Can hardly wait...

Friday. Finally. It's been a crazy week. More detail to follow Monday.

I got home early. I started with a beer and cigar. Around 5 pm John Fortin showed up. He needed to borrow my indoor bike trainer for an 8 hour indoor ride for charity. My trainer is definitely available for anyone that wants to borrow it until next year. I've done my indoor riding quota.

John hung around for a few beers. When you get two sales people together, it spells great stories. It was awesome energy and fun. John is in amazing shape. I thought I was talking to an 18 year old. Every time I see John, he keeps getting skinner, taller and stronger.

Tonight I gave Nazaire a bad time again. This time with kid gloves. Last time I went Sergeant Hulka on his ass. It was about 4 weeks ago and he still hasn't got a job. He was asking me things like how to answer interview questions. He's applied at a few jobs and hasn't got the job.

I asked him to tell me a typical question he was getting. He thought hard, then said he went for a window washing job and they asked him what he saw himself doing in 5 years. He answered it with some esoteric answer, "I want to be happy and doing the best I can, blah, blah, blah". He asked me how I should have answered it.

Before I could have answered it, Alice gave him the answer, "tell them that you want to be the best window washer in the world in 5 years". It was a great answer.

I was patient with Nazaire tonight. I finally said that I'm going to help him get a job. Tomorrow at 9:30 am, we are going to walk to local businesses around his house and I'm going to help get him a job. We are going to interview together. I'm going to be his agent.

I asked him to tell me what type of job he wants because that's the one I'm going to get him. I told him I want him up early to make me breakfast and then I WILL find him a job. He looked SICK to his stomach. I think Nazaire is allergic to work. He slinked away from me and I thought he was going to throw up. This is going to be an adventure and MAJOR FUN!!!

I can hardly wait till tomorrow. I guarantee I'll find a job for Nazaire. No boyfriend of my daughter is going to be a deadbeat.

Later in the evening, Reid had to show me his progress and big muscles. I included the video.

Rest and Recovery Day

19

How do you do it...

Since returning from IMSG, this past week has been crazy. I can hardly wait until Friday afternoon. I'm leaving work early, kicking back on the deck, with a beer in my hand and decompressing.

It's funny how everything works out. This week is a post IMSG recovery week and I have no training on the schedule, yet this has been the one of my busiest weeks at work in years. Go, go, go from early morning to late night.

I'm fortunate I had no training planned because I don't know how I would've fit it in with all my work priorities. I love it when my universe just seems to work itself out and comes together perfectly.

My day didn't start and end well, but was great in between. I picked up a prospective client at his hotel at 7 am, and on the way to the plant for a tour, I got a speeding ticket. I tried to talk my way out of it and explained that this was my prospective client from out of town and could you give me a break?

The cop was nice but said, "if I gave everyone a break who asked, I'd give out no tickets". However, she did do me a favor and reduce the speed on the ticket so I didn't get 3 demerit points. I thanked her and called her a "sweetheart".

After work, I went out for dinner with the same prospective client. It was our first dinner together and it was a chance to mix some business and pleasure and get to know each other a little better. We ate at a restaurant with live Jazz and the musicians were amazingly good. We didn't drink much, yet closed the place down, getting out of there just before 1 am.

We had some great conversation and I really enjoyed the evening. He was one of those guys that's interesting to hang out with and has interesting experiences and perspectives to listen too. I learnt a lot. He noticed that I'm a guy who likes to have fun and keeps it real and genuine. He asked me a question, "how are you able to keep it fun".

It threw me a little, I'd never been asked that question before, or even thought about it. I interpreted the question as "life is busy, stressful, full of responsibility and obligations and it's easy for us to get serious and in a rut or routine or worse, boring, yet you seem to have fun and keep life exciting most of the time, how do you do it?

Like I said, I've never been asked that question before. It's something that just comes natural. Although, I was able to come up with an answer. My answer was "I act like I'm a 14 year old". At first, he had this puzzled look on his face and it was a loud place and hard to hear each other at times, so some words may have gotten lost in the background noise.

What I meant by "acting like a 14 year old" was that it's important to keep a youthful sense of naivety. To turn off the filters. Our best and lasting friendships and memorable experiences were unexpectedly made when we were young.

Things we'd do at 14 years old include lying on the ground late at night, maybe with a friend, and looking at the stars in awe and amazement. We would immerse ourselves in the moment and not think of the future or the past. We would take things on face value. Our mind was a sponge and open to ideas.

As we get older, we start adding defensive and opinionated filters. We lose our sense of blissful wonderment. For me, the turning point was when I found watching Saturday morning cartoons wasn't fun anymore.

Intuitively, I've tried to remove or recognize when I'm using a filter, which as human happens more often than we'd like to admit. The biggest thing is when dealing with people, we all tend to "judge" the value and values of the person we are dealing with.

When I find myself filtering the other person I'm with, I stop it by imagining them as having "terminal cancer", with a scarf over their bald head, or worse, that their "child just died". This reminds me that they are people first and foremost and immediately turns my filter off. The only filters naturally left on is "love, compassion and openness".

