front.  Oh well it was only about 2km into the race.

So the race progressed down onto the dam and I felt pretty good, despite the rolling hills through the 5km point and the first aid station.  I took a sip of gaterade, but honestly most of it spilled out when the cup hit my hand.  That's ok, don't need much for 21km.  My splits so far made me happy, I was running just under 4min kms, with a few of them tipping over, but really only the hilly ones.  I didn't expect to run under 4s, my pre-race aim was to run 4:05s.  Good stuff!!  I kept Mike within my sights up ahead, maybe 100m?  He had lost a bit over shooting the corner(we compared garmins after the race and it looks like he did 100m extra) but he had pulled ahead again and remained as a carrot for me to chase.

As we got to the glenmore landing and about the 8km mark I saw Keith and think it was Linda who I heard.  Thanks a lot guys, it really helped.  Another aid station at around the 9km mark and more pushing to try to catch Mike.  I pushed when I felt good, and tried to hold on when I didn't feel so good.  10k mark hit in exactly 40 minutes, right on target!!  I pulled up to the second place girl right around 11km.  She looked like she was seriously hurting.  I tried to encourage her with a few words(more like grunts) trying to get her to run with me.  She came along for a bit and we'd trade leads for a km or two.  She would take the downhills and me the uphills.  Then we finally hit the hill down into the valley and here is really the only flat part on the course.  I felt ok, but starting to hurt.  My female running partner also dropped off and I was running alone again... well other than Mike just ahead.  I just need to hold on!!  I usually try to relax a bit before the weaselhead hill, not today.  I really paid for it on the hill and I felt really light headed near the top and extremely weak.  I wanted to walk so bad, but I'd gained a bit on Mike and was closer.

Then just as I think I might have him, he turns around and looks directly back at me, uh oh.  He immediately picked up his pace, not a lot, but it was def. noticeble.  No chance of catching him now!  I kept working, but he slowly inched ahead and remained at around 100m again for the rest of the race.  He looked back a couple more times to see the gap and then I think he was satisfied that I wasn't getting any closer.  Then the cross over glenmore trail and just before the last corner I saw Chris Hooper on the side, it was soo nice to get a cheer from a running buddy.  It really spured me on through the final 2km, with a slight uphill and my legs screaming at me to stop the pain!!  I knew my time would be good, just didn't know how good.  I didn't have the energy to look at my watch anymore.  I did look just before we hit the last round about turn.  Ohhh a chance to go under 1:25 and a PB.  I tried to pick it up, I didn't have a lot.  At least I didn't loose any positions in the last bit and crossed the line in 1:25:14.  Not too bad, and the course was long, came across 21.1 in 1:23:54.  That sounds soo much better and I don't know which will be my new PB!!

Mike an I compared notes a bit right after.  I thought I might throw up, and moved off somewhere by myself for a few minutes waiting for that to pass.  Then I saw Melissa had finished in a new PB, and then John, Amy, Dave, Curtis, Claire.  Lots of co-workers in the race this year, we have quite a good lunch time running club!  Almost everyone either ran a PB or was close!  We hung out together after the race, comparing stories and just chatting it up while the awards went on.  I enjoyed myself so much that I wasn't even listening and it ended before I knew it.  Now that's really rare!!  If you've ever beeen to a post race you know they usually drag on and on.  I think they only announced the winners, and the 2nd and 3rd place people just walked up to get their wards.  Nice!!  So I hobbled off to my car with a new PB!!  This PB was probably 16 years old!!  And this was a much tougher course with altitude.  I placed 16th overall and 4th in the age grp.  Not too bad, over an out,

St. Patty's day 10k RR

Hey all,

I haven't run a race in awhile, much less written a RR.  But I figured I better do this right away, or it wouldn't get done at all.  So here goes, hopefully I get through it.  Sometimes for me the RR can be tougher than the race itself!

The morning started off pretty good.  We went to bed early and I slept amazingly well!  I'm always nervous for races even 10ks, but today I felt really good getting up, despite the weather.  Weather network showed something like -19 with windchill I think and some flakes coming down.  Anyways I got up and ate a small breakfast(oatmeal), drank some coffee and got my running clothes on.  We were almost out of coffee but I managed to make some really weak coffee and get it down before I had to go.

