Tri•ath•lon / trīˈaTHlən

Noun: -an athletic contest consisting of three different events, typically swimming, cycling, and running.
(Poster by David Connaughton)

 

Moving to the Okanagan in 1986, I was first introduced to the sport of triathlon as it was just starting to evolve in the Valley. It seemed interesting but as I had just begun running, adding two other activities wasn’t in the cards with young kids, a new job and lungs that had just quit smoking. 

It was twenty-two years, before I found the time to try a triathlon.  It was kind of hard not to as Penticton was home to two well-known triathlon races, the Peach Classic and the venerable Ironman Canada. So in 2008, to celebrate my retirement, I entered the Peach Classic Triathlon.  Then again in 2012 I completed a Half Ironman and to celebrate my 60^th birthday completed Ironman. See blog of August 2012.



Flash forward to the fall of 2013 and while Skyping with our JGD (Japanese Granddaughter), I learned she had been swimming and running pretty regularly.

So with a little encouragement I convinced her to add some biking and come to Penticton in the summer of 2014 and complete in the Penticton Peach Classic sprint division.


I will be frank, I didn’t really think she would follow through, but I sadly under estimated that tough little Japanese girl.

She came, she saw, she conquered.

She arrived in Vancouver a week before the race. We picked her up from the airport and drove straight back to Penticton the same day.

The next morning found her standing on the shores of Okanagan Lake ready to take her first swim. The summer had been warm and the lake was a perfect temperature. It was at that point I learned that she had never swum in a lake before.



 

Next day saw her ride up the 4 kilometre long hill that she would face at the start of the bike portion of the race.  The hill can suck the confidence right out of your legs if you let it. Mounted on Nonie’s 10 year old mountain bike, I had my doubts she could pull it off. I was proven wrong as she powered herself up the hill.

Day three was a quick 5 kilometer run along the run course which included a 1 kilometer portion of the hill used in the bike leg.  All during the run I kept explaining that she would need to do all three of these disciplines during the race.

Every good athlete spends the night before the race getting their bodies ready for the challenges of the next day. We were treated to a fabulous feed of Chuanr by Tom and Aileen, friends from China who came all the way down from Edmonton to cheer us on. Chuanr are fatty little bits of meat cooked on skewers over a barbecue. (See blog of April 2011 for more about Chuanr) 

With fatty bits of meat coursing through my veins (Takae is a vegetarian), we were ready rumble. Painting the numbers on our arms took the rest of the night.

Race day, the weather was perfect, slightly cloudy with no wind and the lake was as calm as glass. We were up a 5:30 am to prepare.  We only live a few blocks from the starting line so our warm up consisted of walking our bikes down to the transition area. 

Then laying out the various bits and pieces that are need when you have to swim, bike run, towel, helmet, shoes, socks, hat and sun screen.



 

The start of the swim can be a scary place with the triathletes all jockeying for position. There is lots of thrashing and splashing about.  The plan was to hold Takae back till all the athletes had moved out and she would not get caught up in that maelstrom. I had told he to “wait till I say GO” before she started her swim. Just as the gun sounded, I repeated my initial warning, “wait till I say GO”.  All Takae heard was GO and she charged out into the pack. She became a little over whelmed by the crowd and a little panic set in.  

 

But with some calming words from a kindly kayaker she was back on track and we poured out of the lake ready for the bike


 

My intent was to follow behind her and keep her on track with my pearls of triathlete wisdom and intelligent words of encouragement but at the bottom of the hill, the gritty little Japanese girl dropped the hammer on me and left me in her dust leaving me speechless which was good because I didn’t have any breath left for pearls of wisdom.

As I was arriving to the transition area, I passed her as she was headed up the hill on the run. In my mind, I was saying “No problem”, I’ll catch her on the run and use up those pearls of wisdom. NOT!

 

Tri·ath·lete  trīˈaTH let
Noun: - one who competes in a triathlon

It took 2 hours and 1 minute for our newest triathlete to complete the course.  I think she will be back.

 

At least I hope so and this time I won't under estimate her. 

Through the Eyes of Another

We moved to the Okanagan in 1986. For those of you who are mathematically challenged, that was 28 years ago. As a family, we had been spending every summer vacationing here, so it was a no brainer to move here when the opportunity came up. For the next 15 years or so, we explored and enjoyed every inch of the Valley.

But as the kids grew up and moved on and the JOB became an obsession, I lost my way.

After 15 years, it is easy to become jaded about what you have and began to take it for granted. No need to rush out and do and see things as those things aren’t going anywhere, we’ll do it tomorrow. Then tomorrow becomes next week, then next month and the cycle begins again and again and again and continues for the next six years forgetting what brought us to the Okanagan.

