Tuesday June 27, 2017. 4:53 a.m.

Good morning,

We are now 2 months away from IRONMAN CDA! NUTS!!!!!

This past weekend I was part of a team that ran the K100 Mile Relay Race. This is a 10 leg relay race from Longview, Alberta to Nakiska ski resort. 8 of the legs are on the highway with the final two legs going cross-country. Leg length ranges from 10 km to 19 km.

I have run in this race 18 times. The past 14 years have been with this team, THE 10 FAT WHITE GUYS. We even have our own flag👍 This particular team has completed this race 23 years in a row. Only one guy has run all 23 and that would be LAZ. Well done.

It is a really fun weekend. We golf, drink beer, eat way too much and we throw a little run in to make it look like we are living a healthy lifestyle🍺

This year we only had 9 guys to run. LAZ ran legs 1 and 2 which worked out to be about 35 km of running. It fit very well into his IRONMAN training as a long run. My leg was leg 4 and it was about 14 km, mostly up hill. The last 6-7 km was where the real grind started but I looked at it as a good training run also. All the beer and hot dogs that I ate pretty much negated any training value I got out of the weekend but it was fun.

If you have read any of my blogs you will know that everyone has a nickname. No different on this team. Here was our running order on Saturday:

1. LAZ
2. LAZ
3. LAVA
4. MITTS
5. HEATER
6. CHOPE
7. RICER
8. VLAD THE IMPAILER
9. PETE THE CAT
10. BEEF STEW

Just a little FYI, leg 5 is 17 km up hill. STRAIGHT UP HILL!

We had a great weekend, my nutrition plan was thrown out the window the minute we started driving south to Longview and we survived without any injuries.

LAZ was given an award for his long time commitment to this race. It was nice to see him acknowledged in front of all the teams. We do this race purely for fun but the past two years we have earned silver medals for finishing second in the 40+ age group. Most of us lose our medals before the weekend is over. This year we looked up our category to see how much we lost by. We lost by 59 minutes in the 40+ plus age group. BEEF STEW is in his mid 40s so he keeps us in that age bracket. The rest of us are 50 years old up to 59. We  wondered how we would have done in the 50+ age group. We would have lost by over 2 hours! Thank god for BEEF STEW😁

The last two months of training is where the heavy lifting really begins. There is no time to waste. Saturdays will be long ride after long ride. Runs will be longer. The swims will pretty much stay the same and the nutrition plan goes into lock down mode. Got to lose the final few pounds.

Before I know it, the race will be here. Glad we got to kick off the final two months of training with this race, lots of fun, a nice break from the day to day training.

Off to the pool.

Take care.

Left to right (front): Heater, Lava, Laz, Chope, Ricer

Left to right (back): Vlad the Impailer, Pete the Cat, Beef Stew.