The drive to Quebec was uneventful until we got to Hwy 117 about 70 minutes outside of Mont Tremblant. Traffic was fairly light and the roads were a little wet from the rain. The highway wound through the Quebec countryside and is quite nice except when a large tractor trailer decided to have some fun with the out-of-province-foreigners (us). The speed limit was 90 km/hr. and I was driving about 100 km/hr. There were enough turns and double line no passing zones which made for slower driving. At first, the trucker would catch up and sit about three meters behind us so I would speed up and put some distance between us. The truck would speed up as well until he was three meters behind us. This went on for about 30 minutes. Tammy and the kids were freaking out. There weren't a lot of places where I could slow down and pull over. It seemed like a Stephen King movie. Finally we came to a small town where traffic was a little heavier. A car in front of me slowed down to turn into a parking lot so I followed and the truck drove by us. Totally weird. When I was younger, I would have probably reacted differently.
We arrived in Mont Tremblant only 9 hours later. I've driven in 6 hours by myself. I can’t figure out why there’s such a difference. We checked into the hotel right in the pedestrian village which is all of 200 meters away from transition. We stayed here in 2012 and its super convenient but stayed in the Marriott last year. Tammy wanted to stay there again but this place was cheaper (l should have listened) and Rom was staying here as well. Actually Rom had beaten us here by over an hour but their room wasn't ready and wondered around. On Thursday, Ironman registration ended at 4 pm and I had missed it. That meant a huge line up on Friday. Fortunately, from our room I can see the registration line up so I can pop over when it’s not busy.
Later Thursday night we met up with some of the people from the Markham Tri Club. It’s definitely much more fun when you’re at the Ironman with a bunch of people.
Lindsay mentioned at registration, they wanted to know your OHIP (health card) information. Odd, I did this in 2012 and the half in 2013 and they've never asked that information. I didn't think much of it until Friday morning when I got a call from my sports doctor’s office. I didn't answer but they left a voice message. They reminded me that my last visit several months ago, wasn't covered as my health card expired and they would be sending me a bill. I looked at my heath card and sure enough. It expired in March. Doh
The weather forecast for the entire weekend was very similar to 2012. Cool and rainy. This leads too much anguishing about how to dress for this race. At one point, the weather app said the low would be two degrees Sunday night. I would hate to be walking the marathon at that temperature wearing a tri top.
Friday morning, Rom and I went for a quick swim and bike. The water temperature was cool but nice. I ran into Paula N who is racing as well. She recently got into Kona (via 12 Ironman races) and was racing Ironman’s when my brothers did them more than 10 years ago. After the swim, we went back to the hotel and went for a quick bike ride. We rode part of the run course but turned around when it started to rain. I had no desire to ride in the rain risking a crash.
Later that afternoon, they had the Iron Kids One and Five km runs. My kids did the one km run with Jake coming ahead of Rebecca and Vanessa. There were a couple of hundred kids running and it was quite impressive.
Almost race ready……………
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