Well - where things REALLY began was way back when I was young. I was pretty active in my teenage years, we did all sorts of things - but the focus was swimming in the summer and cross country skiing in the winter. In those days, Vermilion only had one pool - and it was outdoors, so we were limited to swimming in the summer. Those really where the days - it was a sad day when they filled that old pool in :(
Anyways - triathlon was born in the 80s and I got a bit of a taste of triathlon early on. One of my favorite memories was a little triathlon that I did in northern Saskatchewan as part of a team. I did the swim, Walter Scott was our cyclist and Jan Scott was our runner. Now, Walter is a super athlete, but I don't think he's ever really been what you could call a cyclist :) I got out of the water really early, I think I was second out. That was the best part about being a decent swimmer in those days - most of the people involved in triathlon were cyclists - they couldn't swim to save their life, so we had a bit of an advantage (at least until we got on the bike ;) Either way, we won the team event that day... and I still remember it, not quite like it was yesterday.
Just in case you don't know Jan and Walter Scott, they are the parents of Beckie Scott - the top North American cross country skier (quite possibly the best in the world) and all round super person :) We grew up just across "the field" from each other, and both of her parents were a big part of my life growing up. Walter taught me to cross country ski, and swim. He was my coach for the better part of the first half of my life. I will always remember a cross country ski race in Vermilion, where Walter went blowing by me part-way through that race. I always thought "one day I will catch him" :) I think I may have recently caught him, but that's hardly the point. Both Walter and Jan are a big inspiration to me today, whether they know it or not.
Anyways - one day when I was young, I watched one of the first Ironman races on television, and I thought "I want to do that someday". It has taken me a while, but here I am :)
Now, the middle stuff - once I finished high school, I went to NAIT to take their Computer Systems Technology program. While taking CST, I figured it would be a good idea to work, so that I could afford to live :) I began something which would take a long time to undo - when I wasn't at school, I was working... this included most evenings and generally the entire weekend. Most weeks I put in close to a 40 hour work week outside of school. This didn't do wonderful things for my marks in school, but I have always maintained that your specific marks are not relevant - and in fact, the courses that I took have never really applied to real life, so I will never understand what the big deal was about.
With all of this school and work, there was no time left for physical activity. I joined the NAIT swim team for a season, but I wasn't very good at making the 6:30 AM practices (I was a public transit user, and getting to the pool for 6:30 AM was nearly impossible - note that I said NEARLY impossible, I don't think my will was very strong :) As there was a requirement that we make at least three workouts a week, my involvement on the team faltered over time, and I lost interest, but gained weight :)
Once I finished school, I got a full time job, which ate about 40 hours a week, and I kept my part time gig at London Drugs, because it was extra money, and the perks were cool too (like cheap computer hardware - who doesn't like a discount on toys?? :)
My physical state declined over time... by 1999 I had a new job with TELUS, and in 2000 I was still under some sort of illusion that I was in shape. I entered the "Beat Beethoven" race in Edmonton with my two friends Jeremy and Steve. This race was the turning point for me - I do not remember what exactly my time was, but suffice it to say that 8k took me about one hour to complete. Yikes. I discovered that not only was I not in shape, I was in TERRIBLE SHAPE and I was FAT. I tipped the scales that year at about 250 pounds. I don't have a picture kicking about from that very moment, but this one is from around then...
I know - not pretty for more than one reason (the other obvious reason is that shirt ;) It was a freebie from TELUS :)
So, I decided that things had to change in 2000 - and I began running and trying to eat healthier. You have no idea what healthier meant, but for the most part it was low fat meat and a lot of instant rice (I was way too lazy to bother with anything else). Some vegetables were a part of my diet back then, but generally only if it were easy... a lot of frozen corn as I recall. Hmmm.... healthier indeed.
I figured that I needed to get things back on track, and get to doing an Ironman.
In 2001, I was a volunteer for the opening ceremonies for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, which was held in Edmonton. What an eye opener that was. Watching the men's marathon in 30+ heat was unbelievable. Those guys were running faster than I could sprint around a track, and over the entire 42.2 km distance. Wow. I figured that I should run a marathon - why not? So, I signed up with the Canadian Diabetes Association, to run the Rome Marathon in the spring of 2002. I figured if I was going to do A marathon, I might as well do one that was memorable.
