Filed under: Ajijic, Fitness, General Update, Greg Collett, Hiking, Motorcycle in Mexico, Travel Storys
Wow – it’s been a whole month since I’ve updated this blog. I haven’t gone anywhere near that long in the last 5 years without updating. I’m working on a book so, I guess that takes away my need to type!
This year feels so different from last year. I guess that when we got here we were feeling so excited to be heading out on this huge adventure and we’d landed in a ‘far and distant land’. The language was different, the sky’s were blue, the temperature was perfect. It felt like everyone we met was doing almost the same sort of adventurous thing. Now, the freshness and excitement is gone. The weather is still great and the sky’s are still blue. The vegetation on the mountains changes all the time, but, we walk the same old roads, (there are only a few) we’re looking at the same old things. The fun of going to the store and trying to figure out what these different food are has switched slowly to “I’d give my right arm to spend 30 minutes in a Loblaws!” I went out to buy a couple of clear 60 watt light bulbs the other day. I found them in the second store, but, they were behind the counter so the girl had to get them for me. It took forever for this idiot to stop removing every 60 watt frosted bulb from the shelf and grab a clear one from the bunch that were 12 inches away. Yup – the fun factor is starting to wear thin.
Last year on the ranch, we almost never saw anyone around except for at happy hour. This year, half the folks are different and it’s impossible to lay outside in the sun during the day without someone coming over to talk. I need that shirt back that Steve had embroidered for me one year that read “I don’t play well with others”. Lynne keeps yelling at me to be nicer to people.
I wonder if I’m too young to be in this sort of semi retirement place. I was pretty lucky back home to get into this athletic thing. Almost everyone was younger than I. Many were 10 – 15 years younger and everybody was out training like maniacs with amazing goals ahead. I was pretty lucky to hang with that gang. Here now, it seems like most folks are 5 – 20 years older than us, and much more sedentary than I want to be. I feel a bit like I’m fighting a clock here. It’s almost time to get out of Dodge! We’re leaving in the middle of April. I wouldn’t be surprised if we came back here one day again, but I think we both have a lot of exploring and adventuring to do for the next while.
Lynne and I are planning to walk the Camino de Santiago, a 800k hike through the Pyrenees mountains in Spain this fall. I’m not sure how much hiking we’ll be doing on a daily basis back in Newmarket so, we’ve started walking daily here. We started last month and walked our way up to 70+K per week already. We’re planning on mixing things up a bit in that we’re going to do our Malecone 8k walks a couple of mornings a week, we’ll hike the mountains a couple of mornings and do a 15 – 20+k walk with weight in our knapsacks on the Sundays. It feels good to have an athletic goal ahead of me again. It’s not as intense (there’s an understatement) as Ironman training, but, it’s OK. I’ve ‘been there and done that’ – got the shirts the medals and the tat – now I’m old. you know those really old 70+ year old guys you see at marathons and triathlons? Yea – that’s not me! 
The book is coming along OK. I gave 45 pages or so to Lynne last night to read. Apparently I should have paid much more attention to my grade 6 grammar teacher! I was really hoping she would be so excited about it but, who am I kidding. I’m not a writer and not a big reader. If I can pump this out as best I can and then Lynne and I edit it, I think it will be pretty good. hopefully, we don’t kill each other while we edit together!
I made contact with Jeff, one of Lynnes cousins who is a very successful speaker in the US who has agreed to take me on and tutor me in how to market this book and get my butt out on the speaking circuit. I think that will be a blast. God knows I love talking to groups and there’s nothing more exhilarating than the curtain going up! I’m going to have to work hard at not dropping the “F” word all the time though!
There is a couple coming tomorrow to buy the last 2 puppies. I wonder if “Puppy” is the right word anymore. They are 6 months old now and, I weighted one this morning at 41 pounds. It’s OK, I didn’t hurt my back! We’re lucky that we’ve found good homes for all of them and, the two females left on the ranch are both fixed. I hate seeing them go, but feel good that they are safe and going to be well looked after. I have an incline that raising dogs would be a cool thing to do if I settle down back in Ontario one day.