Pretty quick drive except that as I passed McDonalds I got a craving for more coffee and the drive through was empty so I got another small coffee with a shot of expresso, high octane yah!!  I only ended up drinking half of it.  I parked underground at Oclaire market, this is by far the nicest thing about this race on a cold day.  You don't have to go outside till it's time to run, and on a cold day like today it rocks.  So I got there a bit early and I sat around, went to the bathroom, and sat some more.

About 20 min till race time and I went outside for a short warmup.  2km should be good and I was going to do some pickups after, but with the snow/slick conditions I only did one.  My start would be slower today as I did not want to injure myself so after my warmup and a 1x pickup I went indoors for a quick warmup before the race start.

At the start we had to wait a bit, I got cold but not too too bad.  It was snowing more now so the section on concrete/brick was really slipperly.  So much for a good time, but my main goal for this is just a really solid effort.  I never understand why some people put themselves right in the front when they are slower, so when the gun went off I nearly tripped on someone as I had to pass them 10ft into the race.  They were going significantly slower.  Anyways 2 guys bolted ahead, I quickly knew they were going to be too fast for me.  I headed up the chase group behind.  With one guy between so I think I was 4th starting out?  My assessment, the two up ahead would remain there, unless they really blow up.  The one in the middle just ahead didn't look like much of a runner so I thought he would fade and I'd catch him at some point.  Runners behind me, well I obviously didn't look so no chance to assess.  For now I led a pack, but slowly pulled ahead, or at least I thought I was pulling away.

I glanced down at my pace ever so often and for now it averaged around 3:50 which I was satisfied with, thought maybe I went out a touch too hard?  But I had to keep in contact with the guy just ahead.  At about 1.5 km someone bolted ahead past me and really started making ground on 3rd, so that put me in 5th I think.  He passed the 3rd place guy around 3km and I was only about 10 - 20 ft behind him, and still gaining.  By about 4km I could still see the two in the lead and one of them looked to be fading really badly, looked like he went out wayyy too hard.  Ahhh the scent of blood,  so as soon as I was past the 4th place guy it was time to focus on the fader.  I caught him just after the turn around, it was a out an back(they had changed the course).  Here's where I started hurting bad and slowed a touch.  I kinda used that opportunity to draft behind the 3rd place guy.  I have plenty of time to pass and the 2nd place guy was too far ahead to catch, so I wanted to make sure I didn't blowup.  We were also going into the wind now so I ran behind him, but soon started feeling guilty as I was clearly using him to energize myself before the pass.  So I passed him and tried picking it up, but I didn't speed up much, still suffering.  He must have been suffering too though as I noticed him drift back.  So with 3km left I was stuck in 3rd, too far back to catch 2nd but I thought my spot was safe too.  So I just tried to maintain the pace and keep an eye on the guy ahead.  At times I thought I was gaining, but then I'd weaken and loose ground again.  My slowest kms were def. 6-8, maybe 9 I haven't looked at strava yet.

For the last km I managed to pick it up a bit as I had dropped down to 4:10ish pace for 6-8 so managed to run around 4min for the last km, to finish it up with a time of 39:18.  I had hoped to run under 38, but with the slick snow for about 4-5km of it I'm happy.  It was a good hard effort and I went as hard as I could so there's not much I can do about the conditions.  I'm happy it's done, now on to the police half in April.  Cheers,

DP

Down to the wood!

Hey,

If you're in Calgary you know what's happening outside.  If you're near by I'm sure it's blizzarding there too!  Boy am I ever relieved that I got the long run done yesterday.  Still feeling a bit disappointed I couldn't go skiing with my buddy Cam.  We were to do the Moraine lake trail today, but I bailed.  My car tires are not safe to run on the highway in a snow storm.

Yesterday's long run went well.  My legs weren't quite recovered from the last hard run on thursday, but still not too too bad.  Lately I've been doing a few runs with a couple new friends, Chris, Jared.  They run suuuuuuuuuuuuper early, yesterday we started at 6:30 am!!  This week Melissa(a girl I coach) joined us for part of it as she runs the same pace as we do.  Strava has this challenge to do a 20 miler in the first two weeks of March.  Chris and I had both signed up for it and since our long run was going to be 25-30km anyways we decided to add a couple km to finish the challenge.  It went pretty much as planned, we kept the pace down.  Chris made sure and wasn't afraid to let us know when the pace crept up.  He was still feeling a bit beat up after running the frozen ass 50km two weeks ago.

So today my legs are a bit sore and I'm really happy the running is done for the most part this weekend.  I'll probably do a short one a little later.  Maybe even outside in the blizzard?  Or I'll go to the gym, I haven't decided yet. 

