12:57:40

I am drafting this post just a few days before Christmas. I know it is long overdue and it may change at some point in the future but for now, I wanted to reflect something while we are still in 2006...

The spectacular day of August 27, 2006 seems like so long ago. And yet, the pictures in my mind and the feelings of that day are fresh. My goal was 13 hours. I just made it. I won't go into race details (the several mishaps and rookie mistakes, for instance...though they are entertaining so perhaps at some future date I'll add those in) since those race details are overshadowed by the essence of that day. All in all, it was an experience that I still have difficulty putting into words. It was a day that I would relive in a heartbeat...and I don't recall ever having said that, despite the many fabulous days I have been fortunate to have!

I will note, at least, that Penticton was simply magical...this beautiful little town tucked away in the Okanagan Valley, with its undulating landscape, shimmering lakes and rich greens, made for a stunning race course. But even more special were Penticton's townspeople and visitors alike - what energy, what motivation, what encouragement. I cannot adequately put into words how wonderful it was to see a whole town light up for this event. My friend Rick and I ran a good portion of the run together and, while I admit we exchanged less-than-positive words laced with sarcastic humour (used purely to keep us sane through the torture that the last half of the run is), those strangers who never seemed to tire of their cheers kept our mood lighter than I believe it otherwise would have been.

Of course, the cheers and encouragement of the non-strangers, and my biggest fans - Marcus, Ainslie and Rick's mom (Rick's dad was racing, too!!) - gave me the biggest boost of all...

Most definitely, it was an experience I will never forget. Ever...

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and yelling - "WOW...What a Ride!" (Unknown)

He who never risks going beyond his limits should not complain about the mediocrity of his existence. (Anon)

The Road to...Sorry, Just the Finish Line, Please - Part 1

Penticton is very pretty. Upon recently landing first in Vancouver and then Penticton, I've realized, especially after spending six months in Australia and prior to that, one year in New York, that there's an 'I'm home' feeling. Penticton isn't even in the right province but I have that feeling regardless. Canada is a great country and I'm reminded of that fact every time I leave. We've got some big problems but before I launch into a diatribe, I'll just say it's nice to be home.

As I think about what I've done to prepare to simply get to the finish line next Sunday, August 27th (forget doing well, achieving a personal best, securing a sponsorship, etc.), I am reminded that every participant has his or her own story in doing, at a minimum, the same thing.

As I was reflecting on this the other day, I thought I'd scan the Participant List available on the Ironman.ca website. Identified in the 'Occupation' column of that list were some typical ones - nurses, lawyers, teachers, exotic dancers, police officers, female body waxers, limnologists (not so typical that I didn't have to look this up), chimney sweeps, pastors, zoo keepers, bowling centre owners, food-colour consultants, cytogeneticists (I looked this up, too), pro-wrestlers, sheep farmers and shearers (Kiwis, of course), lipstick and underwear models, poets and firefighters (still my favourite category of all)). Some less than mainstream occupations were also identified - the dolphin flogger, urban lumber jack, mermaid, flamingo hearder, professional owl trainer, coffee master, corporate assassin, secret agent, bear wrestler, Jedi knight and (presumably) a nemesis Death Star Maintenance Manager. Oh, and I mustn't forget the All Round Good Guy and Devil May Care Flying Fool...who I happen to know is my Australian mate, Dan, to whom I passed information which led him to secure a registration spot in the coveted race. He is indeed a good guy and I'll be cheering him on (from behind) as he attempts to qualify for Kona.

How they all found the time to train I'll never know. I've at least been inspired to be a little more creative when filling out forms...

Where Does Time Go? Someone Please Find an Answer...

I left Sydney for Penticton on August 16th. I'm not even going to get into how time has flown by. I think that saying that time flies when you're having fun is kind of misleading. Though I have indeed had much fun, time flies regardless. I will probably write more on my impressions of Australia at a later time but for the moment I will keep things simple:

What I will miss (and already do) about my Australian life:

• living on a coastline and seeing the beautiful blue waters surrounding me
• staring into that unbelievable expanse of open water
• living a ridiculous life of not having to work
• staring out the window and feeling only slightly guilty about the time I've just wasted
• kangaroo meat
• running into a wallaby while cycling
• undulating landscape partly contributing to the already beautiful landscape
• a new-found delicasy...turkish delight (I know we have it in North American but it's not nearly as good)
• talking to Mark, Sharon and Radek on a regular basis
• have I mentioned I'll miss the water?

