We got into town on the Tues. prior to race day. Wednesday afternoon was the trip up to Mission Hill to propose to Katie. I’d been in touch with their Food/Beverage Manager a few weeks prior, so they were expecting us. Sat at a great table overlooking Lake Okanagan, ate a stellar lunch and have some really good wine. The staff at MH was very good to us - the week was off to a nice start.
Back to Penticton and did the usual pre race routine of tuning the bike, easy swims in the a.m., and generally checking out the village. I was really relaxed the whole week, and was generally feeling good about the race on Sunday. I hadn’t ran in almost 2 months because of my stress fracture, and Katie was really worried about what might happen in the race, but I promised her that I wouldn’t push to the point that something really bad could happen. I wanted this trip to be memorable for us because of our engagement, not as the race where I broke my leg and spent the night in the hospital getting it set… So with that mindset, I lined up wide to the left on Sunday and left my ego (and expectations) back in the room.
I did a quick warm-up after the pros got off at 6:45 and then came back behind the tape to wait for the cannon. Gave Katie a quick kiss goodbye, and then we were off. The water was fairly shallow for the first hundred meters, but before long I was swimming. I stayed far to the left and found a house above the highway to sight on. There were two guys around me, but otherwise the main pack was about 100 meters to our right (I have a bunch of busted up ribs that are never going to heal, so I couldn’t afford the chance of getting a kick in the chest). Hit the first turn without any contact at all and was feeling pretty good. Found a set of feet as we started heading into the sun and things were feeling easy until I realized that my guy must have been sighting on a waterskier - we were way off track. It was really hard to sight with the sun directly in my eyes and about 2 inches off the water, but before long I was back on the edge of the pack. Rest of the swim was uneventful - I continued to avoid getting in the pack, took the last turn wide and was on the beach at about 1:12.
Out on the bike and things felt good as I left town and hit McClean Creek Road. Noticed way to many people with flats and guessed that some asshole had put tacks out again this year. Conversations with others after the race would confirm this - Bike Barn did over 300 flats out of the support truck, and one guy I knew pulled a tack out of his new rubber just outside of Oliver. It was full peloton until the base of Richter. With ~2250 people starting the race this was pretty inevitable. The climb to Richter seemed to require a little more work than previous efforts, but nothing too significant. Next was a steady effort until the rollers were behind me and on to the out and back. The winds were starting to kick up pretty hard, and the ‘out’ part was a bit nasty with the growing headwind. I hit Yellow Lakes feeling reasonably fresh, and the crowds were awesome with the cow bells, yelling, and etc. From the top the descent is pretty fast and winding with the last 15k being pretty much down hill. Got my last snack on and stretched out a bit to get ready for the run. Bike ~6:00
The run course was a little bit different this year with an out and back section to start the first few K before heading out of town to run along Skaha Lake. Again the crowd support was fantastic, and I reached the edge of town feeling good. I’d been conservative on the bike, and my legs were feeling good. Unfortunately within the next 15 minutes my SF was starting to flare up, and it wasn’t much longer before I was running with significant pain. I slowed down, walked for a bit, then tried picking the pace up again. I could run for about 10 minutes before it would really start to throb. This went on for the remainder of the run. Not the result I would have liked, and I know I could have done better if my leg had cooperated more. At the end of the day, I know I gave an honest effort and that’s what I’ll remember when I think back on this race.