I’m waiting to hear back from John with the HSBC series about some available dates for me to do some race announcing again this summer. I’m excited about that. That job is a hoot. I want to do a fair bit of riding this summer as well. Hopefully the announcing gigs will leave me with time to get out to the Rockies at some point and time. I haven’t seen my daughter Christine in way too long now. I want to get to Calgary ASAP after we get back. I’ll probably do an Ottawa run first to see Michelle and Gavin first though. I’ll feel safer getting a few miles on that bike within driving distance to home again. It’ll be great to ride a bike that doesn’t just get me there, but gets me back too! That little Vento bike I had here was great for a one way trip! It’s gone now. I sold it for what I bought it for. I’m out the cost of the repairs but, all in all, I had a ton of fun and a number of great adventures on it. I’ve got the x-rays to prove it too!
We have company coming for a few days in mid February, someone coming for the month or March and friends coming for a week and a bit in April. Hopefully, we’re still friends with the month-long visitor at the end of the visit. If nothing else, that should add a new and exciting dimension to the month and, to the 18 month Mexican adventure that we’ll be finishing!
It’s 1:00 pm here. I’ve got one afternoon left to play with the pups! Good luck with that cold and snow back home gang. Congratulations on completing 50 marathons by 50 Zora. A great goal, and a great accomplishment! I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone back in Lake Placid this summer. If you’re going to be there, don’t mit the tag team effort of Bernie and I ripping rubber off of every passer by at the end of the swim!
Lynne and I have started our training early for our walk through Spain this fall. Here’s the data from day 1 – We’re looking to walk 280k this month. Usually 8k a day for 6 days a week and 20k on the Sunday.
4x Malecone by gregcollett at Garmin Connect – Details.
I don’t really know why I wanted to run this race. I’d built up some endurance over the 4 years of Triathlon training, but I’ve sure lost most of it by now. I’d entered the NYC marathon lottery when I first started up with all of this athletic stuff. It seemed like a good idea at the time, even though, running was my slowest and least favorite discipline of the three sports. I had decided to quit all of this athletic stuff after I finished Ironman in Lake Placid in 2009.
The way the lottery for the marathon works is that if you enter for 3 years in a row but don’t get picked, you’re automatically accepted for the 4th year. You still get o pay of course, but, you’re “In” if you want to be. When I got the email that read “Congratulations, You’re in . . . . .” I figured I might as well. What a cool way to end an otherwise rather exciting and wonderful athletic chapter in my life. I had moment fo thinking that perhaps I could finish it in under 4 hours which is my required Boston Marathon qualifying time but, there were two problems. One was that there are almost 45,000 people running the New York marathon. The course starts on a bridge and the bottleneck means that you’d walk for a while before being able to find room to run. That would kill some time for sure. The second problem, and the real one really is that, well, I’m slow! My pal Bryan offered to come along and pace me. If I’d gotten all of the training in, it might have been possible, but . . . . . .
I’d come to Toronto in the summer for a few weeks. Id have 12 weeks left when I got back to my place in Mexico to train. 16 weeks seems to be the normal time folks train for a marathon for, but, I wasn’t headed there to win. I figured I’d be in pretty good shape in 12 weeks and be able to finish in some sort of respectable time anyway.
I headed out for my first run on August 15. A somewhat slow 3.75k, but, a beginning. Over the next 8 days I got in 6 runs for a total of 36k and the, I motorcycle terms, I had a “Special Moment”. A 360 degree turn, just a touch too quickly on rough cobblestones, a touch of the front break and ‘bang’ it was all over. The bike went down in a second and pined my ankle against one of the cobblestones. I tried to rock the bike to get it off of my ankle, but I couldn’t get it out. A couple of guys came by and gave me a hand. I’d been wearing all my safety stuff. I thought I’d just pinched it and sprained it a bit. I stayed off it for a couple fo days, iced it, kept it high, all the stuff they tell you to do. It got bigger for a couple fo days then started to shrink back down but, when it stopped getting better about 10 days later, I decided to go get an X-Ray. Sure enough, I’d cracked the bone on the outside of my ankle. The doctor called me over to look at the picture and explained that I’d have to wear a brace to 4 – 5 – 6 weeks. I told him that I had a marathon in New York in about 10 weeks. He just looked at me a quietly said “No you don’t”.
