23-07 Hamburg Germany 1,
July 10, 2023,
Hi Everyone,
I am sitting in the Banque National lounge at Trudeau Airport waiting for my flight to London and then to Hamburg. I can eat and drink here for free due to my Elite Master Card status. The food is actually good and there is an open bar for wine which is to my taste. I am already on my …..glass. Unfortunately there is no scotch.
2 songs seem to come across my mind. My taste in music is mired in the 17th century with Bach and Beethoven and then skips rapidly to the Sinatra big band era followed by music from the 60s and 70s. I don’t think that I could even name a band or singer from the 80s onwards. “ All my bags are packed and I’m ready to go, I’m standing here outside your door, I am so lonely that I could cry. I’m leaving on a jet plane….” (John Denver). “I’m sitting in a railroad station, with a ticket for my destination, ooh ooh” (Simon and Garfunkel). Enough of that memorabilia.
How did I get here? Well that is a long story. I was playing 80 games of hockey a year and 50 games of squash. I was skiing and racing a sailboat. How could I have a cardiac problem? Like every good doctor, I had a blood test regularly every 30 years. Unknown to me, my cholesterol was ski high and in spite of my over active personality, my thyroid had virtually stopped functioning. I had 2 heart attacks playing hockey and 1 walking on the street. I stayed home, hoping to discuss this problem with my friend, the cardiologist, but a kidney stone intervened and brought me to the hospital. 3 days later I had a quadruple bypass at the old Royal Vic.
Following the bypass I entered into an intensive cardiac rehab program at the YMHA. My surgeon had promised me that I could play hockey 3 months after the bypass. Actually I started skating 3 months later, raced my sailboat at about the same time, reffed hockey over the summer and started playing 5 months later. The rest is history.
About that time my friend Glen told me that I should try to do a triathlon. A triathlon? I couldn’t even spell the word. I thought it was spelled with a Y. Anyway, the following summer I did my first sprint triathlon (swim 750m, bike 20k and run 5k). I won a gold medal in my age group. Since then, I have participated in 11 triathlons including the Olympic, (swim 1.5k, bike 40k and run 10k) and half Ironman relay where I did did the swim (1.9k). I have won several gold, silver and bronze medals in my age group, 65-69 and 70-74. There are not too many people over 70 who can do all 3 disciplines. If you out live the competition you can do really well in triathlons.
Last year I did the Sprint at the Esprit Triathlon in Montreal in the Old Port. Several months later I received an email from Team Canada inviting me to be a member of the Canadian National Triathlon Team, Sprint, Age Group 70-74. I accepted of course, not really realizing that it was self financing, (Canada really does not support its budding athletes) . So I am on my way to Hamburg to do the World Triathlon Championship, Sprint, Age Related. We will be 150 persons on the Canadian Team and probably 4000 athletes in all categories. I have a t-shirt that says Canada, a team jacket, shorts, a hat and a tight, tight tight bathing suit that shows a little too much.
I have been training like crazy for the last 3 months. 1 play 2 games of hockey a week or 1 game and do a sail boat race. On the days that I don’t play I do a sprint triathlon, split up during the day. For example, I would run in the morning for 40 min (5k) swim 20 laps in the afternoon (750m) and bike of 50 min in the evening (20). I lost 13 lbs. I cut back my wine drinking to 2 glasses a day without getting the DTs and cut out my Friday night scotch entirely.
2 days ago I did the Gatineau Triathlon. I came 185th out of 201 participants, finished the race in 1:57 and won a silver medal in my age group. I finished in the 4th quarter and the fellow that beat me in my age group did it in 1:20 and finished in the 1st quarter. My finishing should probably be good enough to be invited to the Worlds in Malaga, Spain, next year.
Love, Brian
gobriantravel 