Welland Half Ironman Weekend with friends

Friday I left work early to head down to Welland near Niagara falls where I was setting up a tent for the weekend for my half Ironman race at Welland. My friend karen Van Weerden who lives near the race venue and the Welland canal kindly let me set up camp in her huge beautifully groomed backyard. It was a 2 hour drive from work and I arrived around 7:30pm plenty of time to set up my tent before nightfall.

My tent, sleeps 10 but found it comfortable with just one, me! .lol

Another couple Kristina, K for short, and Tanker Jacobson who where coming from Cambridge arrived a little later and had to set up their tent in the dark.

That evening we sat around the campfire that Peter,( Karen's husband built )

The next morning it was race morning for K, she was doing the sprint race, Karen and her friend Ingrid were doing the tri a tri race. When we got down to the venue we met up with some other friends including Adam who Is a OAT ( Ontario association of Triathletes ) in training Official, and who is also doing the half Iron Duathlon on Sunday while I'm doing the Half Ironman Tri.

K had a good race and seemed to be enjoying the day.

While K, was out racing the sprint Karen, Ingrid and Tracy where getting ready for their race in transition.
Then at the race start.
Karen at the finish

Ingrid finishing strong.

K after she finished, getting her energy stores up.

After the race the gang got together to tell there stories about their race.
After the race most of us went back to Karen and Peters house for a BBQ some refreshments and campfire. ....

Gord, Glenna, Adam, Me and half of John. lol

Karen and Peter Van Weerden, The host and hostess

John and Ingrid Veldhuizen


K, and Tanker

Some random shots...

Gord, Tracy, Ingrid, Peter John and karen gathered to watch K and Tracy's daughter Amanda some other friends race in the sprint.

I don't know who she is? but she looked like she means business!! lol

Me With Ingrid and Karen...As Karen put it, " Two roses between a thorn" I couldn't agree more! lol

Swimmers going out and some coming in. the sprint and tri a tri races were in trime trial format.

Racers lined up to get in for the start of the time trial start of the sprint

John Salt, ( race director for the Wellend weekend) Counting racers off evey 3 seconds for the time trial start

Thanks to all my new friends, Karen, Peter, Ingrid, John, Adam, Tracy, Gord, Glenna, Kent, K, Tanker and a few more people I'm forgetting? And a Special thanks to Karen and Peter for letting me camp on there back lawn and for hosting the TST members for the BBQ, and to Ingrid, who helped with some food at the BBQ. I had a great time!! I hope to do it again next year!

MY RACE WELLAND HALF IRONMAN REPORT TO FOLLOW........ :)

Another Hot half Ironman.

I'll have a Race report shortly. All I have to say now is I finished and had a great weekend in Welland with friends and the race.

My times are almost Identical with the Disney 70.3 race I did in May, So I'm not disappointed with the same results considering the identical conditions with the course and weather, Flat and HOT! but I can say I could have done better which you will read why in my race report.


Welland Results...

Bib#137 Josef Polcz ...Finish Time 7:29:53 Swim 38:45 ..1:57/100m ..Run up time from Water to T1...1:57...T1...2:33 Bike 2:55:02 30.9 kph/hr T2....5:56 Run 3:44:43

Welland Half Ironman

Well I'm heading down for my next race and my second half Ironman this season. I'm doing a new Half Ironman race with Mutisport tri series in Welland Ontario, which is near Niagara falls.
http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/showEvent.cfm?showEventID=89


It will be a mass start and starts at 8:30am which is nice, so I can sleep in a bit. The course is flat and fast so I'm hoping for a better result then I did at Disney last month when I baked in the hot sun. the swim is in the Welland canal, then the bike route will take us out and back towards lake Erie on a flat as a pancake ride. The run will be around, over and out and back along the canal.

I packed all my tri gear and my camping gear as I will be camping out at a friends who lives a few km from the event site. I'm leaving from work tonight (friday) rather then going home, sleep a couple of hours and drive down 2.5 hours to get to the race venue to meet up with my friends who are racing the sprint and tri a tri and to volunteer for the day's races. Later in the day when everyone has raced we will be having a BBQ and camp fire back at my friend house and hopefully we won't be to late as I will need my sleep for Sunday's half Ironman race.