That's how I have fun, when my filters start stacking or I've wronged someone, I try to remember that stripped down, everyone is a mother, father, brother or sister. That we are feeling human beings first and foremost. Why not celebrate our humanity. At the end of the day were going to die, so you may as well have fun and the only way to have "real fun" is by connecting with others.

After I remove the negative filters, I imagine we're all 14 years old. When I do that, I develop real, genuine friendships and my guard is down. I don't care about being judged myself and I experience life in the moment. Then a weird thing happens, I "naturally have fun".

My day ended with a parking ticket. That wasn't fun.

Post Ironman Rest day.

5

Living Fun...

Since IMSG, I've been enjoying french fries. It's been my 5th day in a row. There's no greater feeling that finishing an Ironman and relaxing with no rules.

It's so weirdly wonderful to eat, drink, do no training and not care one bit. I know it won't be long until I'm back training full steam ahead for IMLP, so why not enjoy the change of pace?

In the whole scheme of things, a week or two off isn't going to negatively effect my performance. I learnt that firsthand after China. Heck, I was "Gonzo" for three weeks after China from a virus. In the remaining three weeks before IMSG, I was able to get back all my lost fitness and have a great race.

This year has been one of those learning years. Some people can read lessons in a book and learn, I can't. I need to make mistakes. I need to feel the emotion of a mistake. A book doesn't give me that.

I've learnt two BIG lessons this year. The first lesson was "time off doesn't set you back". Even after three weeks of illness, reduced training and lost fitness, I was able to get it all back within a few weeks.

The second lesson was to "have fun". Putting to much performance pressure on yourself is stressful. Setting time goals are an all or nothing target, and even if you hit the target, it only spells "accomplishment", but not "fun".

Triathlon is a lifestyle, not just a sport. It's a journey, not just a destination. I cerebrally know that, but I never had it emotionally seared in my soul.

Thankfully, due to the mistakes I made in preparing for Ironman China, I learnt the hard way. I was starting to treat triathlons as a "destination" and it wasn't fun. I adjusted and went back to treating triathlons as a "journey" and IMSG was more fun than I could have dreamt.

My learning came from trying and comparing two different plans.

Plan A: I trained harder for China, I ate better for China, I didn't drink beer before China, I slept more for China, I had specific goals for China and I had the worst race of my life.

Plan B: I trained less than China, I ate worse than China, I drank more beer than China, I slept less than China, I had no specific goals and I had a wonderful time.

After I articulated the approaches in writing, I noticed that Plan A seems so "boring". Plan B seems "fun". Plan A was like I was training to achieve a "destination". Plan B was like I was training as part of my "lifestyle". Plan A seems "grey". Plan B seems "colourful".

I can now say I have my first "emotionally seared" triathlon tattoo. It reads, "PLAN B". I learnt the hard way that colourful feels and looks better on me.

Ironman recovery - Rest Day

3

April Totals

Swim - 16 km / 9.92 miles

Bike - 887.37 km / 550.17 miles

Run - 175.87 km / 109.04 miles

Weights - 3 sessions

Total - 1079.24 / 669.13 miles

Calories - 46,823

177

Leaving St. George...

The next morning after IMSG, I felt much better. My legs were a little sore, but nothing major.

Before I left St. George to get to Vegas for my 11:30 pm red-eye flight, I went to the Kona roll down with Martin Paul. As expected, I didn't get in, it went to the 8th place finisher.

Martin and I had some lunch and I took off to Vegas. My plan was to spend about 7 hours on the strip and drink lots of beer and have as much fun as I could before my flight.

I started off at Bally's and went to the spa for a massage. Then it was lunch and beer. It's amazing how easy it is to make friends when you have 3 pitchers of beer during a meal. The first person I met was Jessica, an executive Casino Host. She was having her lunch and we started chatting. A Casino host is responsible to find big spenders and bring them to their casino to gamble.

I have a book called "Whale Hunt in the Dessert" and it's about Steve Cyr, a Las Vegas "Super Host". It has amazing stories about what Vegas does to attract and keep high rollers in their casinos. They call the high rollers "Whales". So when I started talking to Jessica, I knew exactly what she did and was fascinated.

I then met an older couple, married 56 years, from Denver. He spent 50 years as a water works engineer and she was a homemaker. It was so cute how they were still sitting side by side like school kids. I learnt so much about water treatment and it was interesting. I'm not kidding, it WAS interesting. It's something you never think about.

As I was leaving Ballys to walk the strip, I bumped into JOE STEELE from Kingsville, Texas. I noticed his Ironman St. George finishers jacket. We started talking and I found out Joe's secret. Joe had a hole in his heart that caused an aneurysm in early March and it even paralyzed part of his face.

They operated with cardiac catheterization surgery through his leg to repair the hole in his heart. Joe should have died. The doctor said that if Joe was not in Ironman shape, he would be dead right now. I joked to Joe that I was talking to "dead man walking", and I was. In Joe's case, training and racing Ironmans, literally saved his life.