Oh as you can see from the picture I got a haircut!!  I know if you're reading you're probably wondering what the heck I was thinking shaving it that close.  Well it's kind of a funny story.  I usually get it buzzed close just not that close!  I use the first attachment so it goes quite short, it was high time for a buzz again yesterday.  I buzz most of it, then lisa comes and gives it the finishing touches.  So I had finished most of it and needed lisa's help.  The hair seemed more staticy and it was really annoying me more than usual.  So I took off the attachment to clean it with the little brush.  Anyways lisa was there so I bent down over the sink to have her do the touchup.  The razor felt a lil solid and I kinda peeked up.  lol I said something like "ummm Lisa look at the razor, anything missing??"  So anyways she hadn't noticed since there isn't that much difference betwen the first attachment and nothing so she'd already finished going over part of my head.  Sooo she had to do the rest.  It was funny, she felt really bad, but honestly it hardly bothered me.  So I'm bald, feel free to laugh at me.  :P 

Marathon training overall is going well, I'm starting to get faster again!  My mileage is up, sitting at about 80 - 85 km per week for maybe 6 weeks now and it's slowwwly creeping up from there.  I'm aiming at the calgary marathon for now, Iron legs 50m in Aug.  And also a couple halfs, maybe a 10k?  Running is going well, I'm training smart staying clear of injuries!  Hope everyone else's training is going well.  Cheers,

DP

New Post!

Hey Blog!

It's me again!  Yessiry I'm back, well at least for another post.  We'll see how long this sticks.  I've been a bit fluish the last couple days.  Aughhh it's been so long since I've felt that, maybe 3 years or so?  I get colds sooner than the flu, and I don't really know what to call this, it wasn't full blown or anything.

I haven't been swimming or riding much at all lately, almost nothing.  I did get on my trainer ONCE this winter and I think I got Reinier hopeful that it might be the start to something, but alas it didn't last.  I'm thoroughly enjoying the running though.  I'm presently training for the Calgary marathon, running almost every day.  I take days off as needed, or if we go away for the weekend(like last weekend in banff/LL for valentines).  That's time off as well.  It sure is fun only having to do one workout per day.  I've been doing the bulk of the running at lunchtimes too which frees up my evenings.

I'm also signed up for a couple half marys, one before the Calgary marathon and one after.  Oh the second I haven't signed up for just yet.  It depends on when we can get our holidays this year.  I heard that my brother is once again going to run the Manitoba half so I may surprise him and go join him this year.  I hope he doesn't read this or the cat is out of the bag.

The other big race I'm doing is the Iron Legs ultra.  It's a 50 miler in Kananaskis country, near elbow falls.  I've always wanted to do an ultra, if some of you remember I actually signed up for the death race one year but then decided against the training really early on.  This time around hopefully I'll commit to it and hopefully get out for some trail runs/hikes before the race.  I also have some Calgary trails in mind to help with that.  Any of you ultra gurus can also help fill me in on the details, although I have done a ton of research.  This particular race won't be easy(yeah right 50 miles!) as it has over 10,000 ft worth of climbing.  A lot of the ups will be hiked for sure!  It's definately a different kind of race.

Today I went back and read my Ironman race report.  Two things that really stuck out from the report.  They're quite the opposites so I think I did a good job on the report.  #1 I never really have bad Ironman race.  I'm not bragging, I have plenty of bad races but always been able to somehow nail a good IM.  I've read so many disastrous IM race reports, it seems most people don't get many good ones.  Course mine haven't been super good, always missed my A race, but still always improved.  #2 I totally get and agree with my decision to skip next years Ironman and maybe never race one again.  I was reminded about how nervous I was and how stressful the training was.  It was a good journey and something that I focused on so much, I will enjoy the next few year/s of no swim starts.  Maybe I will make myself promise to read the RR again next time I sign up to be sure I want to do another.  :D  Cheers,

DP

Cross country

Hey all,

Or just me, I'm doing fine despite being off my running legs for a bit.  I've been running a fair amount and one snowy slippery day I was spinning up the last hill in a lunch time run and I felt a sharp pain in my hamstring.  Luckily I was right at the end of the run as I found it painful even just to walk.  Even after some 18 years of running I still can manage some new first time injuries.  I've never pulled a hamstring before.  Oh well I'm thankful that it didn't happen during my Ironman build up, and there's lots of time to heal up before it's time to get serious with training again.  I'm also very happy I can cross country ski!!  I've gone out twice now with the skis, did just over 9km the first time and 10.5 km today.

