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IMC Race report (w/pics now) - v long
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Last summer, I signed up for IMC with some trepidation. I had spent the last 4 years since IMWA (Nov '05) rearranging my entire life essentially, and a big part of me still wasn't sure I was done rearranging. Separation->Divorce->new incredible happiness->new house->new job->another new house... all the while resolving my underlying health issues (hypothyroidism, which knocked me out of the game/s for close to 3 years). It had been a long period with a lot of changes. Last summer, as my health improved and I began racing short course again, I started thinking "why not?" I had always wanted to do IMC, that feeling had never changed, and now that I had a partner in crime who was actually willing to do it with me, I figured "why not?" or as SimpleS used to always say "how bad could it be?"

I don't think I seriously started training until January, and I know I trained a lot less than I had for IMWA. My goals were modest: 1) have fun; 2) beat my IMWA time of 13:46 by 1 second; 3) try to not get too badly whooped by Phil; 4) continue to have a life while training. Overall, trainig went well, and my racing through the season went well, even managing to podium a few times. The times were improving, I was recovering well, and feeling stronger and stronger. I lost 25lbs over 5ish months, and (of course) my run times started dropping again. My confidence was high, and my ability to focus was better than it had been in years.

We drove up on Friday, registered, and stayed with Phil's folks in Westbank, er West Kelowna now. On Saturday, we hauled their huge tailer down to Penticton and got camp set-up. We had both kids (K - 5yo and L - 4yo) in tow, but with Phil's parents' help, they were sufficiently distracted. Thank god, because they would need the distraction on Sunday! They spent Saturday night making t-shirts with our numbers on them, so we'd be able to spot them. We all hit the hay early and tried to sleep.

Sunday. Up at 4:30. Dark sky, starts out, lake like a mirror. Coffee. Yogurt. Sunscreen. Dress. Drive to racesite. Double check the bags, pump the tires. I ran into NorthShoreGirl at the bags, chatted with her and her hubby NorthShore a bit; ran into QRGirl and MDragerNYC at the bikes, chatted with them a bit. I decided to skip the HRM and just wear a watch. Heck, last week I even uninstalled my ergomo pro on my bike. I was going to have nothing but my perception and the time on my wrist today. Kickin it Alexia-style - using the force and not much else...

I was all set, ready to go. Suited up, headed off to find Phil and down to the lake. Ran into Calvin, who was debating starting (due to vertigo - poor guy looked green). We hit the water to warm up/loosen up, perfect temperature. Sister Madonna Buder told Phil to "have a good race, son". We sang "O Canada" and waited to start. We had lined up pretty close to the front of the group, and pretty much dead centre. I'm glad I did start so far forward. Hit the water and swam strong for oh first 5min or so, and managed to find a small amount of open water right behind a great draft mule. I must have rode that guy's feet almost all the way to the first turn at the sailboat. I was trying to swim steady, with long complete strokes and bilateral breathing, and I was feeling pretty damn good. Hit the second turn, and looked up to see the Resort towers, so I knew it was all "downhill" from there. Unfortunately I took in a pretty big drink of lake at that time, and it came right back up - sorry to whomever was behind me - I have never vomited while swimming and it was a pretty odd feeling to say the least! cleared my mouth a few times, then continued on. Having spectated the swim finish a number of times, I was wondering "when is the big draft doing to start?" (if you've stood at the swim finish at IMC, you'll know exactly what I mean - the lake surges and there's a huge current that starts to wash up in advance of the bulk of the swimmer). Sure enough about 500m out, I could feel it... it felt like swimming with an ocean current at your feet. Those last 500m were probably my fastest ever.


(what a crummy pic eh? oh well)

Exited the lake and saw a 1:14 on my watch! Wow! IMWA: 1:30 in horrible conditions (huge chop and major currents). So I was already 1 second up (just had to stay there haha). Got stripped, grabbed my bag, hit the tent and got geared up. The volunteers were great, and incredibly helpful. Transition was 3:40, far faster than the 8min or so at IMWA. Got out, on the bike and slowly spun up Main St. I knew this was going to be a long day, so I took the ride very conservatively. I spun up every hill, in low gears, and drank lots/ate lots. Felt pretty good, and even though I was being passed by a lot of people and I knew I *could* ride faster, I just stayed the course. Boys who are reading this RR should skip down to the next paragraph now. About 20km in to the ride, I got a huge lower ab cramp. Oh no. Not today. Please not today. Yep, today, 1 day early. My least favourite visitor arrived. I had to get to special needs (130k) to get "supplies", so I knew the ride was going to feel even longer than I originally thought... I was very cramped for a long time. Riding aero was pretty painful, but I tried to do it for any flats and downhills.