Six weeks ago the doctor said Joe could start exercising again. Joe's an Ironman, so he started easy with a 5 mile run. In only 6 weeks, Joe went from death bed to finishing IMSG, which is probably the TOUGHEST Ironman on the planet. Joe was in my age group, 45-49 and finished with a 16:14:04.

What's most incredible, is that when I first started talking to Joe, I didn't know his background story, and he was just telling me he was so disappointed with his time and this may be his last Ironman. After I learnt his story, I thought this guy is AMAZING and CRAZY!!! How many people can suffer an aneurysm and have their heart repaired and then finish an Ironman 6 weeks later, and then be was disappointed with his time. Tell me Joe's not a competitor.

One other great fact about Joe, is he's a PFG (Previous Fat Guy). He used to be 50's heavier. I included a picture of myself with Joe. If you want to send Joe any supportive comments, you can email him at jpsteele@sprint.blackberry.net .(hope you don't mind me posting your email Joe -too late).

I was so lucky to meet Joe and hear his amazing story. Every Ironman competition is filled with unsung heroes. People that have overcome incredible odds to complete an Ironman. At IMSG, Joe was was one of those unsung heroes. If this was Kona, Joe would have deserved to have been on TV as one of the human interest stories.

After meeting Joe, I headed over to Bills Saloon. It has the cheapest beer on the strip. I find that the cheaper the beer, the more interesting the people. If you've ever watched the Canadian TV show "Trailer Park Boys", Bills Saloon had the same type of clientele. It was karaoke night at Bills. I loved it!!! I danced with the "Karaoke Queen - Barbara Ann". She said I needed to move my legs more, I told her I just finished an Ironman yesterday, cut me some slack.

I was taking pictures of the people I met along the way and was twittering my adventure until my phone died. It's too bad, the photos help me remember what happened when I wake up hungover the next day. I've also included the pictures of Jessica the casino host, my old Denver friends, and Barbara Ann.

I almost didn't leave Vegas. I was so close to just staying overnight. If I didn't have meeting scheduled on Monday afternoon, I think I would have stayed. At the airport, I met a few more people and partied it up more.

I met a ex-Winnipeger, who's Indian (India Indian), who's now living and working in Brampton as a Chiropractor. I'm also an ex-Winnipeger, I grew up and moved from there six years ago. I was giving him a bad time. I told him he must be tough, because being part of the ultra minority of Indians and growing up in the prairie town of Winnipeg, he would have experienced lots of verbal abuse and taunting. He agreed and laughed.

I then met another Winnipeg girl. She was so ugly, fat and drunk. She was standing with the Chex Mix food bag strapped on. I was so hungry, I walked up to her and asked her if she'd like to trade a sip of my beer for some of her Chex Mix. At one point, I had to grab the beer back out of her hand or it would have all been gone. We had a great time whooping it up. I don't know what it is but I'll party with a fat, ugly, drunk chick anytime. They are so much fun.

I had some more great chance encounters at the airport. I was lovin it. I wished I had more than 7 hours to hang around Vegas. On the plane, I felt sorry for the people around me. About 10 minutes into the flight, I passed out with my mouth wide-open for the entire 4 hour plus flight. I must have smelt like a brewery. I do remember getting weird looks when I woke up. They probably got drunk from my breath. Haha.

I got home at 7 am, had a little snooze and was at work by noon. I felt like I was in a time warp. It seemed like IMSG and Vegas was weeks ago.

This morning was funny. Last night, at swim club, Reid worked out for 90 minutes with a 25 lb medicine ball. He was doing exercises with an older, 6 foot tall kid, who was pushing the pace. When he got home he had trouble walking up the stairs. I loved watching his big butt sloth up the stairs to bed in pain. This morning he couldn't move. Alice had to get the big gun, "aka me", to pull him out of bed. I got him onto the floor and then took video of it and posted it below.

For those that don't know. I have a 3 month bet with Reid that he can't train at a high level with the best swim club in Ontario. If he does it for 3 months, without missing a workout, he gets $1000. So far he's on track and already is looking thinner.

My blog had record stats yesterday, it had 833 hits in one day. I attribute it to the IMSG VENUE RACE REPORT. I got so many great comments from the volunteers who loved hearing what others thought of their race. Again, they held a beyond WORLD CLASS event.

Rest Day - IMSG Recovery

183.4 lbs / 8.2% Body Fat.

IRONMAN ST. GEORGE OFFICIAL RACE REPORT

Warning: this is a long one. You may want to "pack a lunch".

What can I say, it was a great day and I had a great race. I finished in 11:26:07, which was good enough for 12/284 in my age group and 131/1850 males. I was only 16:17 and 4 spots away from qualifying for Kona.

Had I not had stomach issues or took so long in T1, I may have left with a Kona qualifying letter in my hand. Although, I'm not disappointed. I have so much to be grateful for. It was like having cake, ice cream and whipped cream. I just didn't get the cherry on the top. No big deal.

The night before the race I didn't get to bed as early as I would have liked. I was too busy putting together my video and updating my blog. I got up at 3:45 am and got just under 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say, that morning, my resting heart rate was higher than normal.

