Lots of 1st for Ironman Canada.

-First time in Penticton and racing IM Canada.
-First time I change my tubular flat tire.
-First time I broke the 3 hour barrier in an Ironman marathon
-First time I broke 9 hours in an Ironman.
-First time I didn’t get "chicked" (beaten by a girl)in an Ironman…and she broke the 20 year old course record today.


The Swim:
Swam the first 1k with a handful of people. You were suppose to keep the buoys to your right and they were swimming inside where the buoys were on their left. I decided to swim it the right way because I didn’t want to get DQ for any reason. Then I swam the rest of the swim by myself. The water temp was 71.6 so I used my full Xterra Wetsuit and finished the swim in 1:04 which was a PR.

The Bike:
I felt strong on the bike and was picking up guys right and left. Especially on the climbs I was catching them like flies. I have to thank the Colorado Rockies for providing me thousands of feet of climbing. Then at mile 80 I got a flat. A race support motor cycle drove by and slowed down and I yelling. “I have a flat, I need help please!” They just sped up and kept driving. I thought that there might be some race support at this intersection a little ways up the road as my front tire was getting close to completely flat. I couldn’t get going cause I was on a hill and was in bike gears as I almost fell off my bike trying to do so. I got off my bike and put it in an easier gear and then made it up the hill to the intersection were I thought race support was. There were about 50 plus people there and they said that it was just a few hundred feet further. NOPE! No race support. I jumped off my bike, took my front tire off and started peeling the tire off. It took me a little bit of time to feel it off because the tire was on there pretty good with glue. I grabbed my spare and tried putting it on. It was sooo tight! Did I pre stretch it? Yes, I did. However I have traveled around with it so much and it has been in my 150+ degree explorer that my spare tire had shrunk a little. I muscled and muscled as I FINALLY got it on. Put some air in it and off I go again. Then about 2-3 minutes later I realized it was rubbing on my brake. I stopped and re adjusted my brakes. Kept riding for another mile and realized it was still rubbing. I stopped again and loosen my brakes. Then I kept riding for another few miles and noticed shards of rubber on my leg. The wheel was rubbing on my fork! I stopped and re-adjusted it so it wasn’t rubbing. (I found out later that there was a chuck of medal in the fork where you put the skewer causing the wheel to rub on the fork) Finally I was on my way and by this time I had probably lost a total of 15 minutes with all of the stops and changing the flat. I was on my was to a low to mid 4:40’s bike split which would have been one of the fastest of the day. I ended up riding a 4:56 instead.

The Run:
By this point it was in the low to mid 90’s. I just got in a rhythm and was clipping some fast miles. The was flat on some sections to rolly with a few challenging hills close to the turn around. I got to the half way mark and it was a 1:25 split. On the way back I closed in a 1:28 and finished up with a 2:54 marathon and the second fastest of the day in my regular training shoes.

The Finish: I finished in 8:59…just enough to break that 9 hour barrier! :) As usual, I finished with a Blazeman roll in memory of my mother and other who have and had battled with ALS. I finished 7th overall. I was really hoping for a top 5 finish. Without the tire incident, I most likely would have finished 4th or 5th. Regardless I am blessed that I was able to fix my tire and end the day on a decent note.

I have had an amazing homestay here in Penticton, BC. I LOVE the area: climate is great, training here is great, community is great and it’s beautiful here! If you ever get the chance to come, do it!

I am about 99% confident that I will be racing in Ironman world championships now :) I'll let everyone know as soon as I find out. It works on a point base system now and they only accept the top 50 in the world.