I had a pretty good day Sunday considering?

Most of Saturday I was working on taping and plastering the new bedroom in the basement. Then get to bed early because I had to get up a 3am to drive to Peterborough for my half Ironman race. I went to bed a 9:30pm to try to sleep, but wouldn't you know it the neighbours behind my house decide to have a outdoor party. They had a Tv outside watching of all things? one of my favorite movies, ROCKY. My bedroom windows were open so I shut them to drown out the noise. Da da da daa da daa da da doo do do do doo do dooo ...the theme song for Rocky was blaring away in there yard, the volume just cranked up! Normally I would love it, it's very inspirering, but I had to sleep!!

Finally the volume is turned down and I'm hearing loud chat and banter over the tv, party sounds, laughter etc. I'm tossing and turning, I get up and look out the window. I go back to bed and try to sleep but I can't because of the noise.

Now it's 11pm and there is a lul in the noise, Rocky finished. finally I can dose off. I start to dose and then BANG! POP! BANG BANG, POP BANK!!! FRIGGING FIREWORK! There setting off frigging fireworks off in there back yard, just 50 -60 feet from bedroom just as I was dosing!! Grrrrr.

I get up go to the washroom, go back to bed and wait until the fireworks are done. I finally fall asleep around 12:30 after tossing and turning some more.

I get up at 2:41 and turn off my alarm clock which I set for 2:45, but I have a habbit of waking before my alarm goes off. I get my gear ready and packed in the car, I strap my bike on my bike rack behind my car and I'm ready to leave for Peterborough. It's about 2:15 or so by the time I leave, but I stop in at Tim Hortons for a coffee and bagal with cream cheeze before getting on the hwy and I'm on the hwy by 3:30am.

It only took 2 hours to get to Peterborough going the back route. So now it's 5:30am and I'm in the parking lot at the venue, I go for a stroll to check things out and it seems I'm the first athlete here, but not the first person. There were people setting up the venue, vender's setting up their tents etc. So I go back to my car and decide to grab a coffee at the nearest Tim Horton's. By the time I get my coffee and get back to the parking area, a few more athletes arrived including my friends Cathy and Scott Bermon who stayed at a near by hotel.

I then check in and register, get my race number and swag, including a nice race tec training shirt. Cool now I can leave! No, kidding. I signed up and I was going to race the swim and bike and decide whether I can run since I'm there. Then I hear over the PA system as I'm racking my bike and laying out my gear to get ready for the race, "Anyone who doesn't think they can run the half Ironman can sign up for the swim bike race over at the registration table" Not just five minutes earlier Cathy was telling me I should just do the swim and bike race since my heel hurts to run?

I head over to the registration table and tell them I want to switch from the half ironman to the swim bike only event. So now I'm relieved I don't have to DNF another race and focus on having a good race.

The race...

It was a beautiful sunny morning with little wind, perfect for a race.

The race is a mass start but everyone seeds them self according to their estimated time they think they can swim the 2km swim......The gun goes off and we are off. Talk about a wash tub! arms and legs bashing each other feet kicking you in the head everyone all clumped together. I was not amused! I had to stop swimming to look for clear water so I wouldn't get bashed any more. It was a two loop swim and I managed to swim a slow 38 minutes, slow by my standards, but I haven't been in the pool for over three weeks.

I get into transition pull off my wetsuit and put my bike gear on and head out on to the bike course. I started out slow to get my legs warmed up and settle into my bike. Once I settle in I take on some nutrition, mostly gator aid and water which I have in my bike water bottle holders. The bike course is an out and back with lots of rolling hills with some steep ones thrown in for good measure. I set out pacing myself not to go to hard out and bring it up a notch for the way back. I hit the hills steady and hard standing as I climb and getting back into aero for the down hills. Everything is going well and I'm feeling good. By the time I get to the turn around I decide I need to eat something as all I've had to this point is gator aid and water and my stomach had that empty feeling. I stopped and pulled out my bagel and cream cheese that I bought at Tim Horton's and started chowing down as bikers passed me. I drank some water to make it go down easier and chatted with some of the volleys that were stationed there. I have found over my past races it's just as easy to stop and eat and rest my legs a bit rather then try to eat and breath and choke on my food while peddling, so now I stop. I don't find I lose to much time on the long distances, and I feel better and a little fresher for doing it.

Finished my bagel and now it's time to go. Ahhhh! feeling good, stomach is happy and I had a little rest! I keep up my pace on the return trip with the same tactics as I started out, hit the hills strong and hard standing, and get aero on the down hills. The wind has picked up and legs are starting to tire. I swear we had the wind head on on the way out? anyway now we have the wind coming back, so on the down hills I mostly glide with a few peddle strokes to get some speed up and rest my legs as much as possible for the up hills and drink down more gator aid as I'm coasting for some energy.

Coming into the home stretch I feel the urge to hammer it, but my common sense says no you're to tired, so I just cruised in to my finish, rack my bike, take my shoes and helmet off and run to the timing pad to finish my race. Yeah!!!

I handed my chip in and now wait for my result. While I'm waiting i get some food and drink and rest up a bit for my drive home. After a short rest I go to the finish line to see some racers finish and meet up with Scott, he told me he had a good race but tripped once crossing the train tracks.lol he's was OK though.

I decided I wasn't going to wait any longer for my results so I headed home. I got home 2 1/2 hours later unpacked my gear, grabbed a beer and checked for results on my computer....DAMN! no results yet. Finally around 8pm I checked again and they were up. I quickly check to see how I did and ...and...and I came in 2ND, my swim as I said earlier was 38 something and my bike was 3:04 something for a 29.4kph average. not bad I thought, considering I didn't get much sleep, drove 2 hours out, didn't train and it was a tough course.

Now I have to see if I get an award for my race. i have to e-mail the race director to find out, if not? it's OK. I had fun and a good race. :)