Victoria and Penticton, Britsh Columbia Trip Monday May 13, 2002:
It was kinda cloudy but no rain……until we got into Washington. Ugh, very dreary. The rain continued all the way to Port Angeles. We figured it would take about 4 hours to reach Port Angeles but US 101 is really slow because it winds so much around the waterfront almost all the way from Olympia. We should negative split the drive home since we won't be packed down with so much food! Kinda like a long bike ride. It finally stopped raining during the ferry crossing and was just cloudy when we got into Victoria. Pretty cool city. It has all of these odd English-type architecture in the old buildings. We found this motel that evidently is right across from Elk Lake, where the New Balance course is set up. Nice little individual units with a little kitchen. Unpacked the car and headed out to the grocery store to grab a salad for dinner and some cottage cheese for tomorrow.
Tuesday May 14, 2002: BLUE SKIES!!!! The plan is to drive the bike course this morning, come back and change, then ride the outer loop of the course a couple of times. Should be around a 50-60 mile ride.
Ok, well, it was actually a little longer than that. The course is ALL rolling hills with only one or two truly flat stretches that last maybe 1/2 to 1 mile. Jeff rode the outside loop 3 times for about 72 miles and Gina rode the big loops twice and the north loop once. Great weather all day long. This is a really beautiful area. We are both fairly wiped out and ready for dinner. More later.
Wednesday May 15, 2002: The weather forecast before we sacked out last night said cloudy and showers all day. Well, as I sit on the ferry over to Vancouver, there are only light clouds on the horizon. We had to check out by noon so we rode and ran early this morning. I took off at 6 and Gina rolled out shortly thereafter. Got in a 50 mile ride and a run over to and around Beaver and Elk Lake for about 9 miles. This is one of the prettiest areas I've ever been too, probably second only to Attergau near the Attersee in the Salzkammergut in Austria. More later. We're going to sit out on the top deck of the ferry.
Thursday May 16, 2002: Yesterday was a long trip. The roads wind through a mountain range up to Hope, Princeton and then down around to Keremeos, where 97 intersects 3 and runs the remainder of the IM Canada course up to Yellow Lake and down into Penticton. Once again, clouds and off and on rain showers the entire way through the mountains. The clouds broke as we neared Keremeos. We rolled into town around 9pm. When we left Vancouver we thought we might make it around 7 or 8.
Awoke to more blue skies this morning. Unbelievable. We are staying in a hotel that is directly across from the beach and Lake Okanagan. I read for an hour or so in the room and then went out and read by the lake for about a half hour before the sun came up. Sunrise over the mountains and lake is pretty cool.
Penticton is a cool little town. We just kinda messed around today. We went to the community center to swim and lift weights. This whole metric system thang has me messed up. All I can say is a 25 meter pool is a HECK of a lot longer than a 25 yard pool. Made for a long, long, long swim workout. We just walked around town after lunch and then crashed for about an hour or so back at the room.
Friday May 17, 2002: Oh my. What a day! We awoke to dark cloudy skies and drizzle. Hmmm, what the heck do we do now? We had planned on riding at about 9am. By 8am, the skies started to break and the rain was stopping. We hopped in the car to get some good coffee. By the time we finished, the rain was gone, the white clouds out numbered the dark ones and blue skies were takin' over. Gina went to the condo office to see if it rained today, if we could stay Saturday night, run today and ride the course on Saturday morning. The owner told her that they had a cancellation for IMC 2002 and wondered if we wanted it. Hmmm, 3 bed room, 1600 sq ft condo ON THE FREAKING LAKE and 1/2 MILE FROM THE FINISH LINE. Uhhhh, let me think about that for a while…..DUH!!!
We left to ride the course around 10am. The weather was perfect. Rode through town, out by Skaha Lake (what a view!), up through McClean Creek Rd and out through the ranch area on Oliver Ranch Road. At this point, I realized this was going to be a day that will be hard to beat.
On Lori's recommendation, we first stopped by Hog's Breath for berry scones. Those are the biggest dang scones I'd ever seen in my life. We're talking the size of a dad-blasted discus. Knowing those thangs had to be super high glycemic, we downed 'em and headed out of town.
Ok, for those that have ridden this course, is it just me or is the ride out to Osoyoos ridiculously fast? I was holding an obscene mph, spinning at a real high cadence with a very low heart rate. I thought, "ok, this could get really ugly in an hour or two if I'm pushing harder than I think I am." Well, as we started the climb up to Richter Pass, I stopped at the first plateau to snap of picture of G climbing between the rock cutouts that framed Osoyoos down in the valley….no pictures left on the roll... AARRRGGGGHHHH!!!! Spun on up Richter and stopped at the top for a bagel and peanut butter. It was really starting to warm up at this point but not too terribly hot.
After reaching the top, can you say….FREAKING RICHTER-BAHN!!!!!! Yikes, holy crap!!! Only one problem, cold rain really, really hurts when you are going….(Mom, if you reading this don't read the next number)…..47mph downhill. We had been forewarned to avoid hammering the rollers after Richter at all cost. Well, we did….kinda. Except on one downhill where I hit 48mph. Un-freaking-believable. Pretty much uneventful for a long time. Great views of whitecaps just on the west side of Richter and ranches as we rolled through the valley up to Keremeos.
