Arrived in Penticton

Hey!

Wednesday night I left from work and drove to Golden. The entire way I felt like I was forgetting something.....I was.....Chad was at home! It was a little weird because we always go out to the okanogan together, I did have complete control over the music which was a nice change:) The road was really quite and I made it there in no time at all, in hindsight I could have made it to revelstoke easily. Once I got there I set up camp, ate dinner, and went to bed. It was sooooooo cold that night I FROZE. I still got up at 6:00 am to get on the road even with such little sleep!

Once I got into Penticton I stopped off at a fruit stand first thing! I drove around for a bit until I found the hotel, I called Chad to rub it in that I was in Penticton and he wasn't! At the motel the lady at the front desk new who I was before I even said a thing! Greg had everything set up for me once I got there. He left me a map with my ride on it so I dumped all of my stuff into the room, got onto my bike and headed out on the road! This is a pic of me and the handle bars of my bike, I tried to get the whole thing in but my arms are too short!

So first I made it through all of the traffic, I am getting used to riding in the city! I was looking for a certain road to turn onto....of course I missed it and I had to back track and I finally was where I needed to be.

I was on Green Mountain Road and it was a nice small little highway until I saw all of the signs...."no trespassing, Penticton Indian Reserve, blah blah blah." These signs were posted every 1/2 a km or so. I was beginning to think I was going the wrong way, and then I saw some other people out there riding as well. This little road is very scenic, quiet, and closed in. The first 15km or so are a slow and gradual climb. I ran into Greg and Trevor when they were on there way back to the hotel. Big Sigh of relief here, I was in fact on the right road! After chatting for a bit I continued on my way up the road.

The way down was a lot of fun!!! It was fast with a lot of turns in the road all of the way down. It was nice and shaded in there as well so it took the heat away for a bit. Once I came out I intersected with the 3A highway and started the climb up Yellow Lake right away (part of the IMC course). I made it to the top and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

The way down from yellow lake was a little scary, there are no shoulders on the road so I was with the traffic descending the giant ass hill! I made it to the bottom in one piece and did the easy ride back into Penticton. Day 1 finished, about 77 km I think it was and 3.5 hours of riding (including stops :).

When I got back I met my roomie for the next few days and decided to go down and hit the lake, I was feeling a little over heated! Once I was done at the beach I showered up and got some grub. That night Greg talked with us about race day planning, which helps a lot! I have to change my race plan a bit for Ironman, so that's something to work on for the next while!

I was a hurting unit by the end of the day. I had a headache that way getting worse and worse, and my IBS was acting up. I was more than ready to hit the hay. We were going to climb Anarchist the next day and I had to be ready to go by 7am! Yikes!