I'm tagging me!!!

Greg mentioned to me that he might not even play, so I'm guessing we can skip him ok? So just in case he changes his mind, first check his blog here http://irongreg.blogspot.com/ before you read mine. And yes Kelsey you're up next so start thinking, or maybe you've started your own thing with the 7 days of kelsey? Either way in no particular order here are mine.

#1 When I was a kid I fell down the stairs with the famous walker and became one of the statistics that took that thing off the market forever. I cracked my skull too, the nurses were gave my Mom looks that chilled her to the bone. Imagine not only having your toddler in the hospital, but also doctors/nurses questioning you for signs of abuse or neglect. And yes that explains a few other things about me(the hitting my head part), duhhh

#2 I like a good action flick, but by far the movies that I love the most are the ones that hit me here(thumping chest) inspire me, move me. Some movies just to list a few Rudy, A knights tale, Iron Will, Invincible, remember the titans, Radio. Yes often true sports stories.

#3 I'm a high school drop out. I still have never graduated from high school, although I do have a GED which I needed to get my BA. I went through grade 12 but failed a bunch of courses and didn't have enough credits to graduate. I got a good full time job so I didn't bother finishing up.

#4 I have an addictive personality. Well ok that may seem obvious since I'm training for Ironman, but it hits other parts of my life too. For example I'm hooked on World of Warcraft. I was able to give it up last year to train all spring/summer, but I missed it and the moment I was done IMC and had the extra time from the recovery I went back. I'm also addicted to pop, at times I can control it and even quit it for a month, but I always go back and can polish up 2 litres in one evening. YUCK!!!

#5 I'm extremely lazy. I dislike doing chores, unless I can challenge myself in a physical way, ie shoveling snow, or carrying in the groceries, taking out the trash. Worst chore - CLEANING THE BATHROOMS!!!

#6 I played hockey when I was a kid, till Jr. C level. As I grew my stick handling abilities went, but I was solid on my feet so I became a bruiser. I even dropped the gloves one time and still have the scars on my nuckles if I look closely. My big claim to fame in hockey was when we went to provincials in Thompson MB. and I hit a guy really hard into the boards and broke his collar bone. I was a hero!! I started running when I quit hockey for fear of getting fat.

#7 I was a bed wetter. Yup that's right, many kids have this problem, and for what ever reason I had the problem right into my teens. Extremely embarrassing going to a summer camp and having to lie to other kids about why there was plastic on my bunk. I was scared to death about anyone finding out. Lucky my counsellers knew and avoided the discussion with the other kids. This is probably why I'm such a Momma's boy, my mom NEVER EVER gave me heck for it. She understood that it was extremely embarrassing for me and always changed my bed with out complaining even if it meant getting up in the middle of the night to change the sheets.

You're it Kelsey, you got the official nod-------------->http://ctapp2007wiens.blogspot.com/

Change is good

Hey all,

Things have been going ok, I'm gettin in the workouts. Nothing major just doing about 4-5 runs a week, still only one swim and I think I'm managing 2 rides a week. The most I've managed is an hour, mostly spinning. My crotch hurt really bad the one day using a pair of racing shorts with less padding. By the end my crotch was tenderized. The once a week swim isn't really helping much, I feel terrible in the water. Yesterday I nearly snapped when I pretty much stopped in the middle of set, I might have left if Greg and Chad hadn't been swimming with me. I cursed a few times showing my frustration and Greg calmly reminded me that it's early I haven't been swimming much yet, CHILL OUT!! Hee hee makes sense right? Funny how somtimes the most basic lessons still need to be verbalized(by someone else) when you're frustrated.

I'm running at lunches sometimes, which is good. I'm keeping the pace easy, nothing hard. I stopped the push up challenge, why? Well I missed one day then I got to thinking that I'm having problems some days in the pool because of it and it's not helping my swimming motivation(the motivation to start going 2x a week) so I stopped. Sorry Jenna /pout I'm sure the rest of you are doing well.

Oh and another thing we had a great time at the house warming, thank you to all who could make it, and to those of you that couldn't. You missed out big time!! Well maybe I'm biased a bit, but the people who said they'd only come for a bit stayed hours longer, isn't that a good sign? After most of the people had gone the real party began, yes that's right I believe it was Brad, Gerad, Ernesto that stayed till 3 am playing rock band with me!!! Woo hooo we had a blast, man Brad and Gerad are good at the game, ROCK STARS!! Sorry I haven't got pictures up yet, I still intend on doing that.

Oh I have big news, I think I can say it on here cause my boss doesn't read this. I may be switching jobs. I'm soooooo scared, I've worked for Guest-tek for over 6 years now. Yes I have lots of complaints, I don't like the job, think the company is going down, but hey I'm comfortable. Moving to this other job would be really difficult since I haven't had to learn anything for quite awhile. What if I'm not as talented as I and others(references) have made myself out to be?? I'll have to start at the bottom again working my way up. What if it's too hard?? These are all questions that I have. Change is good, but really scary. I guess I've been at this job too long, some tell me I should move just for the sake of moving, shake things up, move out of my comfort zone. It's a really good company, I got a reference from a friend(Gerad, he was at the party) and I've heard from others lots of good things. It's called istock, it's an internet based company located at www.istockphoto.com. So ya my friend said I should apply for a qa position so I did with out really taking it seriously. I didn't think I had the qualifications, but I did the first phone interview. Didn't hear back, so I called them and was told that I probably wouldn't get the job. I was nice about it and the hr person that interviewed me reluctantly got me another interview with the cto and qa people. So needless to say I felt like the interview would be a waste of time. lol he didn't sound too confident of my chances so why would I??? Anyways I just went in there thinking I would have a practice interview, and low and behold it went super well and they openly said that they were interested, very interested. I had another interview for which I was late(bad bad) and they still called back for references, I got them in and a couple days later here I am with an offer letter. So I have to decide in the next couple days at the latest monday. Thanks Julie for posting about your life(career) change, it's def. helping me take the step. I know I'll move on to another company, I just was hoping to apply at a few other companies so I can decide on the best move for me. :) Cheers all,

Darryl

Piss and Vinegar

Hey all,

Training is going a little bit better. I'm easing into it mostly with runs, but also swimming once a week and I even got on the bike!!! I know hard to believe since I hate the trainer so much. It's much better in our house basement, it's cooler there and concrete floor on the part where my bike is so bring on the sweat. I did join work out world, Chad was there to talk to my first day. I ran there, but then the next two days (Sun,mon) it felt warm outside so I ran outdoors.

On monday I was running on the path and I saw a cyclist approching me. He had more then one light, but still I don't know how he does it. There was icey patches that I had to watch out for on foot, with the bike it must be pretty dangerous, specially when the grooves from people's tracks and other bikes. He didn't sound to happy riding home in the dark as he came by he let me know that I was difficult to see. At first I was ticked that he said somthing, he didn't use his bell, what if I had been walking the other direction, he would have scare the crap out of me!! Anyways it was kind of a crappy place to meet, there were a few dips and sharp turns so even if I had been wearing reflective clothing he wouldn't have seen me any sooner. It does suck to be scare by someone you can't see, I remember one time going through a pitch black section around the res. and being scare so bad by a bike I didn't see till he was right in my face that I literally lifted off the path.

Lisa and I really like our home, have I mentioned that? We absolutely love it!!! Got the washer and dryer hooked up 2 days ago and did the first load of laundry. I know I know small potatoes for most of you, but remember I lived in an apartment for the last 4 years where I had to get loonies/quarters to feed the laundry machines. This is such a treat to be able to do a load when ever I feel like it and not have to run out to wallmart or beg the banker girl that I'm sleeping with for a roll of loonies. Anyways we're having a house warming this saturday, you're all invited!! If you haven't received an invitation there would be a few reasons for that. Either a. We just don't like/know you b. You're too far away and I thought I'd save myself the effort of getting your email address c. People haven't forwarded the email with the invitation to you yet(also due to the fact that I don't know your addy or just plain forgot you) d. You're a creeper, but still a nice person and near by enough to come. If you fit into d. just message me and I'll get you the address.

I did take pictures of the house for those of you that can't make it. Although now that I think of it, maybe people won't care to see house pictures? I probably wouldn't if it wasn't my house, oh well I'll throw them up anyways and pretend people do. When ever I get some time and I'm not writing at work.