I was doing quite a bit of quality workouts, my goal and hope was to get faster before the marathon build up next year.  Oh well now that's on hold for a bit, and I'd wanted to start skiing anyways so this was a perfect nudge onto the ski trails.  I didn't have ski boots so I had to go out and purchase those.  The boots I had first purchased with the skis hurt my feet so I returned them.  These boots that I bought now also caused my pinky toe a blister so I had to return them as well.  It turned out that I had to move to a Salomon boot to prevent these pesky blisters.  This boot uses a different binding so I had to replace that.  Lifesport gave me a really good deal, first off they let me trade in my boots after I used them once, they also swapped my bindings and only charged me the difference even though I didn't buy the original bindings from them.  Pretty good deal, good service goes a long way.  So if you're looking for skis in Calgary check out Lifesport.

My plan is to ski 1-2 times a week, run the rest.  Maybe get enough fitness to do some long skis(wink wink Moraine lake road Cam!!) and maybe do the Canadian Berkie!  I've had my eye on that race for a few years.  It's apparently a well run ski race 55km long on very nice trails near Edmonton.  I know I wouldn't do it quickly, 55km would be a long ways and I def. would not be able to "race it" I just want to enjoy it, do something different!!

I'll keep up the running while skiing.  Hopefully I can do the Calgary marathon and also maybe a ultra marathon or two??  I'd like to test myself with something longer than the marathon, someday possibly even a 100 miler.  I'm not quite sure I'm ready to go too long just yet.  I still want to run faster and I really believe switching to a ultra mode will kill any possible speed I have left in these legs.  Crazy eh?

I also have some crazy ideas about some solo adventures.  I've been following a really inspirational ultra runner named Killian Jornet, check him out on youtube.  He's been winning 100 mile ultras in brutal mountain terrain since he was 21 years old.  Now that he's won so much, he's gone to some incredible mountain ascent/descent records.  In several years time he's planning on setting the record for Everest as well.  He's done Kilimanjaro already and broke the record by over an hour!!  Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJztgs-jXuw  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjZH6CfKLxE.  Anyways I'd like to do some similar challenges, obviously not as difficult and I don't have the money to travel all around the world.  But we got mountains in our backyard.  I'd like to do some climbs, maybe some tough hikes, trails.  I'm not sure exactly which ones, maybe Sulfur mountain to start, I've always wanted to see if I could run up that trail.  Then maybe a big mountain, temple mountain?  There's also the skyline trail near Jasper, anyone have anymore challenging climbs/hikes that I could run?  Cheers,

DP

PS:  here's a very inspirational video of a ultra won by Killian  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhgiUvMrV9k.  The UTMB, just over 100 miles, through 3 countries in europe, super scenic, nearly 10,000 meters of elevation.  Simply incredible what the human body is capable of.  Never ever underestimate it!!  over an out

Running

Hey all,

It's me again!  I had a great workout today at lunch time.  The weather was ideal to really run hard!  I work in inglewood and since today was a interval day I had to find some flat ground.  Not so easy a task in Calgary, but I did manage to find 800 meters of semi flat ground and with almost no traffic to boot.  I ran about 2km warmup to the starting spot, I had messured 0.8 km on the way by.  My goal for these intervals was to run at about 5km race pace or a touch faster.  The first one was a touch slow, 2:58 I think, but then after that one(90 secs rest between) I was able to get the rest in 2:45-2:50.  Not too bad, but by the time I got to the second last one yikes I was hunched over breathing hard.  My heart rate doesn't go up that high 163 LT, but by the last one I hit 166.  I know that's close to my max as I was dizzy when I stopped.  Took about 5 minutes walking to recover before I could run home.  Here's the Strava/Garmin data if you're interested.  http://app.strava.com/runs/23998157

I'll be coaching a couple runners starting in January.  If there's anyone reading, or anyone you know who could benefit from some guidance let me know.  Since I'm not racing triathlon/ironman next year I'll have more time and want to coach half a dozen athletes(3 openings as of now).  There is no speed requirement, only big dreams, a strong work ethic, and excellent regular communication with me.  :D  That's the only way to coach in my opinion.  If you're not sure, we could chat and I can let you know all about how I do things.  That way you can tell if it's right for you.  Cheers,

DP

Retiring?

