Oliver Half Iron Photos and Other (I'd say pretty boring) News....

As I mentioned in my last blog I had a friend from work that drove up to the Okanagan to watch me race.  She also took pictures.  Here are some of the photos from my race.

In transition the morning of the race.

Me, and a few friends, on the shore waiting for our swim wave to go.

On the bike....

On the run...

Heading to the finish.... or to the turn around to do it all over again...

Anyhow that race now seems like it was a long time ago.  June, as usual, is a crazy busy month.  I had a friend visiting from the UK and it was fun playing tour guide for her.  We managed to see a lot  in a little over 24 hours (including a quick trip up to Whistler).  I wish I had taken photos though to share with you.  Once she was off on her adventures in the rest of B.C. and Alberta I got to writing my report cards.  Thankfully term three seems to be the easiest set to write and so I didn't let them stress me too much.  The rest of the month I've been trying to clean and organize my classroom for next year.  My students have been awesome this year so Tuesday will be a really tough day.  Yes, this Tuesday is my last day with my class.  I'm getting pretty excited about my up coming summer vacation.  My last summer vacation was January 2009 so you'd say I'm pretty much due for one.  I have a few adventures planned but nothing as adventurous as my friend Khai.  He's riding solo across Canada.  You can check out his blog here .  I am taking part in STP which is a 200 mile bike ride that starts in Seattle, Washington and ends in Portland, Oregon. After that I'm meeting two of my Canadian friends that I met in Australia in BC wine country.  Since we did a lot of wine tasting together what better way to visit in Canada.  I have a couple more adventures planned, and if I can find a seat sale I may add a few more adventures to my agenda.  I still have Ironman Canada on the agenda but it will involve a lot of driving as it's the same weekend as my niece's Bat Mitzvah.  I've figured a few things out I just need to fire an e-mail off to Ironman Canada to let then know what's up.

Okay, enough of the rambling.  One and a half days left with students, one day with out students, and then EVERY DAY IS SATURDAY for two months!  I can't wait!!!

Oliver Half Iron

This weekend I took part in the Oliver Half Ironman.  It was my first race after a long hiatus while living in Australia in 2009.  While this isn't an official race report it does sum up my day.  It is written in true Karen rambling fashion.
While I'm still the slowest of the bunch in my possie I had a great race.  My swim was very slow and steady (not an ounce of race mentality while swimming) and I managed to find open water.  It was a very relaxing swim if you can believe it, but I guess my swim time reflects that too.  Of the six times I've done the race it was my third fastest swim (i think?).  The swim to bike transition is really long and if you knew me as a I kid I would never walk around in bare feet 'cause I have super sensitive feet.  Needless to say I felt like I was passed by 100 people from the lake entrance to bike transition all the while my feet screaming at me for not  having socks on them. 
 My bike was good and I was happy with my split.  I had to stop twice for the toilet but riding towards the toilets I felt like I was Lance Armstrong -  so  yes I could be a sprinter! When I add both transitions into my bike split (which was what is what like for the first four years of the race) my bike split was my second fastest but with out the new long transition it would have been my fastest.  That had me quite happy because since my return to Canada I'm always being dropped by my possie.  And yes, my possie is made up of amazing women who ride faster than me, but I didn't think that I had gotten that much slower.  Thankfully I'm no slower than I was before -  my possie is just faster.  I can live with that though as I'm one to shy away from working hard to get faster.  
The run was my third fastest split and I was totally happy with that.  With the year of no running then a back injury that slowed me down for about six weeks (and I've only run 21 km once since returning from oz) I was stoked about my run.  I ran my version of strong and only got stronger as the race went on (I'm certain I had a negative split).  It was my third fastest run but I think it felt like my best run.  I ran strong with a huge smile on my face the entire time.  I even picked off a whole bunch of people (and obviously I was picked off by a ton of the fast ones).  
My finish time ended up being less than a minute away from being a new personal best.  I know if there had been a nice red carpet for me to run on from the beach to the transition it would have been my fastest, or if the transition hadn't have moved it certainly would have been my fastest.  So yah, you could say I was a happy girl.  While I became a stressed, fat, lazy, out of shape girl in Aus, I'M BACK as fit, much happier Karen!!!  
Oh as for the weather it was cool on the bike (but not cold).  There was wind but I don't think it was that bad.  The run was nice too (some wind and a bit of rain for those of us out a little longer).  I was only cold when I was finished but that was quickly fixed with some warm clothing.  
I highly recommend this race and might even do it again next year.   Congratulations to all my fellow racers.  It was fun to see and cheer  you guys on.  Oh and the best part of the race weekend is that it is in British Columbia wine country and  I've come home with 13 new bottles of wine!!  It's time to enjoy them.
As an aside note it was really great to have friends travel the 400+ km to be on the sidelines to cheer for me.  Many pictures were taken so once I get them, and I approve them to appear on this blog, you'll see them too.