I started that push up challenge thing, my arms are still hurting from the first set on mon. Today it'll be a swim then the pushups??? I'd also like to get on the trainer again today but we'll see if that happens. Ummmm I think I covered it all. Oh if you guys have any ideas for party games, activities that would be great. Even if you're not coming ideas would be awesome. I was thinking Rock band for those who want to do that, chat for those that just want to talk, and maybe one other thing??? I'm kind of a newb to having parties, specially of this size and with dif. grps of people. Cheers,

Darryl

PS: Guess where I got the idea for my post title and you win a prize

bad bad girl friend

Got your attention eh? No it has nothing to do with this post, things are going well in the Penner house hold. I'm still deciding which gym to join, I need a treadmill to run on since the weather is getting colder. Here are my Pros and Cons of joining Wow(workout world):

Pros

1. Wow is cheaper. Even if I'm forced to pay for swimming too.

2. Lisa's membership is there so I can push her and have her push me to getter done.

3. Wow is closer to work, but who knows what the future holds I may move locations?

4. Wow is on the way home for Lisa, so even if I don't work here much longer I could meet her here.

5. Wow rocks and has been home for years, yes I've even been there longer then Chad and Leslie which brings me into the next Pro.

6. Chad and Leslie workout there, need I say more?!?!?!

7. Jeez didn't think I'd get to #7 the gym is low key, .... I like low key.

8. I'd def. save time by doing my running close to work(for now at least) I'd be able to run at lunches.

Cons:

1. I'd have to dish out for swimming still

2. I'd have two locations to work out at, the pool and then Wow

3. I'd have to swim late evenings so I can do the 5 buck last 1.5 hour thing

4. I'd never get the use of a track, the talisman centre I'd be able to run on the track somtimes.

5. hmmmm can't think of anything more, looks like my Pros are winning this. Off I go to wow I guess, although I was kinda getting excited about getting all my workouts done under one roof.

In other news I just checked my buddy Cam's race #, make sure you all cheer him on in Arizona. He's an awesome guy I met in a marathon of all places. Yes we started talking(more him then me, ha ha I think I remember even telling him to shut up :) ) and I was cranky(bad race for me) after the race. But him and Curtis exchanged addresses and I got the info when I signed up for my first IM. He was a big help in my first year prep'ing for IM. He took me under his wing, gave me advice, and also helped me race weekend. Anyways he'll be in Arizona, send him your positive vibes, maybe check out his blog and write him a note. Somthing like GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 904, or Matt(his son)'s fav. line is Lay the smack down Dad!! Check out his post on History & the Future, I'm jealous, I know my Dad would have fit the life style and would have made a Great IM finisher. Go Cam!


904
DAWES
CAM
39
M
AGE
M35-39
GOLDEN

Running

Hey all,

I did manage to get out for a run yesterday. It didn't start too good, I got warmed up ok, just got the low blood sugar from drinking pop and a few chocolates earlier in the day. We still have chocolate in the house from the Trick or Treaters, or lack of since we weren't even at home.

Anyways I got out the door before dusk, told Lisa I'd be about 40-50 min. I didn't feel very good at all, like I said the low blood sugar hit me at about the 20 min mark just before the hill heading south along the river. It hit me harder then usual and the extra weight didn't help. Oh well I just dialed it back a bit and made it to the top and kept going. Made it to the turn around and wanted to keep going, so I kept on trucking. I was practicing my neighborly attitude so I tried to greet everyone I met(there were a lot) even the grouchy looking ones. Some would ignore me, some would grunt or mumble something I couldn't quite make out, but there were some that completely perked up. I'd like to think I made someone's day by acknowledging them and giving them a smile. Here's to Darryl changing the world one "Hello how are you?" at a time ha ha ha. There are sooo many dog owners in my new neighborhood too. I even greeted some of them as well. They totally get who amongst us are dog lovers.

Then after coming back down the hill on the other side, going much further then I originally wanted. That's strange eh, usually it's when you feel good that you go further, not worse?!?!?! That's part of my stubborn nature, not wanting to give in. Or simply keep going till I feel good again. Well on the way back, running along some of the many trails through the bush I started to get over the low blood sugar. I'm not sure how this works, I didn't know you could recover from that, but you can ...... after awhile.

Well on the way back somthing really irriatated me, I need some opinions from you guys. The deer are really really tame here. Nothing out of the norm most Calgary deer are like that and almost approachable. Yet the first time I met this group it seemed really eary. I can't remember and am too lazy to check if I mentioned this to you guys, I know I did to Lisa but I coulda sworn these deer at this one place were actually begging for food. I told Lisa, "I bet someone is feeding them." This time coming back I happen apon this guy and his wife, he has a backpack on the ground FULL of pellets of some sort feeding them right out of his pack. I never have anything smart to say while running so all I could manage was, "You're feeding them?!?!?". He replys with, "A little bit yeah." just like I caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. I didn't say anything else but it really ticked me off. Doesn't he realize what it's teaching these deer(most of them were really young). They're not learning to find food themselves, they were even begging me for food the other time I met them. He's either really really dumb or incredibly selfish. I'd go so far as to say that he's killing those deer. It'd be fine if they were starving, somtimes in Manitoba when the snow got to hard and the deer couldn't get through they'd put out lots of hay for them to eat. But that's different, these deer are NOT starving. Isn't it in fact illegal to feed deer? Oh well rant over you can tell me if I'm over reacting, or if I should report this guy??? Cheers,

Darryl

I'm on to you Trevor..... stalker

Hey all,

Last week was ok, we're getting settled in our new house(we're buying less furniture for me to put together). I think I got 4 runs in and one swim?? Yes that's right I did go swimming wednesday but I did get bribed to go with wings/beer after. We celebrated Greg's latest Ironman and he told again how his race went.

Yesterday Curtis and I were going to go running in the morning, however he bailed. He hurt his back/neck, arg I know how that is. I hurt my neck really bad a couple weeks ago, I actually went to the hospital cause I was in a lot of pain. What's with all this back/neck pain??? Are we getting old or what? Anyways I bailed too and went back to sleep. I really like sleeping and am probably the laziest triathlete ever!! Anyways we went out did a bunch of stuff, went grocery shopping later(we finally learned about going shopping when there's less people) and met Trevor/Susan there. Man I was surprised to see him, didn't look like he was surprised. Hmmmmm were they following us?!?!?! Anyways he lives close so maybe we'll have to get some quick runs in before winter really hits us. By quick I mean soon not as in fast running, just to clarify.

We got home pretty late and I still felt guilty about not having run yet. Yes it did come up in the conversation with Trevor, maybe that's part of the reason I put on my shoes and headed out the door. Once I get going I'm fine, running along the river there are some colder patches. This evening there were even some of those near the snowy patches. I ran quite aways in a direction I hadn't explored yet. Although I believe I have run here before. I ran for about 32.5 minutes, had my Garmin on so I could get the distance. I made a wrong turn on the way back so I had to back track for a sec. It was right around the area where I saw a couple deer, maybe they distracted me. A neighbor guy was out with his dog who I said hello to, it's nice to have friendly neighbors. I'm trying to do my part by greeting most who I meet on my travels. It's amazing how far this goes, just think about it. If someone greets you with a friendly "Hello" or "How's it going?" how much doesn't this lift your spirits and how much sooner aren't you ready to pass the greeting on to the next person you come apon. Just a thought, I'm trying to be more out going, not just while I run. I got home in 64:50 woooo even with the extra running on the way home I negative splitted(ran the second half faster). I had actually picked up the pace quite a bit, my average pace was 7:37 per mile. But it was harder then it should have been. Anyways today's a good day, why? Cause tomorrow's another day off woooo hooooooooo. Have a good day everyone. Cheers,

Darryl

Greg said I had to post so here goes

Ok so here's my blogger debut ..... again. I've been off for a bit getting fat, Jen's loosing it someone has to gain it??? It's like the balance of nature? But then again there must be like a dozen more gaining it so maybe I should start getting fit? A birdie told me we could go for wings/beer if I go swimming tonight so I may just start that out too!!

Ok to update people, I'll try to do this quick since I doubt anyone will even read this it's been that long since my last post. We moved into our new house, lots of work, buying new furniture, cleaning. Then I had to clean a very very dirty apartment. Good thing we got married before Lisa helped with the apartment, she may have changed her mind ha ha ha. We bought a kitchen table, a whole bedroom furniture set(2 dressers, 2 night tables, big dresser table with mirror) and Lisa's uncle helped me put that stuff together. We also got a couple desks with chairs for super cheap at Office depot. We still have to re-shingle the roof, but I think it can wait till next year. I'm gonna do it myself since contrators charge an arm and a leg for labour and I need those things for IMC.

I was planning on doing the last chance half marathon, but there's no way I will do that. I can barely pull through that distance with out stopping to walk, so I'll start running again but it'll be just to start building a base and getting fit again. I'll need to loose a few pounds too. I've thought brieftly about maybe trying for the Vancouver marathon, but right now it's just a thought. The running that I have done in my new neighborhood is second to none!!! I have many dif. routes along the river, the fall colors, air, animals rock!! I've seen plenty of deer, nearly ran into them and on one run saw a porky pine up in a tree. I thought of Julie calling me Dr. Dolittle, I'm not so sure I spot stuff like that better then others, but I def. do not take it for granted, I'm a nature boy at heart.