It's possible I don't know.  For now I've definitely put the bike and swim goggles aside.  I've been using my running shoes though!  I've found a new passion, well not really new maybe just rekindled the fire inside to get faster.  Running is what I started off with, it's only fitting that I end off, or fall back to that sport.  This is what truly makes me happy.  I've set some goals already for next season.  The short of it, I want to run faster.  It's going to take some effort.  This season I started to see while triathlon training that my PRs might just be attainable again... maybe.  I'm gonna give it a shot!  Maybe a Boston marathon also?  Well first things first, have to run a fast qualifier.  This winter the focus is speed, spring I train for the marathon.  Oh and another thing I've entered the Robert Hamilton 10 miler.  This will give me a good clue as to where I'm at, starting point.  Cheers,

DP

Ironman race pics

I really had nothing left to give!!

If a picture is worth a thousand words this may qualify.

Ironman Canada 2012 30th edition, 3rd edition for me Race Report

Race Report

Preface:
I had a lot of support from family and friends for this race.  I know I couldn't have done it with out that, I really drew strength from that when things got difficult.  Through my Ironmans I've also gotten wiser...I think.  Things didn't always go well on race day, I had a plan, but was always aware of the times when a change was needed and I really attempted to nail these early before a little problem became a big problem.  As I've said before Ironman never quite goes according to plan and you have to recognize this and sorta "go with the flow" think it through.

Prerace:
The day started at about 3:30, maybe even a bit before as I don't think I needed my alarm.  Crazy early eh?  Our B&B people that we were staying with were amazinggg, if you ever need a recommendation for a B&B in Penticton we got the place for you.  I was a little worried I'd get fat in the days before the race we ate soo well.  Anyways they got up with us and served us breakfast.  There was one other couple in the house also doing the race.  They were from Omaha Nebraska.  I ate oatmeal, coffee, toast with peanut butter.  I was still finishing up as the other guy left already.  The lady at the house really liked us too, she sat with me as I finished up.  I think she could see the fear in my eyes.  lol she kept reasurring me that I would be ok and I will do great.  It felt like I was going off to war.  Would I be triumphant today?  I've been preparing all year for this one day, a million things could go wrong.  I can't think about them, I just have to go out and do my thing.  One more long training day that's what I tried telling myself.  I'll just do the best I can do.

Lisa got up as well with me, she'd drive me to the race and drop me off near the start.  We got there maybe quarter to 5(the transition opens at 5am) and I walked to the start alone in the dark.  Alone in my thoughts... I carried the special needs bags with me, my pump and a few odd things that I had forgotten to put into my transition bags or onto my bike from the day before.  I got to main street and walked in, it's like a assembly line, first the race number markers.  It was chilly probably 10 degrees if that so I had on a bunch of warmup clothes, had to strip it off for the volunteer to mark me up with 515, and also my age on the back of my leg.  Then the boxes where my special needs bags would be place, these get shipped off to the 120km mark of the bike, and also to the turn around of the marathon(Okanagan falls).  Then I walked on into transition where the bike racks were located.  I dropped off my nutrition onto my bike, pumped up my tires, made a few other minor adjustments and moved onto the porta johns.  Gotta get in line for that early as the lines get really long after awhile.

I had plenty of time, too much time.  So I wondered around looking for friends, and more importantly just to keep moving.  It was still dark and I looked out on the lake as they put out the bouys and I could tell the water was still calm.... phew.  I went to the bathroom once more and then moved to the change tent.  I had planned to meet Cam there.  I found him in the usual spot(this is Ironman Canada #3 for me, #10 for him) and we put our wetsuits on, applied body glide, sunblock and zipped each other up.  Then got all our shedded clothes into the warmup bag and dropped that off on our way to the corral.  Each person has to walk over the timing mat before the swim, kind of a "checkin" even though the race hasn't started yet.  Once onto the beach I lost contact with Cam, but that didn't matter.  We'd already said our good byes, it's time to focus.  I had told Cam my secret starting spot and later on I found out he took my advice and started on the far right side.  Most people avoid it because of the large rocks on the bottom.  Sure it's risky as you could cut your foot on them, but I'll take that risk and avoid getting beaten up so much.  Plus on the inside you can always swim on the inside of the bouy line, lots of people don't know this either. 

So I got some water in my suit, got used to it, dipped my head in the water and swam a few strokes.  It helped to calm the nerves and slow down the breathing.  Then just before the start I spit into my goggles and also christened my wetsuit for the first time and got ready.  I tried to look around and make some final adjustments to my starting spot before the horn...