 

Retirement was going to bring me back and give me the time to rediscover my direction. My barista gig at the Hogs Breath fell through and next thing I know we were spending the next 6 years, somewhere else.  That somewhere else was pretty fantastic so it was easy to forget what we had left behind.

So it was with excitement that we looked forward to a visit from one of our extended Chinese family. Takae or JGD (Japanese Granddaughter) as she is affectionately known was coming to Penticton. The decision was made last year when I challenged her to join me and train for, then come to Penticton to complete the Peach Classic sprint triathlon.  More on that in another blog.

But what iced the cake for us was the chance to show off our Valley.  

 

Seeing the valley through her eyes, reminded us of what we have and how easy it is to access it all.

 

When she wasn’t training, we filled her days with all the Okanagan has to offer.

When we parted company after nearly three weeks, we had only touched a small portion of what we have come to take for granted. 

 

We are leaving again so I have written this blog to act as a reminder to me of what we have here and to take advantage of it while we are here.










 

We ended Takae's visit with a bike ride on the Kettle Valley Trail, a 400 kilometre ride through the mountains and valleys of Southern B.C. and it passes right by our house. Perhaps we will only tackle 40 k’s of it today then go wine tasting for the rest of the afternoon.  There is always tomorrow.

Brett’s Got a JOB :)

Apologies to all my readers, all two of you but a darn job got in the way. My retirement plan has always included some sort of part time work.  The original plan was to work a bit to help the pension go a little further and feed our desire for travel. Find below, my very first posting on February 3, 2008 where I laid out my retirement plans for all to see/read.                                                 


Five Months To Go 

When I picked our (my) retirement date ten years ago, it was a simple decision, June 30, 2008. Actually I picked June 31 but that date was going to be a bit of a problem. I was still 55 but turned 56 the next day. Freedom 55!

But as we (I) get closer (five months) the decision has taken on complexities that were not realized ten years ago. Will we have enough to live on? Good question. What does it take per month? (I have put the current 2014 costs in brackets)

Rent/Mortgage/Strata Fees $220                   ($250)              
Taxes $125                                                       ($110)
Utilities $ 80                                                     ($45)
Insurance $ 50                                                 ($60)
Telephone $ 60                                                ($80)
Cable $ 70                                                        ($110)
Vehicle $200                                                     ($150)
Medical Plan $120                                            ($120)
Food/Incidentals $420                                      ($500)
Entertainment $400                                          ($400)                                      
Miscellaneous $100                                          ($150)
Total $1845

Travel $ 700
Golf $ 200
Hobbies $ 100
Contingency $ 155
Total with a Life $3000

Have I forgotten anything. If I have, then let me know. Too often I hear, I won't have enough money to live. I always ignored those statements, but as the day draws near, it takes on a greater importance. Well the verdict is in and we (I) will have to continue to work a little bit after June 30, 2008.

Not a problem as the plan was always to work a little bit. My dream job was to become a barista at the Hogs Breath Coffee Company. They sold out to Starbucks. Not sure I'm a corporate coffee guy so the plan is now to be the go to guy at Canadian Tire but only if it is low stress.

What ever happens, we will be fine so bring it on! June 30, 2008 here we (I) come.

Well, I didn’t become the go to guy at Canadian Tire but I did find plenty of interesting ways to supplement the pension while still having the opportunity to see the world. Six years have passed since R Day and the need or perhaps the desire to continue to work has found me working in a Winery. Not a job that was on my radar in 2008.  

The initial job description was to work in the wine shop and schlep wines to visitors while waxing eloquently on the bouquet, nose, colour, yada yada yada. Actually it is a lot like teaching English, but replacing “weakened form” with “toasted oak”.

But the job has slowly morphed into something different, something that kind of resembles my old JOB. You know; the stressful, 24/7 one I retired from. Some of you are probably saying ‘what took you so long”, while others of you are saying “give your head a shake, Brett”.  So after giving my head a shake, I have come to accept that “you can take the boy out of the job, but you can’t take the job out of the boy”.

Thankfully, over the last six years, my outlook to work has taken a decided shift in my approach to the JOB. The JOB no longer consumes me, I only embrace it. I still have the desire to deliver 100 percent but on my schedule, not someone else’s. Wish I had taken this approach 30 years ago. But then, I may have had to revise my retirement schedule.

