306 sleeps

This weekend was pretty special.  I attended my first ironman as a volunteer.  Had a fantastic time with great and very special friends.  My roommate, 2 girls from the triclub and I signed up as wetsuit peelers, and 4 close friends were competing in the race, and 3 other tri club friends came down to spectate as well!

I went down Saturday to go the "volley" meeting and learn how to wetsuit peel, very hard skill :P  Met our leader John who was so nice, and the other peelers.... hehehe.

Simon Whitfield and his Olympic Medals

After our meeting I took advantage of being at ironman and toured and village, ran into Simon Whitfield, he let me wear his olympic medals and get a picture with him...















 that was pretty special.  Then I ran one loop of the whistler course (21km) to see what the athletes were in for.  What a treat, it was just a spectacular course, although I don't know how much you take in after an insane swim and bike.....

me heading out on the run course

We all stayed at one of the triclubbers condos in the village, had a group dinner, lots of laughs and lots of fun.

run course view

T1 at 6:00am

The next morning my ironmen were up at 4am and the peelers weren't far behind at 5am.  Out the door at 5:30 and we biked up to the race start.  Being a wetsuit peeler was truly the best job ever.  I was let into T1 so I got to see all the bikes, hang out with my friends getting ready and first row seats for the terrifying (treading water.... yikes) swim start.

T1 with my Ironfriends, pre-race pep talk

As for the actual job I had a blast, nothing quite like an athlete soaking wet running up to you yelling "I need a stripper" at which point I replied with "lay down on the ground".... seriously so fun, and most of the athletes were so gracious.... our volunteer wrangler thanked us about 100 times.  My triclub peeler ladies and I stayed to help with clean up and moving of the wet bags before heading out onto the bike course.

wetsuit peelers!

 Holly and I set up shop and managed to see Winstorm and Chris coming out of olympic village, we then moved up towards the end of the bike course and caught the first place athletes and waiting to see Brendan, Winston and Chris pass and head back into T2.  I lost my voice from cheering, so many athletes gave thumbs up and peace signs when you cheered for them, that made it extra awesome.

The rest of the day for me was spent at T2 watching transition and the start of the run and then watching wurtele take the win in a time of 8:39 and looking strong.  Just an amazing and fun day.  I hope to volunteer there again next year!

cheering on the bike course

Ironman winner

Now for my big news..... I got home super inspired, my legs are feelings amazing after a horrible post race season slump.... I signed up for ironman.  I have my confirmation.  I'm doing it.  306 sleeps away from Ironman Couere D'Alene in Idaho.  Winston and James, two awesome friends, have signed up as well, and a few others are strongly considering it.  My life as I know it ends now.  I have very specific goals for this race, but for now I'm keeping those goals to myself. After everything that's happened in my life in the "recent" past I am willing to sacrifice a lot for this specific goal. I am very excited though and very motivated to share my journey which will likely start with the Victoria Marathon..... stay tuned.

beautiful view of the swim course

Things that keep me going

Something I love about triathlon is how addictive it is, but also how contagious it is.  Since I've started and people in my life have watched me compete and grow, 3 people who are very close to me have done their first triathlon (one has done a second!) and 2 other people are training for them, because they watched me do them, love them, and want the amazing experience for themselves.  I love helping them and encouraging them, it brings me true happiness.  Training with people and watching them progress is amazing.  This is an email from one of my protege's after their first triathlon.  It makes me smile every time I read it..... He competed in his first triathlon after months of fun emails and facebook posts back and forth between us.  I mostly find this funny because it is so perfectly relevant to the new and experienced triathlete to go through these emotions and realizations.. Without further ado, a message from a close friend....

"Highlights and lowlights in my raceday recap.
Lowlights, 
1- Waking up to a flat rear tire on my bike...... 
2- Waking up at 5am....
3- Worrying about my flat tire and forgetting my light breakfast....
4- pre-race dump.... 
5-during the swim, the guy who kept zig zagging in front of me so I kept tickling his feet. 
5.5- The run to the transition and out of transition. What's up with that!
6- after the swim, struggling to get my muffin top on then having the pin rip out of my bib and costing me precious seconds to re pin. 
7- All the freakin' hill climbing in both the bike AND run! Didn't factor that into my training regimen. 
8- All the turns they put at the end of the bike course that slowed me down. 
9- Getting stopped by the transition warden (I call them the tranny cops) to tell me to do my helmet strap back up or I couldn't go put my bike up, costing me precious seconds to do up. 

Highlights 
1- Tubes for sale for $9 bucks at the event! Score....although now I need a new tire pump to pump up my rear tire... 
2- Pre race jitters. Anticipation is awesome.
 3- Doing the swim non-stop. Although I got passed by a bunch of Lises, who although they started three minutes after the men, still managed to pass me before the end of the swim.
 4- Passing many people on the bike portion and not getting passed. Passed a couple of those Lises that beat me at the swim as well! 
5- Going downhill and just flying, although I was kind of worried that my back tire was going to fly off due to my incompetent tire change, but it didn't so I was flying. 
6- Doing the run non stop, passing a few people and not getting passed! Yes!
 7- High fiving the volunteers, good one coach!
 8- At the water station when the water dudes asked me if I wanted water and I replied "No thanks, I have cold beer waiting at the finish line." They laughed, and yes, I had cold beer after my race....at 10 to 9 in the morning...
 9- Finishing the race. How sweet it was! 

Now I'm going to have to do a few more to beat this base time I have set for myself. I feel I could've squeezed some more out of myself on all 3 portions, but, I didn't know how to gauge how my body was going to feel later on...although I did giver pretty hard on the bike portion. So all in all, good times. Thanks coach, I'm no longer a try a tri virgin and know what I need to get done to get better. Then I can do a Sprint...then I can do a fully.....then I can do a half ironman....then I can do an ironman.....maybe not. I think I'll stick with the little guys for now!"

oh ya, did I mention my above friend placed third in age in his second race!! #proudcoachandfriend:)

My Favourite Enemy

Article by Jens Voigt.  The man who coined the term "shut up legs"

All athletes go through bouts of pain that you have to push through.

I"m at a burnout crossroads in many parts of my life, including triathlon.  My legs just can't do it.  I'm just exhausted and drained and some days it's just hard to feel good enough.  But maybe it's that way for everyone

http://bicycling.com/blogs/hardlyserious/2013/07/30/my-favorite-enemy/

" I like the feeling because it proves you are still alive"