Hopefully I'll have a good race to report on.

Ultra's are fun

I entered on the spur of a moment an ultra race yesterday. I went to the Niagara Ultra 50.
http://www.welovetorun.com/newsite/Niagara_Ultra/ultra_index_7.html

I only did the half mary with my friend and Neighbor Brian Chew who asked me to go out with him in support of our running club members from the Barrie running Roadrunners who were doing the 50k Ultra race, and specially one of his friends Roger doing his Fiftieth marathon as well as others doing the marathon. Brian e-mailed me Friday to ask if I wanted to come with him to support the runners and Roger who was doing his 50th marathon, I told him no as I was planning a long ride for Saturday in prep for my half Ironman next week in Welland, which in fact isn't far from where the Niagara Ultra was being held. Well long story short? I thought about it and thought I could ride Sunday and I would like to go to the ultra to support his and my friends! And in the same thought, I decided I may as well enter and do the half marathon for a good long well needed training run for next weeks half Ironman I will be doing.

So Brian and I entered the half marathon as they had same day entree still open. Brian who is a Boston qualifier won our age group with a 1:40 and came in 8 overall in the half, I finished with a 2:42 and wasn't last! Finishing 26 out of 30 I think?

I started my day getting up, well actually I didn't sleep. I got home from work 12:30am and planned to get a couple of hours sleep and getting up at 3:30am to get ready to meet Brian for 4am to leave. It's a 2 + hour drive to Niagara on the lake where the Niagara Ultra race was being held. So as I get ready to go to bed at 1am the neighbors behind my house decided to start partying outside with the music cranked! Ok I though maybe it will only be loud for a song before someone realized it's late out and should turn it down! Well that didn't happen! I kept tossing and turning trying to sleep but couldn't because of the noise. Finally I had enough and at 3am I got up and took a shower. I had the coffee maker pre-set before going to bed to start at 3am so it would be ready when I got up at 3:30, so in any case my coffee was ready when I got out of the shower.

When I went downstairs for my coffee I grabbed a couple of stroopwaffles to eat and a banana and a few cookies, then filled a thermos with coffee for the road. now I'm ready to go and meet up with Brian.

We got to the race site in plenty of time and registered for the half which started at 8am. until then we met up with all our racing friends and watched them start there races before ours.

We started our race and away we went! I started near the back to let the faster runners go and off I went at an easy pace. It was humid and hot out but not as bad as Disney half Ironrman I did last month in Florida. my plan was go easy doing 10 and 1's and I felt good.
I have to thank Joan Van Hilten who caught up to me around the 3 k mark in the run, as I was doing 10 and 1's and told her I was just going easy today putting in a needed long run to get ready for my half Ironman next week.

Joan stayed with me and we worked together as she was having trouble with her foot cramping and wanted to ease up on her run for a while and decided to help pace me since she had a garmin on to pace us. We decided a good pace to run at this time was 6:30's, for 10 and 1's but she seemed to have problems keeping the pace and was slowly creeping up and pushing the pace up to 6:00s pace before she realized we were off pace running to fast before slowing back down. I also noticed the change in pace and was having trouble keeping the pace and started to drift behind her saying I won't be able to keep up at this pace?! when she checked her garmin to realize opps where going to fast! lol.

She stayed with me to almost the to half way mark sticking with me for about 7k before moving on when she was feeling better and I told her I was holding her back. I held my slower pace and kept moving forward and finally got to the turn around and half way mark and continuing on with my 10 and 1's. About 2 k later I caught up to Joan again as she was sitting and massaging her foot which was cramping. I stopped to see how she was doing and she told me she was hurting bad but got up and kept going in front of me only to stop a few hundred feet ahead as I passed her and never saw her again the rest of the way.

I was doing ok until I hit the 15k mark and my feet were starting to kill me and was quickly reverting my 10 and 1's to 3 and 1's the rest of the way until I came to the finished.

I had fun running along the Niagara river, along some beautiful paved paths with only the start and finish being on grass. The whole day was fun and I got in a solid run while being there. I'm glad Brian asked me to come along.