No regrets, so for the next 2 or 3 years, I will be on the lookout for JOBS that I can embrace while leaving plenty of time to enjoy retirement. So if you hear of anything, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

I should put a plug in here, for my latest JOB so drop into Perseus Wines. See the web address below. I get a staff discount of 30% on all wine purchases and the coffee breaks are pretty sweet.  

http://perseuswinery.com/

Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates

Remember as a youngster, someone in the family gets a box of chocolates. You know, the ones that come with a little map hinting at what might be inside each chocolate morsel.   The picture and descriptions of each chocolate all look and sound delicious but experience has told us that is not always the case.  So after much deliberation, you make your choice and blah! The first bite into that soft nougat turns out to have a brick hard caramel inside that takes forever to suck into a soft chewy mass. 

It had been an early departure from Bryce Canyon the previous day with a planned stop at Antelope Island Park. The park is located just 15 miles west of Salt Lake City on an island in the Great Salt Lake. The island has a herd of bison that roam freely around the park and it seemed worth the short side trip to check it out.

As we good closer to the park we found that they were working on the causeway out to the island and there were going to be construction delays.  It was going to be a long day without the delay so we made a management decision to include the park on our next trip.

 

Slightly ahead of schedule we arrived early at our next planned stop in Pocatello, Idaho.  We chose Pocatello as it was at the junction of Highways 15 and 84. The weather forecast was predicting a SLIGHT possibility of snow on our planned route through Montana and Spokane Washington and if it looked bad we had the option to go west and retrace our route back to Penticton and avoiding snow.  As chance would have it, we missed the exit from the highway to the Pocatello Motel 6. We had to drive another 12 miles to a native Casino before we found another exit.

The sun was shining, the weather forecast was still “a possibility of snow”, so based on the current information, we took a chocolate out of our box and decided to drive another 50 miles  further north to Idaho Falls where we scored a lovely motel room thanks to a coupon we picked up at a truck stop. Things were looking good.

 

Blah! The chocolate had a hard, tasteless inside.  We woke up to find that the SLIGHT possibility of snow turned into a full on blizzard with road closures in the pass we were to drive through from Idaho and Montana. 

Thank heaven; the motel had a great free breakfast. We needed those calories as we spent two hours backtracking the 60 miles to Pocatello with near white out conditions and another 90 minutes driving east into Idaho before the snow became rain.  Completely drained, we stayed overnight at a Motel 6 in Baker City, Oregon.

Not wanting to sample anymore chocolates, we made the next day a long day and drove all the way back to Penticton.  Not the way we wanted to end the Great Road Trip of 2014 but it has left room for future Great Road Trips.

 

 

 

Bryce is Nyce

With five national parks, Utah claims the title of America’s national park capital.  We have revised our bucket list to visit all five parks in our lifetime.  Our visit to Bryce Canyon National Park means one down and four too go, so stay tuned.

Leaving Vegas for the drive into Utah and Bryce, we decided to visit the Neon Bone Yard, home to some of the most iconic neon signage that has flickered and hummed over Vegas since the 40’s. It was a wonderful place to hang for an hour, getting an insight into the history of Las Vegas through its neon signs.  However, it was little unsettling to see and hear about these vintage signs that I first saw in 1969 as I have not quite come to grips with the fact that I can now be considered vintage and fast approaching heritage status.

 The weather was a mixed bag with sun, rain and sleet for the 3-4 hour drive to Bryce. The latest weather forecast for Bryce was mixed and snow was not out of the question.  We stopped for lunch in St. George, Utah.  A lovely little city that we would definitely consider as a place to escape winter.   The city annually hosts the world senior games and has a wealth of sport facilities and outdoor activities to keep anyone busy.  

Bryce Canyon’s rim sits at between 8,000 and 9,000 feet, similar to the Grand Canyon.  We hit a sleety snow as we crossed over one mountain pass that had us second guessing our decision to visit Bryce. Thankfully, the weather smartened up and we arrived at Bryce Canyon Village with clear skies but with a temperature hovering around the freezing mark. 

 

We woke with the sun streaming through the flimsy curtains of our room.  Other than that, the room was well appointed with microwave, fridge, big flat screen television, free wifi and eerily quiet after the craziness of Las Vegas. 



 

Bryce Canyon is definitely not as grand as the Grand Canyon but it quickly became our favourite canyon.

 

The depth of the canyon is not as deep as the Grand and this allows you to get up close and personal with the canyon without risking cardiac arrest.  



 

With no donkey pooh to worry about, you can spend most of your time looking out and up at the awesome vistas.









 

The hoodoos that are found everywhere and are what set Bryce apart from its sister parks.  With very little imagination required, they take on easily recognizable shapes such as forts, castles, faces and as lunch time approached, food shapes.



 

It was a exhilarating day exploring the many trails into the canyon and along the rim. The wonderful day and bottle of wine at dinner made for a restful sleep as we had a long drive the next day. We have stops planned in Montana and Spokane, Washington before heading home.

