Apple Triathlon - Canadian Nationals

Up early today.... but no training for Tri-Guy. The day was designed to be a motivator..... after I drove the hour or so to Kelowna.... mostly awake. There is something about watching athletes do what you do. There is a HUGE twitch factor as you watch them go by and think about what you would do if you were them, or strategize with the person beside you. As they come by, your muscles actually "twitch" as you can feel the water running over their hands, the road under their wheels and the kick as the try to get all they can out of the running race at the end.

In adition to the over 1200 athletes, I was there to see my coach - Patrick Peacock and fellow teammate Chris Graham and Team Manitoba coach Dave Lipchen. Thus, I not only had a chance to see some other top notch athletes, I had a chance to see some of my teammates race and hopefully continue with their solid podium finishes.

Watching with me was former Winnipeger Scott Taylor and His wife Sharon, Fellow teammate and coach Jeff Morier (who incidentally won the Olympic event in '95)

I will let the photos spell out the day.

Chris and I meet up in early stages of the day.

I headed down to the beach and found this creature in the warm-up tank.

Pat rounds the marker for lap one of the swim.

Pat heads for T1 -not sure if he is happy yet.

Chris heads for T1 while checking out some hot chick in the crowd.

Pat lays the hammer down for the grandstands.

Chris takes it through the turns past the screaming crowd.

Pat shows us he literally can fly on the run.

Chris sprints for glory, fame and free cookies.

Pat's actual time is 2:02:23

Pat with the fan club... (left to right) Scott, Jeff, Sharon and Dave

Pat takes to the podium and receives medal for 2nd in age group.

Results:

Pat - 7th overall out of 598 participants and 2nd in age group.

Chris - 21st overall out of 598 participants and 10th in age group

Dave - 8th overall out of 378 participants and 2nd in age group.

An excellent showing for Manitoba.

I also had a chance to watch the elites race... WOW!!

Simon Whitfield was so fast... all I got was a shot of his bike in transition. He went on to win the race for the men and Paula Findlay won for the women.

On a footnote....

for those of you following Ironman at home..... Scott Taylor wanted you to know he is racing and his bib number is 1675. He has been working hard and will be publishing a book this fall called - 6 weeks to an Ironman.... it comes with a very informative DVD where Scott unveils his beer can pyramid stacking technique that he developed in the off season... which for him runs until the middle of July.