The group who raced the 50k did well. Catherine, and Shannon, a couple of our running junkies finished with great times, with the last two woman in our group Cindy and Tracy finishing together around 7:30 with beer in hand!( one of our group handed her a well deserved beer before the finish line.) Theo, Bill Brendon, Jim, Rick, Keith, Roger,Klint, Glen, John, Jen, Lisa, Victoria, Nancy,as well as others all did fantastic in the 50k and marathon. Congrats to everyone!

We all had a great time after the race some puking from the heat of the day, No I didn't puke! but some of our group did from the hard day as it was very humid with temps around 30C but they quickly recovered with free beers being served, as well as pizza snacks and regular drinks. It was a fun day.

I can see now how fun Ultras are now. Maybe I'll try a 50k one day? ....or maybe not! :)




Some of the group for the group shot. I'm waving over Catherine to get into the shot...



Brian and me after the race.

Cindy after she finished the 50k and joan on the left....
Tracy with beer in her hand and Cindy finishing the 50k ...

Bill resting after winning 3rd in his Agegroup in the 50k and Catherine who also did the 50k ...

Catherine and Jen...

Me walking during the race..
Still walking..... You can see on my face I was either in pain from my feet or hot from the heat. lol

Sucking it up and running a little. lol.....

Bill, Theo, Roger and Brendon after Roger finished his 50th marathon.

Roger coming in the finish of his 50th marathon with supporters...

Group shot...

Another group shot...

Near the end of the race and feeling strong..

One of our racers doing the 50k at Niagara fall, the halfway turn around of the 50k. I think it's Keith?

Binbrook Race

I started preparing for my race when I got home from my grandfathers funeral Friday night, so I went out for an easy 5k run with my wife Joanne. There is nothing like getting all your training and fitness in the last min before a race! but that is how my less is more training plan works most of the time.

I was planning on going for a easy ride Saturday morning too, but when I got up it was pouring rain and it wasn't looking like it would let up, so I canceled my ride and decided to relax the rest of the day doing nothing, which is fine because i don't want to over train before a race, and with my 1000m swim on Monday and my 5k run last night I was more then ready to race! ;)

I went to bed at 10pm and set my alarm to wake me at 4am. When the alarm went off I quickly jumped out of bed and started running around! No! this is not part of my less is more training? i just had to pack all my gear up and threw it into my bag, grab my bike, bike shoes and helmet then threw everything into the car. Then I grabbed a few things to eat, like a banana, some stroopwaffles and gulped them down as I headed out to the car. before heading out to the hwy I stopped at Tim Horton;s for some coffee and a bagel with cream cheese for the road.

It was a 2 hour drive to Binbrook which is located south west of Hamilton. The weather was overcast and foggy and when I got to the race site there was a light misting going on. The grounds where soaked from rain and everything was just soggy with puddles everywhere! Perfect for a race! lol.

It wasn't cold out, but it wasn't warm either, by the time the race started the weather was looking better, the rain/ drizzle/ misting had stopped but it was still overcast.

After I parked I grabbed my bike and gear and racked it after finding out what my race number was, I then went to pick up my race kit/shirt and number, I was # 124. I then went back to my bike set up and laid out my stuff, attaching my bib # to my race belt and now I was all set. I then headed down to the beach where the swim start was and ran into a few friends including Jon Dow from the Barrie Tri club. He and I were the only representative of our club at this race. I also met up with other friends including Adam, Carrie and Kent. Kent was doing the race announcing for the day.

After a quick chat, I went to check out the water. I decided I wasn't using my wetsuit for this race and wanted to make sure the water temp wasn't to cold. I was pleasantly surprised to find the water was just right! they announced the water temp as being 73F which is perfect for swimming without a wetsuit! I went in the water and did a little warm up swim of maybe 200m then stood around waiting for the start of the race.