I laughed my ass off. In some ways I was really happy. Not to have a broken ankle, but the fact that I could quit running and not have to feel like I just ‘quit’ felt pretty good. Being part of the ‘gang’ back home was great. I was lucky enough to be part of the biggest and most supportive group of folks anyone could hope for. We all cheered each other on, razed the crap out of anyone who missed any workout and, had a great time training. Things were different in Mexico. (I just took a little break to get something to eat. I can’t believe how hard it is to walk even now almost 48 hours after I finished the run!)
There’s no running group that I’ve found in Mexico and really only a couple of routes to run. The work ‘boring’ doesn’t even begin to explain what running was like there for me. So, this broken or, cracked bone wasn’t a great thing but, it gave me an out without losing face from continuing with running and racing.
I took all the time the doctor said I should and slowly the ankle got stronger. October 5th I went out and ran 3.5k, but had to lay low for the next couple of days. The ankle wasn’t happy! On October the 12th, I went out again for a 6.25k run and, I was sore the next day, but it wasn’t too bad. I figured that meant the ankle was OK now. I think I was right!
I had decided, or at least, the doctor had decided, I wasnt’ running so, I didn’t bother running anymore. I went for a couple of climbs in the mountains and had a coupe of 1/2 hour swims and then, headed back to Canada to meet up with Lynne. We had planned our New York trip a long time ago. Michelle and Gavin were coming along to cheer me on in the race. When i had to back out, we all decided we’d still go and just ave a fun New York weekend. I had the odd momentary thought of wondering about maybe giving the run a try. I saw my chiropractor the day before we headed out for new York and told her of my thoughts. She explained that if I cracked it again, I’d probably need surgery to put screws in it and, running would be a really bad idea. Fine – I won’t run. Decision made!
Lynne and I left on Thursday around noon and headed down to St Catherines to visit with Jordan and then drove through to Corning New York for the night. The GPS took us on a crazy route through every little town it could find but, eventually we got there. In the morning we headed to NYC and arrived about 3:00 in the afternoon. We met up with Gavin and Michelle who were already at the hotel and we all went to the Javits Center to pick up my race kit. I might not be running the race but, I want my damned shirt. After all, it’s really ALL ABOUT THE SHIRT anyway!
You know, there’s something really infections about those expos. I got my shirt. I looked at all the athletes (almost 45,000 people ran that race!) I think it took me all of 5 minutes to change my mind and decide I was doing it. I told Lynne, Michelle and Gavin that, if my ankle started to hurt I’d drop out.
We went out and explored the town all day Saturday. I did a bit of shopping. I had my running shoes with me and a pair of gym shorts. I thought of all the wicking, CWX stuff that I had back in Newmarket. I wasn’t about to replace that stuff for one race, but I did need some warm clothes anyway. I found a soft pair of black track pants with stripes down the side and a couple of shirts that I could drop along te way. I headed back to the hotel late in the afternoon to rest up a bit and got to bed early.
Sleep didn’t come too well and 4:15 came pretty quickly. Michelle and Gavin got up and came down to the library with me to where I had to catch my bus. When Michelle did the race a couple of years ago, she’d had to wait for a couple of hours for the bus. I figures we’d all talk and keep warm together while we waited but, the bus was there and I was on my way in 5 minutes. The ride to Statin Island was uneventful. Waiting from 5:45 until 10:40 for my race start felt like forever. It was cold and windy. I did get inside one of the tents and talked to a few of the folks in there for a while. Amazing how many people have the 50 marathons before turning 50 mentally. It’s always interesting to drop into other people s worlds and seeing what makes them tick too!
The first wave of 15,000 people headed out at 9:40, 10:10 was the 2nd wave 0f 15,000 and our 15,000 left at 10:40. I was in the 2nd last coral which ment there were probably no more than 1500 people behind me to start. Our start cannon went off and we just stood there. No one could move. We laughed about how we thought the race would be harder than this for the 10 minutes of so it took us to actually get to the start line. I was hoping to stick to a nice easy 7 minute kilometer pace for the race. That’s about a minute slower than I used to do and I thought that would have been a good and reasonable goal.
