Small, small world...

I'm getting back into training, but I'm still in party mode. I'm having the time of my life right now.

It's only May and I've already done two Ironman races this year and the summer hasn't even yet begun. It's the weirdest feeling. It's like two years in one. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to long training sessions in the heat. I've had enough of the cold.

After work I went out for beers. It's the second time I've been out this week and each time the waitresses were flirting with me. There's nothing better for the ego than the young pretty waitresses touching your arm and stuff.

Mind you, I shouldn't take it personally. If I was a waitress I'd touch old guys arms and flutter my eye lashes too. It brings in better tips. I was getting a big head about it all until she started touching the arm of the 50 something year old I was with. He shall remain nameless, he didn't want to be mentioned in my blog. Pussy.

We both like our beers. If there's anyone that can come close to me when it comes to drinking, it's him. I'm talking beer on beer. If it's a combination of the four booze groups, I'd lose. For those normal people who don't know what the four beer groups are; it's beer, wine, hard stuff and liquor. I can't mix, I turn Indian if I do. But beer for beer, I'll take on anyone.

We were talking war stories, who can drink more. I stared with a 20 beers and a 6 hour bike ride story after only 3 hours of sleep. He wasn't impressed. It was escalating. Then I asked him if he ever woke up on a Monday morning with a shaky hand when he reached for the alarm clock.

I thought I had him, until he told me he has such strong heart palpitations that he bought a blood pressure machine and put it beside his bed. If he's had a bad night, before he even sits up, he checks his blood pressure to see if it's safe. He trumped me on that one.

Two days ago, I got an email that I put on the blog, it was from a new follower, Corey Philp, and he was telling me that he was motivated by my blog to drink more beer. Corey is a fellow Canadian and lives in Toronto. He then sent me an email thread between him and one of his business colleagues from Calgary. I thought I'd post it, I thought it was blog worthy.

Corey:

This guy just missed qualifying for Kona in the 45-49 category, perhaps you should adopt his nutrition plan

At the first hour mark I had my egg McMuffin. I was riding by people and taunting them. I was like, "hey, did you get your egg McMuffin at the last aid station". One guy thought I was joking until he saw it in my had. I could see their mouths were watering. I was thinking, "enjoy your powerbar, hehe".

I got to the 40 km mark with a 32.8 km average. I was happy with that, especially since I wasn't pushing it to hard.

Gord McFarlane:

I like a strategy even I could adopt.

I once did a half ironman in Morden Manitoba and about half way through the run ventured off to the Dairy Queen on the course and got a blizzard.

Corey

I have been reading the guy’s blog, turns out his first half ironman was the Morden Tin Man you speak of below. He is a former president of Triathlon Manitoba. Left Winnipeg for Ontario 6 or 7 years ago and just sold his printing company. His name is Bryan Payne, his brother Bob Payne also has a printing company in Winnipeg.

Gord McFarlane

No kidding…I know Bryan very well….did my very first Ironman with him. He split his wetsuit 5 minutes before the start…he is a legend. Great guy

Me to Gord Mcfarlane

G, how the f*ck is it going. What a small word. I got an email from Corey, who follows my blog and saw the thread back to you. I was tingling.

How's life?

Gord McFarlane

I couldn’t believe it when he showed me the name.

We do need to catch up…I did Ironman again last year after 9 years off.

It was painful.

I will call you next week. Travelling now

Me

sounds great. Looking forward to it.

Gord McFarlane

Corey….thanks for getting two old buds together. I will be hooking up with Bryan next time in TO…maybe you can join us as we swap war stories!

Me to Gord McFarlane and Corey

Ah...you guys are wanting to experience my nutritional program first hand. haha.

Corey

Gord should bring his new Cervelo and join you on one of your 6 hour rides after a cigar and 20 beer. He’s been training at altitude for years, he can handle it…

What a small world.

Tonight it was raining and especially after beers I didn't want to train. I've done so much this year that I have no guilt not training because of poor weather, I've earned the pass. However, training tonight was meant to be.

Reid hit the wall. He had a BAD day. Everything sucked, it started at school. By the end of the night he hadn't done his run and I started the abuse. He was at a breaking point. I told him that he better do it because "if not you'd lose your $1000 and he'd be letting the blog world down".

He had tears in his eyes. He wanted to renegotiate that he get paid daily and that it wouldn't be an all or nothing. I said, "to bad, so sad, SIU baby!". He was on the verge of a breakdown and Alice was quitely telling me to back down. Er, more like "stand down". You don't want to come between a mother bear and her cub.

I knew I had to do something, so I said, I'll run with you. Lets go. And he agreed. It had just stopped raining and he started off strong for 100 meters, then it was a solid 13 minute per mile pace. I stayed by his side and started singing the Rocky song, "dun, dunda, dun, dunda, dun, dun, dun" to him. His spirits picked up.

He only stopped once for about 30 seconds and he said it was the first time he only stopped once during a run. I was pulling ahead and slowed down. I told him, "I'm not leaving you, no brother left behind!" as I grabbed him by his collar and pulled him forward faster. I then told him that when he gets faster than me, he better not leave me. The rule is "No brother left behind".

To me, if I ride or run with someone and even if they are not as fast or bonk, I never leave them. "No brother left behind", I explained this to Reid.

When we got home, he was happy. I figured since I was outside already, I may as well keep going. I did another 30 minutes on my own. Then it was back to the downstairs bar for beers and cigars. There's nothing better than a run sandwiched between beers and cigars.

The picture today is of my Manitoba brothers, Saul Simmons, Me, Rich Sohor and on the left is my old buddy GORD McFARLANE.

Reid Run - 20:00 / 3 km's - approx.

My Run - 31:45 / 5.96 km / 5:19 pace

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