canada - 1 j-hy - 0

my only regret is that the guy didn't say "jeremy hyatt, you are an ironman." while he announced brad and i together as being from portland oregon he forgot that one important thing. the reason for the training, suffering, sacrafice, pain, you name it. i was left to fill that part in on my own and i kept saying it over and over!
racing canada was an amazing experience. there are a hundred goals you have, what you consider will make it a perfect day, what will be acceptable, what is failure. while this wasn't the "perfect" day, it was way more than acceptable. left me healthy, happy, and wanting more. here's how it shook down...

morning
arrived at race site roughly 6am, race at 7am. not much time to get nervous. get your shit together and let's go. perfect. after making final bike check we got wetsuits on, place last minute things in transition bags, and headed down to the water. kept my eyes peeled as my family had a made a last minute surprise trip to penticton. found them up on the shore, got a thumbs-up from pop, and me and the boys were ready to go. george, brad, and i all started in the same spot. about three rows from the front and right about in the middle. 2500 people lined up in the cove right behind us. there are several minutes before the gun (or cannon in this case) goes off that you're left in your own head. if you've ever done one of these for the first time, you probably know what i'm talking about. what's about to happen to me? when's this damn thing gonna start?
swim 1:08:41
first couple hundred yards, easy. smooth sailing, no fighting, just cruising. and then all hell breaks loose. as expected, i am finally in the midst of hundreds of thrashing bodies. 2500 people all going to the same spot. i am now being kicked, pulled, smacked, yanked, submerged. everything coming from a different direction. even though you know it's coming, you ain't ready that first time. patience gets you through. surprisingly i find clean water and hang there for a long time. can see people all around me, can see buoys. we're set, yeah? well...not so fast. 3 or 4 more times, without rhyme or reason, i get pummled. swimming along comfortably and then, BAM, getting hammered. patience gets you through. just ride it out and they'll go away. and they do, every time. thought i could swim a comfortable 1:07 / 1:08 and did exactly that. starting thinking at the first turn i had never swam that far before. no problem, shut up head.
T1 5:06
typically i am pretty fast in transition. 5:06 is not pretty fast. as you exit, strippers (not what you're thinking) pull your suit off and hand it to you and then you grab your transition bag and head to the change tent to get ready for bike. with the exception of hitting port-a-potty, not sure what happened here. felt like i was moving faster than that? goal was to be on the bike before 8:15am, quick check of watch before grabbing bike - 8:13am. perfect. mom and dad on the fence right by my bike. perfect.
Bike 5:35:21
been looking forward to this. every since the boys and i came up here to train i have been looking forward to doing this bike course again. it's beautiful, balanced, and one big loop. while pace seems to be where i want, effort feels harder than i want and i keep wondering if i'm going too hard, losing too much time, eating enough, drinking enough. i have a plan and i'm sticking to it, enough said. shut up head. first big climb up richter pass goes well, 7 rollers to follow go really well, finding my legs now, final climb to yellow lake not as great. getting tired, back tight, looking forward to run? seriously, shut up head. at the top of yellow lake, the crowd is lined up on both sides of the road - similar to what i saw in italy at the giro. it's an amazing feeling, empowering, amazing. final decent to town i spot my folks outside their hotel. they have a sign but i'm in the aeros, going 30+mph, and have no idea what it says. hell, they barely know it's me. goal was to be off the bike and running before 2pm...
T2 3:45
again, slower than i had thought. i guess part of this is getting down logistics. disappointed with my times in transition but easy to correct. catchers take bike, i grab T2 bag and get ready for run. 2 wonderful ladies rub sunscreen all over me and i'm off, only 2nd look at my watch all day and it's 1:52pm. 8 minutes ahead of 2pm and a 4:07 marathon away from goal of breaking 11 hours. easy right? shut up head.
Run 5:17:11
yeah. nothing comes easy at ironman. starting off on the run everything feels great. no pain in feet or legs, turnover good, keep telling myself to slow down and pace better. hit the first few aid stations, walk for a second to get good drink, then keep trucking. fighting running too fast. know brad is ahead of me, george and roland behind me somewhere. as we hit the lake, there's a pretty strong headwind. really strong actually. helps slow down pace. still running station to station and taking a short walk at each one to get drink and / or food. mile 8 - walking through the aid station and i spot brad. he's sitting on a tractor (i'm not even lying) and tells me he's done. "no you're not" i say. "get up, let's go". seems brad's blistering 5:09 bike has left him a bit worse for wear. kids. for the next several hours, brad and i plod along. sometimes he picks a target and says let's run at that sign. sometimes i pick. mostly i count. for the better part of 4 hours i count 100 steps as we run, 50 steps as we walk. i point at things for him to eat, tell him when to get up off the curb. he's done, yeah. but he ain't quitting. about 20 miles in he starts to feel better and we actually start running a bit more. we pick up another buddy from portland for a while, meet some new friends, exchange words with the crowds, etc. coming home at ironman is pretty emotional. having one of your best friends at your side, really cool. knowing your other 2 boys are in and feeling great, really really cool.
as a coach, i couldn't be prouder of the crew. they did all the work, played well together, put up with my shit, and finished what they started. interesting how everything works out in the end. ultimately, i wanted to finish and have all the boys with me or ahead of me. as much as we joke, i don't care about beating them. i do like to push them.
along the way you learn a few things about yourself. what you could have done better in training. that you're prone to violence when someone cheers "you're almost there" 8 miles into a marathon, and that at anytime you can run 100 steps. if you break it up into 100 steps, things seem a bit easier.
thanks to everyone who helped, supported, motivated, and advised along the way. it was pretty cool. everyone's results can be found on the blog, my office door, or at www.ironman.com.