We headed out across the bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn. The crowds of people on the other side of the bridge were great. The streets were lined from one end of the race to the other. I was hoping that I could keep about a 7 minute per kilometer pace. That was about a minute more than my usual times, but, I didn’t know how that would equate under these circumstances. All the way through Brooklyn I felt great. Every time I felt my heart rate picking up too much I slowed down. I kept slowly passing people. (That was one advantage of starting almost at the back!) I didn’t have my GPS or even a watch. I’d thought of borrowing Michelle’s GPS watch but then I thought it would probably be better if I just ran by feel. They say never try anything new on race day but, this was a day to try anything new! I never did dump any of the clothes that I’d bought to keep warm and dump. It was pretty cool in the shade. There was about an hour mid day where I was a bit warm, but I knew it would cool down again before I finished.
I wasn’t sure of my time but, but the half way point I felt like I was pretty much on track with the pace I was hoping for. It ends up, looking at the times, I was almost dead on at the 13.1 miles in 2:36:08. But then, it started to fall apart and fall apart fast. I’d been extra careful of not hurting my left ankle, but I must have been putting extra pressure on the right because that right leg was starting to hurt. Both knees and my quads started to burn and then my ankle started to hurt. The right one, not the left one that I’d cracked a couple of months earlier. I was walking through all of the aid stations for Gatorade in one and then water in the next. I’d bought some Gu and was eating that every 45 minutes or so, but, as I felt my energy drop, the pain in my legs was building.
After we crossed the Greensboro Bridge, I was almost not able to run at all. I’d been pretty happy about running almost every step of the first half of the race, but it was next to impossible now. My left arm was starting to ache. I knew it was swinging oddly, but I couldn’t get it to work properly. I had a feeling that maybe I wasn’t running straight either. I knew I wasn’t able to straighten my legs out completely either so I must have been running and been squatting a bit at the same time. I thought of all those pictures from Ironman where people are running like crabs (John!) and hoped I wasn’t doing the same thing. Just after the bridge we crossed 79th street. Our hotel was just a few short blocks away. For a couple fo minutes I thought of just saying screw it and heading over to my hotel but, I knew I’d want to kill myself the next day if I’d done that.
The fun factor had gone a few miles back. My head was down and I just concentrated on trying my best to navigate myself up the center of the road. Out of Queens and into the Bronx and around to Harlem. There were a few spots in the race where I could see for miles straight up the road. It was a pretty cool sight to see so far and see nothing but runners. I started noticing that there was a [pretty steady stream of people passing me now. It was disappointing but, there was nothing I could do about it. My feet had swollen bunch. I felt like I wanted to tear my running shoes off.
We finally turned into the park. Michelle and Gavin had said they’d see me around the 100′s streets, but I didn’t know where they were, or if that was going to be on the way up or down or when so, I just pushed along. I tried to guess how long each mile was taking. How much longer I had to be out there, but I couldn’t really do any math in my head and, I didn’t really have any idea how fast, or slow, I was going.
As soon as I turned into the park I heard Michelle calling me. Oh my God what a great sight. There was Michelle and Gavin cheering me on. I collapsed sobbing into her arms. She sobbed, I sobbed, people arround laughed. We didn’t care. We got our shit together rather quickly and talked and walked a bit. They thought they’d get tossed off the corse pretty soon but, I think the race folks were happy that someone was looking after me and it wasn’t them!
I knew we had about 2.5 miles to go when I finally got into the park. During the day I’d noted the 10% mark, the 20%, the 25% the 1/3 and the 50% marks. Now we were down to the last 5% and it felt like it would never end. I’m conscience of the fact that my head can play games with me on a race course. I wondered if this had been a 50k race, if these 2.5 would have felt as tough. I couldn’t figure that out. I just wanted this to be over. A couple fo times I got concerned about the time and did my best to run. I pushed for all I was worth. Head down. No distractions. Just ran. I looked over at Michelle and Gavin who were on either side of me, walking along! Damn – running wasn’t working for me. It just wouldn’t happen!!
Michelle and Gavin stuck with me and talked to me until we got to the 800 meters left mark where they were tossed off the course. 800 meters – it’s nothing – 800 meters is not even hardly a warm up distance – It felt like it took forever. I was shocked when I got to the 400 meter mark. They’d had to have made a mistake! 200, 100, there’s the line and . . . . done. Where’s the dude to catch you so you don’t fall? Don’t they do that like they do at an Ironman? I guess not.
