Scott, Zachary and I left for Canada on Thursday night after Zac's cross country meet, where he ran 23:18 for 2 miles and got another PR.  We drove to Niagara Falls and got in around 10:00 PM.  Scott watched the rest of the Steeler Game while Zac and I went and checked out the Falls and Clifton Hill (crazy stuff on that street).  The next morning we enjoyed a big breakfast and hit the road to Muskoka.  We arrived in Muskoka around 3:00 PM.  After checking into the hotel, I headed out onto the bike course.  I wasn't going to have time to ride the full 58 mile course since the hotel was already 5.6 miles from the race start, so I decided to ride the toughest part of the loop backwards and then turn around and head back in.  They told us the last 20K of the course would be tough and they were right.  The course was full of long rolling hills and long false flats leading into steep inclines. On top of that, the road conditions weren't great and hitting high speeds on some of the down hills was pretty tough.

I have to say riding out was more difficult than riding back, they gave us the easier route, but neither route was fun.  After going out about 25 K on the course, I turned around to ride the actual course.  After about 5K in, another cyclist came up beside me.  Her name was Monica.  She was in the race and training for Kona.  I ended up riding the rest of the way in with her.  I went and checked out the transition area and headed back to the hotel.  We headed out to dinner at Blackburn's Steakhouse by the water in Huntsville, then back to the room to watch Land of the Lost and to get some sleep.

The next morning I met Bill for breakfast at the hotel.  Afterwards, I rode my bike back over to the hotel carrying my wetsuit and other items for my transition area.  Bill met me over there.  I arrived at Deerhurst Resort around 8:45 to find out the registration didn't open until 10:00 AM.  Bill and I decided to head to the beach to get our swim in.  The Beach was a long way from the resort.  At least we didn't start and finish there.  We were told the swim would be set-up at 9:00 AM.  When we arrived, the buoys weren't out.  We had an idea of how the swim would go, so we decided to jump in and get part of the swim in.  We swam out about 600 yards, made a turn across the lake for a while and then another turn back to the beach.  It wasn't the full course, but enough to get an idea of what we would be swimming the next day.  There were a lot of athletes in the water and motorboats were starting to go out on the lake.  It was becoming fairly dangerous, so we decided to call it a day.  After swimming, they decided to get the buoys out.  We checked out the course to see how we wanted to do our sighting and then headed back up to registration.  Walking back up to registration reminded me how difficult the swim to bike transition would be.  We have about 300 to 400 yards to run straight up hill to get the transition area from the swim.

I got back up the hill, went and got registered, racked my bike and called Scott and Zachary to pick me up.  I decided to walk towards the hotel so I could meet them along the way.  The three of us then went to lunch and headed to the Trans Canada Trail (The longest Recreational Trail in the World)  The three of us went for a nice hike and Zachary jumped in one of the lakes and went for a nice open water swim.  After our hike we went for some cosmic bowling.  The bowling was with small bowling balls, 5 pins and you had 3 tries to get all the pins knocked down.  (Not my typical pre-race activities)  Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  We met Bill and headed to a Japanese Restaurant about 20 minutes from our hotel.  It was a really nice restaurant and the food was excellent.  We had salmon, seared tuna, edamame and a bunch of sushi.  Headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for race day.

I met Bill at 5:30 AM for breakfast.  I had 3 hard-boiled eggs, an English muffin and some cereal.  Bill chose to not eat.  We headed to the race day parking area where we picked up the shuttle to take us to the transition area.  We parted ways in our transition area and I was the 2 nd person to show up for the 35-39 Women's age group.  Slowly more of my competitors showed up.  I pumped up my tires and got my transition area ready.  Talked to some of the other women.  The transition area was packed with bikes.  About 10 racks with about 8 or 9 bikes per rack.  The woman beside me showed up and she was furious.  Apparently someone moved her bike.  Her bike was racked right next to mine on rack number 2.  Anyhow, she pushed on the bikes on rack number one and shoved her bike on the rack.  She moved her bike about 6 inches, not sure why she needed to do that, but it gave me some more room.  I headed into Deerhurst to find a restroom, ran into Bill.  We talked about our strategies for the day and thought we would try to meet at the swim start at 7:30 AM.  I headed back into the transition area and laid on the ground for a while, listened to my Ipod and closed my eyes for about 20 minutes.  Ok, it was time to head to the swim start.  I checked my tires and transition area one last time.  Got my wetsuit on up to my waist and grabbed my cap and goggles and headed for the swim start.  There were masses of people heading to the start.  It was cold out and the wind was kicking up a bit, and my feet were getting very cold and they hurt from all the rocks, sand and pebbles we were walking on.  We finally made it to the start.  I went to the beach to look for Bill and I couldn't find him anywhere.  I checked out the pro's on the beach and was only a few feet away from them and got a good look at the Ironman Champ Craig Alexander.

