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Athletes ready for Ironman

2,500 athletes ready to race Ironman Canada on Sunday
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This Sunday, Aug. 27 marks the 28th running of the Ironman Canada Triathlon, after a field of just 23 athletes entered the water at Penticton back in 1983. In 1991 the race broke the 1,000 mark for the first time, and for the past decade it's sold out all 2,500 spots (give or take, as pro racers can enter at any time).

It's become a rite of passage for endurance athletes of all stripes, a tick off the bucket list that everybody who likes a physical challenge should try at least once.

As usual, when the race gets underway this year there will be a handful of Sea to Sky athletes in the group - some contending for spots at the Ironman Championships in Hawaii, but most pursuing personal goals - whether that's a sub 11-hour race or just finishing before the timer is turned off at midnight, 17 hours after the start gun.

Whistler athletes taking part this year include Duncan Munro, David Evans, Pete Field, Maridee Fitch, Sarah O'Byrne and Fero Piliar. As well, Liz Cullen is registered as a Vancouver athlete but lived in Whistler for several years and still spends time here.

From Squamish, the field includes Patricia Leslie, Derek Gagne and Byron Andres. The race starts off with a 3.8-kilometre swim, followed by a 180 km road bike. The last stage is a full marathon, 42.2 km from start to finish.

Most of the locals are doing the race for the first time, and three of the racers signed up together after watching friends race last year.

"I'm really excited about it," said Munro. "It's the unknown. I know what can happen in a trail running race and an ultra mountain bike race, but it's a whole new thing to train for swimming, biking and running. It's kind of fun and a little out of the norm. The only downside is this summer we're having when it's pissing rain and you have to go out for a 150km ride and it's 12-degrees outside."

It didn't make it easier that his partner Gillian Woodward did the race last year, and had near perfect training conditions through the spring and summer. However, with a training plan from Christine Suter he's kept his chin up and shrugged off the conditions as best as he could.

"When it's 10 degrees in early July it makes for interesting training, but I really have enjoyed it."

Munro is not going into the race with any goals - what happens on race is what happens. He has a background in swimming and water polo so the swim leg was relatively easy to prepare for, and he also has a lot of long-distance biking and running in his background - and recently placed first in the Rundle's Revenge race in Canmore in the Iron Donkey category, which included a 100km trail ride on Saturday, followed by a 50km trail run on Sunday.

Training has gone well, he said, although it's been tough to find time during the week while coaching WORCA Dirt Camps. Last week he rode with a group of experienced young riders and logged 125km of trail riding in five days. After those long days he says it's been tough to be motivated at the end of the day to do a swim, bike or run.

"Luckily I have a lot of good coaches and people with experience giving me advice," he said. Then joked; "Hopefully I don't push too hard and have the barf-a-rama going on."

Sarah O'Byrne has also done a lot of long distance runs and rides, and used to run marathons when she lived in Australia. She always wanted to do an Ironman, and when Field and Munro signed up she knew this was the year.

"I've always wanted to do one and always knew I would eventually because it is a rite of passage for endurance athletes," she said. "I chose this particular one because I knew other people doing it would make the training more fun.

"I'm really very knew to triathlons and had never seen Ironman before I went last year to sign up, and it was really quite humbling what ordinary people were out there doing and who was finishing at midnight. There was a guy with no leg, a blind guy and a 300-pound guy all reaching the finish, and it was just very inspiring. It's hard not to get caught up."

O'Byrne has a few goals that she is keeping private, but her only real goal is to stay positive.

"The goal for me in long distance events is always the same and that's to be committed to positive thoughts 100 per cent of the time. It's tough and hard to be positive all the time, so sometimes you have to find a positive - or at least laugh at what you're doing to yourself!"

O'Byrne said training has been a challenge, especially swimming. "I started swimming immediately after I signed up because I'm not a strong swimmer. It's the only discipline I trained the whole year for, but in a way our lives here are training. I'm used to doing long bike rides and I used to do a lot of marathons years ago. So I put in a year of swim training and then got serious at the end of the ski season in terms of biking and running.

"It's been challenging with the weather, but I made an effort if the weather was good to get out and do a six-hour ride even if it wasn't my plan for the day. I didn't do things in a particular order or on particular days, I was just going with the weather."

While a lot of people think of the Ironman as an impossible goal for impossibly fit people, O'Byrne said they should go to the race and see for themselves that it's a race that anybody can finish with a little training and the right attitude.

"It's just a matter of committing to the task and really wanting it, and then it's totally achievable for everyone."

Of the three friends, Pete Field has done the least training - a result of travelling through the spring and summer, and the bad weather through the spring and summer. Still, he's not too worried.

"Thankfully Munny and Liz Cullen and Sarah have been more conscientious about training and they would call me up and say they were riding 140km and running for two hours and I would say yes, I guess I have to do that... but I didn't have a program, and with travelling I was away for all of June.

"Sometimes I would look at my bike and say, hmm, I haven't been out on that in a week and a half or longer, but thankfully I did get out for a few big training days."

Field has done enough long distance events that he has a rough idea what to expect on Sunday.

"No matter what, it'll hurt," he said. "I just have to realize going in it's going to be a few hours of pain and that's that."

Field has a background in swimming and triathlons, and has planned to do the Ironman since he graduated high school. He even had a year picked - 1993 or 1994 - but broke his leg and was forced to postpone it.

"I do one big race every year," he said, "and this is my big race for this year."

Last year's big event was the single speed mountain bike world championships in New Zealand.

Field doesn't have a particular time goal in mind, although on a good day he said he'd like to break 11 hours. "I would be very happy with that, but I really don't know how long I'm going to be out there, how I'm going to feel. My goal is to enjoy it and have a good time, to be smiling at all of the aid stations and cross the finish line standing with a smile on my face. I want to enjoy it."

To keep up with the racers, updates and split times will be posted at Ironman Live (www.ironmanlive.com), and there will be some live video as well. You can also follow links at www.ironman.ca to get more race day coverage.