I was surprisingly calm for this race. I went to IMSG with a whole different attitude than Ironman China. In China my mantra was "Kona or Bust" and for St. George my mantra was "have fun and enjoy the experience".

Often, there was a "little" birdie in the back of my head that would say, "Kona or bust" and when I heard it I turned the volume down. I didn't mind hearing it, but on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the highest priority, it was a one.

Coming off of a disastrous race in China and having to DNF due to food poisoning, it shook my confidence. Even though it was a completely unreasonable response. I had never trained harder. I did over 4500 km's of training in 14 weeks. I was a bit of a basket case for the first few weeks after my IMChina disappointment.

The day after I got back from China, I had to redeem myself. I couldn't wait until IMLP in July. I had to get back on that horse. I noticed IMSG was only 6 weeks away, it still had community slots available and I signed up.

I knew it was a tough course. In fact, I looked at it before selecting China. IMSG looked too hard. I felt it was easier to go halfway around the world to try and qualify for Kona, rather than do the IMSG course. I envisioned all these tall, muscular, fit and tanned Californians that eat hills for breakfast doing IMSG. I didn't think I'd have any chance whatsoever to qualify for Kona at IMSG.

I had no nervousness race morning. In China, I just wanted to get it over with. For IMSG, my mantra was "have fun and enjoy the experience". Which I did. Before I made it to the buses to take us to the swim, I stopped at Denny's for a bagel. It seemed like everyone in Denny's at 4 am, except for some of the other Ironman, were drunk and had the munchies.

As I waited, one of the other athletes took his food to go. He had ordered two hamburgers for his special needs bags. I thought that was genius. I hate power bars and on my long training rides I much prefer eating sandwiches. The guy with the hamburgers inspired me. I stopped at McDonald's and picked up an egg McMuffin and two Bagel, egg and bacon sandwiches.

I put the bagel, egg and bacon sandwiches in my special needs bags and put the egg McMuffin in the bento box on my bike. Getting to the swim start, everything went off without a hitch and all morning, I met and had some great conversations with some other guys in my age group. It was a very relaxed morning.

Once they started to call for all the athletes to get into the water, it started feeling real. I was at the back of the pack and not until I got to the waters edge, did I realize its a water start and with only 3 minutes to gun time I had to move my butt and to try to get closer to the front of the start line.

The water was cold and I was 10 meters behind the start line. The last Ironman I did with a mass start was 19 years ago and there was only about 700 athletes. This one was a mass start with 2500 athletes. I was expecting a big washing machine with lots of full body contact.

Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. The first 500 meters were the worst and then it settled down. I've been in 300 person wave starts that were much worse. The water was colder than I expected. Immediately, as I started swimming, my head started to freeze and my goggles fogged up. I kept relaxed and knew it would only be a matter of time until my head adjusted. Which happened 1500 meters later.

The water was so cold that my calves felt like they were going to cramp. All I could think about was having a calve cramp and having another DNF. My focus from 1500 meters on, was injury prevention. I slowed down my pace and used my legs very little and every once in a while would flex my feet upward.

I loved the swim and for the most part did an awesome job of sighting. I had no panic whatsoever and had no problem swimming right in the thick of it. There was the normal pushing and bumping and I took a couple of kicks, but nothing major.

One side of my goggles started leaking and I had to stop and drain it. It also gave me a chance to rub off the condensation from the cold water. I could hardly see through them. After I cleaned them, my sighting was perfect for the balance of the swim.

I was so happy when I got to the end of the swim. I wanted to get my calves out of that cold water. The swim seemed to go by fast. If I wasn't timed, I would have thought it only took an hour. Before I exited the water, I visualized my next moves. I told myself to "walk, don't run, let your calves warm up, don't over stress them" and "strip the suit down to the waist and take advantage of the wet-suit strippers".

I wasn't the only person walking out of the water. It seemed like everyone was. I didn't see anyone running. I got my bag and the change tent was pandemonium. It was packed. It took a little bit to find a seat. When I did, I didn't rush, but I didn't go slow. It was a measured patient pace. I wanted to make sure I was dry. It took me a while to put on my arm coolers and extra jersey.

When I got to the bikes, the rack was full. It looked like my bike was one of the first to be taken out of the rack. I didn't know if the surrounding bikes were from my age group or not. It took me 8:20 to get out of T1. I couldn't believe it was that slow, it felt like 4 minutes. It really didn't bother me that much. I wanted to make sure I was warm, it was about 58 F / 14 C and I didn't want to be cold on the bike and my mental state was "to have fun".

I was 12th in my age group out of the water, but didn't know it. I normally have 15-20% of the field out of the water before me. Out of roughly 300 in my group, I though I was in about 60th place.

I had a strong bike ride from start to finish. In total, I passed 371 people. On the second loop, not one person passed me. The entire ride I was frustrated. I was passing so many people, but only three or four in my age group, and that wasn't until the second loop. I kept thinking, "I must be so far behind in my age group. Those damn big, fit and tanned Californians are kicking butt".

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. I was really focused on keeping my heart rate under 143 bpm. For the most part, I was stayed in the high 130's.

