China Bound...

I kind of can’t believe it’s happening, I’m on my way to Ironman China. Sitting on the plane, it hit me, this is REAL.

I’ve travelled a lot and I’ve never been more nervous about making a flight in my life. Last night I packed my bike and two large suitcases. This time I only put my bike and pump in the bike box.

I used to put most of my gear along with my bike in the box. But I learnt in Clearwater when they lost my bike, it’s easier to buy or find a new bike, than it is to replace all the gear.

I was up at 4:30 am and went for a moderate run. Mark Allen recommended I do it before I left to get my metabolism going. As I was finishing, I saw Jamie Grant through his front window of his house; he’s an early bird. I knocked on the door in the pre-dawn, he answered and said, “that’s a good way to get shot” and wished me luck.

Jamie’s done 8 or more Ironman’s and was originally going to do Ironman China with John and I, but for medical reasons had to withdrawal. He was really bummed about it and I felt bad for him and myself. I was looking forward to doing it with him.

When I got home, I stretched, had a protein smoothie, and a bath to fix the poor body shaving I did yesterday. Lots of missed spots and I didn’t want to do it in China, nick myself and risk something nasty in the water getting into my blood stream.

Alice came with me to the Airport. We were out the door by 6:14 am for my 9 am flight. Four minutes off schedule. I was tense as I drove to the Airport. It was Monday morning at Pearson International, probably one of its busiest times; I was just imaging the length of the line-ups.

I was also flying Air Canada and if anything can go wrong, it will with Air Canada. I kissed Alice good by and walked in with a tense lower back, thinking, “am I going to make my plane?”

Everything went off without a hitch, actually, it went surreally smooth. It could have been a disaster had I not asked Air Canada support people for help along the way.

My first stop was International departures; after all I’m going to Shanghai. The line up was long and before I stood in it, I asked if this was the right line? The agent said, “no, you need to go domestic because you’re going through Vancouver”. First disaster averted.

I went to domestic and asked another agent “am I in the right line?” He said “Yes, but you have a bike and we don’t have the ability to charge you, you need to go to another line”. Second disaster averted.

I ended up being told I have to pay an extra $275. The bike was only $50, but the second bag was $225. What the hell? I told the agent the website said I could bring two bags, she said the bike makes it three. Damn. I gave her the puppy dog eyes and asked “is there was anything you could do, I wasn’t expecting the charge”. She thought for a while and ended up taking off $50 for the bike. I told her “good karma will come to you today, buy a lottery ticket”.

Then I got to security. The line was at least 150 meters long. I was cool; I still had 90 minutes to get to the gate. The line moved fast and I was through in 20 minutes. As I got through security, I noticed an American Express lounge. I’d never seen it there before and I’m a Platinum Card Member. It turned out it was free for me. Yes!

It was the best airport lounge I’d ever been in. It even had a hot breakfast buffet and free Wi-Fi. I was able to post Sunday’s blog post. It was the only thing I couldn’t fit into yesterday’s schedule and I really wanted to post the picture of Alyssa and Nazaire.

Once posted, I arrived at the gate as plane was boarding. Perfect timing! I was relaxing myself and taking deep breath’s to loosen up my back. I ended up getting an aisle seat with no one in the middle for the Vancouver portion. Another big Yes!

About 30 minutes into the flight, I had a verklempt moment. This whole Ironman China reality hit me like a ton of bricks. My eyes started to well up as I thought about the journey that has got me to this moment in time.

I was thinking about when I decided to get healthy and back in shape in May of 2007; it was 2 years and 10 months ago, 3 triathlon racing seasons ago, 50 lbs heavier ago, and close to 30,000 km of training ago.

When I started my comeback, I never in a million years would have thought in less than 3 years, I’d have a legitimate shot at qualifying for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. Heck, in my first sprint race in 2007, I finished 550 out of 600. And even when I did triathlons in my 20’s, I was only an upper middle of the packer with my best Ironman only being a 12:22.

When I crossed the finish line in my first ever Ironman in 1987, I had tears in my eyes, it was a very emotional moment for me. It was a great feeling and had personal meaning. Strangely, when I finished Ironman Louisville in 2008, I thought I might be emotional, but I wasn’t.

Ironman China may be different story. I’m fairly certain I will be emotional when I cross that finish line, providing I know I gave it everything I have, regardless if I qualify for Kona or not.

If I do qualify, I’ll definitely be emotional in China once more. I when I qualified for Clearwater. Crossing that finish line and setting a PB during the Steelhead 70.3, I had my first blast of teary emotion and finding out I qualified, I got my second. Alyssa said she never saw me so happy.

I know going into this race I’ve worked as hard as I could. I couldn’t prepare any more. I didn’t “phone in” one workout and only, on rare occasion, missed a workout. When I did, it was only for Christmas and burnout or injury prevention.

Ironman China is my pinnacle race. I know if I race Kona, like Clearwater, I’ll probably not be too emotional when I cross the finish line. Hopefully I’m wrong, but it wouldn’t bother me if I didn't have an emotional finish. China is my big race!

I’ve also been bold in setting the goal bar high and stating my intention of going to China with the sole purpose of qualifying for Kona. It’s a cocky thing to do and it could be argued I’m setting myself up for a fall. I made the same bold goal to qualify for Clearwater and did it, albeit not as I predicted it would happen.

My blog has grown in readership and created a whole new sense of community for me. For the first year or two I got between 2 -8 hits a day. Thanks mom. Then in the past while it has grown to over 100 hits a day and I’ve started to grow real relationships. I continue to be humbled by the comments telling me that I’ve been “inspiring and motivating”. It’s never been one of my goals. Although, with the time I spend at it, Alice asks if there is a way I can make money from it. Unfortunately not, it’s just a passion.

With all the support through my blog and twitter, I don’t feel I’m doing this race by myself. I feel like people have been following my journey and genuinely want me to do well and qualify for Kona. I have the feeling it would be a disappointment to everyone if I didn’t. I should feel pressure, but I don’t.

I actually feel blessed. I know that on race day, I’ll have a lot of people watching and rooting for me online. There will be lots of Karmic rays coming my way from all over the world. I also know that I’ll be drawing on that during the entire race.

Rest assured, I’ll be thinking of everyone individually at some point throughout the day. I have the time. It happened in Clearwater. As I was flying on my bike, at the halfway point averaging 40 kph, I was doing it for my online supporters. I envisioned Johan impressed and being excited for me. I know I get excited when I watch him, Simon and anyone else I follow race.

The Internet is an amazing thing. From the people I follow, I’ve already met Nina and Dana who are from Los Angeles, and this week I’ll meet and be racing with my Malaysian buddy Simon. Not to mention, I’ve in person met Rodney, John Proc and my drinking buddy Doru. And I know I’ll be meeting Mike and a number of others who are doing Ironman Lake Placid this summer.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, this is one long post. When’s it going to end? I’ve got things to do. How can you tell I’m writing it from the Airplane? Ha-ha.

I want to close it by saying I’m going to try and share my China experience with my family and friends as much as possible through posts on Twitter and my blog. I loved it when Johan did the same from Kona last year.

I also want to say, please keep sending me your Karmic well wishes, especially on race day, I know they’ll help. And between you and I, they’ll be my secret weapon and racing advantage.

Moderate Run – 42:52 / 7.75 km / 5:32 pace / 122 avg hr

P.S. For my Mom and family, on race day go to Ironman.com and put my name in the athlete tracker, it will show you my progress throughout the day. Special Note: Even though the race starts Sunday morning in China, it will start Saturday around 6 pm EST. I’ll post the exact time, as we get closer to race day.