"Looking Back"

Teresa sent me a nice note of encouragement this morning in which she referenced some comments I made on the blog in the very early days. That got me to




and look back a little bit and also to think back a little bit. And yah we're back in the land of 2 official languages, even though I don't think anyone in BC even knows what "Arret" means!

So first on the looking back I found this, which I wrote on september 29th of last year, primarily in response to a question that Elly had asked.

I am doing this because I can! I am grateful that I can and so I intend to celebrate by doing so. I am doing this because it will be a great adventure. A whole year of intense workouts in 3 disciplines. I am doing this because the event itself will be a great adventure. Claudette and I will probably take our RV out to the beautiful Okanagan and make it a well deserved(at least for Claudette) vacation. I am doing this because Claudette thinks I should, and that in itself is a good enough reason for me. I am doing this for the very resaon Elly asks the question; as a motivator to be the fittest kindest person I can be. I believe that it has already done some things for me in this regard. And last but not least I am doing this because Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry asked the question "Who are you?" or more specifically in the lyrics of this great tune..."who the fuck are you? I am doing it to find out who I am, no pun intended. The first line in the song after the intro says and I quote..."woke up in a Soho doorway, a policeman knew my name. He said you can go sleep at home tonite, if you can get up and walk away". Thats why I'm doing this. To prove that I can get up and walk away. I don't mean from the physical challenges that tore me down in the last year, but rather from the self pitying, dependant, depressed person that I had become as a result. I am doing this because I want to get up and walk away, so that I can sleep at home tonite. Some people can't and/or don't!

Pretty cool eh? Especially as I sit here in our RV just a few hours from Penticton!

And on thinking back, I didn't look it up but I remember very clearly making the commitment publicly that beyond just doing an Ironman, I was resolved to come away from it without the burning question that many are faced with after achieving a goal of some kind, and that question is of course "is that all there is?". That's really been on my mind for the last week and rightly so. If I come out of this with anything less than I hoped for from a psychological perspective than I will feel like I have let myself down. I'm gonna continue to ponder it over the remaining days and although I don't feel like I've got a tight grip on it right now I intend to by the 30th.

I wish to dedicate day 337 to my grade 8 french teacher Madame Chan (yah she was Chinese!) who is as responsible as anyone for the fact that I understood the Arret sign!

Beyond getting me thinking Teresa also supplied the appropriate quotes for todays blog and here you have them.

"I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."---Henry David Thoreau

"The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle."---Anais Nin

love
peter

"Oh The Anticipation!"

It builds every day. Right now I just want to get to Penticton and get organized. I think(hope) that once I can see the course and test the water I will start to feel in control. It's not that I'm overly worried about anything in particular, it's just fear of the unknown. Driving through the low mountains of Montana today was a good experience as I expect the course to be similar types of grade even though we were quite a bit higher overall today (2000 metres). The highest Ironman point is about 800 metres.

We only have about 800 kms to go so our tentative plan is to get to the border tomorrow and then on saturday finish the last leg by taking the long way to Penticton. Which coincidentally follows the last 120kms of the bike course...all the hard parts!

I'm paranoid that I'm gonna stub a toe or get a cold over the next few days, even though I haven't had any kind of minor illness ever since I started training. I suppose that's why they call it paranoia eh?

A part of my mind is also back home with my kids and my grandchildren. I know I need to focus and try to forget about them for a while but I just can't see that happening. The best I can do is try to kep it in perspective and use my love for them as a source of energy as opposed to letting it drain me. Maybe if I think about how much they love me and the good things they wish for me it will help. Yup...that's gonna be my strategy.

My wife has been doing her best to keep me distracted but I don't know how much more of that I can do either. After all I am 53 years old and I need to save my legs!! Then again I say screw it...no pun intended...life is short!

I'll tell you one thing I don't regret is taking the RV. It gives us such independance which will be even more important in the week leading up to the race. The very best part about a motorhome has to be taking a dump while riding down the road! I've even taken a shower although that's a bit more adventuresome. And I have been very surprised by the facilities that cater to RVers as we moved across the country. Other than the first night we have easily found RV parks, everyone of which has complete water, electricilty, and sewage hookups....not to mention wireless internet! Too much! Can you imagine the advantage when I get there, over people who have to stay in hotels. Hell, I'll probably win the race!

Today's workpout was a weird kind of thing. Thirty kms on my bike followed by a 15 mnute jog. It hardly seems worth putting the wheels on my bike but that's what they tell me I need to do. After all it would be hard to ride without them...man I kill me!! And it was a beautiful day with beautiful scenery. Here's where I rode.