The Race...750m swim, 27km bike, 6.5km run
And were off, I started my swim on the outside right from the start, to stay clear of all the bashing. I don't like bashing, so I don't mind swimming a little more distance to stay clear of it. for the most part I had a clear lane and as I eventually cut over I grabbed onto some swimmers toes for some drafting. things got a little tight around the first turn buoy where you are almost standing up straight as you take the turn around with the current of all the swimmers wake, then I got more free lanes and was clear swimming until the last 100ms when some woman swims from behind me, then almost through me when as I was taking a stroke my hand coming over hits her goggles behind me but she kept swimming through and passes me. I shake my hand off and continue swimming until I get to the beach. As I stand up in the water to run out and up into transition I give my hand another shake and notice I'm bleeding! I then realize when I smacked the woman swimmer her goggles must have cut me? Oh well! I continued on.


I ran through transition to the bike area which was a good 300-400m away and quickly throw on my bike shirt race belt, bike shoes helmet and gloves. I un-rack my bike and run with it to the mount line and start my bike ride. T1 time was 2:10.
http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/2010/course_maps/binbrook_tri_swim_course.gif



I have never raced this race before so I had no idea what to expect for the bike ride. I was told it was flat with some small hills. I didn't want to ride to aggressive, and the fact the roads were still slick, I went with a see as I go attitude and paced myself accordingly, but was keeping my eye on my bike computer to keep my speed above 30km/hr on route. For the most part the roads were flat with gentle grades upwards with some easy risers and only a couple of short low grade down hills where I could take a break from peddling for about 10 secs each time. The ride is an out and back around the conservation area with several right hand turn on the out and left hand turn on the way back that we had to be cautious on as the roads were wet. When I came in to the dismount line, I un-clipped my shoes and coasted in towards the dismount line and well before the dismount line I jumped off my bike and ran to and over the dismount line into T2 to rack my bike, but as I dismounted I heard some guy yell out " Nice dismount! now that's how it's done! " I laughed as I ran with my bike to T2 .... I finished the 27 km bike in 50:39 for a 32km average.
http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/2010/course_maps/binbrook_tri_bike_course.gif


I racked my bike and changed into my running shoes and started out on my run with a quick T2 transition of 1:22......As I ran out of transition onto the run path I tried to tip toe through the soggy muddy grass, but with each step and the long journey through the water soaked grass it was useless to try to keep my shoes from getting wet, but I still made the effort to jump over the bigger mud puddles along the run route.

The run took up around the lake along a grassy trail which was quickly becoming a muddy trail with all the runners ahead and behind me. The grass trail turned into a gravel trail then through some wood trail where we had some slippery muddy hills to go up and worse coming back, had to go down. The run took us out 2 km out before the turn around where we came back the same way. When we got back to the transition area, we continued across the soggy wet grass acroos the swim start beach and finally onto a paved path and out to the other end of the park for 2.5 km, then back before coming to the finish. I ended up running for the most part only walking a couple of times going on the uphills. I finished the run 6.5km in 43:35 which I was quite pleased with.
http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/2010/course_maps/binbrook_tri_run_course.gif


I finished my race in a total of 1:53:31 and was 6/16 in my age group. 123 overall. I highly recommend the Binbrook race.

I would also like to give a shout out and congrats to Jon Dow who had a great race finishing 13Th over all and taking 3rd in his 20-24 age group! With a time of 1:28:51 Way to go Jon!

My friend Adam also did well finishing 9 over all and 2nd in his Agegroup of 20-24 in the Duathlon with a time of 1:33:26 Way to go Adam!

Carrie did great to finishing 7/14 in her 25-29 agegroup in the triathlon. with a time of 1:57:18 Way to go Carrie!

Jon Dow on the podium

Me with Friends Carrie and Adam doing what we call the bite, which is usually done with winning a medal, but none of us won a medal, so we found the next best thing! A water melon slice! lol

My results link....
http://www.chiptimeresults.com/resultsreader.php?y=2010&r=MSbinbrookT.htm

Funeral Arrangments Made

Today Joanne and I went with my mother, Brother and Sister to arrange for the showing and burial. Tomorrow night from 7-9 we will hold a showing and Friday at 1pm will be a service mass with a reception after and then a precession out to the cemetery for the burial. Most of the arrangements were already arranged for including the burial plot and head stone at the cemetery and coffin so things went pretty smooth with the extra stuff we wanted and the times.

