Ironman Canada 2k7 signup

All right, time for a change. I had planned to do a blog to record my training and feelings and whatever else I wanted in the year leading up to my Ironman race, so here it is, built upon the ashes of my old blog. Not that many will be reading this anyways, but you never know.

This story begins on Saturday night. We (my girlfriend and I) went out and got pretty drunk for her roommate's birthday at an east-coast bar. Good times, lots of beer. Unfortunately this meant a hangover for the roughly 4-hour journey to Penticton. Not cool, but necessary. I would have felt bad if we were forced to leave Paula alone and sober on her birthday.

Sunday morning was fraught with peril. We were late in getting the car, and when it finally arrived, Robin somehow managed to break off the key in the trunk's lock. It's funny that I wasn't concerned or mad or anything. I had just resolved that if this turned into shit, I would simply hop on a bus and go to Penticton that way. There was no way in hell that I was missing this signup for anything. Fortunately, after an annoying phone call, we picked up another car, packed up our stuff, and were on our way.

The drive was fast and pretty uneventlful. By the time we hit Kelowna I could tell Robin was sick of driving, but that last leg was short and we were both happy to be out of the car by then.

We arrived in Penticton at about 5pm, just as the pro women were coming in actually. Robin and I walked over to Main St. and saw the 3rd Pro woman run past, as well as a bunch of the top men, all finishing their day, while the slower cyclists were either still coming in or just starting their runs. Knowing that they still had a marathon to run made me feel for them, remembering the horrible pain I had during my first marathon earlier this year.

We walked over to the finish chute and got to watch a bunch of extremely fit athletes cross the finish line. My girlfriend had been toying with the idea of signing up for the race, due to both myself and an ultra-distance runner friend of her's at work telling her that a full year of good training could take a new triathlete (her first was about 2 weeks earlier) to Ironman triathlete with relative ease. I think seeing these people crossing the line sealed the deal for her, as it did for me 2 years ago when I saw a recap of the finish on TV.

The we walked behind the finish line to see what happens to the athletes there and her resolve shook a little. Many of the men, once over the line, slumped into the catchers' arms, or collapsed on the ground and had to be picked up. Some ended up on stretchers with IV's in their arms, and the sound of ambulances could be heard until about 1am.

We left the finish line and went to check out the lineup for next year's race and were shocked to already see about 100 people in a line snaking down lakeshore drive, over a bridge, and into a little park by a roundabout. Not wanting to miss a chance at signing up, I decided to get in line then. We put some chairs down with out stuff in line, then figured we could get some food and watch the last finishers between 10pm and midnight.

Watching for those last two hours was an amazing experience. Unlike before when the faster people ran through with less fanfare, now every competitor was cheered on by a ferocious crowd and usually ran through with family and friends. It was quite a thing to watch. The music was blaring YMCA and a surprisingly spry Lisa Bentley came out and was jumping around like crazy, no signs apparent that she had placed second in an Ironman only a few hours before. She was later joined by Belinda Granger, Jasper Black, and Courtney Ogden, all signing autographs and throwing stuff to the crowd. Pretty awesome.

The end of the race came and went, and we were all saddened by Madonna Buder's DNF (she got sick on the run apparently and pulled out), but another man was coming into the finish at about 17:10 and it was decided that, despite being past the cutoff, he would still receive a t-shirt and finishers medal. This was because he stopped twice to help other competitors with flat tires, then stopped again to help out Madonna Buder on the run. Had he not stopped, he likely would have come in under 17 hours. It was a show of sportsmanship the likes of which I don't think I've ever seen before.

After this we headed back to the lineup where our stuff was where we left it. We crawled under a blanket and slept until about 6am when the line started moving for the 9am registration. Why these people were in a rush to get up and stand around for 3 hours when they could be lying on the nice comfy grass I'll never know, but when the line moves, you move with it. I do recall being briefly awaken at about 4am by the sound of people moving, wondering if the line was already moving then, but it turns out that was just a bunch of people who had the misfortune of sleeping next to the sprinkler system being forced to move out of the way. The comments of one man "I was wondering why the grass here was so green!" made us all laugh, then fall back asleep.

The morning was cold, but once the sun hit us it heated everything up pretty fast. The registration started 10 minutes early and we were through in a matter of minutes. Pretty slick. That is how every registration ever should be done for anything. Actually, it was kind of anti-climactic as we didn't even have to pay any money, so it didn't seem quite as real. That gets done online after. Oh well. I'm happy in any case as I met a huge goal in simply signing up for the race.

Prior to this, I was always say that I was "planning on doing Ironman," implying some vague future date, whenever someone asked me, even knowing that this is the year I was planning on doing it. Now I can say with confidence "I'm doing Ironman in 361 days." Wow, I guess I should learn how to swim!