What I will not miss about my Australian life:

• 4 - 6 loads of laundry per week
• the grocery stores and bakeries
• riding my bike so often
• fighting with Australian drivers, whether on my bike or not

I'll expand the list as I think of things.

North Head

North Head has become my favourite running ground in Manly. North Head, part of the Sydney Harbour National Park, is a headland of approximately 4 square kilometres and has been used in past days for quarantine and military facilities. It's funny, but Paul introduced me to North Head on our first ride (he said that everyone from Manly had to know where North Head was) and for some reason I just "forgot" about it until sometime in May or June when it occurred to me that I should learn to tackle the hill required to reach North Head. The most beautiful views of the city are found here and particularly stunning pictures may be captured along the four lookouts along the Fairlight track, a 1 kilometre track within the larger 5k loop of North Head.

For those interested in Hollywood icons, Nicole Kidman was recently married in Manly and more specifically at a chapel found on that very hill leading up to North Head. I happened to run by on the day of her wedding shortly before she was due to arrive and the large crowd gave me (as well as all other cyclists and joggers passing by the heavily police-patrolled street) a cheer. I really hope that does not qualify as my "fifteen minutes of fame".


One recent day I took some lunch for a long walk up to my absolute favourite lookout on the Fairlight. This cliffside shows off the beautiful sandstone that makes up the headland. As I was sitting on the rock enjoying my lunch, I noticed the plaque on the bench in front of me (you will see it next to my coffee cup). The inscription reads as follows:

"This marks the area

where Adele will hopefully make Ralph

the happiest and luckiest man

in the world.

Dear Adele:

I love you more than yesterday

and less than tomorrow.

September 2001"

I think this definitely qualifies as "romantic"!

Coach Radek

Shortly after moving to Manly, a number of people suggested I see Radek Valenta for help with my cycling. Radek is from the Czech Republic and spent a year in Austria before moving to Australia 19 years ago. I resisted the advice until the cycling situation became quite desperate in May and I finally submitted myself to a threshold test. Radek is involved in a number of activities through his business, Zoom In Zones, but primarily provides lactic acid testing and coaching services, and agreed to take me on back in early May when I first had my test done. Radek has a huge amount of coaching experience, coaching the Australian Paralympic team in 2000 - 2003, and coaching Jan Rehula to a bronze medal in the Men's Triathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The above picture with Radek and Jan on Manly Beach, showing off the prized medal, was taken at the time for the Manly Daily News.

For anyone planning on training for an athletic event, I cannot say enough about hiring a coach. The training gets exhausting, as does reading through endless volumes of available information on training and nutrition philosophies, and it's difficult to analyze yourself objectively sometimes. Having the watchful eye of a coach direct your program can be a huge help. It certainly has been for me and I am worlds ahead on the bike had I not had Radek around...especially on those long rides listening to: "You're not eating enough", "You're not drinking enough", "Get in the aerobars", "Use your head", "Watch your gears", etc. Here are some pictures of a town called Brooklyn, a pretty little place on the water, like so many others, that we bike to and bike back from on those days when long, all-day rides are necessary. A nice man was kind enough to stop feeding the pelicans some leftover fish parts for a moment to take our picture.

Cycling

I won't say much about this sport, since I dislike it so much. The problem is I love triathlon, so the cycling is a necessary component. Thankfully, as much angst as every single bike ride causes me, more than usual since Australian drivers are the most anti-social lot I've ever encountered, there are some beautiful areas in my general vicinity so I often have nice things to look at during my painful rides. The vistas at West Head are particularly spectacular. I haven't been able to capture the most stunning of all pictures, as I often don't have my camera, or I'm not able to stop, or I don't want to stop, or I wouldn't have caught the picture on camera. But here is a little sample anyway.