Eventually I got my medal (which once again doesn’t read “but he sucked”), finisher bag with recovery stuff and was out of the park and on the way back to our hotel. It was odd that I couldn’t find Michelle and Gavin then but, I was a hurtin’ puppy at that point os, I looked for a minute or two and then headed out.
What an amazing event that was. I had a great time for the first half of the race and, the lack of training and endurance kicked in and, the second half was . . . . not so much fun.
That’s it! I’m done with this. I can hear the fat lady sing and it’s over! On to new adventures with great memories and great friends from this chapter. What’s next? I’m not sure. Lynne and I are leaving again for winter in Mexico on December the 1st. I can see a cool motorcycle tour on the horizon. We’re talking about perhaps doing a walking tour across the top of Spain next fall. Who knows. Right now . . . . maybe another nice warm bath and a good nights sleep!
The fun factor from running had dropped pretty low when I cracked my ankle and couldn’t walk. Now, 6 weeks later, the ankle is a bit stiff, but I’d say it’s back to about 85%. I decided to go for a shoirt run this morning and see how it would stand up. (No pun intended)
I can see from the time splits that I was being pretty cautious for the first bit of the run. I only did 3.5 k at an average moving pace of 6:22, but, I’m good with that. The first step is the hard one so, with that out of the way, maybe I’ll geet back into some sort of running routine to keep in shape.
Below is the link to the Garmin data from the run.
First Run in about 5 Weeks by gregcollett at Garmin Connect – Details.
It was 4 weeks ago that I cracked up that ankle and, I’m really tired of not getting out on foot much. I felt like I may have been able to go for a short hike the weekend before last but decided to lay low for one more week before trying a hike in the mountains again. I almost went twice this weekend but . . .it just didn’t happen. Today was the day though.
The weather still looked crappy, like it was going to rain any minute but, that was the reason i hadn’t gone over the weekend so, screw it, I headed out. It turned out to be a great morning for a hike. About 70 degrees, but overcast so there was no sun beating down. I wore jeans and my bike boots for extra support. I sure didn’t win any speed records but, I got out tot the falls and back.
The trailhead was lush with thick green growth. It felt like walking into a jungle rather than just the woods.
Trailhead (Click any picture for a larger image)
There was a small waater fall about half way along. The vegitation has filled in so much, it was hard to find the path at times.
Where's the trail?
I was beginning to think I was lost at one point. I thought I could hear the main falls but the path got very narrow and the brush had filled in a lot. In this next picture, the brush had filled in so much there was only about four feet of open space to get through.
Looks like time to jump down the rabbit hole doesn't it?
And finally, the falls! Maybe 75 feet high. There was more water rushing over the top[ the lat time I was there, but it was still pretty cool to see again today.
The Falls
I’m planning on going again tomorrow morning with Lucia from here at the ranch. Hopeully, it rains moire tonight and they be even more beautiful tomorrow.
Oh yea - almost forget! The ankle held up well. I walked pretty slow and careful compared to my usual pace, but it feels fine. Maybe next week I’ll go for a wee run and see how it feels.
Filed under: Ajijic, Fitness, General Update, Greg Collett, Motorcycle in Mexico
The last year (2009) that I was training for Ironman in Lake Placid I kept saying that. “When I cross the line, THAT’S IT!, I’m done. When the race is over, I’m tossing those running shoes as far as I can, buying a motorcycle and hitting the highway.” I managed to do some of that. We’d sold the house, traveled for 5 weeks across Canada and the US into Mexico, found an AMAZING place to live and, I even managed to buy a bike. Not the “Honda-Pott0mus” that I thought I’d get, but a smaller 250 cc used bike that I could learn to ride on. A not-so-quick-trip to Toronto included a “Learn to Ride” course at Humber Collage and my M2 license.
The part that I didn’t stick to was the “This is it. No more running” thing. I’d put my name into the lottery for the New York Marathon for 3 years in a row. I wasn’t picked each of those years but, the rule is that if you try 3 years in a row and don’t get in, you’re automatically accepted for the 4th year. This was my 4th year. I got my notice, sent in some money and, I’m in!