Ok that's it for now, I'll try to type more later. Maybe I could even add pics of the new pad? Do a little house tour for all of you? I absolutely love it, everything I wanted in a house!!! Cheers, I"ll try to read more blogs now too, I've been slacking in the commenting dept. too You know what they say, "Comment and they will come!" (at least to my blog that is). Cheers again, take care everybody, laterz,

Darryl

EDIT: Oh I put up a poll that starts on the day we moved or got the keys for our new house Oct 14. I haven't been running much, only 4 or 5 runs in 3 weeks. I know very bad, but I hope to do some more running outside even in winter. Oh and the skater punk saying that his balls hurt does not count(he was making fun of my shorts I only caught on later) it wasn't negative more like a joke. I ran sunday and tuesday so far this week, both outside and yesterday in the snow. Oh and some more helpful info, it takes roughly 7 min for me to get to the river, so not much "city" running.

Confession

Hey all,

So I did make it to the track yesterday. I took Wednesday off to heal so I'd be ready. I kinda had a feeling my "tempo" would be hard and more of a test(lets see how fit we are) type of thing. Lisa came along so she could walk/run around the outside of the track. Hey, that counts as time together doesn't it?? I did a bit of a warm up, sure needed that since it was like 5 degrees. Not sure how Julie is still riding in the rain, I would freeze no matter how many layers I put on!!! Lisa was cold, lesson learned next time we'll bring more clothing.

Got the warm up in and started what I hoped would be a 5 mile tempo. I aimed for 6:30-6:45 pace, now I know that was a bit too much. First lap was 1:36, hmmmm 6:24 awesome, but as I got into a rythym the pace slowed a bit. First mile 6:41, it's oh oh time I'm hurting already, def. started out too hard. But once you start it's really hard to adjust, the body is stubborn and doesn't want to slow down. Second mile 6:46, ok hmmm slowing down a touch, still hurting..... wayyy too much for a tempo. I'm supposed to be going 80-85% not 105%!!! Good thing I didn't have my heart rate monitor on, I bet I woulda seen numbers like Greg on his run home from the Talisman. The third mile was 6:43, trying to hold the pace, but really really tired at this point. I think it was at about the 3 mile point where I nearly stopped. It hurt wayyy too much and for my first tempo 5 miles is kinda long, for a second I thought it would be ok to quit. You know how the mind uses logic to try to convince you to stop. It's ok to abandon this workout early and I was about to stop, but then I thought of the responses on my blog. What would I say?? "Sorry folks I couldn't finish the workout, today the track beat me up, and beat me up bad" Sounds kinda cheesy but I totally kept going because I opened my big mouth on here to say what I'd be doing. Ok I tryed to relax more, even told myself it's ok if I slow down a bit. Didn't slow down though, weird it's like when I'm locked in at a pace it's either do or die(stop). Then the last mile I pushed all I had and it ended up being my fastest, but that was all I had. I was hunched over sucking in air as much as I could. Ohhhhh I remember this position, lol, it used to be a regular thing in my running days. It hurt so bad I was delerious. Anyways the miles were 6:41,6:46,6:43,6:43,6:36=33:31, so good but it hurt wayyyy too much though. Makes me a little worried, I don't have much room there from the pace I need for 13.1 miles. Oh well it was my first real tempo of the year what can I expect, if I look at it that way it was a positive thing. I think I'll do 800's next tues, then thurs maybe back down to somthing shorter say 2x2miles? Today it'll be a short easy dezy run. That means so easy you can nearly walk beside me pace.

Oh I almost forgot my title. I finished a short mile cooldown and was walking back to the car. Near the track there is an arena and on the wall it read Confession with a metal sliding window. I was like what the.... had to do a double take there. Missed the S, it was actually Consession, big difference. I had a good chuckle about that. Can you imagine, Confessional after the big hockey game? hmmmm might not be a bad idea actually, and after my run too, ha ha k I better stop before I offend someone. Have a good weekend everyone, don't eat too much turkey and run hard Leslie/Chad. Cheers,

Darryl

Speed work

Hey,

The last two days running have been better. The day before yesterday I did a hilly 10.4 k(yes I wore my Garmin) in ummmm what was it again 48:20? Not too bad considering the two big hills on the route, I still didn't go too hard. Kinda like a hard but still comfortable, not suffering. I want to try and build up the speed for the Last chance half as I said earlier. I'll do it if things go well and I'm able to get some speed in my legs. I think the base should still be there despite the long break/time off so I'll go right into some speed work. The only way to get faster is to run faster eh, go figure. So I'm gonna try to run hard on the tues/thurs of each week. Shorter faster interval type stuff on tues, then a bit of a tempo run on thurs. That's what I'm used to doing for marathons, it's worked for me.

I'm tempted to go to the track, it's easier to keep track of times/distances/paces, plus you got a even flat surface to cruise on. Makes going faster easier to do since you're wanting to focus on the speed, not the strength(ie hills). But it's a bit of a hike to the track and for my first week I have no idea how things are going to go, so I stuck to my 1k loop around the park here at home for yesterday's first set of intervals. I planned on doing 5x1km and figured a 1.5 min rest would be ok. I did my warm up running to the park and one loop around measuring it with the Garmin so I know how close it is to 1 km. It turns out that it was just a shade over, it also has a downhill then ends up climbing out of the park. Ohhh boy that's going to hurt on #4 and #5 climbing out. So after the warmup I started the first one, hmmm not too bad 3:51 I believe, not super speedy, but I guess good considering the no track 1km. Getting to #3 I was wayyy out of breath and thought I'd need to slow it down for the 4th. I started the 4th slower, but it almost immediately got right back into the regular pace. It's amazing how the body even in distress memorizes the pace. Anyways that interval ended up only being 3 seconds slower then the one before, course I was hunched over at that point. That hill really is a killer, it literally ends off the interval. Not sure which is worse though, would I prefer it early on, where I'd end up suffering the rest of the km or at the end where I can kinda tell myself "k the finish is just up the hill, then I can stop". The last one was a second or two faster. They went somthing like this 3:51,3:48,3:47,3:53,3:50, so I was able to pick up the last one again to about the average. I calculate the 3:47 to be about 6:04 per mile pace, I need about 6:50 average pace for the half to go under 90 min. Doable? hmmmm we'll see, I have a month of training time. Today will def. be a easy day, or maybe even a day off, then thurs I'll maybe go to the track to test out a 8km timed run. I'll aim for 32:30-34, hopefully closer to 32.5 which is 6:30 pace. Enough number crunching for you Keith?

Runnin down a dream

ok the title doesn't really fit since this post will likely have nothing to do with dreams. The past week has been ok. Lisa has moved in and we got just over a week still our house possetion. Wooo hooooooooo, the shingles need to be replaced on it and with some thought I've decided to do it myself. It maybe be a lil tough but I've done that type of stuff before. Mostly framed houses and as Greg reminded me that framers don't do roofs, well lets just go with I've done some before on the side ok? It'll save us thousands in labour and it'll be kinda of like me working a little extra to pay off some house furniture, appliances, etc. Hopefully we get some nice fall weekends. It gets dark too early now to do any work in the evening.

My running has been ok, but I don't feel fit. The week before our trip I felt ok and had hopes of doing a fall half marathon maybe the last chance here in Calgary? However, since returning home I've felt sluggish and suddenly I feel the altitude. What the heck? I've only been gone for a week to sea level, and I did some running there, how could it affect me this much? Oh well I ran 3-4 days last week and I'll try to fit in 4-5 this week. We'll see how I feel by next weekend. This sunday Curtis and I got together for a run around the res. It's one of our fav. routes, but as I said I felt sluggish. Curtis kept pushing ahead slightly, I could tell I was slowing him down. Usually we push ahead together, now it was all him. I'm hoping after another good week of running I'll be back to normal. Normal? Like it's normal to do 10 plus miles at sub 8 min pace talking the whole way. Oh well it's normal for us.

I don't feel like swimming/biking yet. Not sure what I'm going to do about tomorrow, it's the first spin class at Triit. I think I've biked once or twice since IM. Yikes!! It's going to hurt!! Oh well that's pretty much it for me, I should get back to work. This time I wrote on my lunch break though so I don't feel so bad. I've been bringing lunch to work faithfully lately to try to save some money. It sure helps when my sandwiches are made in the morning, thanks Lisa you are the best!!

Hawaii trip RR

Hey there,

Well as mentioned, we are back. I now have this unknown thing on my finger, not sure what it is. It wasn't there before, now it's there. When I ask Lisa about it, she asks me if I can take it off, to which my reply is no. She says, "Good! Make sure it stays there." All kidding aside though the trip went really well, we had a great time, got hitched, saw many things, experienced even more, and hopefully will be back. I have a date with Haleakala Crater to keep. I have our pictures up on a link under the blog/pictures column.

