“I want to cross the finish line of the IronMan world championship in Hawaii with Lisa Bentley.”

Paraphrasing aside, those are the words of Carter, a young boy with Cystic Fibrosis who, despite his health struggles, keeps a very active lifestyle.

It was at that precise moment that eleven time IronMan winner Lisa Bentley, who, like Carter, also has Cystic Fibrosis, moved me to tears as we all listened—riveted—focusing on her stories and unparalleled positive outlook on all aspects of racing and life.

She goes on to tell us that Carter was her inspiration for racing IronMan Hawaii in 2007. Her theme that kept her moving forward was simply doing the best that she could to get across that finish line with Carter because that was his wish to the Make a Wish Foundation. His wish had been granted, and she was going to deliver despite the struggles ...

I’ve decided that I love racing.

Training is great and all, but I am really getting addicted to racing. If I said I was simply racing against the clock, you’d be well within your rights to call me a liar. Maybe other people do, but with my team sports background, I find I need other people to chase or fend off. I am racing against the clock, but I’m using everyone else I see as motivation to shave even seconds off my time.

On Sunday, July 13, we headed to Carleton Place to race in the Graham Beasley Triathlon (Olympic distance for us). The weather threatened all of the previous night and in the morning but it managed to hold off for most of the race—just a few sprinkles here and there which really helped in keeping me cool. We hadn’t raced this one before ...

I’ve been reading a book by David Glover called Full Time and Sub-Nine: Fitting Iron Distance Training into Everday Life. I’m under no illusion that I’ll be racing IronMan races in sub-nine hours any time soon, and quite likely never. However, the back cover tells me that it “includes valuable information for triathletes training at all distances!” so I figured I’d buy it.

Sadly, I’m not getting much out of the book (maybe I’ll write up a full review later), but I have found some memorable quotes. Ironically, this is my favourite quote so far, and it comes from another source:

Imagine that a new wonder drug haas been created. It will prevent illness and disease, including cancer. It will help you lose excess weight and keep it off. It will slow the aging process, making you look and feel younger than your years ...

Very early on in our work with coach Dave Harju, he suggested that we do the half iron distance triathlon in Tupper Lake, NY.

I thought he was nuts – we were training for the half IronMan Muskoka in September 2008, so there was no way we’d be ready for a half iron race known the Tinman in Tupper Lake, NY in June.

As it turns out, he wasn’t exactly nuts.

We did it, enjoyed some awesome time away from home (we rented a wonderful cottage in Tupper Lake and stayed there for a week of pre-race preparation and post-race solitude!), and feel really good about where we are.

My wife hasn’t trained nearly as much as I have. And, as usual, I still only beat her by a little bit.

The Swim

I’m fairly certain I pissed a few people off in the swim. I couldn ...

I was practically begging my coach to let me race. Begging. When he said “it is a recovery week, so go for it. Go all out, don’t monitor your heart rate, just go for it” I was ecstatic.

The Smiths Falls Classic is an event put on by Somersault (they organize/own most of the triathlons and running races around Ottawa and surrounding area). We had heard good things about it, but wanted to confirm for ourselves. The sprint distance was a bit shorter than what we’ve done before:

• 500m swim
• 26km bike
• 5km run

Kathryn and I quite literally had no idea what to expect. We hopped in the car early on Sunday morning, drove in the rain for an hour to the race site and arrived to find… nothing. We were told to go to the Comfort Inn hotel in town and expected to see lots ...