Ironman Canada 2022 Race Report
I initially signed up for Ironman Canada Penticton in early 2019 before I had completed my first full distance Ironman in Whistler, BC. After a few months of recovery, I went right into training for Penticton 2020.
Location: Penticton, BC, Canada
Date: Sunday, August 28, 2022
Bib: 739
Unfortunately, after building up my fitness, it became uncertain if the race would happen later that spring due to COVID. In June, they canceled the 2020 race and deferred everyone to the 2021 race.
In the fall of 2020, I started training again for what was now the 2021 Ironman Canada. Because of the uncertainty, it was difficult to push myself in training. Especially with the unknown impact of COVID; at the time, we didn’t even have vaccines yet.
On the long weekend of May, 2021 I was out for a long run on the Galloping Goose Trail in Victoria, and came around a blind corner where I was met face to face with an e-cyclist that ran me over. I ran 10 KM home with a broken finger and ended up in surgery on the holiday Monday. I was in a cast for several weeks until it was fully recovered. Thankfully, however, I had some work to do if I wanted to get my fitness back up for August.
Approaching the summer of 2021, the race was postponed from the end of August to to the end of September as it was expected COVID restrictions would start to ease and vaccines would be distributed more widely. The thought of racing in later September didn’t motivate me, it would likely be colder, darker. But it gave me time to recover my fitness from surgery.
In early September, just before the last big build week of training — they canceled the race and deferred everyone to August 2022. I decided to take a break from training till January, 2022 to give my body some rest. Two solid years of training with no racing was mentally challenging. It made me appreciate how much I enjoy the energy of these events and the motivation they provide.
Come January, it felt much more certain that the race was going to happen which gave me a certain confidence and motivation for training. Restrictions were starting to ease as vaccines were more broadly distributed and races started to happen in other parts of the world.
Training was going well, my running was feeling strong. In late April, 2022 I was playing with my kids on a playground. Pretending to be a monster, chasing them around and trying to capture them. I made a quick move turning around and slammed my right quad into a round bar. It felt like the worst charlie horse I had ever experienced but I could still walk and I didn’t give it much attention. I continued training, little did I know it was a deep contusion and it was festering.
Leading up to Ironman 70.3 Victoria I was getting my first outdoor ride done on the race course, only to come off to do my brick run off the bike — and I couldn’t put any weight on my left leg. I still swam and biked the Victoria course but had to bail out at the run. My physio expected my recovery to take about 6 weeks. Another injury to set back my fitness.
This time no surgery was required but the recovery was slow and irritating. I had to start running again but with small intervals of 30 seconds walking, 30 seconds running and then slowly build up week over week from that. It was several weeks until I could run continuously again.
The next race on the schedule was the Victoria Half by Pinnacle Fitness, in the middle of July. I was able to race the entire event but took it easy on the run, just to be sure. The last thing I wanted to do was blow out my quad again and have another several weeks of recovery. Luckily it held up and only got stronger from there.
At the end of July, I attended the B78 training camp in Penticton with several others looking to tackle Ironman Canada. I was happy that my fitness felt strong and I had no issues with my quad at the camp. This gave me the confidence and motivation to get through another month of training which would bring me through to Ironman Canada.
On race week, me and the family arrived in Penticton on Wednesday. The weather had been a warm 30 to 40 degree Celsius and immediately there was chatter about the swim not being wetsuit legal. I ended up buying a Roka speed suit for insurance.
Luckily the day before, a windy, cool weather pattern came through. This likely meant the swim would be wetsuit legal but the water was extremely choppy on Saturday, which caused other anxieties and chatter between the athletes about the wind and chop. Even with the chop, I decided to get my pre-comp swim and bike in, and later that day had a good check in with my coach Kylie Acford. She reminded me that it’s rare if everything goes as planned on race day and that whatever happens. It’s all part of the experience.
Race Day
Race morning, up at 4:45 AM. Breakfast of F2C 5:1 and some bread to add some substance. I’m heading down in the elevator, another athlete looks at me and says “the lake is calm and the weather is perfect”. The perfect note to start the day.
