Swim (36:34) PR
The swim start got delayed by about 30 minutes due to a car accident out on the bike course. Luckily the water was listed at 75 degrees, so spending the extra time waiting was not too bad. The swim here always makes me a bit nervous b/c lake winnipesaukee can be a sheet of glass or it can be quite rough. This makes 3 straight years that I have had great conditions, lets keep our fingers crossed that next year will make 4 straight years. Overall the swim went well. I set a PR by about 3 1/2 minutes over last years swim. The only disappointing aspect was that it took me a solid 1/3 of a mile or so, just before the first turn buoy, before I was able to settle into my rhythm. Not quite sure why, coming off such a great swim at lake placid, but I guess that is just the way it goes. The conditions were fine, it felt a little wavy on the stretch that runs parallel with the beach, but nothing too bad. Coming back to shore I took a gulp or two of lake winnipesaukee, but a little e.coli never hurt anyone! (there was a posting a few days before the race about a high count of e.coli). But when I came out of the water and saw 36:30 on my watch I knew I had a 1.2 mile swim PR and was looking forward to getting on the bike!
T1 (2:54)
T1 one went pretty smooth, the wetsuit strippers had a little issue getting my wetsuit around my ankles, but nothing to worry about. I got my socks on pretty quickly, that is something that tends to give me trouble at times, I think the baby powder definately helps.
Bike (3:05:20) (18.1 MPH)
So the bike, the last two years I averaged 19.1 and 19 MPH on this course. Coming off lake placid just 4 weeks ago, I was going into in with a goal of 18 or so MPH. The bike was going great, the first 12 miles out to 106 were rolling by, I felt really strong going up the marsh hill monster. Going out 106 is usually very fun b/c you usually get to see the pro's coming flying by in the other direction. I hit the turn around at 106 and I was still having a great ride, songs were coming in and out of my head and the miles were just flying by. I hit the 40 mile mark in just under 2 hours, I was averaging 20.2 MPH and was thinking I might be setting a bike PR here as well.
Around mile 43 that all changed as the rear of my bike felt a bit bouncy. I thought can it be, a flat for the first time in my 4 years of racing? At the leavitt turn off at mile 44, before hit the final 12 miles of climbs and descents back to ellacoya, I thought I would dismount and check. Low and behold my tire was running flat. So, I begin to empty my spare, CO2 etc... and get to work. I ride tubies which means they are glued on. The volunteers radioed in that I needed bike support and they told me they were just around the corner and would be here in a second. That made me feel good, but I figured I should get started anyway, why waste any time. Maybe 6-7 minutes later I finally get the flat tire ripped off my wheel (yes no support yet) then maybe another 6-7 minutes later I finally get my spare on and partially inflated (yes no support yet) I also managed to rip of a hugh piece of skin on my thumb while forcing the tire on, nothing like adding insult to injury and what happened to bike support being here in a second? As I am tightening my rear skewer here comes support, they give it a quick once over, top off my tire pressure, and 17 minutes later I am back riding.
The long and short of it was even with a 17 minute delay, I still beat my expected pace, but after seeing the SRM data that for the actually time I was riding (pre and post flat) I actually ripped of a 2:41:58 bike split at 20MPH, that would have been a nice PR to have :-(
T2 (2:26)
Nothing special to report here accept getting my sneakers on without being able to use my right thumb was not easy!
Run (2:13:31) (10:12 mile)
My run defintatley wasn't great. Maybe I pushed to hard those final 12 miles in trying to make up some of the lost time, maybe it was doing an Ironman 4 weeks prior, I am not sure. I stopped at mile 2 for a pit stop which helped, but by mile 4 I just wasn't feeling it. I actually tried cola for the first time at mile 5 and 6 in hopes of a little pick me up, but I can't say it had a big effect. So I decided to just plug along and deal with the highs and lows of the run. Around mile 10 or 11 I ran into a guy that trains at my gym that I often talk to about triathlon. I believe this was his first half-ironman. I am embarassed to say, but I don't even know his name, but I hope he had a great race. So I had not looked at my running time until about my 12 and by my calculation I decided that I couldn't hit my goal of going sub-6 hour so I decided to stop and walk the last aid station why I get a quick drink. So I am back to running and tried to finish strong, which I think I did, and I crossed the line in 6:00:44 :-( I guess I should have skipped the last aid station.
Afterwards
Overall I am happy, Swim PR, Could have been bike PR minus the flat and only missing my goal by 44 seconds. Soon after I had my normal post half-ironman stomach pains but thanks to my wife, I think we might have found the remedy ICE CREAM. I had a small cup of coffee flavored soft serve ice cream and felt so much better. As always I have to say thank you to my wife Laura, she gets up a 4:00am and comes out and supports me throughout the whole day. She finds me at all of the different legs of the race and takes pictures and cheers, she is just the best! She also managed to get a post race pic of Chrissie Wellington and I, which was cool since I met Chrissie last year at a deli/pizza shop here in Gilford and was able to talk with her for a few minutes. I will hopefully post it soon to my website at http://www.kenclebak.com/.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
IMLP 2009 Race Report
Ironman Lake Placid – WOW where to start.
Special Thanks
I think that its only proper that I start this race report with saying thank you to some people, for they are the ones that not only help make things like this possible, but also make it so enjoyable along the way. Obviously the biggest thanks go to my loving wife Laura. Thank you for putting up with all training hours, the countless triathlon talk and of course the amount of $$$ that I put into triathlon; NONE of this would be any fun without getting to share it with you.