Sooo we got there Saturday the 20th. It gets dark there quick around 6pmish so we rented our car and found our way pretty easily away from the airport(Kahului) on Maui to our little hotel room at the best western in Kihei. There are no big cities on Maui just towns with roads where the speed limit is usually 45 mph or around 70 km p/h. I actually enjoyed the slow speeds, it actually makes a difference to take away lots of the road race, hustle and bustle of a big city like Calgary. I think we may have checked in around 8pm which feels like midnight. Cause it is dark and cause heck it's midnight back home so I think we walked out to the beach for a lil midnight stroll. The sand is soooo amazing, it's soo fine, not like the gravelly sand we have here in Canada. Then we went to bed and woke up fairly early, again cause of the time change.

Sunday we had to ourselves, we went for Breakfast at Dennys right near by. Yes some pleasantries of home, although when I ordered ice tea I forgot it would be the regular American no sugar kind. In Hawaii I kept forgetting that this is a state cause of the natives as well as the 3rd world appearance. It's not that poor or anything, just looks 3rd worldish at times, I can't really explain it. Anyways I had to keep reminding myself that we were in the US. We right aways noticed that people were friendlier and the stress level is generally lower like I mentioned with the driving slower, etc. Hmmmm I don't think we did anything structured Sunday we basically just came back to the hotel after a bit of shopping and hung out on the beach. The temp was pretty much 30 the whole time we were there, although I never checked. I went for a swim, noticed there was a bouy up a lil south of us and swam to it. No sooner had I gotten there and a swimming race started on the beach. So they swam directly out to the bouy(maybe 400m out?) then along parallel to the beach south. I asked one of the kyakers how far they were going. 1.7 was the answer, "1.7 kms? oh right 1.7 miles, hee hee" Stupid Canadian. ha ha. They figured I was taking a head start, but no I'm just watching. I got out of the way and watched as they came by, maybe 100-200 of them. The leader already had maybe a 10 meter lead. He looked to be flying!! Hawaiian's love to swim uh. Later on I noticed driving by a pool, you know how we have a couple lanes roped off for lap swimming in our pools? Well this one had two 25yard pools, both ALL roped off for lap swimming. You could def. tell that swimming is taken more seriously here. The biking not so much, I only saw a couple TT bikes, most people cruise around on the cruiser type bikes often with out helmets. I went for a run on the beach barefoot, I think I did this 3 times in the week that we were there. It was amazing running barefoot for a lil over 2 miles (there and back type thing along our beach). We also got some groceries sunday too, ummmm oh yeah the night we got there we went to a restarant on the beach called Sarentos. Wow it was kinda pricey, we pretty much grabbed the cheapest things on the menu and only one drink each and it was 80 bucks.

Monday was our first structured day(structured meaning a scheduled item). We had to meet with someone to finalize our marriage license. At first we went to the wrong house, called them several times, then figured out we had the wrong house number. When we got to the correct house there was a bit of a line so we had to wait. Fill out some papers, have a bit of an interview and pay the lady. I find it amusing that twice now we've seen on forums the line that asks our relation?? Like how am I related to Lisa, brother, sister, cousin?? Yikes, luckily we put NONE, ha ha. Think we did some shopping, and back to the beach we go. Then we planned to go to this steak house that we had heard about. Someone we sat beside us who wouldn't stop talking about stuff to do in Maui told us about the place. I just wrote all she said off, you know in one ear out the other. Like how are we ever supposed to find the places you're talking about??? However with a small Island like Maui and a fiance that remembers tiny details Lisa was able to find the restaurant through Google maps. We drove there pretty easily, it was in Makawao(another lil town) but it was closed on monday. Booooooo, we were starving at that point. So ummmm where did we go. I can't remember, oh right we went to Iao Needle park. You'll see that in the pictures, it's the tall pinnacle looking thing. Apparently it's really historical, the natives used it to retreat to in wars since it was easy to defend and they could see their enemies coming from a long ways off. Why can't we all get along??

Sorry for forgetting what went where I'm recalling the memories a week after the fact, kinda hard for me. At least I remember the important one right? Tuesday, our wedding day. Lisa needed some time in our cosey lil room for her hair. She had hired a local to come do her hair up, put some flowers in as you will see in the pics. I went to the beach, heh heh perfect start to a wedding day, a swim and a run barefoot on the beach. I got back and Lisa had her hair mostly done. I readied myself and hit our first and only snag of the week/day. My pants.... I had bought my suit from Moores. Now I'm not the suit wearing type, this was my first official suit that I had bought. I hadn't tryed them on since they hemmed them. But they had them for like a month to ready them, then I went in for a final fitting, it was a 15 minute deal where we waited while they just did the finishing touches. How the F$%# could they swap my pants with some short fat guy? At first I thought we'll just make shift tailor them to work, but with a 46 inch waist there is just no way, plus they didn't even come past my ankles. Arg, so for a bit here I was stressed, I probably went through every emotion in the matter of a few minutes. Anger, depression, pity, more Anger, more Anger, helplessness. Lisa handled it well, she was calmer then me, what the.... it's supposed to be the girl who's supposed to freak about the smallest thing. Ummm this wasn't exactly small. Anyways our pastor was already at the hotel waiting for us. We finally went to him explained the situation. He also was calm saying somthing like, "Friend, if that's the worst of your problems on your wedding day you are doing GREAT!!" He was so calm and took us to a suit/wedding dress store(where we had been before to check about getting lisa's dress steamed, but it was too expensive so we didn't) so I walked into this store where we had refused their services just the day before. I can't remember feeling so lame, so embarrassed, so stupid(for not trying on my pants before we left). It was the same lady too, and yes she remembered me, but was also super nice. She also agreed with the pastor don't sweat it we'll just rent you some pants and you can be on your way. She quickly measured me up and gave me the pants that immediatly fit no adjustments needed. Wowzers that was a relief, ok off the wedding. We were lucky that there was a bit of cloud cover, so I found it hot in the suit, but bareable actually. Well the pictures pretty much speak for themselves, you can basically see how it went, we had the ceremony on the beach, had the bubbly(with out alc. in it they're really strict about alc. on the beach), cake and took off to a resort to take the pictures by the water falls. The pastor took the pics and we picked the cd up from him later on in the week after he had edited some and deleted the bad ones, although most of them turned out really well as you can see. Then back to the hotel for a bit then off to a dinner cruise. You can see more pics of us on the dinner cruise. The meal was delicious, we ordered chicken, although Lisa started getting sea sick so she couldn't eat much of it. :( Towards the end she was feeling quite aweful and we were happy to get back onto shore. We hung out in that town a little more (Lahaina) and drove home, man it gets dark quick, although like already mentioned it works well with our time difference. So much so that when we came back home it wasn't that bad getting back into our mountain time again since we kept going to bed early out there.

Wednesday, ahhhh the wedding is over. Not that I stress that much, Lisa almost gets annoyed how relaxed I am about stuff like that. Although the pants ordeal had me pretty stressed. I remember driving to the wedding in the car, just getting over the pants thing. She and I were still a bit stressed and she mentioned that, "We're supposed to be happy on our wedding day", I replied with "We will don't worry" and we both burst out laughing. You had to be there, it was hilarious, anyways we put the whole pants thing behind us and went forward and had a blast. Wednesday we decided to do the Haleakala crater. Sooo we got up at like 2:30 am, who of you can say you did that the night after your wedding!!! We had to get up that early to make the long drive up the mountain and get there before the sun rises. You wouldn't believe how popular it is. Trust me the pictures don't do it justice. The sunrise up there at 10,000 ft it is amazing!!! and cold too!! I was like one of the only ones still wearing shorts and sandels. The drive was scary doing at night cause the roads are narrow and most of it has no guards rails so you don't know how much of a drop off it is. We even saw a fire from up there while we drove, I hope it was just a sugar cane field. We made the mistake of packing no food, only juices and water. So the juice had to fill us up, good thing we weren't riding it!!! Although I do want to come back and ride it. It's 35 miles from the foot of the mountain, if you rode from the ocean it'd be more climbing then that. A buddy from work here has done it(he's quite the cyclist) and says the grade is really tough at times too. I guess I'd have to rent a bike out here(Maui, not my work office). We finally made it out to the steak house too that the local on the plane had raved about. It was delicious.