I actually stopped and took a picture with my phone which explains the low resolution, but you get the idea. A guy could ride all day here.

Tomorrow will be a complete day off so I expect to be totally stir crazy by the time we arrive in Penticton on Saturday. Fortunately my first order of business when we do arrive will be a 60 km ride with a short run. The reduced trainig also allows me to have a few beers. I really like Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale if you've never tried it. It is one of the few that I've tried that don't seem to burn my throat. I'm on my third tall one! Good for me! No booze once I get to the Okanagan!!

I wish to dedicate day 336 to Wanda, the lovely, gentle, humourous lady who gave us the "special" rate at the park tonite. If the whole world were like her there would be no war!

And after 336 days of finding quotes I found one written just for me. This one is brilliant in it's simplicity, and I need to wear it around my neck. I will resist my normal temptation to find a few others...this one stands alone! I'm going to sleep with it, and I'm gonna wake up with it. Maybe it will hit you like it hit me.

“If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of troubles"---Elbert Hubbard

love
peter

"Distractions"

Are probaby a good thing for me right now and certainly driving across the northern US is a distraction to say the least. As promisd we had a nice visit with the presidents today



Did you know that it took 400 workers 14 years to carve the thing? It really is an amazing feat.

The problem with distractions is that every time I remember why I'm even making this trip, I suddenly come back to earth in a big way. My anxiety level and my irritability spikes way up, compounded of course by the effect of tapering my workouts. I need a drink!!

Oh, by the way, after listening to that cool song about 50 times I now believe that Neils dog is "King" not "Cain', but he's still not scairt to jump off the truck in high gear!!

I had a decent run today through part of South Dakota. Claudette really liked the long rolling hills with the wide open rural scenery but I prefer some trees. In the end I went a little over 16 kms which is right on schedule.

You know how I'm so often taking shots at the good old US of A, but I have to tell you that in the past few days I was reminded again how friendly people are througout the central parts of the country. Yesterday, while out riding a cop actually waved at me! Just a friendly, nice to see you wave. Back home I always wave at the police, especially when running, and they always wave back. But never once have I had the experience of having them wave first.

I wish to dedicate day 335 to Gutzon Borglum who may never have done an Ironman, but he did carve Mount Rushmore!.....with 400 helpers!

“I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment"---Hilaire Belloc

"Hutchison's Law: Any occurrence requiring undivided attention will be accompanied by a compelling distraction."---Robert Bloch

love
peter

"Blackberry Blues"

I'm afraid that my technolgy is not working so well out here in the wild wild west. I have no e-mail for some reason, and only managed to get on the web some back door way after hours of playing. So this will be short....if it works at all.

I had a nice little bike ride today. Forty five kms through 2 states.((Minnesota and Iowa)
We're now driving through South Dakota and will park somewhere here tonite. Mount Rushmore for sure tomorrow.

As of this moment (7 pm or maybe only 6) we've gone almost 1900 kms. We'll pass the half way point today still.

I wish to dedicate day 334 to Neil Youngs musical dog "Cain" who's not afraid to jump off the truck in high gear!

"Keep on going, and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down"---Charles Kettering

love
Peter

"I'm Movin to Iowa"

They have these really cool rest stops along the major highways where you can park your RV and get free wireless Internet!! Too much eh? In Ontario the only thing that's wireless is the toll roads. All you have to do is get close to the 407 and they send you a bill for 15 bucks.


Anyway I can post my blog tonite all by myself because of the Iowa DOT. Last night I was saved by Miguette. I couldn't get it to go with my Blackberry so I e-mailed it to her and she posted for me. I think I figured out how to do it though and should be good for the rest of the trip. Iowa doesn't go on forever!

Besides, Iowa has these people.



Within the over 800 kms we put in today we made a brief detour to visit my very dear friends the Gibson family. The guy in the middle of the back row is Jonathan. He's a very special 19 year old who just survived an incredible battle with viral encephalitis. He's in the process of learning to walk and talk all over again, but his determination is clear. Also in the pic, his mom and dad, his brothers Jordan and Justin and that's his girlfriend Ellie beside Roo. (Ellie....nice name eh?) We didn't stay long, but it was long enough to feed off the incredible energy and renewed closeness that this family obviously has. It was an energizing hour we spent with them. Thanks Rick and Amy!

