The pre-race:
Everyone was weary about the weather and even a bunch of tents blew over in the expo Wednesday afternoon and registration/check-in had to be closed down for a bit b/c the winds were too strong! The normal Penticton weather of 35+C was replaced with 15C!
The Swim:
Felt good during the swim, aside from a few knocks on the head, which is to be expected with a 3000 person mass swim start! I came out of the water @ 1:26 (7 minutes faster than last year).
The Bike:
My strategy for the bike was to conserve in the first half to save my legs for Yellow Lake and of course the marathon. This strategy was fine until I hit the 60k/h head wind around 130Km in which slowed my average pace wayyyy down. I heard the pro's were met with rain, wind and HAIL! I also heard some of them stopped at the top of Yellow Lake to get emergency heat blankets to wear around their shoulders before descending the mountain! Looking back maybe I should have pushed it a bit harder in the early part of the bike ride when I had the wind in my favour. I was a bit disappointed with my bike time, but it is what it is and you can't always control the weather.
The Run:
My favorite! Nobody passes me on the run :) This is where I made up most of my time and finally passed Dad! (It also helped that I speed through my transitions!). Just past mile 12 I was figuring I'd see Dad soon on his way back into town, but then I looked up and realized he was just a head of me. Just the motivational push I needed to push past the half way turnout in just under 2 hours! The way back into town my strategy was to just run a steady pace and not worry too much about the time. I was reallllllly tired at this point and didn't need any discouragement from seeing that I was a couple minutes slower on any km/mile markers.
The Nutrition:
For food during the day I ate clif bars, clif bloks, gels, sharkies, bananas, gatorade and red bull on the bike. For the run I had 2 gels then stuck with bananas. I tried pepsi, but wasn't a big fan...I go from starving, to full, to bloated to starving again every 2 miles. No nausea or barfing this year at the finish line though! Yay! :)
Paulette finished this grueling event ahead of her father with a time of 12 hours, 48 minutes and 12 seconds. Next on her list is the 2011 Ironman Switzerland in July.
Congratulations Paulette! That's one hell of an accomplishment!
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