Thursday we went for a helecopter ride, in the morning also. Aughhhh I didn't get to sleep in much, good thing I woke up naturally early cause of the time change. We found Air Maui ok, right near the airport, go figure! I don't know how long the flight was, anyways we flew north along the north eastern part of the island and across the water to another more remote island. There we saw plenty of cliffs, swimming holes, fish ponds(they build ponds to allow fish to swim in during high tide, then catch them during low tide, brilliant!!) more cliffs and water falls. You can see them on the pics, nothing more to say about this. Not sure what else we did, I think we drove to Lahaina for dinner. One of the other tourists had told us about a really good burger place named "Cool Cat" so we went there and true to his word, it was awesome! In Lahaina they have a tree that takes up nearly a whole city block. The center trunk is huge with dif. parts splitting off in dif. directions and the trunks go to other trunks going into the ground that are all connected. It is amazing and I have some pics of this, but it's hard to picture really with out being there.

Friday we went kyaking/snorkling. We met the guide at like 7:30? Another non-sleeping in day, aughhh. Oh well we got going after he had given us some instruction. Lisa and I got going and seemed to work ok(you have to work together in a 2 person kyak). It seemed to always pull to one side, was it Lisa pulling more on one side or the ocean swells/waves? Anyways we got to our spot and got set up. Lisa doesn't swim well so she kept her life jacket on and jumped in too. At first she kept her hand on the kyak and just looked down, but with some instruction and confidence she could let go and paddle around often holding on to my hand. It was amazing and we both enjoyed it thoroghly. We got to see lots of turtles while kyaking none snorkling.... yet. Later on Lisa started getting sick again so we had to call it short a bit. That was a downer for Lisa, she felt so bad for having to go back. Oh well we decided to rent our own snorkle gear. Some of the good diving I could reach by swimming from shore. So we hung out at the beach for the rest of the day, maybe went to Denny's again. We also spent plenty of our evenings lying on the beach. It's soooo cool to be able to do that, the fine soft sand under your feet, temp perfect for lying in shorts, shirt optional(for me that is).

Saturday we had breakfast at Denny's again and rented the snorkling gear. Oh wait we rented the gear the day before so we could go in the morning. Today I think was the only day we slept past 9 am. That was kinda nice, then we went to the same beach where we had started with the kyaks the day before. We had got Lisa a floaty vest so she could float and I pulled her out to some deeper water, although not too far. She was fine as long as I was near by and we had a ball following all the fishies around and I had bought a water proof disposible camera and took some pics. Most of the fish didn't turn out, but later on I went to some deeper water further off and got some really nice shots of some turtles. These creatures are amazing!! They live to over a hundred years old and it's very clear why. Their only real preditor is sharks and I think that must be rare. They really aren't bothered by humans, I hear some people will grab a hold of their shells and ride them. I thought I could just hang out and take pics with out grabbing them. I did however push one a lil as he was coming up for air beside me. The one I saw under the shell looking thing looked to be 4-5 ft. long. and I hear they weigh nearly 800 pnds, yikes!! I could probably outrun one, and it didn't look like they could swim that fast, or maybe they didn't care to. They could probably snap my arm in two with their powerful jaws, but they didn't seem to mind sharing their coral reefs with me. I think we bonded. :)

Oh well that was pretty much it, we left at like 8:50 for L.A. flew through the night and arrived in Calgary at around 11am including a couple hours stop over in L.A. Loved the trip and would like to go back. The next day Lisa was napping and suddenly she rolled over and burst out laughing, she was about to ask if I'd like to go lay on the beach. ha ha so that's been the ongoing joke since we've been back. We ask if the other wants to go, then we start to cry. There were properties out there for 400k, hmmmmm we just need to get the U.S. to let us stay and of course jobs.... minor details. ha ha, anyways I should get some work done here. Cheers,

Darryl

Stay tuned

Hey,

Sorry this is just a quick note that I haven't forgotten my faithful blogger/creeper readers. I have a ton of pictures and will have them connected to my new picture link here. I can also tell a bit about the trip. It was amazing, so many things to tell, too few vocabulary to put into words. :( But I will try. Cheers,

Darryl

Hawaii here we come!!

Almost ready to say good bye to this continent for the first time. I've never flown away from North America, been to the states, but never to another continent. And I'm getting married too!!! Never done that before, ha ha. Wooo hooooo Sorry I haven't written much lately, it's the same excuse as last time. I have pictures and want to write up on my hiking last weekend with them, but never get around to it when I'm at home. lol don't tell my boss I write on the blog at work.

Last weekend I rate right up there with Ironman. It was one of the best days I've ever had workin out. My buddy Gerad hikes quite a bit and somtimes does some climbing. No ropes, nothing too dangerous(although there were some sketchy parts) and he invited me to go with him and a friend of his, Laura. We got to Heart Mountain around 11am, it was going to be a beautiful day although a lil cool at the start. There's a short trail to the start of the climb, ummm I forget the name of the trail, it's quite well known, just off the trans can, and barely into the Rocy mountain range.

We got going on the trail and soon saw this was a well used trail and lots do the same climb, it's not really a trail, cause it's climbing, some scree, some rock, trees, grass, roots, etc. At times we didn't know the exact right line to take but there were footprints in the snow to follow. Yes it had snowed the weekend before and we climbed high enough to get into this. The day was soo warm though that by the time we headed down the snow was nearly gone. The pace we started out was pretty quick, and we soon realized we better slow it down a bit if we are to make it. I'm relatively knew to climbing, Gerad and Laura had tried this climb before and not made it. They were determined to finish it, conquer it today.

So we finished the trail and headed up the barely unmarked sorta trail. It was awesome and I was truely loving it. Fall colors coming out, beautiful sunshine, awesome workout, then the view is the reward!!! What else could a exercise junky/outdoorzie person want?!?!?!?!? There was a fairly large grp ahead of us and we passed them eventually, Gerad's a bit competitive deep down inside. Maybe that's why the pace was so high at the start, hmmmmm Gerad? hee hee Oh well we would take a break and eventually we'd settle into a more doable rythym. My calves were getting the workout of a life time, constantly pointing the toes upward.

We even got to do some rock climbing. Don't worry, it was really dangerous as in one wrong slip and.... well you know. But the rock was dry and really rough so the hand holds were solid and I wouldn't pull myself up till I was sure about it. Some "livin on the edge attitude" is ok right? We even got to climb up through a chimney section, that was really neat. Soon we had passed the point at which Gerad/Laura had turned around last time. There was no stopping today, we moved onwards and upwards(as Greg says, but this time literally upwards). We stopped a bunch but I didn't mind. I think at one point Laura appoligized, I guess she figured cause I was waiting. My response was somthing like, "Sorry for what, I get to be up here in this crisp clear air and look at the view around me, climbing and having the time of my life!!!"

There were several humps we have to get over, if you have ever done any climbing you'll know that when you're on the mountain you can't often see the top. So you just climb towards the peak you can see and know there will be another after that, and another, etc. Julie will know what I'm talking about. It's awesome, I took so many pictures, and we posed many times on various outcroppings. Gerad and Laura both work at istock photos, they are photographer geeks. Gerad is one of those people that can do it all, he excels in absolutely EVERYTHING!! I can still kick his ass on the bike though. lol You can tell I hold onto that, hopefully he never actually trains or I might be in trouble. :P Eventually we got to the top and once again the view was amazing, I was like a lil kid up there, and the weather was great too. We did a lil exploring on top and sat down to have lunch.

There was a bit of wind(in Susi language "wee bit") that seemed to be blowing up the mountain from our backs and we got to witness an awesome sight. There was a hawk gliding around in circles wayyyy down below us. You know like they normally do, I'm not a city person I've seen it a million times, but this time I really got a good perspective of it. Anyways we watched and he climbed. When we first saw him he was a spec wayyy below us, the thing that was soo amazing was the rate he climbed with so little effort. They just tip their wings around, never really moving them or flapping them and in like a minute he was now a spec above us. I don't know how far he climbed maybe 2-300 ft in 60 seconds??? You get the picture he made our trek look like a day at the beach for him.

The way down was pretty uneventful, except that my quads were like jelly after. I'm only now on friday getting over the pain. I had a worse time walking after that hike then after Ironman. I guess it's not something that I'm used to. Hopefully I can do more in the future, this totally confirms it, when I'm done IM I'll be moving to trail running/ultras. There are two things I really really enjoy they are exercising and being outdoors. I'm sure I'm not alone, you guys enjoying the summer/fall weather we're having??? Even if you're not exercising, get out for a walk or somthing!!