The day started off with very little wind, which I'm told was unusual. I was able to start off strong. I think at one point my average pace was 34 kph. The weather played perfectly for me. It was cooler and not too windy for the first 90 minutes.

About 2 hours into the ride, the wind started picking up and as we started the backside of the first loop it was in your face. Everyone slowed down considerably. I don't mind riding into the wind and tend to power through it. I kept my cadence at around 90 and started picking off more people. Again, none in my age group. I passed a lot of 35 - 44 year olds.

I was frustrated when I would pass someone with compression socks. I couldn't see their numbers. I kept wondering if they were in my age group. I thought it would be great for race organizers to start putting the age on the bib and the calve. I'm in the printing industry, I know it's easy to do. After all, it makes sense printing ages on bibs, those "dorky" looking compression socks aren't going away. (Sorry Carlos, "but they look good on you").

The upside to the wind was that on two of the major climbs, the wind was at our backs. It helped push you up the hill. I had a 27 sprocket on my back wheel and that definitely made it easier. I didn't get out of my seat and on the pedals once. I'd see so many guys standing and hammering on their pedals and pass me up the hill, only for me to catch them 2 minutes later when we got on the flats. I treated the entire ride as a training ride.

On the reverse side of the ride, we had the wind at our backs and it was a downhill stretch. The speeds were amazing. I think I got up to 72 kph. About 3 hours into the ride, I stopped and got my bagel, egg and bacon sandwich. I was flying, eating away and taunting others. On one hill it was a little dangerous. Trying to hold onto the bagel and handlebars at the same time was challenging.

The second loop the wind picked up even more. I continued to ride strong and ate every hour. I was dreading to eat my first power bar. Then remembered I had a Mars bar and Snickers bar taped to my frame. I thought of Johan and had my Mars bar first, then the following hour, I had my snickers bar. It's so much more civilized to eat normal food.

I drank a lot of liquids, more than enough. Most of what I drank was the PowerBar Endurance Refuel and it was pretty good. I picked it up at the expo. At one point I had to switch to Gatorade and it tasted terrible. I forced myself to drink it, I had no choice. It was sour tasting compared to the PowerBar stuff.

On the backside of the second loop, the wind picked up and it was stronger than the first loop. I started speed wobbling on one of the descents. It was bad. I speed wobble because once I get over 65 kph, I get scared and my arms shake. I'm not fearless when it comes to descending. I barely held it together. I was riding the brakes and the wobble didn't stop until I was almost stopped. I'm glad I've learnt not to panic and ride it out. I almost saw my race come to a crashing halt.

For the balance of the downhills I rode the brakes when it got over 60 kph. I did have to stop once on the bike. My chain fell off and I had to fix it. It was my own fault, I shifted too quickly and recklessly. The entire ride, I felt strong. I rode on the edge of effort, I didn't go to hard and not too little. It wasn't an easy ride, and near the end, my body felt challenged.

I had a much faster 2nd transition and that included my first bathroom pit-stop. Other than the customary pee in my wetsuit, it was the first time I peed since the swim start. I got out of the porta-pottie and volunteers smothered me in suntan lotion and off I went. The rubbing of the lotion on the skin felt great. There's nothing like having 4 or 5 females rubbing your entire body all at the same time.

The run was magic. I felt strong and running while wearing my Captains hat was a treat. I couldn't even count how many people were cheering on the Captain. It was like I was a movie star. Crowds of people would yell and cheer the captain on.

Running with the Captain's hat has it's own challenges. It's a hotter than a normal hat, there's no vents. But that's not the worse part. When you run with the Captain's hat your noticeable. You don't want to walk with the Captains hat on, everyone notices you walking. However, on the other hand, if you run with the Captain hat on, there is no greater feeling.

This was the first Ironman I've completed with the Captains hat on and I didn't want to look like a "sour puss" who is doing the Ironman with a Captains hat on, while wearing a frown or look of pain on his face. I wanted to smile and play to the crowd. I wanted to make their standing there a little more fun. I wanted to give them something to talk about, like, "did you see that guy with the Captain's hat, wasn't that cool".

From the beginning to the end, no matter how bad I felt, I smiled. I'd wave when they cheered. During the run I came up with my new trade mark wave. As they cheered, I started saluting. I'd run by and give an informal two finger salute to anyone that cheered me one. I was getting cheering from both sides of the road and I looked like the Queen, saluting to anyone who yelled out to me.

I've done 70.3's with the Captains hat and have heard all the comments. Mostly they yell out, "Hey Skipper, or Hey it's Captain Stubbing, or where'd you park the love boat, or where's Gilligan or Mary Ann or Ginger, or hey Popeye". In St. George, most everyone asked me "where's Tennille". I started yelling back that, "I left her for Ginger".

Because it was an out and back, I passed the same people 4 times. There were parts of the route that I had my own cheering section. One group of retired people, who had the enthusiam I've only seen with drunk college kids, were going nuts when I ran by. They looked like they served in WWII. They were about 2.5 miles from the finish, near the timing mats. On my last run by, even though I was tired, I gave them a show.