Swim:
Annnnnnnnnnd we're off, 3000 people, about 1000 first timers.  I walked a few steps over the rocks and then decided to start swimming.  Even though it was only thigh deep water I swam while others walked/jogged around me and eventually I said good bye to the lake bottom as we hit deep water.  Oh please oh please let me have clear water.  And for some reason I did!!  Then all of a sudden I see it almost in slow motion, I watch under water as someone bends their knee, no not just flutter kick but a full on boot to the face.  WAMMM, I hardly felt it though, other than the shock, he caught me square in the goggles so the suction around my eyes took all of the force and I guess displaces it??  Anyways that's about the worst I got, which is rare.  I bumped into people a little at times, but no swimming on top, no punches.  I got a few slaps on top of the head, but I expected much worse.  At times I got clear water and even looked around me for feet to follow(draft)

The course at Ironman Canada is kinda rectangularish and we swam out on the left side(clockwise) my line was just on the inside of the bouy line, they put bouys maybe every 200m or so.  We passed one after another, sometimes I swam on someone's feet, other times on my own.  Occasionally someone would tickle my feet, or swim into my side, but only brieftly.  I heard later that the other guy from our B&B had a much worse swim.  Funny how dif. peoples experiences can be so different in the same race.  Eventually I spied the white colored bouy, ahhh that must be the first corner at about 1600 meters?  I looked around, didn't look too crowded.  Evenyone tends to move in on the corners and they can be super congested.  I swam, doggy paddled, and kicked around the corner.  I know from experience it's too risky to put your face in the water here.  We're all shoulder to shoulder think rugby scrum! 

So I made it, turned the corner.  The guy in front of me had the wrong angle at first.  He/she corrected himself though and we continued on, there must have been about 2-3 bouys across the short side and even swam beside a house boat.  This kinda confused me and a few others as in years past houseboats have acted as the turn bouys themselves.  So a kayak sat there and waved people on, we had to keep swimming "don't turn here!!"  But then up ahead I could see another corner bouy and I prepared myself for that.  Again this wasn't too bad, turned the corner and headed home.  Got a kick(pardon the pun) out of someone's comment, he says, "comon people swim".  I answer with, "They can't, does he seriously think people have stopped on the corner for no reason???  It's a bottle neck, they will swim when they can, coolit!! 

On towards home!!  The far side that we'd just finished angled further away so this side was the longest maybe 1700 - 1800m to go home, but at least there were no more corners and all I had to do was swim back towards shore.  Now I started to use the hotels to judge distance.  And it's a nice relief when you can hear the announcers voice(Steve King) again.  Once again I could see the bottom and a few weeds.  All my swim anxiety was gone!!  It was time to prepare mentally for the bike.  There were some rocks coming in and once again it was congested with people, but I didn't care at that point.  I swam untill the rocks disappeared and there was sand again, then I stood, unzipped my wetsuit and walked/ran over the timing mat.  At some point I saw the clock 1:06 hmmm not too bad, about what I'd hoped to swim.

Transition:

I aimed at a couple wet suit strippers and let them "try" to strip me.  The one guy had no clue what he was doing and they had trouble.  They're supposed to grab the arms and legs and pull from there, he tried to peel it off me, idiot!!  lol oh well finally they got it off and I ran into the change tent.  I saw two friends Greg and Mark.  Wait, did I forget something???  My transition bag, I'm the idiot now doh!!  So I ran back out but Greg saved my butt, he had seen that I didn't pick up my bag so he found it for me and ran after me, thank you!!  Greg!!  So I got that, put on my cycling shoes, helmet, sunglasses, garmin and ran out towards my bike.  I turned my garmin on as I ran to my bike(it's a really big transition) but it had trouble picking up the sattelites so I turned it off and on again.  Grabbed my bike and continued on to the mount line just outside of T1.

Bike:

I felt pretty good heading out, I sat up and spun mostly.  The stomach is usually a bit upset first thing so I had to calm that down.  I think this was the first time I'd been able to see hr right after the swim, it really surprised me how high it was.  So I made sure to get that down first before I started really riding.  I took a sip of my nutrition after maybe 5km just heading out of Penticton and kept an eye on my wattage just as I had planned.