Tomorrow we leave for Hawaii, I have to pick up my renew'd passport in a few minutes. Cutting it close eh? I thought it was still valid, but checked earlier on in the week(thank goodness I did) and saw it had expired in May, so I had to quickly head off to the Harry Hayes. I wasn't going to get my sized wedding band on time so we were just going to use the one they had and trade it for the sized one when it gets in, however they called yesterday and said they had it all ready for me. That was a nice surprise, we'll pick that up today too. Lisa's getting her nails done today, steaming or w/e the dress. We're not sure about traveling and not getting them creased, anyone have any ideas? Suit case ok? We really don't want to take them as carry on. I say worst case scenario we can get her dress steamed out there too. hmmmm what else do I gotta do, oh yeah report the attempted car thieft, and write a letter to Boardwalk about me firing my landlord, ha ha. Last month of rent October!! We went and took another look at the new house to show Lisa's Aunt. Anyways I may not write again, so cheers, wish me luck, break a leg, all that jazz, Over,

Darryl

Un-structured training

Hey there,

I got bored at work, so as you will notice my page takes a bit longer to load. Sorry Cam, your dial up may not like it too much. Don't worry two of em will be down quickly. I really like the Ironman one. :) I guess it wasn't really bored, cause I have lots of work to do, I just don't want to do it. That can still be bored right?

Oh well as I was sayin unstructured training, it's all of those things that you avoid in your build up for that race. If that's picking crab apples, mowing the grass, going for a walk with the spouse(make sure you keep them happy), or other things with the spouse that you may have been too tired to do after the long training sessions. For me I'm still training, think I've done 4 runs now and one leasurely ride along the paths. My workouts are based on the weather, I love gettin out there to run or ride, not so much swim, and I don't want winter yet. So the unstructured part mainly is the fact that I don't have to do it if I want. I love to run, but sometimes we get tired of IG pushin us around, telling us what to do. hee hee It's great to finally be the boss, my body is fully recovered, but my mind isn't. That's why I need to focus on what I want to do, stuff that takes no energy to convince myself to do. :) Happy unstructured training everyone. K, I should do some work, cheers,

Darryl

IMC 2009!

I'm registered!!! Here's to another year!!! Now I can forget about it for a bit and get back to some unstructured training. :)

Recovered

Hey there,

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I don't post when I have nothing to say, but if I have too much going on(lots to talk about) I won't post either. Weird huh? So when do I post? Well I would have posted earlier but I wanted to get some pictures up, now I realize that may never happen, if it does I'll just put them up on another day.

The recovery has been good, I didn't do anything for the first two weeks. Nothing, na da. I think now I've run 4 times, no swimming, no riding. Running is my main thing I guess, I'll always fall back on that. It gives me the most satisfaction. Yesterday I actually went longer and ended up doing 14km. Yeah longer then normal, the weather was awesome, I feel great(still felt great after the run).

K, lets see what else has been going on. Well the big day is coming up. We are leaving on the 20th for Maui to finally tie the knot. This girl I know has agreed to become my wife, no I didn't need to get her drunk or drug her to have her agree. So if you guys/gals have any warnings for her, you better hurry cause she's going through with it as of Sept 23. :)

They're ending the 40 yr/no money down thing so we had to quickly decide and buy a house. At first it seemed really tough. Our spending range made it difficult to find a lot of possibilities, but we managed to find one and are in the process of signing all the papers. It's official, we move in on Oct. 14. I couldn't be happier to get out of my neighborhood since someone tryed to steal my car a couple nights ago. They didn't steal it, but broke up the steering column completely. It's not the first time someone's tryed that(on a dif. car).

I think I'll be signing up for IMC 2009. I had thought about doing Cozumel, but there are too many unknowns like money, time off and where I spend it, etc. I like IMC and have only done it once, I like the course so why not do it one more time before I try somthing else. Hopefully I get in, my number didn't work on Sept 8 and I thought I was SOL, but they're opening it up again online for the general public. Maybe more people tryed to enter on the 8th like me??

Anyways I'll try to post some pics later, my mom came into town for a visit last weekend too and I have some pics of us going for a little hike. She hemmed Lisa's dress so that was nice for her to be involved(we're going alone to Maui). She also picked up some of my IM pics so she can brag to all her friends back home about her son rockin to a speedy 10:46, ha ha Next year we'll try to go even faster, Greg said I could so don't any of you tell me otherwise!!

Pictures

Comin into Penticton, waiting for construction to clear up so we can drive the last few kms. Somthing that occured to me later, when you look at this pic what do you see? Do you appreciate the beauty of the rainbow, the lake wayyyy below and the mountains, or are you more concerned about the traffic and how you are going to overcome it. Just a ramdom thought I had, I believe we considered both, ha ha so I don't completely fail.
This is Curtis, what a poser eh? That's lake Okanagan down below.
Wooooo we are both looking slick and fast for Aug. 24th. This is in the hotel.
We are IRONMANS!!!! Ok not quite yet. ha ha

The calm before the storm. This is the race start area.

The pro start 15 min. before us Age Groupers.

Getting close, can you feel the tension?

Awayyyyyy we go!

A lot of bikes, you can see me takin off eager to get this ride started.

This is yellow lake pass, it's beautiful and comes at a tough point in the race 140-150km into the ride. Lisa awaits my arrival.

Ooops a little swapped around, here's my exit out of the lake.

The start of the bike, yes I do occasionally look where I'm going.

Richter Pass, 11km of climbing broken up in 3 sections.

Finally on my way up Yellow Lake. 30k to go and then a marathon.

The start of the marathon, who's that yelling my name??

So focussed.

Good pace, feeling good.

Along lake skaha, aprox 15km into the marathon.

Ohhhhh the finish is soo close, the legs are there I just can't feel them. I'm back into town, under 5km to go.

Finish!!

Ohhhh yeah baby, Ironman #2 feels good!!

IRONMAN CANADA RACE REPORT

Hey all,

This could be fairly long, but hey, it was a long day, so there's lots to cover. Hopefully I will get the pictures soon to upload and maybe I'll steal a couple from Chad. :P

Soooo here goes nothing, the alarm finally went off at 4 AM. I was pooped from all the running around the day before so I actually slept great. That's the key right, make sure you're busy enough to get tired. That way you don't have time to fret about the upcoming day and you get tired enough to get some Zzzzs. I lay there for a few minutes, just letting it all soak in. How would the day go? I guess I'll find out, there's no more waiting I just have to go out and do what I've trained my body to do.

K, enough thinking time to get some food in me. Breakfast is fairly simple, I go on what I know works for me, instant oatmeal, ensure, bananas, and a muffin(poppy seed kind are yummy). Weird I wasn't too nervous yet. Last year I was freaking out at the start, it was sooo much colder and the water was sooo rough. This year I'm a year more prepared, I know what the swim will be like, I know I can protect myself. I'll get through it, the bike is where my confidence lies, and the run, well we'll just have to see. I'm a runner at heart still, I'm sure it'll come around. Back to breakfast, I ate my food as well as my tummy would allow. I had to give myself breaks from that as the butterflies were making it difficult to get all the calories in. Nothing new though, it would be bad if there were none.

The infinit was put into the bags, these are the special needs bags and warm up clothes bag. There's still much organization to be done. How would I carry it all, wetsuit, bags, bottles, cap, goggles, pump, etc. Later on I discovered that I should have used my back pack. I'm still not very organized at this, still things to learn uh? Who am I kidding I'm a IM rookie still. :P

Soo with breakfast down, stuff packed into the car we headed over to transition. It's still dark outside, kinda earie but there's still a calmness about the day. I know I'm ready, I'd done all I can to prepare myself for it. I hope the weather is good, but it doesn't worry me much, I'll be at the finish rain or shine, wind or calm. Lisa dropped me off pretty close and I walked the rest of the way down main street towards the lights. Lisa hugged and kissed me, wishing me the best. She knows all the effort put into this, she knows what this means to me. As I walked away, I already looked forward to seeing her on the course. Last year I did this alone, this year she's all aboard to cheer me on. What a contrast, oh sure she was with me in my heart, but it sure makes a difference when you're out there to hear/see your loved ones and know they are behind you 100%.

It was quite a walk and I needed to take a break, switching bags and resting my hands. First thing first, the special needs bags for the run and bike(these are bags that you may put what ever you would like to be received at 120km into the bike and half way through the run). I packed bottles of infinit which would be my main fuel throughout the day, some snickers bars and some red bull. I met Curtis there, it was soooo cool to go through the morning with him. We dropped our bags off, got body marked(by Susi, thanks Susi you rock!!) and headed off for a more pre-race prep. Fill up the bike tires, visit the poop fairy, and put on the wetsuit.

We had planned to meet Cam in one of the corners of the mens change tent. He was there and got to get ready with plenty of time to spare, I even got to put on some sun block this year(I burnt really really bad last year). There was a couple changing there and no one really noticed till later that there was a chick in the mens change tent till later. lol Oh well no one cared, everyone pretty much had their race outfits on underneath anyways. 6:30 and off the start we go, we still weren't sure where to start. I know Greg likes the right side, Cam favors the far left. What's a guy to do uh, go in the middle? I lost Cam and Curtis walking through the crowds, so I said my goodbyes in my head, wished them both an awesome race!!! I found Trevor gettin ready to rock lake okanagan, he swims with the best of them and I decided to stay near the right side. My thinking is everyone always says left side is better(cept for Greg) people always want to go wide, so I figured do the opposite of everyone else.