I crouched down, bending my knees and pumping my arms like a train and was yelling something. They loved it and deserved it. They were out cheering away all day long. It felt good to bring them a little entertainment, even though it wasn't easy, it was the 24 mile mark and my legs didn't feel like dancing.

The course was TOUGH and I got the the half way point by 1:49. I was well on pace to break the 4 hour marathon mark and although I could feel myself slowing down, I still felt good. Then my stomach started "gurgling". Prior to that point, I knew I was taking in a lot of liquids because I could feel it "sloshing" in my stomach. It was a weird feeling, "running and sloshing". I was definitely well hydrated.

The first porta-pottie after the halfway point, I had to stop. I had a major download. It could have won awards. Sometimes Reid will take a big dump and is so proud of it, he has to show me. I sure wish Reid could have saw what was in that porta-pottie, it would have humbled him.

I felt good and was now running much much lighter. I kept taking in Gatorade and Coke and then my 3 mile bathroom break routine began. It started solid and by the end it was major "squirt bum". All in all, over four visits, I probably spent at least 20 minutes in "the hot box".

The frustrating part was that I kept passing the same people over and over again. Throughout the entire last half of the run, my mouth was dry. Just 200 meters after leaving an aid station it would be bone dry. Eventually, I came up with the idea of running with grapes in my hand and when I got thirsty, I'd eat a juicy grape. It worked. After a while, I'd wouldn't eat it, I'd just bite into it and spit it out. Anything I ate caused rumbling stomach issues.

The funniest thing happened at the 5 mile point of the run. A woman ran out of the crowd with a big sign and was yelling "Go Bryan Go" and she put her arm around my sweaty waist and was hugging me and running beside me for like 15 seconds before she realized I was the wrong Bryan. It was great, I couldn't stop laughing. I was thinking, "didn't the Captain's hat give it away that I probably wasn't her Bryan".

I ran by her three more times and every time she cheered me one and we now had that special bond. On the last run by, I think she told me she loved me. It was so cool. It was also fun hig-fiving a lot of the little kids along the route.

For the last three miles, all I took in was water. I figured the Gatorade and Coke was upsetting my stomach. I was tired and sore and just wanted to finish. Although I wanted to walk at points, I just kept running. Throughout the entire run, I didn't walk much. Only up very steep hills and even then it wasn't for more than 60 seconds.

The strangest and most unexpected thing happened to me during this race. I didn't once say to myself, "What the F*ck are you doing this for, this Ironman stuff is a stupid thing to do, I'm never going to do one of these things ever again". Physically I was sore, but mentally I felt great.

As I finished the run, the crowds were amazing. For the last half mile I was saluting everyone on each side of the road and high-fiving any hand that was poking out of the crowd. It was fun. I accomplished my goal of having "fun and enjoying the experience".

I felt great crossing the line and then 10 minutes later I went into a semi-bonk state. After one bite of pizza, my stomach started rumbling. I didn't even eat that piece of pizza, I had to spit it out. I barely had enough energy to get my bike and gear and get to my car. I'm glad the hotel was only about 10 minutes away.

When I got to the hotel, I dragged myself out of the car and bought some Imodium from the sundry shop at the hotel. I left my bike and gear in the car. I didn't have the energy to carry it up to the room.

First thing I did, was hit the throne and then I did a post race video race report. That report was probably 30 minutes after I finished the race. I ran the perfect race. I used up just the perfect amount of energy and had nothing left at the end. I ended up getting the "shivers" and jumped into bed and snuggled under the covers.

When I got enough energy, I called for room service. My voice was shaking. I could tell the person on the other end wasn't impressed. I ordered a hamburger, fries and ice cream. The ice cream was to put on the Veyo pie I picked up the day before. I left the door open and signed for the food from my bed. Then I had him put the food down beside me on the bed.

I had my food on one side of me, which I slowly nibbled on, and a beer on the other side of me. It took me about 2 hours to eat it all and voila, I was back from the dead. I must say that "mountain berry" pie was the BEST pie I've ever had. It didn't even fall apart when I heated it up in the microwave.

Three hours after the race, I was back to 80% and was twittering and overwhelmed with all the supportive comments I got. It was only then, that I started to realize there wasn't a bunch of "tall, muscular, fit and tanned Californians" in front of me. In fact, at the halfway point of the marathon I was in Kona qualifying contention.

Had I not had to make porta-pottie stops, I would have probably finished in 7th or 8th place and qualified for Kona. No wonder I didn't catch many people in my age group. Most were chasing me, an "average height, semi-muscular, fit looking Canadian, who drinks lots of beer, who had no tan and was eating McDonald's on the bike".

What I learnt

I'd like to say redemption served, but I knew I was going to have a good race. Trying to speak humbly, but truthfully, it would have been odd if I didn't have a good race. I've trained very hard over the last few years and have been able to get to the point where I consistently finish at the top 5-10% of my age group. That wasn't by accident and it wasn't going to go away because of one bad race in China.