The first bit here is along skaha lake and I still had to relax and let all the crazies go.  There's lots of people who will go out wayy too hard at the start of the bike and it's hard not to get swept up in the excitement.  You literally have to tell yourself to keep off the gas.  I had watts and heart rate so that kept me in check.  Just before the turn off of skaha lake I was drinking and my hand slipped and I dropped my nutrition bottle.  I never bothered to go back for it, and in fact it surprised me how little it bothered me.  This is exactly what I'm talking about "changing your game plan" I now had wayyy too little calories on my bike and would have to use more of the race's powerbar perform.  Oh well I picked up a bottle at the next aid station and started drinking that.  I had one more bottle of my own nutrition but that was really saturated and I had only planned on having that later in the race near Richter Pass.  So I started sipping on that as well, making sure to sip and mix it with water/perform that I got from aid stations.  Problem solved

We got over Macclean creek road, up the climb, I took it as easy as I could and kept riding on to Oliver.  The wind was def. tail wind here.  I averaged 38 kmph all the way to Osoyoos.  There were some packs forming, I tried to avoid them, but at times you still get some draft benefit no matter how much you try not to.  Drafting is illegal in Ironman races and you can get penalized for it, although I only saw one person in a sin bin.  Once up to osoyoos we made the turn just after the Husky and headed up Richter pass.  Ohhhh here comes some head wind(it's over a 90 degree turn).  Now we're going to pay for that nice average speed.  My avg wattage was a little low too so I knew this would go up now.  Overall I didn't really need my wattage for pacing, just starting the climbs to make sure I don't overcook the start.

Richter pass is just over 10km long with breaks though, and it's not too steep.  In my first two races here I passed loads of people here, but today I didn't.  I know now that I overdid it then.  So I stayed patient, if I have extra energy later I'll use it then.  Still only 70km into the race, not even half.  Once at the top I went back down on the aerobars and cruised down the other side.  The wind played around with me using the 88mm front wheel, I stayed down, but it def tossed me back and forth.  I'm quite confident with my riding skills so I stayed relaxed for the most part.  It's when you tighten up your grip that you would start to speed wobble.  Even so I don't think my max speed was very fast.  Both pass downhills had a head wind so that slowed us quite a bit.  Now looking back my max speed was 72.7kmph not sure where that was, def would go faster with a tail wind on some of those descents.

There are about 7 rollers after Richter and I took them also pretty easy, the tough part comes after the 90km point, somewhere between 90 and 120km I started to feel crappy.  It's just after the halfway point, you've been riding awhile, warming up, although it wasn't really hot and still got a long ways to go.  I was eating gels about one per hour, kinda supplimenting my calorie in take.  At times I didn't feel like eating any more but I forced them down.  After the rollers and a long flat section we got to the out and back.  you do a right 90 degree turn, ride maybe a km then another right so you're essentually heading back the way you came.  It sucks cause this section of road is really rough.  There are huge cracks and since your neck is already sore from having ridden 3+ hours the jolt fromt these cracks really hurt.  I had the kms on my Powertap so I counted them down, I knew the special needs was at 120km.  There is a out and back and timing matt where they get your splits.  One volunteer will see the numbers coming and shout them out so that all the volunteers can find your special needs bag and have it ready for you when you make the 180 degree turn and head back there.  Here I got two more bottles of my infinit nutrition and now I can once again head back the "right" direction.

For awhile I kinda tacked onto this girl that was riding near me(legally).  We kept leap frogging each other, first she'd be strong and ride past me.  I'd let her get the proper distance between, ride for a bit then I'd go by her.  I think she finally gapped me for good once we hit yellow lake, she was climbing a bit faster than I.  yellow lake was hard, especially the last pitch as it was also into a bit of a head wind.  I had eaten 6 gels so far on the ride and finally had to pick one up from the course as I was all out.  I was also starting to get real bad hot spots on my feet and at times I had trouble pushing down on the pedals coming down yellow lake.  Yellow lake is a good 30-35km mostly downhill into Penticton.  It's fun to do when you're feeling good, today I was hurting already and just looking forward to being done with the bike.  I checked my avg speed and I did manage to get that up a couple ticks before we hit main street where we got more head wind.

Transition:

I got out of my shoes as I rolled in swung my foot over so they were both on one pedal as I glided in.  The volunteer took my bike(they rack them for you) and I ran through and grabbed my T2 bag and into the change tent again(remembered the bag this time yayy).  It was warm out, but not too warm.  I changed pretty quickly, also remembered to reset my garmin(didn't have time to change it to run though so that sucked for having no avg pace).  I ran past the sun block applicators and got one of them to run with me and just dab some on each shoulder.  That way I could run and rub it all around on my shoulders.

