Ironman Canada 2007

It's the end of August, and I've been fortunate enough to complete my second Ironman triathlon at Ironman Canada 2007 in Penticton.

I did IMC 2005 as my first full Ironman event. It was the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life. So now 2 years later I took the challenge again. My goals were simple: 1) I wanted to finish. 2) I wanted to better my IMC 2005 time of 13h23m. 3) I wanted to finish under 13hrs, and 4) I wanted to finish in the daylight, which I missed by about 20 - 25 minutes last time.

This years swim started normally. But near the second houseboat turn the water got choppy. I just tried to stay in my rhythm, and stay smooth. I looked for other feet to stick behind and draft off of, but usually I ended up fading left. In the end, I came out of the water 2 minutes behind my previous IMC in about 1h21.

My previous transitions were quite slow. Both T1 & T2 were 10 - 11 minutes. But that year I was carrying an engagement ring so that I could propose at the finish line to my girlfriend (she said yes!). So I was a bit methodical then. But this year I shaved about 2 minutes off my T1 time. That nicely made up for the swim.

Then came the bike. I felt great starting out and was spinning well along Skaha Lake towards Oliver and Osoyoos. The wind gods were with us. The climb up Richter was not big issue. All my climbing up Cypress really helped here. But on the back side of Richter and over the rollers the wind really sucked! It was like pushing water both here & on the back side of the out-and-back. Yellow Lake was also no big issue. I loved (!) the crowds lining the road. Thanks everyone! Once over the top I made one of my mistakes of the day. I neglected my nutrition and didn't eat enough into town. Riding down Main St into town I was dying and getting passed routinely! Next time - EAT!

My bike time was about 2 minutes slower than IMC 2005. So here I am - at almost the same time as previous, and needing to make up the entire 25 minutes I needed for my goal on the run. I knew I could improve on my previous 5:09 run. My PR in a stand-alone marathon is 3:45. But this is Ironman. I had a terrible experience at a recent 1/2 Iron, where my legs died. But was it the 37c heat then? My confidence was low. But I stuck to the plan to run between aid stations, and walk through them. I wasn't feeling too bad. One aid station at a time. Or as Terry Fox and Lisa Bentley said - one step at a time, one telephone pole at a time, one mile at a time. Several times I just wanted to walk. And I'd ask myself - How bad do you want this? And I'd keep running.

My time was going to be close. I made the turn to head out Lakeshore. My thoughts were "this is just cruel" having to go away from the finish line. I still didn't know if I was on the good side of 13 hrs. I couldn't see the clock. It wasn't until I went over the pre-mat that I saw the clock. I was there! I was floating down the mat. In the bleachers was my daughter cheering. And I crossed, arms in the air, to be caught by my wife and sister. How great was that?!? Final time: 12:58:03. I did it . I met ALL my goals.