Headed over to drop off my bike and run special needs bags and into transition to set things up. Loaded up my bottles with my nutrition, and my bento box with my bars, gels and blocs for the day. Walked my lines a few times and identified a few landmarks to make sure I could find my bike easily within the other 2000 bikes out there. I slipped on my wetsuit, grabbed a caffeinated gel for my pre swim pump routine. My feet were freezing in the wet grass, I always forget to bring some throw away sandals.
Sun was out and athletes were in the water for their warm up swim. I almost forgot about the warm up and quickly managed to get in the water for a few minutes to warm up just before the cut off.
The bagpipes played and the race was a go. I ate my gel. At this point I was feeling grateful, excited, terrified. Some people are super chatty in the morning before the race, I was pretty quiet, grounding myself.
Swim
Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound of self seeded start and I’m in the water. Let’s goooooo. 3 years of training and it was finally happening.
I felt smooth in the water. I’d been working on my swimming a lot the last few years and could feel the difference. The yellow buoys were passing quickly on the right, I seeded myself in a good position as I was able to draft off a few people of similar speed.
Around the T1 buoy, T2 buoy, felt like I was in the middle of the ocean and it occurred to me I didn’t really study the swim map that well, I was not sure how many turn buoy’s there were. It was also tough to sight as we headed directly into the sunrise. The half way mark where the buoy’s turn from yellow to orange felt like it took a lifetime.
Surprisingly the second half went quite quickly. Not before long I could see the shore, and the crowd of people. I ran up the swim finish and glanced at my watch, 1 hour 16 minutes for a 2:00/100 pace. Nice, that was great for me, I’ll take that.
3,800 Meter Swim: 1:16:56
Avg Pace: 2:01 min / 100m
Transition to bike felt slow, but methodical. While I walked my lines in the morning, I didn’t expect them to change direction, so I ended up going down the wrong bike lane. In the end I got through it and out the other side of transition with everything I needed.
Transition One: 4:00
Total: 1:20:56
Bike
Out of the gate I was feeling strong. The best thing about being a slower swimmer but a stronger cyclist is passing everyone on the bike leg. Since I had ridden this course during the B78 Camp, I knew that the first 90 KM was mostly downhill or flat. I was careful not to burn myself out by going in too strong, but I felt good and was keeping a close eye on my heart rate and watts.
My pacing for nutrition was a sip every 5 minutes and a bit of food or gel every 20 minutes. I was able to keep on this rhythm for the first few hours but then I started to tire of the blocs I was eating and decided I was going to start working in some of the Maurten gels they were offering on the course. This ended up working well as I’d alternate between a gel, bloc, and bite of Skratch bar. I ended up getting in with a good group of riders, they would pass me on the downhill, I would pass them on the uphill — this is how it always is for me.
At about 130 KM, somewhere after Keremeos but before the Twin Lakes, my back tyre caught a thick steel staple and I immediately knew I had a flat. I pulled off the side of the road, I have repaired enough flats I thought. I can get this done quickly.
I got my tyre off, the new tube in and all of a sudden I noticed the valve was not long enough for the rim on my wheel. Uh oh, that’s OK, I have those extensions. So I got those ready. But I’ve never had to use them. I have no idea how to use these.
An athlete pulled over to help, he did not know how to use extensions but asked if I wanted company while I figured it out “I ain’t going to win this thing man, I got no rush” he said. Lots of athletes yelled out as they passed to ask if I needed anything, checking in to make sure I was ok. What great company to be in.
A Medical help bike pulled up, and the other athlete took off. I I asked him if he knew how to insert the extensions, he said he could help. Proceeded to spend about 10 minutes looking at all the parts until finally decided he was going to radio it in for the tech help and left too.