One more question for the IMC vets. Is it always windy from Crawston to Keremeos? Wow, that stretch was not fun at all. We stopped at the gas station at the 3/3A intersection to get some water. Somehow we both forgot to put G's aerobottle on her bike. I had my Camelbak MULE on, which carries 100oz, and 3 bottles of gatorade each with an endurolyte cap. Gina had her 70oz Cambelbak and 3 bottles of gatorade, but she really could have used that 32oz aerobottle. How in the heck did I forget to pull that out of the fridge and how did she not realize she didn't have that stupid straw sticking in her face before we left? Oh well. Loaded with water and we're off for the Yellow Lake climb…..ugh.
The lake came much quicker than I expected. Uh, someone forgot to tell us that the climb stops at TWIN Lakes and NOT Yellow lake. What's up with that? The descent from there back into Penticton seemed like it took only a minute or two. Fast, fast, FAST downhills again. Rolled back down Skaha Lake Rd/Main St and couldn't believe we were already done with the course. Actually, when we reached the 3A/97 intersection just outside of town G said, "we're already here?" in her usual squeaky, confused voice. I tried to talk her into another jaunt out to Osoyoos and a quick loop back around Richter, Keremeos and Yellow Lake but she wouldn't go for it. Hmmm, wonder why?
There was a group out training at the same time we were riding the course. They are called Critical Speed and based in Calgary. Must have been a group of 15 spread out in small groups. They had aid cars/trucks and were doing blood lactate testing at the top of Richter and Yellow Lake. Between the 15 of them, they must have had a flat every 10 miles between Richter and Yellow Lake. The first time we came upon them was the climb Richter. We passed the last group coming down to 97….two of them completely riding their brakes down the hill. Frustrating…that's all I'm gonna say.
Dumped our gear in the room, showered (I rinsed my shoes out. If you don't know why, then don't ask.) and went to Salty's for Thai spring rolls, ceasar salad and pizza with whole wheat crust. Did you catch that? WHOLE WHEAT CRUST!!!
So the wrap-up: I should note initially that a camelbak MULE with two shirts tied on the outside, a camera, 7 bars, and tools is really REALLY heavy and not aero at all!! My neck and shoulders are so sore from lugging that heavy crap over 110 miles.
Gross time: 6:40:00
Net time: 5:57:46 (door to door)
Jeff's highest mph: 48
GG's highest mph: 42
Jeff's average mph: 18.5mph (110 miles - I circled back a few times to check on GG)
Mamma Gina's average mph: 16.5mph (100 miles)
So tomorrow we have planned a long run…..er, um….maybe a waddle…..more later.
Saturday May 18, 2002: Perfect running weather: light haze, cool breezes of the lake. We rode a very easy out and back down the run course for about an hour and a half and transitioned to our long run. I ran along a bike/foot path along a canal that runs from Okanogan Lake down to Skaha Lake on the west side of town, across 97 to Lakeside for part of the run course along Skaha. Very nice run, which felt surprisingly good after yesterday's long ride. Ran about 2:15/17 miles. Gina ran the canal and back and ran along OK lakeshore and around town.
We went for what SHOULD have been a monster lunch at a nearby restaurant, but it kind of ended up being not so great. Napped in the afternoon and went to Hog's Breath for a LOT of coffee. We had hard time NOT slammin' a couple of those mammoth scones!!! Went back to the room and a ridiculous amounts of fruit. And then, a few hours (ok, an hour) later we went to dinner and had a great meal at Gunbarrell Grill. Excellent place.
DANGIT!! Gotta leave tomorrow
Sunday May 19, 2002: The Peach City Marathon and 1/2 Marathon started at 7 and 7:15am. When originally planning this trip months ago, we had planned on running either the full or the half. Bagged the idea a few weeks ago. But, we got up early, and AGAIN went to Hog's Breath for coffee…..a LOT of coffee. Free refills. Can't beat that. LOVE that place. During IMC week, if you want to find us, we'll probably be there. Too bad our hotel is not right around the corner.
We walked down to watch the start of the two races, which were very small fields - probably 150 in each race. This was the first running race start we actually watched and weren't involved in. After all the runners had passed the start line, we were MORE than satisfied with walking the OTHER direction…..back to Hog's Breath for a small coffee to go.
Finished packing the car and rolled out of town. We can't wait to go back. 97 South, which goes down Skaha to OK Falls, Oliver and Osoyoos also runs south through Washington, into Oregon and on down to Bend. [DANG I wish we could keep going straight to Bend!!] Anyway, that is a gorgeous drive through forests, over mountain passes and down to the Columbia River Gorge. We stopped in The Dalles for dinner at this place we stumbled upon that over looks the river. We had an EXCELLENT meal to finish our trip.
As we neared Portland….you guessed it..over cast and rainy. I had a hard time not slipping back into the depression/funk that grips me when it is so dreary. About the only thing that prevented it was knowing graduation was 6 days away and Mom and Dad were flying in on Tuesday. LOTS of work to do in 48 hours (including grocery shopping).
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed the trip.
- J & G