You know they're smiling 'cause they don't have to do it

For the first time in a long time my alarm actually surprised me this morning. I was knee deep in a dream where I was very concerned that I was going to lose my goggles at the start, so I was thinking of ways I could attach them so it would not be an issue. Two part epoxy was a short second to stapling them to my head.... dreams... silly things... interrupted by the beep beep beeping of my Timex.

Coffee... oatmeal... coffee.... hot tub.....supersuit and into the truck.

I am not sure if all three of you get the supersuit reference... but here it is for everyone to enjoy. This is almost the word for word conversation Lori and I had one day.

I love Samuel L Jackson.... now you know why I call it my supersuit.

The sun sure took its sweet time getting to the water this morning. I mean, there was not a cloud in the sky... what was the hold up? ... I realise there was a huge mountain in the way, but rise faster.... dangnabit!

I wanted to keep with the theme of being in the water at or as close to 7:00 a.m. as possible. The idea being to be in there with roughly the same conditions as the race. Well.... here I thought it would be sunny. Nope. However, I was not the first to have this idea as the Ironman boot campers were in the water practicing their mass starts since 5:00 a.m.

The early triathlete scares the fishies 1st.

Then, ever so slowly like climbing Richter on a banana seated Schwinn, the sun decided to light up the opposite shore for us to prove that the day was possibly on its way.

This was about 6:45 a.m. this morning.

Everything was actually quite still and the only real sounds were the occasional runner's footfalls as they made their was along Lakeshore Drive ignorant to the world with Lionel Ritchie cranking out All Night Long into their ipoded ears and the Bootcampers splashing away as they reveled in their tape worm.

The orange buoys guide me to the first big white orb then left towards the Sicamous.

Speaking of big white orbs. I have had this running through my mind for quite some time now, and I don't know why I haven't mentioned it, but now seems as good a time as any. Thanks to my friend Maruis, I became a fan of the 60's TV show The Prisoner. I am pretty certain I have seen every episode and I have even made a pilgrimage to where the outdoors scenes were shot in Wales. Anyhoo, the premise is that as a spy you cannot retire to public life, you get taken to "the village." There you live out your life comfortably, where everyone has no names and they "drug" you regularly to extract whatever secrets you may have left in your addled brian. Escape is not an option and our main character No.6 (played brilliantly by Patrick McGoohan) will have none of it and each episode centers around his inevitable escape or trying to screw over the establishment in the Village.

So when you try to escape by water, these huge white jello-y orbs burst out of the water and... violently strangle/ smother you and then escort you back to the shore or a waiting security vessel. Kind like this....

He kinda swims like me.

My point? Well besides cursing John Williams and Stephen Spielberg, I often think of The Prisoner in an ironic way as I swim each morning on a route laid out by big white floating balls. Not to mention that their "capture" of the escapee is kinda creepy.

After I was escorted back to the shore, I got home and ran a bit to get the legs moving. The 3.5 miles went by really easy and I think it is safe to say that the tape worm is doing its job and that I am storing the necessary energy for the big day.

Speaking of the big day.....

Its was time to bring things back to a like new shine..... boy job. Here Blake and I get down to scrubbing the grime out of my runners and my cycling shoes... Oxi-Clean is wonderful.

I love my dad... I love my dad... I love my dad.

Well at least this part is kinda fun.

they will be dry in no time in the Okanagan sun.

Later on we made our way downtown and found the real Ironman...if you enlarge the photo you will see that this Iron Giant is made entirely of bike parts.

Along main street all of the shops are catching Ironman fever. There are signs in every window and posters from just about every year. Rexall Pharmacy got my vote today.

You know they are smiling 'cause they don't have to do it......