The Ironman Journey

Ironman 2007 is finally finished and it's been a long process to finally obtain the results I've reached this year. I started competing in triathlons seven years ago when my roommate was all hyped on doing an Olympic distance race (1500m swim, 40km bike, and 10km run) and he convinced me to go along with him. I regularly competed in running races and I had plans to do my first marathon that summer. However, triathlon was unlike anything I'd ever experienced, it was the most grueleing and physically demanding sport I'd ever done. Imagine swimming in a lake filled with hundreds of other people all kicking and thrashing around, dunking, kicking, elbowing, climbing over, and completely exhausting you. Then getting out to the water and HAMMERING as hard as you can on your bike while you are still disoriented from the swim and feeling like your legs are as heavy as stone afterwards. Then jumping off your bike and pounding out a run with legs that feel like jello and being so physically depleted that you are about to collapse at any moment, I immediately fell in love with the sport.

Ironman is the "holy grail" for any triathlete, it is the most physically demanding one day endurance event on the planet and something I never thought was attainable for me. It consists of a 3.85 km swim, 180 km bike, and a 42 km run. It starts at 7 am and if you don't exit the swim at 9:30 am, finish the bike by 5 pm, or the run by midnight, you are not allowed to continue and cannot call yourself an "Ironman."

I continued completing in Olympic distance and sprint distance races through 2001, 2002 and 2003, slowing getting better but still only finishing in the top 25 or 40 racers. It wasn't until a friend of mine started training for Ironman Austria in 2004 and I trained with him that I ever thought that it was possible for me to complete an Ironman. I was still very limited by my swimming and biking ability, consistently making up ground on people in the run. I trained religiously throughout 2004 and sent in an entry in August 2004 for the following year's Ironman event. I was shocked to see that they had accepted my entry and I was in for Ironman 2005.

The races in 2005 and 2006 were both very difficult, extremely hot (33 deg C+) and although all my swimming and biking throughout those years was paying off, I just wasn't having the run I was used to having, walking most of both marathons. Last year I met my significant other (Amber Dawn) at a CIBC function and was suprised to hear she had done the race in 2005 as well. We did a lot of trail running together throughout last summer and I thought I was well prepared for the run in Ironman 2006. The problem I was having is called hyponatremia and is common among some ultra-endurance athletes in warm weather. The body simply cannot replace the electrolytes lost during competition and the extreme salt depletion causes your stomach to "shut-down" and not absorb anything. That is why it's common to see runners throwing-up in the run portion of an Ironman during extremely hot weather. It is your body's way of forcing you to stop.

Understanding this physiological process that was going on with my body during this event helped a lot. I knew that I lost a lot of salt during an Ironman, both years my clothes were covered in salt afterwards and sports drinks just didn't have enough to replace what I was losing. Amber and I dedicated our entire year to training for Ironman 2007, going to bike classes throughout the winter and killing ourselves on the bike trainer in our basement every weekend. Running high-intensity cross country races put on by the Calgary Road Runners, and swimming at the Mount Royal college pool once or twice a week. I knew I was making progress when I finally broke the elusive 3 hour marathon time, running a 2hr 48min marathon in Kelowna in October 2006. The training was paying off and the results started to show, I finished second in the first triathlon of 2007, the Mount Royal sprint triathon and second in the Chinook Half-Ironman in June. I was finally getting the results in the swimming and biking portion of the race that had been so difficult for me in other years.

Thanks to Amber, I was becoming more involved in structured training and enjoying long swims, bike rides, and runs a lot more. Amber hired a coach who provided her with the structured workouts she needed and I piggy-backed on the training and structure she was getting by looking at her workout week and customizing it to how my body felt. As the weather started to warm up we were doing a lot more long bike rides, starting out at 3 hrs in May and eventually ramping up to 7 hrs in July one day. The training took a toll as we had a couple weeks where we would feel great and it would be followed by a week of feeling sluggish and depleted. July was our biggest month of training and we spent a lot of time on our bikes. One week in mid-July we were part of a bike tour through B.C. traveling 853 km in seven days and some extreme climbs were on days 5 and 6. We had some other terrific bike trips like Amber's birthday weekend at the beginning of August when we biked 153 km to Banff on Saturday,I asked her to marry me in Canmore on the way up and she said yes! Then we ran for 3 hrs on Sunday and had another 150 km ride home on Monday.

The preparation was all starting to pay off during August when you have to reduce your total training volume to give your body a chance to recover. I was feeling stronger and itching to race. Amber and I arrived in Penticton August 22nd feeling ready, we did a couple swims in the lake and some short bike rides and warm-up runs in the days leading up to the event but the hardest thing to do was to not get caught up in the excitement of the event and to start doing too much. You need to stay out of the sun, eat properly, and keep your body well-rested. The night before the race we were both a little nervous but I knew that we had done all we needed to do and tomorrow we simply needed to stick to the race plan and everything would work out well.