I’ve not run a marathon outside of an Ironman race. I thought that running a marathon, particularly in New York City, would be a really cool way to end this “Hey I’m an athlete” chapter of my life. I’d had a GREAT time with the gang that I’d swam, bike and ran with. Usually I was playing catchup to everyone, but, that was fine. They were a very accepting, helpful encouraging team of folks. It was an amazing different experience from what I had remembered as a kid!
I found running down here in Mexico difficult. Yea, the roads suck. Any short run from the house meant running along the edge of the curb beside the rough cobblestone roads. There was really only one long run route for me. In the beginning it seemed really cool to walk up to the highway that ran through town and head east on the bike path to the next town 7.5k away and back, but that got pretty boring after a while. The real problem for me though was trying to train in total solitude. Most of my training had been alone back home, but i met up with the gang at the pool a couple of times a week and another gang at the club most mornings and another group through races and events. Here, I’d blog what I was doing, but that just isn’t the same and meeting up ‘the gang’ and trading stories. It was interesting to learn what the real ‘mental’ game of training was!
I had kicked around the idea of another couple of races before New York but, I dropped them as time when by. I didn’t like doing that. Quiting isn’t something that sits well with me. I decided when I was in Toronto that I’d start training as soon as I got back to Mexico. I’d have 12 weeks and, that would be enough to get me through. My pal Bryan was helping me with a simple training plan and was going to coach me over those weeks. That was great. Someone to report back to. A buddy to help! Perfect!!
I got back and started in. It was tough to get started again, but, I could feel the change coming on quickly as I started to run just a little further and a little faster. It still sucked, but, 12 weeks isn’t that long! I started counting down the number of runs left before race day! i had a case and a half of Gu here. You can’t buy that down here so, I’d even added how many gels I could take on what runs so that I’d be able to get through the longs runs. For sure, when this race was over, that one would be the last. The fun factor of running here was really low!
The other thing I got when I returned to Mexico (eventually) was my bike. I’d taken it into the shop before I headed north and ask the guy, (through an interpreter) to do whatever he had to do to make the bike like new again. I’d only paid $1000. for this 9-year-old bike. If I had to pay another grand to get it back to tip top shape, I was still ahead of the game. It took the guy a couple of weeks after I got back to get it back to me but, off I went. Around the lake, out to a few towns nearby. I got about 750k on that bike in just a week or 10 days. I was starting to feel comfortable. It doesn’t go fast enough to keep up with traffic on the out-of-town highways. This thing does about 90 – 05 kph but Mexicans drive between 125 – 140 on most highways. It meant that, every truck on the road blasted by! It took a bit to ge used to that.
I was in town here one day a couple fo week ago when I almost missed a turn I wanted. I signaled, slowed down and swept around the almost past corner and . . . . . damn! A “Special Moment”. I was crawling around the corner doing about 150 degree turn and was nervous about hitting the curb. I touched the front brake and . . . . . in a millisecond I was down. You can’t touch a front brake in a turn! I’d learned that at bike school, but, in less than a second it was over. My left ankle was pinned between the bike and the rock on the road. (I’m beginning to really not like cobblestones!) I had to rock the bike a couple of times to get my foot free. I asked a couple fo guys who were passing by to give me a hand to get the bike up and, I hobbled away! Man that ankle hurt, but I was more embarrassed than anything else. I was glad I had made the decision to not ride without all of my protective gear on. Helmet, jacket and boots.
I rode very slowly for the 4 or 5 blocks across the stones again to get home. Back in the house, I took off my boot and the foot started swelling immediately! I did the ice thing and kept it up. I could walk on it, gingerly, but I figured that meant that it wasn’t broken. I generally think we all go running to the doctor at the drop of a hat and, if we use common sense and give things a little time, our body’s heal themselves pretty well.
The next day the foot was huge and had a nice purplish tint to it. The next day, same size, deeper color. The day after that, it felt like it was starting to get just a tiny bit better, and so it went for the next week or so. Eventually, it stopped getting better. At times I could walk with a bit of a limp, at other times I could have used a crutch to help me get around. Two weeks later I decided to go and get x-rays. The doc showed me what I had suspected and that was that I’d cracked the ankle bone at that knuckle on the outside of my foot.