After that We all went to the Providence hospital where my Grandfather lived and died to gather all his belonging to take to my moms house. My Sister had a pickup truck to transport all his belonging, which wasn't much? just a few personal possessions, clothing and pictures, so it didn't take long and all went smooth again.

On the way home not far from the hospital I noticed a factory, a cookie factory! Matter of fact, a cookie factory that makes the best cookies ever! call Peak Freans, and it has a factory outlet that you can purchase what they call seconds, or batches of cookies that don't meet the companies high standards for shipment and selling in stores. I never noticed it before driving by, and when Joanne saw it! we had to stop in and see what they had! We ended up buying a ton of cookies that will last years! We just put the bulk of them in the freezer to keep them fresh and pull out what we want.




Here are all the Peak Freans cookies we bought for $30.00 today.... a real bargain when you consider one package of cookies normally sells for around $3.50 a box in the store!

Rest in peace Grandpa

Grampa passed at 12:15pm today.

God bless and Rest in peace. We all love you.

My next race

I signed up for my next race. Here ...http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/showEvent.cfm?showEventID=88

I'm doing the Binbrook sprint this Sunday, it's a 750m swim 27km bike and a 6.5k run. The weather is looking good and suppose to be hot! just the way I like it. I've never done this race so I don't know what to expect. I'll just go out like I normally do and just have fun. :)

Gramdpa, is still hanging in there, My mom got a call from the hospital this morning at 4am to come in as they felt he was nearing death, but he is still hanging in there. When I called my bother who is also there in support at the hospital with my mom, said Grandpa was looking better and even ate. ( nurses hand fed him) It's not unusual for a person to all of a sudden look and feel better just before death? it's a cheap trick god plays on us all before dieing, giving us the false hope that things are getting better as it is only inevitable that he will be gone shortly. Grandpa is resting comfortably but is in and out of awareness. It's sad to see, and one of the reasons I am not there today. I said/paid my respects to grandpa on Sunday and want to remember him in better times, not look over him as he passes. God bless you Grandpa.

I didn't race

No pictures, no podium, no medal, no go! I got up at 4 am this morning to get ready to go to Milton to race the tri a tri, but when my alarm went off, all I heard was the sound of rain out of my bedroom window. It had been raining all night long steadily, and I was hoping it would stop by morning and clear up for the race, but when my alarm went off all I heard was the rain still coming down hard. At that time I got up and went to the washroom, then looked outside and I decided I didn't want to go so I went back to bed where Joanne said to me, aren't you going? and I said nope.



I think I really didn't go because I had to much on my mind. My mom called last night telling me Grampa isn't doing very well and his time is coming soon, so she wanted to know if we were going to see him? She wanted to make sure we see him before he dies. I told her I would be going after my race Sunday in the afternoon. But truth be known my mind was thinking of grandpa most of the night and I took it as a sign with all the rain that I shouldn't do the race in Milton, there will be other races.



The doctors at the hospital said all they can do for Grandpa now is make him comfortable. So this morning we all are on our way to visit Grandpa and hopefully make him a little happier being with him, comforting him, and showing him how much we love him, which I know he will appreciate.



My Grandpa Alex, in better day's...

The pond

Today I hooked up my pump and filter to my pond, to make the fishy's happy even if it sounds like a motor boat. lol...I use my old pool sand filter and jacuzzi pump, It works wonders! It clears the pond up in no time. I only need to have it on for short periods of time, usually a half hour to and hour once or twice a week.

I've been in taper mode this week getting ready for my Tri a tri race Sunday. lol Do I really need to taper?? I'm hoping to do well and maybe podium tomorrow at Milton, as last time I did the tri a tri race I came in 4th and just missed getting on the podium for 2nd place by less then 50 seconds and 3rd by even less! all because I had trouble getting my wetsuit off because the zipper got stuck and I couldn't pull the stupid thing off. This time I'm not going to wear my wetsuit and hopefully save some time, and with luck if I can run, I may see my first podium finish in a Triathlon. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post. :)

:)