Run:

I had a bottle of highly concentrated infinit and I carried it with me, took a gel and cruised onto a really quick(too fast) 7:03 first mile.  Yikes!!  cool it Darryl, my heart rate was still low, but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep that up so I slowed it down some.  So the next miles stayed at 7:15ish and stuck there till I was out of town and along skaha lake.  Here I got the priveledge of passing two of my idols Lisa Bentley, and Lori Bowden, but I only recognized Lisa.  They are both now retired and were doing a relay with Graham Fraser(CEO of Ironman Canada).  These two have probably won 20-25 Ironmans in their racing carreers and Lori a 2x world champ.  Not every day you get to pass two athletes like that!!

I tossed my concentrated mix at about 15km, didn't think I needed it yet and I knew I had another waiting for me at the special needs.  I made it through the hills by OK falls.  Got to the special needs and downed a bunch of red bull I had waiting for me.  I was really starting to get tired and just did not feel like carrying that other bottle.  Plus I had already started drinking Pepsi at about mile 12 and the thought of that strong salty mix with pepsi??  That would just not work with my stomach, so I chose pepsi.  So that's what I went on for the remainder of the race.  Oh I forgot to mention the balls of my feet were killing me for the run.  It happens from hot spots on the ride but usually it goes away on the run.  not today, and even now two days later they throb.  No blisters just throbbing.  So after a short stop at special needs for red bull and choosing not to take the bottle I ran on. 

This part is tough, it's after 21km and up hill, short flat part, then another hill and it got really steep.  I shortened my stride, my stomach was also bothering me too.  I think it was from taking two cups of pepsi at some aid stations.  But I needed it!!  lol  So that's the way it went for the next 10km, balls of my feet, stomach, and of course fatigue.  I got out of the OK falls hills and back onto the flats along the lake.  But here we had a nice head wind, it felt nice an cool, but it also made it more difficult running.  Then about 32km in I had to walk for the first time.  Just brieftly at a aid station to drink and I met Cam here too.  Didn't even see him till he came across the road.  He offered all the encouragement, I just couldn't get any words out.  lol I think I just grabbed one of his hands.  Ok 10k to go, I got some calf cramps but they went away after I slowed my pace.  I just knew I wouldn't make it unless I slowed some more.  So when it got really tough I would just slow down some more, well I did walk aid stations from here on in.  I also walked one hill close to town.  I walked a couple extra unplanned times, but only a few steps.  I think my pace was over 8 min miles at this point.  But I knew I had time in the bank I just had to keep shuffling between aid stations.  In the last 2 miles my calfs were both cramping and even my groin.  Just 2 miles to go and I can stop!!  I tried telling myself.  I did manage to look at the watch/time and I told myself I would have a good time and my first sub 3:30 if I just kept jogging.  That's all it was at this point, just a jog.  There was a long stretch in town where it was a false flat up hill and I focussed on the top, told myself that I could walk there if I could just make it.  Lots of self talk here, just to keep moving!!  I saw Lisa and Mark at the corner as you get to the lake, but we have to turn away from the finish!!  There's a mile out and back that you gotta do first.  I got passed by one or two here, I think it was the only time I got passed on the run.  I saw one had the same age grp as me, but I just had nothing to respond.

I came across in 10:06, 14 minute PB and a big PB on the run and a pretty good marathon time of 3:26 so I was really happy about that.  I'm overall a little disapointed in my bike.  I need to ride faster if I want to go to Kona, if I even do another WTC race.  For the time being though I will enjoy this one.  I've improved in each Ironman I've done 5/5 PBs and am super close to going sub 10 and with some luck maybe I could even do Hawaii some year.

I was in pretty rough shape finishing, after about 5 minutes of standing with my head on my arm draped over a baracade I got really sick and started throwing up.  They took me to the med tent and I sat there while 3 people watched me.  I tried to drink and eventually puked some more.  I felt like death, it took me nearly an hour before they let me go and I could think about walking to the car.  I left my bike there for the time being(picked it up later) and Lisa walked me to the car.  I couldn't eat properly till later and even that evening I still had trouble eating a proper meal.  Cheers,

DP  

PS: Here is the strava/garmin data

http://app.strava.com/rides/19865148
http://app.strava.com/runs/19865142