Elvis has left the building

Happy birthday Dad! I left your present on the table.... I think... not sure...it was early.

Now.... 4:30 a.m..... that's just before the sun has made up its mind to move on over to the lovely province of British Columbia and bless us with the coming of another superb sunrise.

After a coffee and my usual breakfast of Iron fuel, I drove up into the hills above my parents place and took a pic of the beach as the sun made its way to the sand. If you expand this photo you can see the outside marker for the 1800 metre return voyage for the Ironswim above a pine tree in the water on the left/center side of the shot.

This is an ideal spot to watch us lemmings leap off the proverbial "cliff" actually it is probably more akin to watching ants. The swim start/finish is just in-front of the twin towers condo development on the leftish side of the beach.

Freshly groomed for your footie prints..... well at least for mine.

After a few moments of wrestling with the zipper on the back of the Supersuit... I wonder if Spiderman ever had problems with his zippers? Ah.... who cares... he has radioactive blood. As for my zipper, I usually just find a hot babe triathlete and just ask for help.... no luck this morning as everyone was already in the water and hard at work..... and Lori Bowden wouldn't talk to me.

You see, today is Saturday. I know what you are thinking ...no kidding, well... Saturday, two weeks before Ironman, means that everyone and their good luck shaman will be in town swimming the course, riding Richter's pass and running about in latex trying to figure out if it was worth the $200 a night they are paying over at the Super 8.

Thus, it came as no surprise that when I arrived at the beach at 6:40, there were already about 50 athletes in the water. This was expanded upon as there was an Ironman training camp going on as well... complete with transitions to the bike. So there they were... splashing about and doing there thing. What's a guy to do.... so in I go with a wave from the camp.

I do not mind the crowd, in fact I relish in it. That said, they all seemed to want to swim counter cock wise and there was already several athletes swimming clockwise. All they had to do was check out the scene and go with the flow.... nope. I found it quite humorous to watch the near misses and collisions. I had no problem with it all until the turnaround at the Sicamous. At that point you turn into the sun and you are literally blinded. With no toes to follow and a slight ripple on the water, it was almost impossible to see the markers. I was all over the course on the way back like some rookie. Left... correction.... Right... correction.... miss some dude (or dudette) and re-correct again. Lots of fun.

Now, my Mom was working nights last night and always goes for a walk along the lake after her shift. I told her that I would be wearing an Orange Cap so if she brought her camera she could snap some pics for the blog. Well did she ever.....and captured Tri-Guy at the front of the pack. I was pacing this guy and we were both getting faster and faster.... then I thought....whoa nellie..... WTF!!!! ... I am in "Taper" mode....why am I racing this guy? ..... so I cut the turbo boost and let him go. Genius paparazzi MOM! She caught the whole thing.

That's me on the right. I have been out front for about 1000m at this point.... but not by much...as you can see.

What the hell... is this Triathlon or syncro? Nice azure water though....

Cut the power Scotty and let him go. That's me on the left waving buh-bye.

So I have talked enough about that Sicamous paddle-wheeler, so I thought I would get a shot for you and give you some history.

So this baby is 3/4 on land and partly in water and marks the end of the beach and is the Penticton equivalent of planes mounted about St. James in Winnipeg.

Have to enlarge this to see.... used to chug-a-chug chug about on Okanagan lake from 1914 - 1935.

Another interesting thing at the other end of the beach is the circle of Ironman Champions. Here there is a bronze circular plaque honouring each of the winners since 1983.

In the distance you can see the white swim buoys in the water.

Here is the plaque for Lori Bowden's 1st win at Ironman Canada.

Lori went on to own the Women's competition for half a decade, wining 1st place in '97, '98, '99, '00, '02. Interesting enough, the vox populi on hottriathletes.com ranks her as a 6. Hmmmmm... Just thought you'd like to know that..... and ladies... it is an equal opportunity web site... alas... Tri-Guy simply does not even crack the top 100. Sigh.......

s'cuse me for a sec......

I'm back.... just did a 5 minute plank.

The thing about training so early in the day and tapering, is that you are home just before 8:00 and you are done for the day. So Dad and I bummed about as my Mom slept off her nightshift. We cleaned up some brush at one point in the yard and took it out to the dump. naturally I brought my camera for some more interesting shots of the south Okanagan.

Some of the bazillion wineries on the upper bench. The peak in the middle ground is the back of the famous Penticton sign that I posted a while back.

See if you can find the train trestle? That's Summerland's Giant's Head in the background. They have a running race to the top each year.

NOW ........ FOR THE FAINT AT HEART DO NOT READ ON.... LEAVE THE BLOG WITH THE PRETTY LITTLE PICTURES AND NICE LITTLE THOUGHTS OF LORI BOWDEN IN YOUR HEAD. ONLY THOSE INTERESTED IN GORE AND GOO SHOULD READ ON.......

TRI-GUY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY VOMIT FROM THE FOLLOWING....

SO..... if you have been following along with the comments at the bottom of the pages. Kim and I have been chatting about my crushed toe. If you are just joining us, my toes, which were already destroyed from being me, were pretty beat up after the half-iron in Osoyoos this summer. Click here for original photos. Click here for part II. Well.. my ring pinky toenail has finally left me.... with a little rip and a tear.... and a nudge and a poke.

E's passed on!

It is is no more!

He has ceased to be!

'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker!

'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! ....... 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory!

'E's off the twig!

'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!

THIS IS AN EX-TOE-NAIL!!!!!!

[all apologies to John Cleese]

So.....on the advice of nurse Kim... Elvis has left the building!

Now that's hot! I double-dog dare you to enlarge this!!!!!!!!!!!