Subaru Vancouver International Half Iron

Rosalee, Clint and I traveled to Vancouver this weekend for the Subaru Vancouver International Half Iron. Clint was volunteering and I was doing a "relay".

I recovered from the Victoria Half Iron pretty quickly and after the race, we launched into two pretty tough training weeks, at the end of which i was planning to do a hard 90k bike as a relay. As the race got closer, i thought, it would be better training to do the swim and the bike. And then Clint added a transition run. And so, it emerged as a half ironman.

I was pretty relaxed going into the race because my expectations were low. My swim was strong, controlled and solid, i didnt want to go into the bike ride completely trashed! Starting the bike, my legs were pretty roughed up. I knew i could still manage a solid ride, but it would be more painful than usual. Sorry Bob, but i struggled to stay in the Zone. My thoughts were more like "F**k the Zone, this is bloody painful." It got better as time went on, I warmed up into it that's for sure.

Onto the run and it was the same story, i started out jogging for my "transition run" and in all honesty, couldn't manage much more. After the 7k mark, i started to feel better and loosen up a little. I overtook a couple girls and it looked like 2nd place was mine. This kept me going to the finish line. Huge kudos to Rachel McBride who was completely uncatchable out there!

Thankfully, a photographer friend, David McColm was there and took some great shots including the one of Rosalee above.

Thanks to everyone who supports me in small and big ways. I couldn't do it alone.