Three weeks ago, I had a dream. In my dream, I got clarity. I realized I'm not a back of the packer. I'm a competitor and I need to start acting like one and beliving in myself again. I woke up feeling like my old self. I eluded to the dream in a previous post but didn't expand on it.

The final confidence builder was running a 10 km road race a week before IMSG and finishing 3/85 in my age group. It proved I had my mojo back. I don't want to sound egotistical, because I'm not and that's not my intent, but I train too hard to be average. Yet, that China race pulled my pysche so far down that I thought everything I did over the last few years was a fluke. It makes no sense and I've learnt first hand that emotions aren't logical.

I can say that I've learnt more about myself and have grown personally from my Ironman China experience. In hindsight, I wouldn't change a thing. Also, had life not thrown me a curve ball, I would never have gotten to experience IMSG and had such a fantastic time. Sometimes the best things in life are completely unexpected.

I also don't regret China on a personal level. I really enjoyed seeing the culture, experiencing the country and the best part was sharing it with John Barclay and hanging out with Simon. It was all good.

I will say, "you're only as good as your last job", and I'm proud of the job I did in St. George. I proved I have the ability to qualify for Kona at a tough race. I just need that special race that I can put it all together and maybe catch a lucky break, like the guy who finished 8th at IMSG did.

Link to my finishers video. Thanks for recording it Doru. http://tinyurl.com/28cmyyz

IMSG RESULTS

Swim - 1:12:25 (12/284 AG) & (59 / 1850 males)

Bike - 5:55:20 (10/284 AG) & (141 / 1850 males)

Run - 4:06:54 (21/284 AG) & (222 / 1850 males)

Total - 11:26:07 12/284 AG & 131 / 1850 males

T1 - 8:20

T2 - 3:08

8/50 Canadian.

IRONMAN ST. GEORGE VENUE RACE REPORT...

What can I say, IMSG is one damn good race on every possible level.

I had never heard of St. George before the Ironman. When I heard Utah, I thought it must be near Salt Lake City, not a 90 minute drive from Las Vegas. Just being able to fly into Vegas and drive to St. George makes it easy to get too and Vegas flights are always reasonably priced.

The landscape in and around St. George is beautifully spectacular. I've always liked Sedona, Arizona, and I now prefer St. George. It's a smaller community, and once you drive around it a few times, it's easy to figure out directions.

St. George is into the Ironman, they have Ironman fever. You would never guess that this is the first year that they have held an Ironman in St. George. Throughout, businesses have "welcome Ironman" on outdoor signs and windows. They also hung Ironman banners on, what seemed like, hundreds of light posts. It's cool driving and seeing them hanging, you soon realize that this town thinks the Ironman is a big deal and welcomes it.

The people of St. George are amazing. Amongst the friendliest I've ever met in my life. Every store or restaurant I went into, everyone was friendly and most everyone knew about the Ironman and when they noticed my Ironman shirt, they'd ask me about it. It didn't take long before I started feeling welcome and safe in St. George.

Another benefit of having the race in St. George is the amount of hotels. They have a lot of clean hotels and motels throughout the City. I think they could double the field to 5000 and no one would have trouble finding a place to stay. From one end of the City, to the other, is not far and it's not necessary to have to stay near the expo at the convention center or the race start, which is downtown. Everything is a relatively close drive.

I LOVE the IMSG course. It's the first time I've done a race with two transitions zones. At first, when I heard about it having two transition zones, I thought it was going to be a logistical nightmare. I was wrong.

The course starts way outside of the City at a water reservoir, which is transition one. It's a bit of a drive, but worth driving it for the scenery alone. Downtown at the finish is transition two. The day before, we dropped our bikes off at transition one and run gear at transition two. In both cases, it was highly well organized. No waiting and all. The volunteers seemed like they knew exactly what they were doing. If you asked a question, they had the answers.

The athletes registration was a well oiled machine. From station to station there was people guiding you. I once had to walk through that area to get to the trade show side, I thought is was a short cut. At least 4 people grabbed me to ask what station I just came from so they could point me to the next one. I was like, "no, sorry, just passing through, I've registered already". It was tiring just explaining myself. Needless to say, that was the last time I tried that "shortcut".

The expo was good. Lots of clothes and stuff. They also had a lot of vendors set up and they were demonstrating and selling their products. They helped open my wallet. After a couple of demonstrations and education, I bought a Tanita scale and compression socks. The only complaint I had about the expo, was they had no mirrors, other than the change rooms. That's it.

The tattooed race numbers were also cool. The organizers took the time to make stencils for every competitor with their number. I can't imagine how long that would have taken. You would then take your stencil to one of the many stations they had and they would airbrush on your number. It is a water resistant tattoo, the only way you can get it off is with rubbing alcohol. I wonder if beer will work?

When I heard that we would have to be bused from the downtown race finish to the swim start. I thought, "nightmare". I've done these before you tend to stand in line a wait a long time. Not, at St. George. They had buses galore. I think my wait was about 4 minutes. Again, organized beyond belief. Which made it a relaxed and stress free environment.