After listening to the Canadian National Anthem and hearing them announce the pro's and seeing no signs of Bill in the mass of red swim caps, I headed back up the hill to stand in line one last time for the bathrooms.  After getting through the long line, I got to holding area for my wave, got my wetsuit on and zipped up, my swim cap on and goggles ready.  Just then they moved us down to the beach.  We had about 5 minutes to warm-up.  I jumped in the water and got some short quick sprints in to get used to the water and get my wetsuit situated and comfortable.  Exited the water again and moved to the next area of the beach for the start.  I did my usual and started off to the right side of the swim.  It was perfect.  I didn't hit any traffic in the water.  There were plenty of buoy's out for sighting purposes and the swim was great.  Perfect water temperature, clean water and no traffic.  I felt great in the water.  I actually felt as if I had my best swim this year, but my time didn't represent that.  So, this swim was either a little long or the other swims I've done this year were a little short.  Anyhow, before I made the turn at the first buoy I already passed a person in a blue cap that started in the wave in front of me.  Then a couple minutes later I passed a person in a green cap.  I couldn't help but think what a long day these guys were going to have if they were only that far on their swim.  I continued to feel good and I was passing a lot of people.  Mostly in blue and green caps as I made the second turn.  As we continued on, I kept passing more people in blue and green caps, but saw very few white caps (my wave).  As we made the last turn back to the finish, I passed 3 people in red caps.  This was the first wave, Bill's Wave.  How were these people still in the water?  I started to pick-up my pace and I started to kick to get some blood flow back into my legs before exiting the water and heading up the long hill to the transition area.

As I exited the water, I was surrounded by people in blue and green caps, but when I looked at my watch, I couldn't believe my time.  A 36:50.  About 3 minutes off what I was expecting.  I went through the wetsuit area, (you could have some help you take your wetsuit off)  I opted to leave mine on.  The air was cold and I enjoyed having the suit on to keep me warm as I ran up the hill.  I passed 6 people up the hill to transition.  As I approached the rack for our age group, I noticed most of the racks were still full.  I ended up swimming ok.  I was 16th in my age group in the swim.  Not too bad.  I got on my shoes.  Didn't put my socks on, but should have.  Put on my helmet and sunglasses and forgot to grab my race belt.  Big mistake on my part.  Most races don't require your race number on your bib during the bike, but this one did.  I got out of transition and they asked me where my number was, I couldn't believe it.  A volunteer held my bike and grabbed my chip off my ankle.  I ran as fast as I could in my cycling shoes into transition.  Grabbed my race belt and headed back out.  On my way out, I heard a pop and a bunch of air.  The woman running beside me just got a flat.  She was not happy.  I felt bad for her, but what could I do.

I ran out, grabbed my chip and my bike and took off.  I lost about 90 seconds with this mistake.  I didn't remember reading that we needed to wear our numbers during the bike, but I'll know for future Ford Ironman events.

