As we settled into Mirror Lake at 6:50am on race morning, I started to feel a little nervous, wondering if the horror stories I had heard would come true.

With 2200+ competitors, I’ve heard that the swim start is like a washing machine with flying feet, fists and elbows everywhere. I expected the worst – thinking I’d have to put my goggles back on after having them kicked off my head by a stray heel. I was starting to wonder if we’d placed ourselves too close to start line. Would the people from behind swim around or over us? Would we need the assistance of the underwater scuba divers that keep a watchful eye for swimmers that started to go under, or were knocked out by an inadvertant strike to the head? Was I going to need to grab on to a kayak at some point to ...

I looked everywhere for it. I didn’t care what shape or colour it was, as long it was there and in the right position. After searching for it for hours through pain, mental anguish and exhaustion, I finally saw it there, at the side of the road near the guard rail, somewhere between Wilmington Notch and High Falls Gorge.

My eyes widened as I saw the glint of the sun bounce off it. “There it is!” I thought. The perfect piece of glass—jagged and dangerous—just waiting for me.

I had found my way out.

All I needed to do was turn my handlebars to the right a few degrees. Simply run over it, and that would be the end of it. My tires would be shredded to bits, and I’d be stranded. The support crew would have to pick me up and drive me back into ...

We’re set.

We’ve checked in, dropped off our bikes, our biking gear, and our run gear.

We’re with the kids and family that made the trip to support us.

We’ve bugged my brother Gavin and his wife Michelle for the last time with questions for which we had no answers.

We’re ready to eat our last big meal of pasta and chicken.

We’re ready to get to bed early.

We’re ready to hydrate.

We’ll be up at 4:30 am to eat our breakfast and get our wetsuits and swim gear and “extra supplies” down to the lake by about 5:30.

This has been a pretty amazing experience so far, and I only expect that it will continue to be amazing as we get through the race tomorrow.

To Tina – you’ve helped get my body to where it is (though ...

Kathryn and I safely arrived in Lake Placid on Wednesday evening after the short (relatively speaking) 3.5 hour drive down here from Ottawa. We captured some video footage (we’ll post some of that later) of the trip – most of it looks the same as the rest of it to be honest, but the view of the Adirondack Mountains at certain stages of the drive is simply stunning.

It has been raining pretty much non-stop since we arrived here. We spent Thursday doing one loop of the swim course – felt pretty good, actually. It is a 1.9km loop, and I think I finished in about 41 minutes. That seems to be what I average every time I swim it, which is fine – consistency will be key to success. Of course, Kathryn finished in somewhere around 35 minutes, which is about right for her. She is a much better ...

On July 22, 2007, I’m doing IronMan Lake Placid: 3.8km swim, 180km bike, and 42.2km run. The course is beautiful and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m not setting really lofty expectations for a stellar time. That’s not really like me as I usually set pretty high goals for myself. In this case, given my experiences training, and that this is my first (only? last?) IronMan, I really need to set reasonable expectations.

After having spent 6 of the last 9 weekends training in Lake Placid on the course for IronMan Lake Placid, you would think I have a pretty good idea of how long it will take me to complete the course. Al (who swims with me in the Nepean Masters Swim Club) asked me how I was feeling and what my goals were for the race. I answered that I was ...