(climbing up Richter Pass)

I got to special needs and grabbed my bag, looking for my TURKEY WRAP. Man oh man that tasted like HEAVEN. Glad I packed it, good 500cal of meat and salt and tortilla. Scarfed that down, and carried on. My cramping was starting to go away, so things were turning around. Started the slow climb to Yellow Lake, and was pleasantly surprised at how many people I passed along that section. In fact on the last climb past Twin Lakes, I must have passed 20 or so people on that one hill. Legs felt really good. Crested the last real hill, and flew down to the lake. Turned towards North, and noticed a nice headwind. I hadn't even noticed it had been windy all day. Heck I hadn't even noticed the heat. I had noticed the smoke and haze, but they weren't really bothering me. That last stretch along Main is actually deceptively uphill... ;-) I saw Phil heading out on the run as I was in the last stretch. He was about 30min ahead of me. Wow! I thought he would have been waaaaay haead of me.

Flew into T2 with feet out of the shoes and with a bike split 6:44, slower than I would have liked, but considering how crummy I felt for most of the ride, I was happy enough. My watch said 8hrs when I arrived at T2, so I was still about 30min ahead of my IMWA time. Cool! Tried to move through T2 quickly, ended up with 4:16 for T2 (almost 4min ahead of my T2 time in INWA).

(nice team jersey eh?)

Headed out on the run, with legs feeling good, great even. Started steady, clocking 10min miles evenly through to the run turnaround. Every aid station and uphill I walked - that was always my plan. Every aid station was the same: dump water on coolwings and head, drink the cola, start running. Got to the turnaround, had a quick portapottie visit, and headed back out. Kept ticking along at the same pace, passing a lot of people, until about mile 17. Then my stomach said "woah". I suspect some of the cola wasn't totally flat, so I was really burpy and really needed to puke. I couldn't muster any saliva. I walked to the next aid station, took a drink of water, and immediately chucked. Thank god. I felt so much better. Stuck to pretzels and water for the rest of the run. I will had to walk a lot for the next two miles, but eventially told myself "hey a slow shuffle is still faster than walking" and started shuffling. The shuffle turned into a run, and before long I was back onmy 10min mile pace and feeling fine. Got to the Skaha marina area, saw Phil's parent's and the kids! lots of huge and kisses and "I love you"s! Totally awesome. Then I saw Khai, what a let down - just kidding. He walked with me a bit (it was an aid station area) and told me I had 7k of pain left. So I sucked it up and started running. Kept ticking along, and got just to the turn onto Lakeshore where I just had to stop and walk - I could see the crowd ahead and hear the noise and I kind of wanted to enjoy a last moment of relative silence and peace, reflect on what a day this had been, and what the finish ahead would feel like.

Turned onto Lakeshore and WOW huge crowds, huge noise. Ran and ran and ran. Ran right through the finish line and immediately saw Phil. 13:05. 45min faster than IMWA. BIG hug from Phil. He led me over to the family. Huge hugs and kisses rom K - "Mommy, you're my champion! and I'm you'e little champion!" immediately followed by "Can I wear your medal?" ;-) Phil finished in 12:30, what a great result for a first Ironman - I knew he'd do great - and he did. I'm so proud of him. I only imagine what he could do with a few more years of dedicated training...


(done! yay!)

Pizza. Massage. Changed out of wet clothes. Got gear and headed back. A nice bottle of bubbly at the campsite with Phil's parents, then we watched the finish line on tv until the end.

Great day.

Thanks to everyone I saw out there. D, Julian, Khai, Kylie, Paulo, Francois, Linda, a co-worker (Walter), a former co-worker (Stefan).

I think I'll volunteer next year.

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS
Last edited by: AndyPants: Sep 9, 09 13:29
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Congratulations! Way to smoke your goal time! :)
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Congratulations! Sounds like a good experience, except for the few little hiccups. I hope you feel great about your race.
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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I was there with my wife and a bunch of her friends cheering on a couple of Vancouver girls. We were all over the course. I noticed that a few racers were starting to look beat up by the top of Yellow Lake. The run was obviously a tough one yeaterday as we noticed many people literally dragging their feet forward. I think I took about 180 or so photos all over the course. The Yellow Lake and Richter photos turned out great. I am trying to learn how to post a web link to Picasa and I'll put it up.
Congratulations on your PB. For whatever reason, it seemed to be an unusually tough day for some. If you noticed a bunch of girls in pink wigs and hats at the top of Yellow Lake and later on the run near the turnaround in OK Falls, I was with them. We all lost our voices cheering you on.
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Just awesome! You totally nailed it. I followed you guys online all day, and I was totally impressed, you both kicked ass!


my support:

Pacific Multisport
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [jimmy d] [ In reply to ]
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OMG I yelled at you gals "nice hair" pretty much every time I saw you and your group! I was sporting the orange jersey with the coolwings (white sleeves) on the red cervelo... Awesome glad to have such great encouragement out there.

Apparently there was a lot of vomiting and poor runs out there, a lot of speculation about the smoke and its affect...