I started training for my marathon with the Running Room - I joined the team heading to do the Las Vegas marathon at the end of January (the Rome marathon was in March, but this was the closest that I could get). Well, before the end of January, I got on the treadmill at the gym (didn't want to bother going outside one morning) and I turned the incline up on the treadmill and managed to tear my achilles tendon. This ended my training streak, to the point that I didn't run from January until Rome. Silly, I know, but what's a guy to do?
Worth noting, I was advised to run in the pool, but I was too stubborn to bother with that. In hindsight, it would have been the wise, albeit boring, thing to do.
So, March came, and Steve, Jeremy and I packed up our new backpacks and headed to Rome...
With very little training under my belt, I got ready on race day and headed out...
I discovered on course the importance of a few things... I had heard about nutrition, and how important it was over the marathon distance, but I figured somehow that I would be different. Well, either way, I got very hungry out on that course, and eventually I started eating everything that I could find. In fact, I couldn't wait for the next "refreshment station" - where I would be able to eat as much as I would like :) I also discovered the importance of the long runs... which I had skipped out on since January. Everything was SUPER until about 32km, where everything fell apart. I would learn later on that this is where every marathon that I would ever do would fall apart at roughly this distance.
As much as that marathon was a gruelling experience, it was an experience, and I figured - why not do a few more? So I did just that. Later in 2002, I visited Toronto to do their International marathon, and two weeks later I ran in the New York City marathon. Yup - first year, the year that I said I would do one marathon, I did three.
The following year I did Iceland, then I did Belgium a month later. Both were poor performances - Iceland was a combination of many things, including too much alcohol two nights before the race, and not enough nutrition on course. I fell apart at 32km. The following month in Belgium (to the day) I started falling apart much sooner... I do not know exactly why, but I was lucky to finish in just over 4 hours.
In Belgium I met a fellow - Jim Heil, who I was lucky enough to room with. He's a super runner, and super modest. He told me that he wanted to do the marathon in 2:40, but that he had never run a marathon before. I wanted to tell him the odds on this, but I bit my tongue. Jim finished in about 2:48 - and he was very upset with this time, despite running with an injury.
Ah well, I guess we all have our goals ;) Mine has always been to qualify for Boston, but I have never been able to pull it together to do finish under the required 3:10.
In 2004 I did the Lisbon marathon in Portugal, and the Las Vegas marathon with Alli. I wasn't completely trained up to do Las Vegas, and when the wind hit at about 30km, I was ruined. I pulled off a 3:40 marathon, which is as good as I have done to date... which is sad considering that my half time is 1:28.
Well, all those marathons under my belt, I figured that this Ironman thing would be a cinch... I mean, who can't ride a bike?
Well, I discovered that riding 180km is a really long way to ride a bike :)
I did the Ironman Coeur D'Alene in 2005 with insufficient training under my belt, but I did finish it, and in a relatively respectable time (by most standards, not my own :) That marathon was by far and away the most gruelling yet, but I (once again) learned the value of nutrition. The marathon is peanuts compared to a full Ironman - you have to be on your eating and drinking game, or you might as well forget about finishing the thing in a reasonable amount of time.
So, next up is Ironman Australia, with the focus race in Penticton this August.
I still have time to pull it together for an outstanding performance, and I have it in me.
Now, I haven't included all the details in my little story - there are a LOT of much smaller races that I ran in the 2003 and 2004 which have seen my running improve considerably... but I couldn't possible go into all those details :)
Worth noting - my "Beat Beethoven" time has dropped from around an hour to about 30 minutes flat, which is acceptable, but I can do better :) This is my annual "marker race" that tells me how I am doing. I missed it in 2005 because of work, but I will pick it up again in 2006.
This is a little bit of how I arrived where I am at. Part childhood dream, part obsession to push myself to do well at something that I am probably not well equipped to do :) I have left a LOT of detail out of this story, mainly because my memory is poor, and I am bound to screw something up - that, and you probably aren't interested in reading an entire novel!!
Let's see how it ends up!!
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