Team Managers Road Trippin

I love spontaneity. Can't pull it off very often these days, but on Saturday every celetial orb lined up perfectly and I ended up on the road to Ironman Canada with Kris Stolmeier, one of the managers of Team Fastt. No, we did not sign up for 2008.

Kris is the perfect traveling companion. She'll do anything....laugh at everything....go anywhere....drive anywhere......at any speed.....in my car. We didn't know each other very well before this trip, but I've got plenty of stories now to go around. Team Fastt, just email me and I'll hook you up.

I'll hit the highlights....

We left on Saturday afternoon after the Lake Sammamish Race for the 6 hour drive. We had no place to stay, but figured we'd find something. We had sleeping bags and a tent just in case, and a sparsely furnished cooler. It was dark when we got to Penticton. 2700 athletes signed up for the race and apparently brought everyone they knew with them to fill every hotel, motel, parking lot, dock, raft, sidewalk, and median. No lodging.....at all. We managed to make friends with Dan and Terry, two friendly Canadians who agreed to let us share their campsite. We pitched our tent in the pitch black and had a refreshing drink to celebrate our arrival.

My main reason for going was to see my teammates race. Cheryl Iseberg, Tim Larson, Win Van Pelt, and Sean Mabin. We learned before the start from Rob, Cheryl's husband, that she wouldn't be racing - she was sick all night. She's smiling in this picture, but her little Ironheart is broken, I assure you. Mine too.

The swim start was pretty amazing. It was really the only time of the day that I wished I was racing. This picture shows about 1/4 of the athletes, I suppose. They were endless. Tim tells me he started in this part of the crowd. He's in the black wetsuit and blue cap right there by that gal in the black wetsuit and pink cap. He beat her.
After watching the swim for awhile, we went to see the cyclists leaving.

This guy got married the day before Ironman and ended up carrying his wife (also racing) across the finish line at about 11:30 that night. Thank God he didn't drop her . I'm thinking they'll both just sleep through their honeymoon at this point...

This is Tom Price from Triumph Multisport. He's actually won this race a couple of times! Quite the famous guy out there.

And there was a crash right at the start of the bike.....it ended one guy's day, I think, but we did see him walk away from the fall.

Back at the end of the swim, these 2 gentlemen were the last guys to make the 2:20 cut-off. The crowd was crazy. They had to get to waist-deep water before time was up, and they were exhausted. And the water was shallow for a long time, so they tried to run it in.

There were a few swimmers who didn't make the cut-off....so sad to see their disappointment.

Tim Larson ended up being the only RTB athlete I saw during the race. We're still trying to figure out how we missed Win and Sean!! Tim looked great all day. I guess when you do one of these 5 times, you figure something out!

I'm pretty sure this was Tim's PR - 11:22. I'm anxiously awaiting his race report - and the others too. All the RTB guys finished and we warmly congratulate them.

And to Kris of Team Fastt.....my memory of our time together in Canada will forever haunt..... uh.....I mean forever delight me. I have since looked at our splits from the Lake Sammamish race and realize that you killed me on the bike. Absolute murder. So now I'm off to ride my bike up every hill I can find with your picture laminated to my aerobars. Hopefully the next view you see of me on the bike course will be this one, borrowed from Cheryl Iseberg.....