There I was, as fit as ever in my life, including my debauched teenage years, in Penticton getting ready to do Ironman Canada. It's been a while since I thought of that. It was a big day, worthy of several blog posts, here, if you only found this blog recently and haven't read that far back.
Not that I'd recommend reading most of the blogs from around then. They were pretty focussed on training, and are barely of any interest to me, let alone anyone else, especially someone who isn't interested in triathlon. Even if the phrase "what's a little vomit between friends" came up in conversation. Even if there were a ton of comments, many quite witty. There was quite the blogging comment community then. I miss the comments and sense of community.
At the time, I thought it just barely possible that I'd do another one, but it turns out, not. Ever so not. There were a few other races, and some training with the idea of running a standalone marathon, but that never worked out. I loved the many runs with the best run buddy ever. We spent one summer running along all the bike paths beside the rivers. 5K was a short run, 10K was routine, and there were lots of 15K or so, but getting much beyond that was tough.
No matter how careful I was, something would fail during the training. Then a couple long trips, Yukon and New Zealand happened to break the consistency. Then COVID came along. I never tested positive for COVID, but that isn't to say I never had it. There were a couple times along the way I felt really crappy for a while, even after getting all the vaccinations that were on offer. I don't think I've got brain fog, but the people around me might think differently.
I went out for what I thought was a really short, really easy run, early during COVID, I think. I can't find the relevant post. It actually hurt and I stopped. I started to think about the whole workout thing. I wanted to stay in shape, but by then knew I wasn't going to do another triathlon of any length, so I started thinking about how much and what kinds of exercise were appropriate. I sold Estela the beloved road bike to someone that would actually ride her. I stopped running, and started walking. I kept up the swimming, as much as one could during COVID. Although getting back into it was brutal after all the time off.
June 2016 I bought a real camera, and that started a new thing to keep me busy during what I thought was retirement, and it sure has! As it turned out, the Penn West gig was not the last one. A few people hunted me down and proposed contracts I couldn't say no to. The last one started early in COVID and lasted essentially a year. During much of that time I felt like the guy that should have retired at the end of the last season. I struggled with some of the tasks (damn you XL and matrix based formulas!) and my boss kept having her priorities change, which changed mine. At least I was working from home and the liberal swearing at the computer only offended Linda and the cats. Yes, I wore pants during the Teams calls.
As it turns out, good quality camera gear is heavy for the volume it occupies. They're made of glass and metal after all. At home I can get away with carrying just one camera, and if necessary I can go back to the house to get the lens I really need for that particular photo. Same thing on a car trip. But on a long trip I want to bring all the gear, which means careful planning so as to be able to haul the film out for hand processing at the airport. Don't get me started on airport security theatre, or the perfectly predictable reaction of people being charged for checking bags. They should charge for carry on bags, and the first checked bag should be free, within certain size and weight constrains.
But then when we get to the place to park the car, there's often a walk to get to the photo place. If I haven't been there I won't know what gear to bring. That leads to carrying a heavy pack. The 5K walk back from Baker Brook Falls nearly killed me. I recall one photographer saying there are no good photos more than 500 m from the car park. I sympathize more and more with that position.
I still have some connections to the race community, mainly doing race photography for my buddies Rose and Richelle. It's nice to run into people I knew from back then, and chat a bit to catch up. The most recent example was someone I worked with 20 years ago. Occasionally I'll see someone running or biking, making it look effortless, and I know damn well it's not, and I feel a bit of a pang. Except even after years of training, I was at best a back of the pack runner and biker. I used to joke that nobody passed me on the run because they'd already passed me on the bike. Lots of races the fastest people would finish before I started the run. One race they took away the finish line before I got there, and I was an hour ahead of the cut-off time. I still wonder if I got off course and ran or biked some extra distance.
Going into a full distance Ironman race with the goal of finishing under the cutoff time without needing medical attention is a perfectly acceptable thing especially for a first time. But for the shorter race distances just finishing isn't much of a goal after the first time. Just finishing gets old.
I'm still enormously proud of having completed Ironman. It was a huge goal, and I did it bit by bit. Seeing how decrepit I've got recently, I'm more impressed than ever with Sister Madonna Buder finishing an Ironman at 80.
Where to now? I'm just getting back in the pool yet again. The shoulder is still cranky, but in a different way. I like taking one of the cameras for a walk, but then that's not really a walk for fitness. I'm walking slower, looking around for photos. Somehow it's really hard to go for a brisk walk seeing the same scenery. I haven't been on my hybrid bike this year out of an abundance of caution, as they say. This whole getting old thing isn't for sissies.
In other news, I'm looking at my Blogger readership stats. I've never really paid much attention to them, mainly because I've never really believed them, or understood what they were counting. But just lately they're going crazy. Either the bots love me, or I've got a lot of lurking readers. Don't be afraid to comment, or ask to be added to my notification list, so you get an email when I blog.
As I've been writing this one, I've been wondering if I want to add photos to it. I was writing outside during the cool of the evening, at least until the bugs came out, with the naked laptop, so to speak, and all the photos I'd include are on an external hard drive that isn't plugged in. So maybe, just this once, no photos. Come back tomorrow for yet another flowery Friday and the regularly scheduled Of the Day suspects.
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