Swim, bike, run - How Bad ASS can I be?

Cole's notes version Joe CRUSHED his 2011 time by 1 hour and 39 minutes. - Final time 12:19:06 Team Gets Better with Age rocked the course finishing 29 minutes behind Joe  12:48:04 Okay for those interested in details here they are. Joe and I got up at 4:45 am so we would have time to eat and digest before going in the water.  The weather reports had been sketchy all weekend calling for rain, thunderstorms, wind, sun - it was changing from hour to hour so we had no idea what we would get.  We were hoping for calm water and warm to hot temperatures with no wind.  Thankfully when we headed out the door at 5:45am the lake looked  calm, the sky clear of dark clouds and it was nice and warm.  We made sure to wake up Joe sr before leaving and I reminded him I hoped to be out of the water around 8:40 am so be there for the chip handoff.  It was quite a bit quieter walking down to Transition than previous years but with only 1400 athletes in all...

Only 6 more sleeps until Challenge Penticton - aka the original Ironman Canada.  Yes for all of you that think the Penticton race is no more you are wrong.   SO VERY WRONG it is alive and going strong.  Without bringing up all the drama and yada yada basically the folks in Penticton rebranded their race.  They wanted it to be about the community and athletes again and not so corporate which is where it had been going in the last few years when IRONMAN became a brand and a corporation. The group that won the contract is CHALLENGE - not well known in North America but huge in Europe and elsewhere in the world.  Their mandate is athlete and community first.  They run the biggest Iron Distance race in the world - Challenge Roth which is my dream to race in but that is another story. So back to Penticton - the course is the same as the old course,l the volunteers are, as always, amazing and yes the iconic Steve King is still calling the finish line....

I have been "racing" in half marathon, marathons, short, middle and long distance triathlons as well as cycling for about 14 years now. I say "racing" because the leaders/winners are in no way threatened by me.  For those that know me I am a smidge competitive.  This is more for me and maybe the 5 or 6 people in my time zone on the course but yep I am competitive. I don't quit, I train religiously and I race hard.  My friends will tell you I am different animal when the gun goes off in a race as opposed to a training day.  I am intense and the I push - I always say there is no such thing as a "training race"  It is a race- throw it down and go! 2012 was not a great year - I had a torn calf muscle, I bounced myself pretty hard off the pavement and got a nasty concussion out of it and the start of 2013 was not going much better.  I had registered for Challenge Pentiction - just a renaming of IRonman Canada, Penticton - same course, same distance so...

Ah lets just admit it I am not very good at this blogging stuff but I will try again to be more consistent in my blogs.  I guess I just feel like I don't really have a lot to say most of the time. SO lets see since Oct 2012 what has happened. Had an epithany at the Oliver Half Ironman in June of 2013 Finished another Iron Distance Race - the inaugural Challenge Penticton - 2013 - it was awesome. Travelled to N. Ireland and Amsterdam and fell in love with the cycling culture in Amsterdam.  Met my step-grandson and generally got to catch up with family in Belfast. Ran some great trail races.  Lost my running partner - Bishop after 13.5 years  :(   but gained a new running partner in training Blue.  Still miss Bishop - always will but love Blue more and more each day.  Lost my mother-in-law to cancer at Christmas back to Belfast for the funeral.  I hate Cancer!  Because we want a well adjusted puppy I have been low key on t...