Anyhow, I took the bike out conservatively.  I knew what the course was like and I didn't want to burn myself out early in the ride.  It was windy and cold on the bike.  It was very cloudy and we had no sunshine to warm us up.  I felt good heading out on the bike, I was passing people, but I was also getting passed by some people, but I wasn't worried.  I had a goal of 18 MPH for the 58 mile course (yes, 2 miles longer than a normal 1/2 Ironman).  I figured if I could hold 18 MPH here, I should be able to hold 18 MPH at the Ironman.  At about the 40K mark, I checked out my average MPH and saw I was at 17.52.  It was time to start picking it up.  By the 60 K mark I was up to 18 MPH.  I just had to hold that for the last 34 K.  I knew the toughest part of the course was coming and I wasn't sure what I would have left in the tank to get over my goal pace.  As we hit the last 20 K, I continued to pass people, including 3 women in my age group who passed me in the first 10 K.  I knew I had them when I saw them sitting straight up on their bikes and stretching their backs and they weren't pedaling down the hills.  I continued to pass people.  In fact, I don't think one person passed me in the last 12 to 15 K.  I got to the end of the bike and I actually wanted to ride further.  The course was so hard, but I was just starting to feel good.  A great sign for what I'll be doing in a couple weeks at Chessyman.

I entered the transition area at 3:59 (I knew I needed a sub 2 hour 1/2 marathon to break 2 hours)  Yes, the race number incident was already haunting me.  I was going to have to work that much harder on the run to break 6 hours on this tough course.  As I ran to the 35-39 bike racks, I counted 19 bikes on the racks around me.  Not too bad I thought.  I got my cycling gear off, put on my socks and shoes and headed out on the run.  We had a long climb out of Deerhurst, but I felt really good, so I just counted off the Kilometers, knowing I wanted to average a 5:38 per K.  I was at a 5:23 pace for quite a long time.  By about 8 K, I could tell my pace was starting to slow.  It may have had something to do with the huge climb in front of me.  It was all up hill from that point to the 10 K and just past it to the turn around.  I hit the half way point at 56 minutes.  I was happy with that and thought of the down hill I had in front of me.  I got back down to the 5:20 or so pace for the next 3 K and then we got to the trail.  At this point the hills were getting really bad.  It was one right after another and no long down hills and definitely no flat areas to give your legs a break.  I knew my pace was getting slower, but I was passing people like crazy.  I don't think I've ever seen so many people walk in a race in my life.  I kept encouraging people as I ran by them, hoping someone would run with me and keep me going a bit, but no one latched on.

I hit the last water station right before the 19 K marker.  At 19 K, we had to climb a hill that was just like climbing Ehrman Road Hill.  At the top, we made a right to head to Deerhurst.  We finally had a down hill, but it wouldn't last long.  With less than a kilometer to go, I could here the crowds cheering.  We had one last long hill to climb.  Everyone in front of me was walking.  I went past a guy and told him to run, we were almost done.  He said he had nothing left and kept walking.  I started to pick up my pace.  I knew I had to kick it in to break 6 hours.  I gave everything I had and passed a bunch of people in the long finishing chute to the finish.  I saw Scott and Zac right away.  It was so great to see them.  I got my finishing medal, hat and shirt.  Handed in my chip.  Got some water and went to the spray tent with Zac to get cooled off.

Then I finally got to sit down.  It was so nice to sit.  That run was tough and I was happy it was over.  Scott told me how Bill did.  Then Bill came over and we compared some notes about the race.  Through all of it, Bill had a fantastic first 1/2 Ironman.  He was 63 rd of 186 in his age group on the swim.  128th on the bike and 37th on the run.  He finished his run in a 1:46.  I have no idea how he ran that fast, but he was moving.  He completed an extremely tough course and was 66th in his age group.  He had a fantastic race.

I hope he enjoyed the experience and I'm hoping we can talk him into heading up to Musselman next year.

I want to thank you all for the good luck wishes and the nice notes and comments afterwards.  It was a great training for me.  I had a very comfortable swim.  I felt great on the bike and I ran under a 2 hour 1/2 marathon on a very tough course.  My final time was a 5:59:38.  My normal 1/2 Ironman time is a 5:30 to a 5:35 when I'm tapered and feeling good.  I also need to remember this race was 2 miles longer on the bike and much harder than the other races I've done, so taking that into consideration, my time wasn't off by too much.  I also was feeling a bit under the weather and I think I may have a sinus infection and an ear infection right now.  I see the doctor tomorrow.

So again, congratulations to my friend Bill on a great race.  It was a really nice trip with the exception of the 1 1/2 hours of traffic we sat through on the way out of Muskoka.

See you all soon.

Joella