I saw Kelsey too and gave her a hug, I think she looked a lil fearful, but hey why shouldn't she? She's about to do an Ironman. I was much calmer then last year, it was nice not being afraid. Nervousness is ok, being scared stiff is bad. Somone sang the national anthem, Peter Reid fired the Cannon for the pros and we got ready for our start(the age groupers). I spit into my goggles, I really hope they don't fog up for the swim. My thoughts before the start, long clean strokes, glide, keep away from the feet, head up when needed, and keep moving. BOOOOOOM

The cannon goes off, ahhhhhh the first strokes felt soo good, finally the day is here. No more looking into the future, no more worrying, as that inspirational thing that I posted said, no more IM thoughts cause I'm finally racing in one. The start was actually pretty clean, I kinda thought it'd be worse. It is quite clean on the right side for the most part, except when the people start coming in from the left side. That's when it got a bit hairy maybe 400m into the swim, maybe the first bouy? I saw a couple goggles floating just below and I think even a swim cap. I guess someone's start wasn't as clean as mine. I swam untill people would bump into me, then I'd go head up, or push them away. It's frustrating sometimes when people swimming nicely beside you and decide to turn and swim right into you. At times I even pushed people straight, I felt like pointing, "There's the bouy, swim that way please!" I looked around a lot, noticed more of what was going on around me. I noticed one guy was steady and swam really straight so I sat on his feet for a while, till someone else stole my spot, damn him!!

The water was mostly calm, at times there were big waves, but I think they were from boats because they never lasted long. Soon I could see the first houseboat, it was a welcome relief. I'm not sure why cause I still have a long ways to swim, not even half, but it was nice to know I just have to swim over a bit and then back to shore. I expected the houseboats to be a gong show. I swam on the inside of the bouys for the most of the swim so that means I gotta take the inside line around the houseboats. I prepared for a full on fist fight, but it didn't happen. Weird like my swim start, maybe taking the opposite of what everyone else was doing? Like sure there was bumping, but I thought it would be worse. On to the next couple bouys, houseboat and then home. The second houseboat had me swimming seriously right along the houseboat.

Sooo back and on the inside of the bouys where it was nice clean water. I actually saw smooth swimmer guy again and sat on his feet for a bit again. Then took it on my own for the rest of the way. One other thing I noticed while swimming, I could tell my pace can't be that bad cause I noticed most of the swimmers around me had good form. I wondered in my head if they were sizing me up too? What would they think, positive or negative by my form? lol I know too much thinking, but it helped get me through the swim section. I also heard Mike Reily's voice still with like 1k meters to go. Funny cause I remember thinking Bull shit!! when he used to say somthing like, "Make some noise, they can hear you out there!!!"

Sooo came out of the water, checked my watch 1:09!!! Awesome, I was hoping for 1:10. That was encouraging and I was in good spirits running into the change tent. Someone yelled my name in there, I thought it was Greg, but he says it was someone else so I have no idea who it was then. The change went kinda slow, I see my T1 time was 3:46 so not too too bad, so away on my bike I go. Lisa had found my bike in transition so I saw her smiling face as I grabbed it and headed out.

The bike started out ok I can't remember who all yelled at me, it was nice having the support out there. I passed this chick and she yelled at me "gooooo legend, Darryl!!!!" It was Jenna, wow that was so cool to see her, I guess I should have expected it, it isn't the first time she's beaten me out of the water. She is a fish, so I wished her a good day and kept going. I kept tabs on the hr and noticed it was rather high. There was a touch of head wind going along lake skaha and I tryed to get the hr down. I wasn't paying attention to the others around me, zipping by me, more just the internal clock telling me to keep it going, but still 136-140 bpm, hmmmm a lil high. after McClain creek hill I tryed harder to get the hr down to more of a 132 which I got getting closer to Osoyoos. My neck and crotch were starting to hurt too. My choice of race shorts was a bad decision, mental note (make sure to test and use a newer pair for next year). Looking forward to the climbs.

There were some big packs forming by then and it was frustrating cause I couldn't even get around them. They'd all come by me, I'd drop back, even sit up at times. Then I'd catch up, have to pass them all IF I could. Somtimes I couldn't pass cause there would be 2-3 across. I think I even mentioned out loud(not angrily or anything) if you're not going to pass please move aside, you can't just ride freeily on the left side of the lane. Anyways the worst of it was just before Osoyoos and I was looking forward to Richter. That would help break it up, hopefully I can drop all these pretenders. ha ha

Wow I felt sooooo good climbing up Richter, I immediately got into my rhythm and my hr was co-operating at a nice easy 143. I kept it there all the way up and man I wish I had counted the bodies that I passed, it musta been like 50 cyclists. After cresting the top I immediately got down on the bars and hammered down the hill. I saw plenty of other riders needing some time to recover and or rest at the top and even on the way down. Not me, that was a baby hill, hee hee. I was passing cars on the way down some of Richter and the rollers. Is it weird that I actually looked forward to the hills? I hated going on the flats, looked forward to every hill climb, and mourned the loss of the rollers. I even let out a big baaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa for Susi on the first roller. I quickly looked around to make sure no one could hear.

I had one scare coming down one of the rollers, I tuck quite low on the aero bars and alternate looking up and looking straight down. Anyways I went over a big bump going very fast, I thought for a second I was going down. But I didn't and checked my bike to make sure the wheels were true and there were no sounds or anything kaput. There was a noise at times that I thought may have been caused at that point, but I kept going. I had visions of me toppling over my bars later when what ever the noise was breaks, ha ha.

On to the out and back section, I started feeling terrible here. I was out of infinit after the rollers and was onto using gateraide which didn't seem to be working with me. I used some of my gel too, but still felt crappy. My crotch was on fire and I had a bitch of a time getting comfortable on the saddle. My neck was hurting too, I kept looking ahead waiting for the special needs. I had stowed a red bull in the bag and was looking forward to it. Maybe that would combined with the short rest bring me around? I also looked for Greg but never saw him, was he that far ahead of me? He can't be, there were barely any cyclists at the start of the out and back. He tells me he saw me, but I didn't hear him. Oh well the special needs and turn around came, I quickly replaced bottles and stuffed the much needed drink into my pocket. I figured I'd wait till I was close to Yellow lake before drinking it.

The false flats area before yellow lake hurt too, I actually looked forward to the climb again. Weird hey, I was hurting yet still looking forward to the climb??? I guess it was my crotch that was the most unhappy out of my body parts. I drank the red bull and prepared for the climb. I also looked forward to seeing Lisa. She was going to be on the hill, and of course all the fans. Wow there were a lot and some friends I had met through Cam were there too, Shelly, and I forget the other lady's name. They barely caught my number, I had to wave, ride by, then I hear them yell somthing like, "Goooooo DARRYL!!!" you know thinking for the name and probably trying to read it off my butt as I'm riding away, hee hee. It's fine I forget one of their names too, maybe they should wear name tags on their butts too?

My foot was really swelling at this point too, it hasn't done that for awhile. I'd almost forgotten that I had that problem. I probably shouldn't have checked the watch but I did and saw at 120k already that my time was not going to be too good. I had high hopes of smoking out a good time, but it just wasn't happening. At the top of yellow lake knowing I had the long down hill I started feeling a bit better. It's nice knowing your close and absolutely letter rip on the way down. I barely touched the brakes at all and the nice zipp wheels held out fine sweeping in and out of the turns. I felt like a Tour de France rider. I musta hit 90km for sure, I passed people like they were standing still. There was even a near 180 degree turn going down and I barely touched the brakes going through that and remember passing a couple more people even in the turn. I guess maybe I was trying to make up some time? Or maybe just enjoyed going so fast? I could hear the whistle of the wheels with the wind hitting them somtimes even from the side, but I kept away from the brakes.

Back into town the feet were hurting still I prepared mentally for the run. The temp still wasn't too hot. There were a couple times around Richter and in the rollers where the sun came out and it felt warm, but for the most part I think it was cloudy? There must have been some sun out there cause I have a nasty burn by the seam of my pants. The space between the racing top and the shorts. This time I got out of my shoes properly before the run and came in nicely both feet on one pedal like Greg had instructed.

I had a touch of problems finding my bag, funny how the simplist of tasks can be so hard when your head is hazy. So finally failing and trying to find my line of bag numbers I just yelled it out and someone grabbed it for me, hee hee the volunteers are second to none here. Thanks a lot you guys/gals!!! This change went pretty quick and I headed out onto the run course. 2:46 was my transition time and my bike time with transitions was 5:46. I must admit I was a bit disappointed with my bike split, I thought I'd be a lot stronger then last year, plus new bike, nice race wheels and only 12 minute improvement. I felt super strong on the climbs, and coming out of T2 I felt good on the run now, so the cycling strength was def. there I just didn't see it in the bike split.

