When we went to Penticton in August we timed it so we could be there to watch the Ironman. Technically it was the Ironman the year before and was now called the Penticton Challenge since the Ironman had moved to Whistler this year. The race remained the same however with a 4k swim, 180k bike and a 42k run. We went to watch our friend Sean who had signed up for his first Ironman distance. Our favourite quote from him is a story he tells his running buddies. He's not doing a marathon unless it's on the tail end of an Ironman.
True to form he signed up having never swam that long, never biked that long and never run that long. The race started early and I wanted to see as much of it as I could so I drove from Oliver to Penticton first thing in the morning so that I could see everyone get in the water. They started in waves and spent about an hour in the water so I had plenty of time to catch where they get on the bike. I had also found out that one of my co-workers from BC Hydro was in the race as well. He's pictured to the right here. I knew his number and managed to get a few shots of him as he started the bike. Amazingly I accidentally got a shot of his wife and kids in green across the street.
As soon as I saw Sean get on the bike I drove as quickly as I could back to Oliver. They move pretty fast on that part of the course and I knew if I waited too long I would get stuck in Okanagan falls where the road course met the highway. I also wanted to get a few more shots of my co-worker and he had gotten out of the water several minutes before Sean. It was too early for the whole family to come with me to Penticton so they were camped out in front of the A&W in Oliver with signs ready. It was good that I knew how far ahead my co-worker was as it gave us a warning for when Sean would get there.
For that portion of the bike he was right on time. He knew to look for us and this early in the race he still looked fresh. The bike course then headed up the mountain behind Oliver. On one of the up hill portions his family was going to see him so we got updates on his progress. He was still going strong but had started to slow down a bit. In the end he finished the bike in a little over 6 hours. Definitely a respectable time for 180k. Things really started to slow down when he started the run.
Of course if I had just swam for an hour, biked for six and then was expected to run a marathon you'd expect a guy to be a bit run down. One of the issues that came up for him was that the food provided during the race was different from what he had trained on. This left him with more of a stomach issue than an endurance issue. Where he normally would probably have paced out a marathon in under four hours it was time for a six hour plus gruelling walk on a hot dusty road. We saw him in OK Falls and then drove to Penticton to see him at the finish.
He managed to summon his last ounce of strength to jog through the finish. It was an amazing atmosphere as his daughter Kennedy and her two friends finished the race with him. (Kennedy apparently ran ahead of him and left her in his dust. Not very sportsmanlike.)
The weekend was a lot of fun and I now have an inkling of appreciation for the gruelling task that the Ironman distance is.
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