Now that I can walk again . . . .here are a few comments on IMC 08 . . . .

First, I have to say that my mind cleverly blocked out any of the painful aspects of doing an ironman, just to trick me into doing it again. But I am very glad I did it again - there is nothing like the feeling of crossing that finish line!

I wrote a longer race report on my facebook page, but will keep the abbreviated version here. Despite some reservations about this race this year, I was pleasantly surprised in the end. A nagging knee injury impacted my training, as did some coaching committments throughout the summer. I think that while I was forced to train less than I would have liked, I ended up training smarter. I entered this race thinking that I would be a lot slower than last time, and ended up about 20 minutes faster. Although there were some rough patches, particularly on the later stages of the bike, and early to mid part of the run, things went generally as planned. My old nemisis "GI Distress," came calling on the run, as it often does in long races for me, but switching over to chicken soup and cola really helped. After a rough start on the marathon, I felt really good from 25 km onwards. The weather was, well, all over the place. Cold in the am, hot by the time I got to Yellow Lake, a very strong head wind to start the marathon and to finish it all off, showers to bring me home. Spectators and volunteers in Penticton as always were absolutely incredible. A nice twist to cap it all off - the "catcher" to greet me at the finish line turned out to be a very nice Team Polar Athlete from Alberta who was volunteering at the race.

Now, it's time for a little "recovery," and then a couple of more running races this fall.

Hope you are all having a great summer! . .  .Scott!http://community.active.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadImage/5373/IMC5.jpg!