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Today I am off, the date I have had circled on the calendar for nearly a year is this Sunday: Ironman Cananda in Penticton, British Columbia. Christy, my two girls and myself are packed and probably well on our way as you read this.

I have set a goal for myself, it has been written over there on the top right since the day I signed up for this event nearly a year ago. That goal is just a number that I have used in order to motivate myself day in and day out. My goal has never been to be invited to any other race or to beat X number of other men in my age group (there are 401 M35-39 registered!) since those are things I cannot control over and therefore have devoted no time to thinking about.

The goal is really just to be 5% better from the last time in the hobby that I love. Last year I crossed the finish line in Couer d’Alene in 10:28, so that puts a 5% improvement just under the convenient mark of 10 hours. I am not sure that goal is possible at this point (and the weather forecast calls for 92 & cloudless), but I know I am very fit and well prepared to execute a smart race and also willing to suffer a great deal in order to make that happen. I also go to Penticton knowing that there will not be another one next year and already knowing I can finish an Ironman, so I do consider this one a race.

In the last 10 months, I have bikes thousands of miles, ran hundreds and swam more than I ever have, built up and broken down my body many times. Like anyone who enters one of these events, I certainly have not done it alone. I owe a big thanks to everyone who has pushed or pulled me up a swim lane, around a track or over the roads and trails of Colorado or encouraged me in some way to keep going when I have felt like doo - which has been often .

So thank you to members of the Boulder Triathlon Club for motivation from November through the USAT Challenge, 30K run and the spring TT series, to Blue Sky Velo for long rides all over Northern Colorado in the winter and spring and the D3 winter swim group in Boulder and Tuesday Night Track group this summer, to the Centennial master’s swim regulars: Jason Kaminski, Ehren Van Melle, Bryan Reid (who himself will be participating at the same time in IM Louisville, KY), Tim Perley, Craig Howie and Ben Bigelow. Also a big thanks to Derek Teuscher, BJ Gumkowski, Mike and Kristina Friesem, the St.George’s, Brian James, Chad Elmendorf and Ben Kuster for the training days. More thanks to Bob Cranny, Amanda MacCracken and Jessica Gumkowski for keeping my aging, tired and inflexible body in one piece over the last year.

I especially owe thanks to Mike Ricci, coach at D3 Multisport, who has provided some structure and discipline to my (formerly) hack-ish training ways. I am very much appreciative of his help and would highly recommend him to anyone looking for a triathlon coach or training plan. Preparation for this felt easy compared to last year and I was happier for it.

Christy will surely be Twittering what she knows on race day, you can follow her at twitter.com/runinaskirt. Otherwise, my number is 818 and Ironman.com will have a tracker where you can see where I am at any given time - you may learn more here than Chris knows - or skip the details and tune into the video stream at around 6pm MST and see my smiling face and very tired body .

Time to cash in on the Karma, withdraw from the proverbial bank and burn the hay… Thanks for reading.
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trip pics