Hello from Penticton

Hey,

Had a good day so far.  This morning we got up bright an early for breakfast.  We are staying in a B&B so they have breakfast at 8am sharp.  We have such a nice room here in the basement.  We have our own kitchen,bathroom,bedroom.  Like our own little condo for the same if not a bit lower than most hotels in the area.  So make sure if you ever come to Penticton again during Ironman week, check out the B&B's they're kinda undiscovered.  So we had a wicked breakfast and the nice couple that runs it will even wake up really early to help with the IM breakfast, although that one won't be quite as "gourmet" as today.

After breakfast I met Cam Dawes(buddy from Golden) over at the beach, by the big paddlewheel boat.  We met Cam pretty quickly and got suited up in our websuits ready for a swim!  The weather is warm here but not that warm, only 20s.  The water is also warm, some people are swimming without wetsuits, but I need to swim with.  We swam out and had a bit of difficulty getting around the weed line and to get to the bouy line.  Every time i started to head out we'd encounter the weed line and would have to turn back more towards shore.  So eventually we got out there in deeper water and the bouys that they have set up parallel with the shore for swimming along.  Not like a pool, think bigger bouys and only like one per 200 meters or so.  We had a good swim, stopped to chat a bunch of times.  On the return we went non-stop all the way back to the spot where Lisa was sitting an reading on the beach.

After that we went to the Ironman village and walked around there, they have sponsor stuff up and the cone tacos that we Love soo much from 3 years ago(the last time I've done this race).  I got registered, and there wasn't much of a line by the time we'd eaten our tacos.  Oh, some interesting news we heard.  I've heard this rumor before, but it looks like WTC(Ironman owner) is pulling out of Penticton and a new owner is buying the race.  This is the 30th year!!  and Canada is like the only Ironman who is partially owned by someone else.  So this year Graham Fraser is pulling out and WTC will not buy it all so a new company called Challenge is taking up the race.  This is no small company either and they put on a huge race in Roth Germany which also used to be one of the Original Ironman races(just like Canada).  So I think that will still be good for Penticton.  This may actually make this race bigger.  Roth has a bigger race as they made their race run in waves(heats) and I'm sure Canada will be the same.  This means more people/athletes, but less congession on the start.  Yayyy for me, although a small downside is this will be the last time I attempt to qualify for the world championships here(Gotta do a WTC race to get a slot for the WTC world champs).  Pretty crazy.  In a bit, once I'm done this blog post I'll head out on the bike and probably ride most of the run course.  I'll take the Garmin so you guys can take a look on strava.  Cheers,

DP

Edit:  Here is today's ride:  http://app.strava.com/rides/19521539