This past weekend, I had the privilege to be a part of the original Ultraman race in Penticton BC, Canada. There is no way I can fully capture or recap 3 days of crazy racing, but I have to try. Often these events are about the personal journey and the battle to get to the start and finish of the darn event - which in itself, is a worthy feat.
This past weekend was that, and it it was also a full on race.
I went into the event, feeling good and looking forward to a new challenge, as a few KQ fails over the past several years, lead me to a break from long distance racing. Coming back, I wanted a new challenge to invest my efforts into, and to me, this race seemed liked the one to do. So a year and half ago, I signed up and began getting myself back into tri life 
I don’t want this to be too long, so I’m going to speed things up (I have a plane to catch!). After day 1 & 2 of the race (which combine 10km of swimming and 425.6km of cycling), I had a very narrow 2min and 49sec lead over Berry Berg and only about a 16min lead over 3rd place racer, Kevin Esser.
Day 3 of the race is the Double Marathon. An 84.4km trek of hilly running on a mix of pavement and mostly dirt roads, surrounded by gorgeous lakes and mountain views. The 3 of us started out together, but after about 3km, the race went back to “full on”, as it had been the previous 2 days! Kevin began separating himself from Barry and I, as he knew he had time to make up and he wasn’t going to let either of us, just have the win.
Neither I or Barry felt ready to go with him, so we remained shoulder to shoulder for the next 26-28km of running. At the 10km mark, Kevin had put 2+ minutes into both of us, and legendary race announcer Steve King was there to give the splits and be sure we knew things were very interesting!
At around 28km, I began opening up a small gap on Barry. This wasn’t planned, but it just happened. I was nervous, as this was my first Ultraman and I knew Barry was a veteran racer, with 4x Kona finishes under his belt (he wasn’t likely to screw his plan up!). I kept rolling along, keeping my heartrate in range and my crew of 3, continued their phenomenal support, giving me everything I needed (as they had all weekend!).
Between 55 and 65km, we started hitting some unexpectedly hard climbs. The heat had also risen, and the grind was setting in. My pace started to slow, and my pacer let me know, that I’d likely be seeing Barry again, as he was managing to latch back onto me.
Sure enough, Barry and his crew made the catch around the 65km mark, and then it was on…again! He and his crew led and lifted the pace. Now we were throwing down low 5min km splits again, which after 3 days of racing and 70km of running felt even faster! There were some brutal decents, as we closed nearer to the end, that just had our quads screaming. I knew if I could just hang on long enough, that he’d run out of real estate, and thankfully, I was able to.
Kevin had courageously remained in front of us the entire run, but the gap never got so big, that it would be enough to move him up a spot or two. In the final km’s my pacer rejoined me, and together we went to the finish, just 13 seconds ahead of Barry and his crew!
My final run split was 7:49:01 (5:32/km), giving me a 3 day total of 23:41:41. The final gap to second place Barry Berg, was only 3:02! That’s like 1 second in a 5km race… Still can’t believe it!
My hat is off to both Barry and Kevin for making me race to my best. We certainly won’t ever forget the battle that we shared, and I am just thrilled that I was able to be a part of such an awesome race and event!
I certainly would recommend this race to anyone who is considering the distance - the course, Steve Brown (RD) and his team, are world class! If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them, but I’ll be in the air most of the day, as I travel back home to Ontario, so bear with me.
Geez… I can’t believe I just wrote a race report that was mostly about the run. I only run, because it comes after the swim and the bike! 
Thanks for reading!
Jon Bell