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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I was the token guy. All pretty girls with pink wigs and such and then me, the swarthy Mediterranean looking dude. I had as much fun as any of the races I've done there. It was a gas to see the race from that vantage point. We were in a rented convertible which made for some good action shots. I'm going to get my wife to show me how to do this web album thingy and then I'll post it. I took a lot of photos so you may find yourself in one or two. I'm glad you and your guy had a great day. The girls we were there to cheer on told similar tales of seeing people vomiting, especially on the run. The smoke was noitcable on the rollers and worse on Yellow Lake and the run, but you already know that! Congratulations on being healthy again as well. That supercedes everything else in the end.
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Great job Andy! You looked awesome as you headed out, and I knew you'd have a good one :)

Can't wait to see you next year there!

---
Miles of Life --- Powered by MarkyV
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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A 45 minute PR? Fantastic!!! Congratulations.

clm

clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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You did so great! And I couldn't have been happier to hug your sweaty bod with the puke breath :) And I do take note that you thanked me first on your list up there haha

Side note: I'm really happy to see that (almost) everyone is planning to go up again next year, in one capacity or another. This really is one of the most fun week's (if not THE most) of my year and you guys are all awesome to spend it with. Now we just need to get Jen, Jenn & Bryan up with us. Looking forward to 2010!!


______________________________________
I know I'm promiscuous, but in a classy way
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Way to go!!! Great job and thanks for the fun race report!!
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Congratulations, Andi! You looked like a rockstar out there!

M

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The beatings will continue until morale improves
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [trackie clm] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks Cathy, it *did* feel good ;-)
AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Nice work there Andy. I'm so glad you finally did MY race (okay obviously I share it with a lot of other people too). I hope to be back for 2010 (i'm all signed up and all) but there is a pretty major glitch that I need to deal with. It may entail a lot of driving between YVR and penticton, or a flight home in the middle of the pre ironman fun. Right now I'm just focussing on getting this lousy Aussie school year over with so I can get back to being happy Karen instead of this miserable, stressed, unhappy one. It is so NOT me and it's killing me. I am so living for my weekends and my travels right now. 2009 will go down as the year I HATED work but loved the adventures of living in a foreign country. For the record I usually really love my work back home.

I can't wait to be able to actually TALK TO YOU about your race. Also I think it's too funny that you and Ange were side by side. I know BOTH of you!!

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"There's good all around you, you just have to be able to see it".
Last edited by: MEL K: Sep 2, 09 4:14
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Congratulations on a very solid race, AP! That's a fantastic PR. Way to hold it together out there with everything the race, and nature, threw at you.
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats on your great day!
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [MEL K] [ In reply to ]
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I can't wait to actually talk to you too... We should try an IM video chat when I get home. Hang in there and you'll be home before you know it. I'm looking forward to cheering you on next year!

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [D!] [ In reply to ]
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Yeah next year should be a hoot... We'll likely volunteer so we can drink more beer haha...

Seriously, it was awesome seeing so many people I knew... It was hard to NOT smile!

So missy, when are you stepping up (again)?

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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"great draft mule" - Thanks. I usually get told that on the bike with my aerodynamic coefficient of a country barn on rollerskates.
I wouldn't be surprised from where we started, your swim description, I know I had someone with me the whole way out and our swim finish times. If it was you glad to be of service.
Congratulations on a fantastic race for both of you.



it turns out that our OP is only "mostly" dead........ ElGordo
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Funny you should ask. I was devising a plan while out with the doggies this morning. I think 2011 just might be a possibility. A local (actually in New West!) friend bugged me for a while yesterday about doing it with him in 2011 and since he'd be an easy training partner, that just might work. But don't tell anyone... :)


______________________________________
I know I'm promiscuous, but in a classy way
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [D!] [ In reply to ]
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I'll do what I can to get up there next year. For the first year since 2005 I didn't go to any events and I missed it. Since I'll have such great company spectating it will really be worth the trip. And no, I will not be signing up for 2011.

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Jen

"In order to keep a true perspective on one's importance, everyone should have a dog that worships him and a cat that will ignore him." - Dereke Bruce
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [NorthShore] [ In reply to ]
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LOL! Were you wearing a Zoot wetsuit? ;-)

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Sorry I guess I wasn't your knight, Desoto. Someone else must have cruised in behind me...it was a 1 in 2602 chance.
At least I enjoyed the draft of 1000 people passing me on the bike. Note to self: Train more.



it turns out that our OP is only "mostly" dead........ ElGordo
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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I yelled at you to quit slacking off and get moving when you approached that woman by the side of the road, and only then did I see K & L running out to see you. K gave me this bewildered look as if to say "Why is that man yelling mean things at my mommy?" Obviously, some day she'll learn. :p

I then asked you for 40min of pain - and was very pleased to receive a text from Julian some 40min later, telling me that you had just finished. Way to gut it out.


Paulo was very excited to get that sweaty hug from you on your outbound trip as well, and commented that "she actually smelled pretty good... surprisingly".


Nice job out there, the both of you.


<If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough>
Get Fitter!
Proud member of the Smartasscrew, MONSTER CLUB
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Re: IMC Race report (pics coming once ASI gets off thier butts) - v long [AndyPants] [ In reply to ]
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Skype? I'm easy to find there. It's the time difference and me being away most weekends that makes things challenging.

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"There's good all around you, you just have to be able to see it".
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