Iron Man Petawawa

 

 

Peter has been training for the Iron Man 2012 ever since he found out about it in July and he's only lived in Petawawa since July 2nd so he tried to squeeze in all the quick training he could. The Iron Man is relative to other Iron Man Triathalon competitions with a slight army twist on it (story of my life!) To finish and have a qualifying time for this race you must complete (under 12 hours time) a 32 km ruck, pick up a 45lb canoe and portage for 4 km, then into the Ottawa River and solo paddle for 8 km, come out of the water, then it's a 6 km ruck to the finish line! The whole time all while wearing combat boots and pants, and carrying a 40 lb rucksack. Wow, just reading that makes me tired.

 

Peter's energy stash

 

 

Breakfast of champions! (haha just kidding)

 

 

Below is not a photo of my own but just one that one of the army photographers took at the beginning of the race, which began at 4am in the morning, aka why I was not up, maybe next year though, I would love a photo.

 

 

Most of the guys & girls running this race train alllllll year for this, so Peter's month and half of training was probably a little less than he might have needed compared to everyone else. There is no real prize at the end just the glory of being at the top or the satisfaction of having finished.

I was unable to get pictures of Peter throughout the first section of the ruck cause I had no idea of the layout of the course but next year i'll have to scout it out ahead of time and meet him at every check point.

 

Lots of the army famillies and soldiers were out to cheer on the competitors as they came in from their canoing. Peter says that the canoeing was the easiest part because at that point he was so exhausted from the ruck and the portage it was nice to just sit and use his arms. The portage proved to be the most tasking part of the race taking about average 25 mintues to cover 1 kilometre!

 

Peter on the right

Goof ball forgot to take off his life jacket before putting this ruck on, half backwards lol

 



 

At this point in the race I got to see Pete and give him some water and pep talk. Although there are water stations throughout the whole course full of water, juice, granola bars, and other snacks to keep everyone going. Sportstat.ca covered the event and each racer had to wear an anklet that would track their progress live online at each checkpoint they would walk through these electronic pilons and they would pick up the tracker on the anklet. Very cool!

 

 

Some of the other competitors helping eachother along the last leg! The last 6km ruck section of the race was through the golf course and through the pre-marital quarters on base. I took a seat at the park and waited for Peter to come along.

See i was actually there! :)

 

The home stretch was the last km of the race! Pete was walking when I met him at the park but I got to run for the last km with him and ended up passing someone at the last like 50m (woo!) haha that was the inspiration "you can pass that guy!" although its all fun and everyone is really cheering eachother on and encouraging. There were sergeants stationed at different points, even famillies sitting outside their houses, and army guys directing traffic along the way and their main job was just to offer encouragment and keep each guy moving, it was nice to see.

 



 

 

FINISHED! :) Peter finished 110th out of 225 participants with a time of 7 HOURS 54 MINUTES and 45 SECONDS (http://www.sportstats.ca/displayResults.xhtml?racecode=101416). Pete was happy to be done and have finshed in good time as his stomach hurt and he wanted a shower and some rest! The guy that finished first finished in like 5 hours and 43 minutes or something close to that, how is that even possible!?!

 

I can see he's already pondering about how to can beat his time for the 2013 race. Only 365 days away! Peter says one of the guys in the race uses the comparison "The Iron Man is kinda of like drinking, by the end of the day you're in pain and you swear you're never ever going to do it again. But, by the next day you're already thinking about it again"

 



The aftermath :( was a good 2 days of broken Peter. He learned that taking to many anti inflammatories will make your tummy hurt instead of doing their actual job to make you feel better. Lesson learned!