Paul has also arranged several team events which are always fun. Philip, Paul and I partook in a 160k ride a couple months ago, of which my ride was only 103k, and Paul, Matt, George and myself took part in a 12-hour enduro event, taking turns riding around a 4k loop. Unfortunately, George had a little fall on the slick track and wasn't able to make our team photo. Otherwise, the day went by much more quickly than I expected.

Mark and Sharon Visit Manly

Mark and Sharon made the long journey from Morwell, Victoria to visit me in Manly over the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June. They have both been to Manly before but it seems their memories of it are quite foggy. As usual, we had an outstanding time together and my memories of the long weekend will definitely not be foggy, despite the weather which involved various levels of wetness. Thankfully, none of us were to be so easily turned off by unpleasant weather. I took my treasured guests on at least one walk each day - Friday to North Head where the most beautiful vistas of Manly are found (pictures of this will be found in another blog...the rain dampened our photo ops that weekend), Saturday along the boardwalk (recently, I saw a large family of dolphins swimming along the coast running along the boardwalk...very, very beautiful) and Sunday along the paths heading out from the wharf.

We had a special treat in Sydney on Saturday evening, as the Sydney Swans took on Mark's and Sharon's favourite team, the St. Kilda Saints, in Aussie Rules football. It was an extremely entertaining game, particularly since the Saints won in what turned out to be a last minute nail-biter. And, while I still couldn't compare Aussie Rules to Rugby League or to Footy (and I'm not even sure I've got all the categories straight), I now understand what all those blokes are doing during an Aussie Rules game. Mark did a great job of securing covered seats for us so we could avoid the heavy downpour.

We also enjoyed more civilized times in cafes, pubs and restaurants, including in Cafe Sydney overlooking the Harbour. Despite the false advertising for "live jazz" at Cafe Sydney, the classical string quartet was nonetheless very soothing on our gray and mellow Sunday afternoon. Somehow the three of us are never short of great conversation. Thank you both for a fabulous weekend and for being, as always, such wonderful company!

Mom's Visit - Part 5 - All Good Things Must Come to an End

Well, the three weeks finally came to an end and Mom had to fly home. We had a beautiful last night in Sydney, taking the jet cat to enjoy one last Sydney sunset before listening to "Jazz Meets the Symphony" at the Opera House. It was a beautiful night and the performance was fabulous. The guest conductor that evening, Lalo Schifrin, is the composer of the "Mission Impossible" theme music and that piece was performed by the Sydney Symphony as an encore - fun! I think Mom had a great time but is happy to finally rest her knee a little bit!

Mom's Visit - Part 4 - Darling Harbour, the Fish Market and the Infamous Bondi Beach...

My mom commented often that everything in Sydney was so picturesque. With her here, it was a good opportunity to explore Sydney's touristy side. Darling Harbour, home of Sydney's famous Aquarium, Maritime Museum and all sorts of other major attractions, including yet another beautiful Sydney harbour (as shown above), was much more than I expected. We had time for a loop on the Monorail before heading to the Fish Market. After visiting this working harbour, I'm not sure how an ordinary fish market will satisfy me...fresh fish and seafood of over 100 varieties is deposited daily for auction and public sale...and consumption. We shared an enormous seafood platter which included seafood that tasted as if a mermaid had prepared it and delivered it straight from the sea. Yum. The bridge in the background of the harbour where the fish comes in for the fish market - see the two points? - is the Anzac Bridge, although I am told by Sydneyers that it is referred to as "Madonna's Bra"...weird. The friendly penguin in that same picture happened to be the most caricature-like animal I have ever seen...when staring at it I thought I had happened into a Walt Disney picture.

My cycling buddy, Paul, was kind enough to take us for a day trip to Leichart, the Italian area of Sydney, where we had fun in "The Merchant of Venice" playing with the beautiful masks delivered directly from Venice. We then made our way through Newtown (where I managed to snap this Martin Luther King depiction from the car), on our way to Australia's favourite and infamous beach - Bondi. An entire television series based on the work of Bondi's lifeguards, called "Bondi Rescue", has been created based on Bondi Beach. And there it is behind Mom. It is quite a place and has a characteristic 'feel' about it, although it's a bit over-rated in my opinion. But then, what do I know about surf beaches. In any event, there is a fantastic boardwalk that goes on for many kilometers and we enjoyed a great walk along it that day.