I love the clinic here. I’ve learned I need to be very exact about what I want them to check but, within 20 minutes I’d seen the doctor, told him my story, got 3 x-rays taken and checked, got a brace put on and was out the door for a cost of about $125.
I told him that I had a marathon in New York in 8 weeks. He told me that I don’t! The brace stops the foot from bending sideways and I can take it on and off as needed but, the bone is going to take another 3 – 4 weeks to heal. During that time, I’m supposed to use it as little as possible. I’m finding that my bike boots hold that ankle just as tightly as that brace does so, i can still get out and about. I’ve got ew tires on order for the bike. These are old and hard. New tires, they tell me, should grip a little better!
I’d imagined ending the athletic thing with a run around New York City and running, probably really slowly, but running non-the-less, across the finish line in Central Park. Instead, I’m ending with a bang on a cobblestone street in Ajijic, Mexico.
I’m not sure if this is a good thing that, I don’t have to run anymore, or, a bad thing, because I won’t run New York or, it leads me back to john Lennon’s line. “Life’s what happens when you’re busy making other plans” For now though, this chapter is now closed.
Thanks Tri, Du, Run, Gym gang – what a cool trip! You guys ROCK!!
Sunday was the 28th Ironman Canada Triathlon in Penticton BC. For any of you who don’t know what that is, it is a . . . . 3.8k swim followed by a 180k bike ride followed by a full 42k marathon. If you’ve never seen an Ironman for yourself, I’d say, you should put it on your bucket list. I think it’s one of the most inspirational, amazing events you can see. Remember when your Mom told you that, you can do ANYTHING you want? Go watch an Ironman. You’ll see she was right! Now, back to the day!
I was lucky enough to be a part of that IronWorld for a while and, even more lucky to have stayed friends with many of the ‘gang’ that I trained and chased after for those few years! A bunch of the gang were . . . . I always trip over the next word. Do we RUN and Ironman, or do we RACE and Ironman, or, no, we just fucking DO an Ironman! A bunch of the gang were doing it! That left a bunch more of us, in various parts of the county, or continent biting at the bit to watch our mates. I got to thinking about what a cool electronic world we live in.
Our gang are from the Toronto area. Penticton, as the crow flies is about 3500k from Toronto. I’m in Mexico, about 3600k from Penticton and 3400k from Toronto. Michelle in Ottawa, another 375k was a part of it all as well. A lot of us were Facebooking best wishes to our ‘Doing It’ friends the night before and talking about who we’d all be on-line in the morning to watch on Ironman Live. The nice thing about the event being in BC is that the 7:00am start on site was 3 or 4 hours later where we were. Of course, the finish was just way too late for us!
Ironman Live turned out to be a HUGE disappointment. The live video page read that they would start at 11:00 am local time, 4 hours after the race started! There were a lot of us who wanted to watch our IroanCoach Tereza come out of the water. She’s ALWAYS the first female to finish the swim. Trying to find our other pals would have been tons of fun to. Of course, the fact that everyone is wearing a wetsuit and swim cap, the chances of actually seeing one of our friends was next to impossible, but, we wanted the chance to try anyway!
By the time they actually started, it was well after 12:00 local time. Their web site was overloaded all day. I think that sort of problem was acceptable in the early days, but, by now, they know how many people try to get onto the site. Not having enough bandwidth or server capacity just says to me that the Ironman organizers just don’t give a crap about their online audience. We did some quick math yesterday and, it looks like they bring in about 36 million dollars a year just in entrance fees alone. Add to that the merchandise money and, there is no reason other than greed, that they don’t have proper IT infrastructure in place to do the job properly.
I had 6 or 7 people bookmarked through the Athlete Tracker section. Most of the day it took over 40 minutes to get those pages to refresh. Even when they did, the stats were hours old. The live video cut in and out all day and, I’d guess that for about 50% of the day, the video being shown didn’t have anything to do with Ironman. Boxing matches, car races, movies, all with no sound were really pissing a lot of us off. In the end, I was lucky enough to see most of my friends cross the line. Bernadette with that huge beautiful smile. Simon, looking strong, (and a bit relieved), even though he’d been hit by a car on his bike just two months earlier that left him with no bike, a broken collar-bone and a dislocated shoulder. Diana, Steve, Karen, David, Bill and countless others. As each person crossed the line, there was a flurry of Facebook activity as we all checked to see who saw who finish and talk over how they looked. When I think about it, it still amazes me how many kilometers there were between us all, but we were, in many ways, side by side all day long!