The swim start was also well organized and trouble free. I liked that they had a tent for changing into your wetsuit. It's nice to change in a warm environment and chat it up with all the other guys while doing it. When we left the tent, we didn't even need to go to the morning clothes drop off truck. They had volunteers grabbing your bags as you left the tent.

The water reservoir was a well laid out course. A single loop and I much prefer it over a two or more loop course, you could get into a groove. The swim course is also well marked. Even with the sun in your eyes, it doesn't take long until you see the buoys if you keep swimming forward.

The bike and run is challenging to say the least, and it is extremely scenic. A few times I caught myself looking at the landscape and going "WOW", that's beautiful. A camera can't do it justice. You have to see it first hand. I also heard about 500 athletes didn't race after they saw the difficulty of the course. It may be an exaggerated number, but it was high and there was a lot of DNF's.

In both cases, the volunteers on the bike and the run are second to none. There was lots of them and they knew what they were doing. It was the absolute best special needs set up in the world. At the special needs drop off, all the bags went in boxes. they seemed to have 50 boxes based on race number. On the course the boxes were laid out over a 200 meter stretch and when you yelled out your number, you knew exactly where to go. I rarely use special needs because it's a hassle, but not at this race it isn't.

They had a good amount of water stations on the bike and and, what seemed like, an unbelievable amount on the run. I was blown away. It was like they were prepared for the worst hot day and made sure you didn't have far to go for water and aid. They also had water stations on both sides of the road. They didn't cut any corners.

Every station also had more than enough food and beverages. At virtually every aid station they were giving sponges, water, Gatorade, Coke, Chicken broth, gels, pretzels, chips, grapes and banana's. The only thing missing was dining tables. I can also attest that they had at least 2 or 4 porta-potties at each aid station. At the front and the back of the line.

The volunteers at the aid station were amazing. You've run up and they would be telling you the order of the beverages. They'd be yelling out, "Gatorade first, Water in the middle, Coke and then Chicken broth. And all the other stuff they were yelling out as your ran buy. They had a lot of school kids and adults at every aid station and not only were they giving you stuff, but they were cheering like crazy.

The route was extremely well marked. The roads were all closed on the bike and the run. Other than one road with crossing cars on the bike with a Cop guiding traffic, I didn't see any cars or other cops. The bike roads were pretty good from my standpoint. There was some that were a little bumpy and that's to be expected, but all in all, they were smooth and clean. I saw very few people with flats or mechanical problems.

On the bike, they also had lots of race officials on motorcycles and it worked. I didn't see much, if any, drafting and even saw a guy in the penalty tent. It was definitely a fair race. If there was potholes or bumps, they notified you of them. There would be spray paint on the road identifying potholes and signs identifying bumps.

The bike course is tough. If the hills don't get you, the wind will. The wind is ever changing and even on some downhills the wind can slow you down. I was told afterwards that many of the roadside signs of support blew away. It's the type of bike course that gives you bragging rights to finish. Some of the hills were pretty steep and it wasn't uncommon to see many of the mid to back of the pack riders walking their bikes up.

The crowd support was amazing, second to none. There was 700 first timers and that may have helped. It seemed like the roads were lined for the first 3 miles of the run with spectators, all yelling and cheering. It was a great course to watch if you were a family member because it was an out and back, you'd get to see you the athlete 4 times. The bike course, surprisingly also had a fair amount of spectators.

The finish was packed with cheering fans. For the last half mile, on both sides of the road, it was packed and the cheering was overwhelmingly loud. Coming down the chute was even better. I've never seen crowds that big.

Once finished, every athlete was escorted to the food area and everyone was offered massage. When you went to pick up your bags and bike everything was organized and they even tied all three of your bags together. The pre-swim gear bag, the bike and run gear was so easy to pick up and put over your shoulder. No having to find one bag, then the other and the other. It was all ready for you.

The only, and I mean only downside, was the post race food. It was your standard fair of cold pizza. .

With that said, I can't say enough about this race. If you finish this race you are an Ironman with an asterisk mark beside your name. When other triathletes hear you've done St. George, it will notch you up a little on the Ironman scale rating. If it gets over 28 C, you will deserve a double asterisk.

In closing, Disneyland is not as well run and organized. I also think St. George deserves the moniker, "the happiest place on earth", not Disney. The people are fabulous. I've done Ironman Canada and think that is a very special race location and has great support, I think St. George may be slightly better, although I did notice a LOT of similarities with he people and scenery.

One last comment, the race is big, about 2500 athletes. Which is great. With an out and back you are constantly in contact with other and the drawing of energy from each other is superb. Even during all the pre-race events and meeting people in the elevator, all the other athletes are positive and talkative. Lots of smiling from one to another. Even the pre-race meal was well run with tributes. The pre-race mandatory video was also a nice touch.

Other than the prestige, I think it's rivals any Ironman on the circuit, including Kona. It has lots of great energy. It was worth the food poisoning in China and paying for an expensive community slot to get here. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Rest and Beer Day - Full race report tomorrow

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IRONMAN ST. GEORGE RACE REPORT VLOG

This is the best I can give you tonight. Full written, more detailed race report to follow. Thanks for all the support. I drew from it.