Las Vegas’ Dirty Little Secret

Las Vegas hosted almost 40,000,000 people last year but less than a 1,000,000 people take advantage of this little gem. Located a short 24 kilometres from the strip, the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area at 4,000 hectares, is too small to be called a national park, but with a beauty and diversity that make it a perfect choice to be part of the National Landscape Conservation System (also known as the National Conservation Lands).



“The System is a 27-million-acre (110,000 km²) collection of lands in 887 federally recognized areas considered to be the crown jewels of the American West.” (Wikipedia)

The Canyon has been in our travel bucket for 40 years and we finally got to check it off. Definitely not the Grand Canyon, a smaller more intimate place, the Red Rock Canyon area was an ocean floor, 600,000,000 million years ago, then a swamp for 400,000,000 years, and then at about 180, 000,000 million years ago, desertification started. Over the last 250,000,000 years, tectonic shifts and thrusts have exposed many different rock formations providing the area with a wonderful myriad of earth tone colours and stunning rock formations. 

 

The Canyon provides numerous trails for hiking, a 13 mile (21 kilometres) scenic drive with numerous viewing points along the way. It is a perfect place for a bike ride or a nice training run for your next half marathon. We chose to spend our time hiking.


 

We woke up to a wind and sand storm warning for the day with wind gusts forecast to reach 40 miles per hour (72 kilometres per hour).  Looking outside our hotel window we could see the palm trees already bent half over in the wind. With only one day left in Vegas it was now or never to see the Canyon.

Thanks to Naggedy Ann, our GPS, we were safely and efficiently directed to the Visitors Information Centre. A newly constructed facility that was well thought out, beautifully tucked into the landscape and with large outdoor displays explaining all that we were about to see in our visit.  

Sadly the wind was howling which drove us to rush through the informative displays. Hope we didn’t miss anything important, like are there any poisonous snakes or lizards. The Canyon is home to wild burros, Desert bighorn sheep and a protected habitat for the Desert tortoise.

 

The western horizon was showing some seriously black and rain filled clouds, quickly making their way to the Canyon, so we opted for one of the shorter hikes to begin the day.  We were dressed warmly but hiking in torrential downpours with 40 mile an hour winds would in all likelihood suck so we did not want to wander far from the car.  

 

The hike took us up close and personal with walls of the escarpment.  From far away, the walls look red but close up they took on a more ochre (brown-yellow) colour.  







About 65,000,000 years ago, a shift/fault called the Keystone Thrust occurred.  “The Keystone thrust was part of a series of thrust faults that ran through much of western North America and through the Red Rock Conservation Area. The movement of this fault forced the older gray sedimentary rock over the younger red rocks, forming the varicolored landscape that can be seen in the mountain today. The thrust is exposed over a distance of 13 miles along the Red Rock escarpment.” (Wikipedia)

As we worked our way closer to the face of the escarpment, the clouds got blacker, sputters of rain started and the wind gusts got more fierce. Dressed for it, we pressed on. As we moved inward, rock climbers were making their way out. The walls of the escarpment are perfect for rock climbing, although not in wind storms so their day was over while ours was just starting.

Luck was with us and the worst of the rain skirted our location and by the time we made our way back to the car, the clouds had moved on to Vegas and the day was looking up. However the wind gusts showed little signs of slowing down. With the sunnier weather, we decided that a slightly longer hike was manageable. We chose the “Calico Tanks”, at about 10 kilometres round trip, the trail promised a little surprise at the end.

As we entered the trail, we discover large perfectly carved sandstone blocks littering the trail entrance.  Before being a conservation area, a sandstone quarry was developed on the site in the early 20^th Century. Shipping costs killed the business though it was reopened for a short period during the early days of Los Vegas’ development, providing building materials to the expanding city.

The trail took us mostly up. Despite the almost 1,000,000 visitors, it seemed like we had the trail to our selves passing only a handful of groups along the way. Sadly most visitors were of the drive by variety.

Every time we climbed over a ridge we exposed ourselves to the wind gusts but for the most part, the trail was protected from the wind and it was a warm and pleasant scramble up the rocky trail.

We were rewarded with a beautiful little pocket of water all be it with white caps due to the wind gusts. As we made our way back down, the wind had given up trying to blow us off the mountain and quieted down, a perfect end to the day. As I showered that night, I found I had taken a bit of the Canyon with me, as dust had found its way into my many nooks and crannies.

 

We are leaving Vegas tomorrow and to be truthful are not too sad about it. This is one story that happened in Vegas and won't stay in Vegas