Oh well I was a lil low on fuel exiting T2 so I took a gel and washed it down with some water. I had misplaced my infinit for the start of the run so I just went on what was on the course. and I def. took advantage of it grabbing gaterade to drink, water/sponges/ice for the head. I stuffed ice into my hat to cool off, wow that helped a lot. As I said earlier I felt great heading out and started out with a snappy 7:30, I kept that pace up and my hr was in the low 150s. This was too fast and I had a feeling it was, but I kept going. I think part of me thought my bike time was a little slow and wanted to try to make some time up. I saw more supporters in town. Greg's mom put a smile on my face that lasted for miles. She said somthing like, "Darryl!! I'm Greg's mom he's 30 min ahead of you go catch him!!" I thought that was sooo cool, and it did give me some incentive to keep it going, a sort of carrot to catch. Oh sure I knew I wouldn't actually catch him(or I at least hoped I wouldn't cause that would have been disaster for his race) but it still gave me somthing to think about, at least seeing him on his way back. I also saw Chad and of course Lisa, they cheered and helped to keep my spirits up. I was doing 7:30's I could do no wrong, on the slight down hill out of town I even ran a 7:25.

But then things started to get tough, comin out of town the wind had picked up and much of the section along skaha lake is unprotected from the south wind. We had to buck quite a tough wind here. I had to pee quite bad by this point(I waited till I was out of town) didn't want to use a porta potty so I just went in the bushes on the side of the road. I'm sure it was quick but I noticed even then stopping and feeling a bit dizzy, then starting out again some of the spring in my steps was gone. It's oh oh time, I stopped measuring the miles and focused on my running, one step at a time. The wind was so strong I'd tuck in behind a fellow runner to block the wind. I think the one guy got a bit annoyed and tryed to drop me a few times. I made it to aprox 11 miles I think right at the rolling hills before I had to take my first walk break, up a steep hill. My legs were toast, and I knew I didn't have enough calories in me too. Hmmmmm 150 bpm is probably pretty bad for digesting anything. Oh well lesson learnt, the biggest most important thing in IM racing I've learnt is to have a plan, try to follow it, but know when to scrap it and adjust it. Here I had to change my race plan, I hit up the special needs. My adjustment was slowwww down take in more calories, keep the hr down for now till you can injest them properly. So I took my red bull once again ran some more but kept the pace down(didn't really have a choice here anyways heh heh) on the way back along the lake again I hit up the aid stations like an all you can eat buffet. I noticed they had water melon and it looked soooo tasty, I went for it literally. At one point I hit one aid station, a boy handed me a little piece and I grabbed it as well as two handfuls from the tray behind him, wolfed them down, then took a few steps and promptly went to the other side of the road and ate a pile more water melon from that aid station too. I allowed myself to walk to the next corner, then started to run again.

So this is where I had to walk at aid stations and I think I also added one more walk too aside from the buffet. As I ran I could feel the full tummy and the fact that my asthma didn't like so much work to do, digest and run at the same time. The hr was now at around the 120-130 mark while running which allowed it to break down the food/coke(forgot to mention I got into the coke at around mile 10) Well just before town, I walked a bit of the last hill and got to running. Now I started to come around, started to up the pace, hmmmm you can get back from a calorie defficet. Woooo hooooo I knew I could do this. This is where the rain started to come down and I kept running, probably back up to the 7:45-8 min pace again. It felt good to make the final climb in the center of town and get back onto main street. I hoped that there would be more cheers, but I think everyone had moved onto the finish.

Onto winnipeg and the lake shore drive(or w/e it's called) and to the last turn around. Into town I was once again running through aid stations. What a feeling to come back from what seemed like a total melt down and to recover enough to finish strong like this. Running out from the finish(you have to run out away from it, turn around and come back to finish) I'd look far ahead to see the turn around. I eventually saw it, but as I got closer I realized we got to run a lil further and that was the initial turn around for the start of the run. Eventually I saw it, just a little further, make the turn and back around the shore to the finish. My feet somehow carried me, I'm not sure how, but they did. I could hear Mike Reilly's voice calling me home.

Once again to finish my second Ironman in a personal best time of 10:46:19. My run time was 3:49 even with the walking!! Woooo hoooo it's all done, I stumbled and nearly fell over as the catchers "caught" me. They stayed with me and made sure I was ok to sit and recover before they left. Eventually I did go for a massage, I felt sick almost like throwing up but I didn't. I couldn't eat the pizza, I instead drank one of the power bar energy drinks. I met up with Lisa, she was happy to see me(I was happy to get that much deserved hug), she had told me she was yelling at the finish, but I didn't hear it. As you'll see in the finish pics when I get them, I was quite out of it. But that's what IM is all about, layin it all out there. Everyone does their best, some faster, some slower. The important part is that we finish. I'm sure everyone learnt more about themselves. I wonder how many thought of Simon W. when things got tough. I sure did, I thought of him tossing his hat aside and refusing to go quietly into that dark night(with 4th place that is). So in my own way I kinda saw the dreams of makin 10:30 slip away, that was my A race, my ideal race. I think it was doable, but it just didn't happen on the day. I'm really proud though, I thought the B(sub 11) goal was going too and I had to fight off the negative thoughts, regroup, fuel up properly so I could finish strong. I must have made up a bunch of time at the end and even passed a few people that had passed me earlier. The C goal as Greg states is the most important, which for me too was to finish.

To all of you I saw out on the race course thank you so much for all your words of encouragement. They helped more then you will ever know, I'm sorry I couldn't say much more, I really tryed. My thoughts and well wishes were definatly with you as we crossed paths. It sounds like most of you that I've heard from did sooooo well. Congratz too all, I'm soo proud of everyone of you. Cheers,

Darryl

The big dance is tomorrow

Ok I'm starting to hit some more reality. Where has the time gone? I'm doing an Ironman tomorrow!!! Ok well today was kinda crazy, so much stuff to do. First off I went for a early morning swim with the IG grp. Picked up my wetsuit and found that he didn't do that great of a job, but I didn't complain when he only asked for 10 bucks. He fixed the seam alright(I forgot to mention there was a seam's thread that was unraveling) and put some glue/silicon on some of the cracks, but clearly missed some.

Ok we met for the swim, I stuck with Mark and Greg, practiced swimming on their feet. I'm getting better at that. I may try to draft more for this race in the swim, I'll try to find someone who's swimming straight and steady and stay on their feet. That'll also save me some body contact since he'll do the plowing and also allow me to not have to sight as much. We'll see how that goes. The swim done and on to the transition talk. We couldn't actually get into the transition as they were still setting some stuff up. Greg was patient, answering all of out questions, some were starting to freak out. Most of us kept our composure, and or tryed to hide it. lol I did a bit of both, I'm excited, nervous, pumped, staying calm all in one package. hee hee.

So we chatted for a bit in front of transition(we did a full loop around with the IG tour) till I decided enough was enough I want my damn jersey. So I went off to the expo to buy a few things, I also needed a gel flask, some water bottles and ended off with some cycling shorts and a timex watch to boot. Off to meet Lisa and then for dinner? I can't remember what else I did, I know there was more. Oh yeah I went for a short bike and run. I cycled to the transition from our hotel and when I got back, Lisa was ready to go run with me. Woooo hoooo maybe I'm rubbing off on her a bit? This is really the first time I've ran with her, she runs really well. It was just like 10 min since it was getting hot and I need to get off my feet.

We had to get me a ankle strap for my timing chip since I had failed to buy one at registration and now they were all packed up. Thank goodness the Bike Barn ended up having them so I picked one up there. So finally I had everything I needed for race day. One thing I really don't like about IM is all the running around. There's always somthing to sign up for, attend, things to purchase for the big day, workouts, and of course food/fluids. I kinda messed it up today, by the time I had everything and dropped my bags/bike off at transition I was starving. Sooooo bad to do the day before the big event.

We met Cam and Curtis pretty quick there and sat down for a cozey dinner. We were all scrunched up on a little table. I guess we kept adding how many people were going to be there, so we kept adding chairs. Oh well the food made up for that part as it was super delicious. I think I had cajun chicken alfredo. mmmmmmmmm yummy. Pasta Factory was the name of the place, we even got to check out the Olympic Marathon on the tv. Good inspiration!!!

After that we went to Tickle Berry's for Ice Cream and I drove Lisa to Yellow lake so she'd know what roads to take, what to look for, etc. I hope everything goes well for her on race day. Somtimes watching can be nearly as stressful as the race itself. So after that I got the rest of my nutrition ready at the hotel. I think I mixed a million bottles of infinit and got everything else ready. Here's toooooo Ironman, my day will start at 4 AM. :)