As aggravating as it was trying to get info on a moment by moment basis, what was really fun was how through Facebook and Skype,there were a ton of us in constant contact. Amazing that, around this 3500k triangle, it was as if the bunch of us were all sitting around together. How long will it be before that GPS tracker button will be part of the timing chip so that we’ll be able to dial-up anyone and see exactly where they are on the track? As amazing as it was to be looking for Bill K and having Diana Facebook us from the finish line to tell us he was 5 miles out, the day isn’t going to be that far off from where we’ll be able to see our mates as a little red dot on a map of the corse on-line. Knowing where they are and then knowing we have time to get to the bathroom without missing them cross the line would be a bonus too!
So – from me . . . . Thanks IronBuddies for the company yesterday, and, to everyone out in Penticton – Congratulations . . . . who knew it could hail out there in the middle of the summer!
And the last question of cours is . . . . . who’s doing what next year?
Lynne and I went for a walk with Lucky Puppy yesterday afternoon. We just walked around the block with here without a leash. Lucky was great. She stayed pretty much right with us. The few times that she stopped to smell junk at the side of the road, she came right away when we called her.
After dinner last night, I walked up to the grocery store at the top of the street. I guess Lucky figures it’s now OK to leave the property any time I do and I guess she figures she should just walk behind a bit. I was in the grocery store when she decided to walk ahead. I thought it was one of the funniest things I’d seen in a while. There I am, in the middle of the store and Lucky is just looking at the stuff on the shelves too! I guess it’s not as big a deal here as it is in the old country.
I took Lucky, on a leash, out for a run with me. I only did 3k, over to the town square in the next town and back. The roads are tough to run on because of the cobblestones so, I run on the edge of the curb. There is a little part that come out into the street for about 10 inches. It’s much easier on the feet to run there. I guess Lucky thinks the same thing. She ran on the same bit of curb just a step behind me almost all the way. Too funny.
Here’s the link to our (Lucky and I) first run together.
Lucky first Run at Garmin Connect – Details.
Filed under: Fitness
OK Willem – you win bud. After your super 5k time the other day, I thought I’d see if I could get close to your pace for 1k.
Nope – can’t be done!
The “I wonder if I can break 5′ for 1k” Run by gregcollett at Garmin Connect – Details.
Meanwhile, I did manage to shoot an interesting panoramic view of the ranch from the lake looking towards the mountains. This is actually 6 pictures seamed together for a 180 degree view.
180 degree view of the ranch
YOu can click on the image for a larger view.
My other bit of somewhat twisted good news is that I met a guy here at the ranch yesterday who rides a 1500 Suzuki bike. I asked him to look at mine and try to start it. I guess I should have been wishing that it started for him, but it didn’t. I was glad that it wasn’t just me not knowing what I’m doing. Well, I don’t, but I don’t want to be THAT bad!
I’m meeting a buddy in Jocotepec tomorrow who is going to the authorized dealer with me. I’m hoping that they can come and pick up the bike, fix everything that needs fixing and have it ready for me to pick up when I come back on August 11.
Humm – the more I write the more I think of writing. But yet another bit of good news is that the guy with the jack hammer has finished his work and gone home. 4 weeks of listening to that got to be a bit much. The rest of the guys are putting the finishing touches on the top of the pool walls. One of them told me that we’ll be swimming in a week.
Only 17 days until we start our trip back to the old country. We’re both pretty excited about seeing old friends and family!
I felt like I needed to get out and do some sort of exercise before my belly explodes. I went out and ran. I wore the Garmin but didn’t look at it while I was running. I thought I’d just run nice and easy with the thought being, better to run slowly for a bit than not to run at all.
The “I Weigh Too Much” Run by gregcollett at Garmin Connect – Details.
There’s only about 20 seconds per kilometer difference. I wonder why.