After we parked our rig at their house Roo and I went for a run together, just to remind ourselves why we don't often run together....but we still got back as friends. Speaking of friends we also made several new ones of the Iowan canine type....like the people they were generally friendly.

I know I was supposed to bike today but my heart wasn't in it, and all the experts say that at this point if you don't "feel" like it, don't do it. I will ride tomorrow sometime. We can really take our time now as we're obviously making good headway. We are north of Des Moines about half way to the Minnesota border which we will cross in the morning. We are approx 1/3 of the way to Penticton.

We had a good suggestion from Rick today as he believed Mount Rushmore in South Dakota was barely out of our way. I checked it out and sure enough it's probably only a half hour off of Interstate 90 which is the main road we will take west. We could easily check it out.

So far Roo and I are doing great in each others company. As much as I already miss everyone at home I can tell that this is something we really needed to do. The last 2 years have been hard work and it feels good just to be away and forget about reality for a while. Which makes me think that come Aug 30th I'm gonna get a real does of a different kind of reality!!

I was just about to start panicking about getting my post up before midnite when I suddenly realized....you you got it...I'm in a new time zone! No worries!

Lastly for today, I got an e-mail from Janine Grespan this morning asking when we were leaving for the Ironman because she wanted to come an do a video shoot before we left! Bummer! But she's maybe working on something else. We'll see.

I wish to dedicate day 333 to my old friend Murray Mackey(aka Mrs Doubtfire) because being in Iowa reminds me of him.

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."---Erma Bombeck

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."---Jane Howard

....and this ones for my dad, for me and for my sons...

“Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice"---Anon

love

peter

"On the Road"

Yes we're away. At about 1 pm the bus pulled out.
I managed to get my swim in. One hour 23 minutes in a choppy but warm Lake Erie. I'm pretty sure that all the lake swimming has slowed me down a little bit but I don't care. To stand up after that amount of time and really feel like I've done nothing is very gratifying. With the lake being so much warmer now I learned another lesson...or I suppose it was yesterdys lesson all over again. It wasn't til some hours later that I realized I was dehydrated. (I hadn't peed) I know that the wetsuit makes me sweat, but again I somehow forgot. Smarten up idiot!

Right now we're parked in a rest area along I94 near Kalamazoo Michigan. We've got the air on and just chillin.

We've come just over 400 kms so we're 1/10th of the way there already. Tomorrow Roo will run in the morning and then we'll head out. I will save my bike ride for the other side of Chicago some time in the afternoon.

All the way from Kalamazoo I'm sending "un abrazo" to our daughter Miguette. Sorry we missed each other this morning.

I wish to dedicate day 332 to the almost civil US border guy that checked us through today.

"If you expect nothing, you're apt to be surprised"---Malcolm Forbes

"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem"---Theodore Rubin

Love
peter

"Relax Man!"

How do you eat an elephant? Well one bite at a time of course!
So I broke the whole thing down into smaller pieces. More specifically about 4000 arm strokes, 30,000 complete revolutions of the pedals, and somewhere around 40,000 steps. Doesn't that sound a whole lot easier?

Anyway, believe it or not I think I'm ready to go. Still worrying about everything under the sun but probably needlessly. I think once we get away I should settle down a little bit. Besides I now have a new secret weapon in my arsenal. Only Roo and Colby know about it. I'll share it with everyone else after the race,...it's powerful stuff!

I completed my last semi-long bike ride today and got one final lesson about hydration. I rode 120 kms and when I tried to go for a jog afterwards I had no gas left. I just got too casual about it and underestimated the heat. I ended up with about 20 minutes jog/walk which is fine. Tomorrow I need to apend at least 1 hour 20 in the lake before we go because I haven't swam for a week, and I probably won't be able to swim again until we get to Penticton.

My posts from here on in will be short and sweet since I have to try to do it on my Blackberry. I hope it works out.

For anyone who cares the race website promises exclusive race day coverage but I don't know what that means. Here's the link if you want to check it on Aug 30th. You have to click the red tab that says "Race Essentials" which will then bring up the coverage link. Also for anyone who's interested just send an e-mail to prooyakkers@cosma.com with "race day" in the subject line and I will try to create an address group and maybe Roo can send updates with my Blackberry. And if you really care you can always call my cell (519 636 9051) and check up on us anytime.

I wish to dedicate day 332 to Paula Newby-Fraser, one of the worlds most successful triathletes who sent me a very imformative e-mail today regarding the race.

“The time to relax is when you don't have time for it."---Sydney J. Harris

love
peter