I also had patches, so I was trying to see if I could find and patch the hole by blowing the tube up. I didn’t even know what I was trying to do. All I knew was that I had been on the side of the road for a long time now. No sign of tech help. I started fiddling around with the extensions again and all of a sudden I started twisting the presta value and I realized all I had to do was twist it out and twist in the extension. It took like 5 seconds. I got my tube back in with the extension, got the C02 in the tube and was off again. But I was so frustrated with myself by the amount of time I had lost with something that was so simple. I was continuously trying to calculate how much time I might have lost and concluded it was about 20 minutes.
It was somewhere between the Yellow Lakes and Willbrook that someone had placed a sign on the side of the road “Be Grateful” it read. I took mental note. I liked that. While I was frustrated with my lost time, I was grateful for being here with my family, having my health and the opportunity to do this race.
I was flying past people now, I’d had a long rest, and had to catch up to that group I was with. I finally caught them, they were just coming out of the out and back at Willowbrook Rd. and I was just heading into it. I knew this out and back was going to take me 30 mins, so I had lost more time than I thought. All of a sudden I was starving, and realized I was so distracted thinking about this, my nutrition fell off pace too. It was also hot, so hot.
Coming down Main St. into the bike/run transition and I was so happy to be getting off the bike. I was continuously concerned I may get another flat if I had missed something spiky when changing my flat. Running into the bike transition, unclip my helmet, rack my bike. Nope, an official comes over to let me know that I was not allowed to unclip my helmet before racking my bike. My bad, she didn’t give me a penalty. I thought you just needed to be in transition, now I know.
Bike: Cervelo P3
180 KM Bike: 6:14:15 (5:44:45 moving time)
Avg Pace: 28.89 km/hr
Total: 7:35:10
Slipped on my shoes, hat, glasses and bib number. Something was up with my bib strap, it was not tightening for some reason, the main strap had come out so I spent about a minute or two trying to fix that before heading out to the run. Approaching the big hill out of the run, I knew I was not going to make up significant time running up this hill so decided to walk up this section and take in a gel.
Transition Two: 5:46
Total: 7:40:56
Run
I was feeling pretty good on the legs, not amazing but OK. However, the thought of running a marathon felt a little daunting at this point. I started breaking it down into chunks, “just get to 10 KM”, “just 5 more KM” etc. I started to pick up my pace on the way back on the KVR Trail, but as soon as I hit Main Street I started to feel sluggish. It was hot and the time lost on the bike was nagging at me.
I started grabbing ice at every aid station and putting it down my kit to cool down and holding it in my hands. It actually worked as a good distraction, taking my mind off the running and my tired legs. The steady slow incline up main worked away at me and then the headwind back the other way made it difficult on the way back.
Turning onto my first lap down Lakeshore Drive I quickly came across the B78 tent, my fam and friends cheering, this gave me some life back. Further down Lakeshore I started to hear the voice of Steve King rattling off stats of athlete’s passing by.
Second loop down Main St., my only thought was I just need to get to 32 KM. If I could get that far I just have 10 KM left and I know I can run that. I walked through the aid stations and took water. Had a gel every several kilometers and was reminded about why this is called an Ironman. This was turning into a real grind.
Looping back onto Lakeshore for my second pass I knew I was only 4 KM out from finishing this sufferfest. I found pace with a couple other athletes at about the same pace. While we may not have been speaking much, we were making a mental note and helping, pushing each other forward closer to the finish.
Ran down the finish chute for a finish at 11 hours 40 minutes, felt emotional, exhausted and relieved. Heard them announce my name, collected my medal. I made it.
Shoes: Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%
42.2 KM Run: 3:59:48
Avg Pace: 5:41 min/km
Total: 11:40:44
I signed up for a post race massage. I overheard the athlete next to me talking with his masseuse about his race and mentioned a notable moment, when he passed the sign “Be Grateful” and it became his motto to get him through the last half of the race. Amen brother.
Next Up: Royal Victoria Marathon, October 9, 2022
About Dan: I’m an entrepreneur with experience in various industries, including fintech, real estate, and performance marketing. Most recently, Co-Founder and COO at Billi Labs (exit), and VP Operations at Pretio Interactive (exit).
I am passionate about endurance sport and exploring the intersection between technology, health, and performance.