Mom's Visit - Part 3 - The Sunshine Coast

So we could see Queensland, we thought we'd take a four-day hiatus away from Sydney and fly to the Sunshine Coast. We stayed in Noosa, a popular tourist destination for Australians, at the northern end of the Sunshine Coast. We thought it was a little too quiet, but it was certainly relaxing. While there, I went mountain-biking and on a run through Noosa National Park along low-trafficked walking trails. My mom gave her sore knee a little break during these activities. Here are pictures of the beach, the park and dinner - a favourite activity of mine, particularly when accompanied with a fancy drink - along the one main street in town.

Mom's Visit - Part 2 - Bus Trips to the Hunter Valley and the Blue Mountains

I don't know if it's the "senior" in me but there's something about bus trips that I just love. We took two while in Sydney...one to the Hunter Valley during Mom's first week and another to the Blue Mountains during her third and final week. The Hunter Valley is the oldest wine-producing region in Australia, famous for it's semillons (yum). We visited three wineries on our tour, with an exceptionally impressive number of tastings at each. I don't think I've ever seen my mom drink so much all in one day...in one month, actually (holding her alcohol is not one of her best traits).

The Blue Mountain region, an area of bush and unique rock formations, is approximately an hour and a half northwest of Sydney in a national park. On the way there, we visited Olympic Park, home of the 2000 summer Olympics, and an area of the national park with large kangaroo and wallaby populations, before heading to the main attractions...the famous "Three Sisters" (the three-headed rock formation above Mom's left shoulder), Wentworth Falls and Katoomba Falls. Mom was such a trouper, agreeing (despite bursitis in one knee) to walk down over 1000 steps, a lot very steep, to visit the rainforest at the foot of the 'mountains'. She did great! Fortunately, we were able to take the (so-called) steepest train in the world to get back up.

Mom's Visit - Part 1 - Mom Starts to Explore Manly and Sydney

My dear mother was able to visit recently. Her three-week stay was jam-packed with activity. She arrived Easter Weekend, during which we enjoyed the famous Sydney Easter Show (a cross between the Royal Winter Fair (horse, other animal and agricultural/horticultural shows, competitions and exhibits of all kinds) and the Canadian National Exhibition (midway, exhibit buildings (but much worse than in Toronto...they could use some improvement in Sydney), fashion shows, etc.), an Easter Sunday visit to the beautiful Botanic Gardens and lunch in the Gardens' Restaurant, overlooking the gardens, St. Mary's Cathedral and Hyde Park (Hyde Park will be featured at another time in the blog).

During her first week, Mom was also able to get her first taste of life on the edge...of the sea. Australia does a fabulous job of using gentle coastlines to build "natural swimming pools", allowing those wanting to swim without fear of crashing waves and strong currents to enjoy the therapeutic salt water in shallower pools bordered by natural rock and landscape. Mom also benefited from a much warmer-than-typical Fall, and caught the last bit of lovely climate before winter arrived. At the date of this posting, it has become quite chilly and downright cold in the mornings and evenings.

We had fun hanging out in Manly and Sydney. Mom thought taking the ferry back and forth from Manly to Sydney was excursion enough sometimes, but that didn't stop us from spending even more time in the Harbour than was necessary, taking advantage of a sunset dinner cruise one night. We were amused at how efficiently dinner was served during the 90-minute cruise, the result of cruise organizers attempting to ensure guests enjoyed the sun sinking into the horizon as much as possible. The all-you-can drink wine was a nice touch, too...

OK, I promise, no more pictures of the Opera House! For now, at least.

My First Visitors

One evening in early March, I had the pleasure to meet up with Anne Marie and Collin. They were enjoying a few days in Sydney before heading for a two-week, camper-van adventure in New Zealand. They had a fabulous time in what I am told is a thoroughly picturesque and nature-filled country. Here, the lovely couple is enjoying dinner at the Rocks in Sydney Harbour and enjoying a walk around the Harbour, and there's Anne standing by the Canadian 'mosaic' bear...that night, a bear for (what seemed like) each country was exhibited in the Harbour for a reason we didn't explore. I hope to make it to New Zealand on a future trip to this part of the world.