On the locals' side...

Hello! Still enjoying beautiful Pinticton and Kalowna :o) I can't believe how fast these last few days have flown by. Lots of practicing and hurry-up-and-wait going on, leading up to last night. Friday night, following the athletes' dinner, the actual FESTIVITIES started up.

The city of Pinticton closed down three blocks of Main Street just for the Ironman celebration. There were street vendors, San Francisco style street performers, belly dancers, and local shops open for extended hours. I was so excited to find a little station equipped with sidewalk chalk, so that I could write a message to Corey on the run :o) We were even more excited to get our son a new "Irondog Canada" collar. Its got the I-dot instead of the M-dot. I'll have to post a picture later :o)

This morning was a very informative morning :o) During my jog, I came across a man who lived in the area. He was fishing :o) And later, Jeanette and I talked to a couple who have lived in the Pinticton area their whole lives! So, here's what we've learned:

Pinticton lies at the northern-most tip of the Sonoran desert --the same desert that Bakersfield is in!

Although we flew over glaciers to get here, Pinticton's winters rarely get below freezing, and their summers are in the low 90's

Pinticton is a retirement city

A deluxe waterfront condo costs a little over half a million dollars

This valley is famous for its peaches and wineries

Pinticton has two very different beaches within 1.5 miles of each other. The beach of Okanagan Lake has fine sand, like our SoCal beaches, and the sand is relatively cool, since there are a lot of trees along the path. Skaha Lake, however, has red coarse sand, and in the afternoon, it's too hot to walk on. I guess you have to wear sneakers???? Umbrellas are mandatory. And the demographics are as different as the sands! All the body builders and fake boobs hang out on the red beach. The family types hang out on the white beach. Weird, hunh? I was happy to be on the Okanagan beach. The "beautiful people" are beyond me.

The area is well protected. There are only two roads into the valley. It helps keep the riff raff out

Pinticton has good cops keeping the gangers out and the drugs to a minimum

Due to its small population, healthcare actually isn't bad in this valley

Pinticton is known as the Hawaii of Canada!

I learned where the fish are breeding and when they are biting :o)

...and that's all I know about the area. Of course, the most important thing to know is that we definitely would like to come back!

And away we go...

Ahhh, Penticton, British Columbia. Gorgeous area. Love the venue already. After testing out the water for about 35 minutes, which was amazingly warm (68-70 degrees), we headed to registration. Purchased some needed supplies that could not be shipped due to federal regulations prohibiting it (damn feds). Then stood in line for about 45 minutes, waiting for registration to open. Met some really nice people from the east coast and also from Chicago. Once I got through registration, I headed over the Crocs tent to retrieve my free Crocs. Very exciting. Got a pair of $50 Crocs for free as a promotion. Very cool.

After getting something to eat at (where?) Tim Hortons, we went to be first in line at Tri Bike Transport to pick up my bike. Many 100s of bikes were transported by this company. I was a little apprehensive about shipping but it arrived in 1 piece and didn't end up in Ironman Louisville (also taking place on Sunday). So for the price, it was worth not having to put it together or deal with it at the airport. Very nice. I will test it out tomorrow.

After lunch, we then drove the 112-mile bike course. Very nice and deceptively challenging course. The first 50 KM or so are pretty flat and fast with 1 challenging hill. Then it gets tough for awhile with the challenging 7-mile climb up Ritcher Pass. But oh boy a screaming downhill for about 5-6 miles where you could easily hit speeds of 40 mph. Then it is just some rollers to Keremoes at 132 km. Once we leave there then starts a 4-mile climb up to Yellow Lake and then flattens for a few miles before a 12 mile plunge back to Penticton before hitting the run on the same first 13 miles of the bike course. So an out-and-back run will culminate the race.

Goal time? Hmmm, anything under 13 hours would be great. I am shooting for about 12h 45h or at least try and finish before sunset at 7:45 PM. I think I can do it, if I have a good bike and a decent run.

All-in-all, the atmosphere is electric but certainly will be even better when we have the athlete dinner tomorrow night and the downtown shin-dig afterwards. Anyway, signing off from Penticton. Jen may write later.

Kelowna, Canada

Helloooooo! We made it safely to our 5 night home away from home :o) Pretty nice accomodations! There is a nice little restaurant and bar adjoining the hotel. They make yummy teryiaki chicken wings :o) Two blocks away is the grocery store, where Corey got bananas and water and Gatorade. I ran to the aisle to get Coke, Dill Pickle Potato chips, and two dozen Kinder eggs! hahahaha!

We've settled in for the night. It's nice to do something normal, like watch the Simpsons :o)

Tomorrow morning, we will find a Tim Horton's to get our long-awaited double double coffees. Then we'll get to business doing tri stuff. Corey has to try out the water, I need to jog, and then we'll drive the bike course. We won't be able to pick up Corey's bike until the afternoon, but we'll get it, and make sure it works right :o)

I apologize... I didn't know that Corey was bringing his laptop, so I hadn't planned on blogging! We have two pictures to post so far, but we don't have the card reader to plug into the computer :o( Is blogging worth blogging without pictures????

Anyhow, we're safe, the town is cute and the air is AWESOME!!!!!! I love to breathe clean air :o) The people here are really friendly, too. ..and I am in hot pursuit of food, as always :o)

The countdown continues... T-minus 2 weeks

With 14 days to go, we are officially in full blown taper mode. Weeks and weeks of training will hopefully pay off with another personal best time. Shooting for a sub 13-hour, which would be 23 minutes better than IM Arizona 2008. Here are my goal times:

Swim: 70 minutes
T1: 3-5 minutes
Bike: 6h 15m
T2: 4 minutes
Run: 4h 30m

Total: 12h 10m, which gives a little cushion.

In looking over the training log for this training period, I accumulated over 180,000 yards of swimming, 1850 miles of biking and close to 450 miles of running (so far). By the end of the year, I will be well over 225,000 yards swimming, 2500 miles of biking and 600 miles of running. I am tired just thinking about it. Okay hold on, I need to focus.

Ironman has become a way of life for us. My ultimate goal of course is to make it to Kona. But for now, I want to compete in every Ironman event in North America. Next up is Ironman St. George, Utah in May 2010. I still have 4 other venues after St. George to conquer. That would bring my total to 10 at that point. Woo Hoo.

So in the meantime, it is time to get focused and relax and begin the taper process. Jen will most likely blog during the event as we continue our adventure to Ironman.

Until next post...

24 days to go...

Once again, we are fast approaching another Ironman event. With only 24 days to go, Ironman Canada promises to be a challenging event that surely will be as memorable as the others. Penticton, BC is supposed to be an amazing venue that boasts 4500 volunteers. Think about it: a town of 25000 has 20% of its residents volunteer. Awesome. Hotel rooms sell out a year in advance for this race. And this will be Jen's first time this entire year of seeing me race. 6 races this year and she has not had the opportunity to see any of them. Looking forward to hearing the duck call.

Once Ironman is done, one would think that I would relax. Yeah, right!!! I have 4 more races including the brutally challenging Magic Mountain Man half ironman triathlon in October. The bike course may be considered one of the most challenging courses around: of the 56 miles biking, only 7 miles of it are flat. the other 49 are either going uphill or going downhill.

Looking ahead to 2010 (yes, already thinking that far), I have 4 races on my calendar--Ironman St. George (utah), Vineman 70.3, Sacrament Half Ironman, and Silverman half Ironman, plus a few other sprints. What a Nice way to celebrate my 40th birthday by pay good money to beat up my body!!! My idea of fun and excitement.