Greeting Slowtwitchers. Thanks for the advice and humorous distractions all season.
Here’s a couple pictures of Lisa Bently:
My wife Petra (Ironman #2 for her - she’s a supa star)
Me:
This is my second Ironman and first as a Penticton Local Triathlete.
The start of the day, standing on the beach at 6:45am, knee deep in the lake and a helicopter swoops in low from behind us buzzing the beach while Van Halen blared Might as well JUMP! energized me and set me up for the whole day.
Suddenly the cannon goes off and we’re just like salmon swimming up stream. Call me crazy, but I love that crowded swim start. What a rush. Finally evened out just before the first turn. Counting the bouys, focusing on long smooth strokes, I feel like I’m swimming as good as I could. I tried to stay flexible so I could roll with the punches - and there were plenty. After the final turn I knew I should pee before I get out of the water, but I wasn’t able to concentrate on peeing and keeping my stroke effort consistant. I decided it was more important to swim, and I could pee later in transition. Close to the beach now, 100 meters from shore and I finally filled my wet suit with pee. (I love triathlon, the only sport where peeing your pants is socially acceptable behaviour). Afterwards I pulled open the front of my wet suit to let some water in so its easier to get my suit off and the volunteer peelers don’t have to handle my bodily fluids. Swim time: goal 1:20 actual 1:19
Being a Penticton local means our transition bags were in the first row closest to the change tent. Nice. Inside, the tent it is packed but a volunteer came over and went to work as my personal dresser. This race has the best volunteers! Out of the change tent and more good luck as my bike is racked in row 4 - the first row after the pro’s - and closest to the mount line, thanks again to being a local.
On my bike and flying down Main street, getting teary eyed as the crowd goes nuts because I’m wearing a LOCAL TRIATHLETE jersey. All day long, on the bike and the run, the crowd support for the locals is like an extra gear. The sense of team spirit from the other locals is likewise uplifting. There were about 125 locals of all ages and pace so there was always someonel close by to support and be supported.
Anyway, still going down main street, and I’m passing most people since the bike is my strongest event and the swim is my slowest. A few blocks into my ride and someone passes me. For a few quick seconds I think about putting hammer down and chasing him down, but then I remind myself that this guy is not part of my race plan and so I let him go, and promise myself that I’m going to take the first quarter of the ride easy, and focus on nutrition and water. At this point in the race the weather couldn’t be better: cool temps, cloud cover, and a ripping fast tailwind.
At the end of the first quarter, just outside Oliver my average speed is 34KPH (avg cadence 88) which covers the first 45 km’s in 1:19.
Second quarter covers the climb up richter pass and the decent down the other side. The ride up was easy, and I never felt stronger as I spun an easy gear and smiled at the crowd and basked in the local limelight. Down the other side, I reached a maximum speed of 80.3 kph. Faster than I’ve ever been on a bike, thanks to my rental race wheels (zipp 808 tubulars). Once we’re down Richter and start on the rollers to Keremeos, we face a big ass headwind that is relentless. Average speed for the quarter 28.7 (average cadence 83) - 45 k in 1:33.
The next quarter covers the rest of the rollers, and the soul sucking out and back through Cawston. We battle the headwind all the way to Becks road, then turn around and head back the way we came. At least that means we’ll have a tailwind for a while, but of course we’ll turn around in 15K and face the damn wind again. Climbing the little hill on the way, I see a guy in front of me with his race bib displaying his last name: Banting. So I ride up to him “any relation to Sir Fredrick?”, I ask. “Yes, he was my great, great uncle.” One of my daughters and myself are diabetic. “Thanks to him, we’re alive today. Have a great day,” I tell him. Third quarter average speed 27.7 kph (cadence avg 86) - 45K in 1:37.
Finally reach The Bear fruitstand, and I’m thinking we should have a tailwind now, but it was not to be. Cllimbing up Yellow lake was a challenge but its my favourite part of the race because the fan support is fantastic. It feels like a mountain stage of the tour de france with people screaming on both sides of you chearing you on like crazy. One woman, with a large poster in the middle of her otherwise naked body claiming “Looking 4 husband” was quite memorable. I shared the climb with a guy from California doing his first ironman, and didn’t know the course or what to expect. I gave him the play by play of what was coming up, and we chatted most of the way up the hill.
Once you’re up and over yellow lake its one long swoosh and suddenly your back in town. More headwind and now rain to deal with, but it doesn’t last long and the croud noise trumps wind and rain anyways.
Final bike split: Goal 6:00, actual 6:02.(Secretly, I was hoping for a faster split with the race wheels, but didn’t expect these winds so they cancelled each other out, I suppose).
Onto the Run. My only real goal to accomplish on this day was to have a better run split than last year, which was just awful. To achieve my goal, I planned to run a steady slow pace of 11:00 miles until mile 18 and then pick up the pace if I could and hold it until the end. That strategy would bring me in an hour faster than last year.
I used my Garmin 305 heart monitor with GPS to keep me on pace, but I couldn’t lock into a satelite for the first mile and a half. Once I did, I could see I was running too fast (9:30 pace) and quickly slowed down. I held my pace all the way to OK falls, and made the turn around feeling great. More headwind to deal with but at my pace its not that much of an impact. Looking at my Garmin data after the race I can see that I managed to keep my pace pretty close to 11:00, except for the hills in and out of OK falls, which dropped my pace by a minute or so. So far my strategy was working, but then as I reached the 18 mile marker, my strategic plan just kind of unravelled, and it was all I could to do hang on for another 8 miles. Mile 18 to 22 was tough, and I walked a bit, but this was nothing compared to last year, when I walked and threw up from mile 14 to 24. Once again, my local jersey helped me out as the crowd cheered for me and called my name the whole way. The aid stations were great, lots of everything with no shortages. Finally reached Main street, and I zigzagged down the chute high-fiving people and raising my arms in the air like a rock star. My two daughters picked me up at about 500 meters and ran with me to just before the finish chute, and then dropped off so they didn’t get in anyone’s way as I came across the line.
Final run split: goal 4:45, actual: 4:56.
Final outcome Goal 12:15, actual 12:30. An improvement of 47 minutes over last year, thanks to a better run and a bette jersey.