Thanks to both my parents and Laura’s parents for making the trip up to Lake Placid to watch the Ironman. Being able to enter/complete my first Ironman with my family looking on and cheering made it that much more special. To my Mom and Dad, thanks for battling the hills, I know it wasn’t easy. To Mr. & Mrs. Frigate, thanks again for the sign, it made spotting you all that much easier and thank you SO much for capturing my finish on video; having that is priceless.
To all the people at my work and to all the members of Facebook that Laura had been in communication with during the race, thank you for your support, best wishes and congratulations. Finally, and not that they will be reading this, but a huge thanks to all the 3000+ volunteers and countless spectators at Ironman Lake Placid, your support, and especially your incredible attitudes truly made this an event to remember.
OK – Now to the Race
Swim (1:19:42)
I never thought that I would say that my best and most comfortable swim would have been had in my very first Ironman, but that was definitely the case. My initial goal was to swim somewhere between 1:30 – 1:45. Based off of some pool swims, I thought that if I had the swim of my life, I might be able to pull off a 1:25, so to go sub 1:20 was just amazing. Before the race started, it began to rain. Never having swam in the rain before, I didn’t know what to expect and needless to say, it added to the nerves a bit. I was ready to go and just wanted to get into the lake to warm up. Once they said we could go in, I think I was the first person into the lake. A minute later I had to exit the lake, as they announced that they only wanted the pro’s in at that time, time to wait a little bit more. Finally they let the age groupers in (around 6:35) and I was able to warm-up and get to my start spot that was way off to the side and back from the starting line. I got a little nervous that I had positioned myself too aggressively when some people around me were talking about swimming a 1:07 split, yikes!
As advertized, the first lap was definitely more congested that then second, but by staying wide it wasn’t too bad. Luckily I settled in almost instantly and felt calm throughout the entire swim. Being able to bilateral breath, thank you Laura for signing us up for those swim lessons, made all the difference in the world. The only real mayhem was going around the turn buoys on the first lap, for the first time I had my goggles partially knocked off, but a quick adjustment and I was back on my way. Coming out of the water after the first lap and seeing the clock at 38:50 got me so excited, too much I think as I went out probably a little too hard to start the 2nd lap. Once around the turn buoys for the second loop, I was starting to get a bit tired, but I knew that I was on my way to a great swim split so I just cruised in!
T1 (12:42)
Well my goal was 10 minutes, but it is quite a run from Mirror Lake to transition, plus with stopping to go to the bathroom, I guess my time wasn’t too bad. Maybe it’s because you get to sit down that you don’t realize that it’s taking you longer then it feels. I have to be honest; I don’t know how people pulled off sub 5 minute T1’s here. There is still definite room for improvement; something to work on next year!
Bike (6:44:40) (16.61 MPH)
The bike went great, I followed my plan which was to take it easy on the first lap, just spin up all the hills and keep my watts around 150. The rain had ended sometime during the swim, but it made for wet roads on the beginning portion of the first loop. That was a concern for me as there are a few miles of steep descents between mile 7 and 14. I decided that staying upright on the bike was the most important thing, so I decided to just stay up on the base bar and ride the brakes a bit and not exceed 30-35MPH. The first lap went by fairly quick and at the end I stopped at special needs to be pleasantly surprised that my frozen bottles were still cold.
By the start of the second loop, all the roads were completely dry, which made for a quicker descent this time around 40+ MPH. I stopped once at mile 60 to hit the bathroom. I thought it was a good sign, my body was taking in fluids and things were functioning properly (I only mention this now because it will become an issue later in the day). The wind was out a bit, especially the last 12 miles or so climbing back into town. All-in-all the bike went well. My final average was 16.61 MPH which was great. My thoughts going in would be to finish somewhere between 16 and 17, so I was psyched. The only negative portion of the bike was around mile 90-95, I could begin to feel some fluids sitting pretty high in my stomach and I was wondering if this was going to become an issue later in the day.
T2 (9:43)
Similar to T1, I really didn’t feel like I was in transition for almost 10 minutes, but that was the case. While there I tried to go to the bathroom, but no luck L I knew at this point things were going to get a bit rough during the marathon.
Run (5:31:08) (12:38 mile)
So it only took about 2 miles of running to know that my body was not absorbing liquids and that it was going to be something I was going to have to deal with for the entire run. Originally my plan was to go out and start running between a 10:00 – 10:30 mile pace. I accomplished that early but by mile 4 I was stopping to try to go to the bathroom and was walking the aid stations. I stopped again another couple of times to try to get the liquids out (in more ways than one :-) but NO luck. I decided to walk the challenging hills and at the halfway point, my half-marathon split had me doing 11:25 mile splits. Considering I stopped 4 times or so, walked the aid stations, and the challenging hills I was completely happy with that.
Luckily for my own mental well being, I knew this pace wasn’t going to last but I was OK with that. The bloating was getting worse and the pain increasing. I saw Laura and her parents at the halfway point, I handed my fuelbelt to Laura as the pressure of it against my stomach was too much. But I knew if anything I would be walking my way to becoming an Ironman and I was completely at ease with that. Finally by mile 17 it hurt too much too run and I was walking. I ended up walking 7 miles from mile 17-24. During this time I got to chat with a few fellow soon-to-be-Ironmen. The one nice thing about Ironman is when and if you are walking late in the race, you are defiantly not alone. This helped because while walking, my legs still felt OK and so did my cardio conditioning, it would have been very easy to really get down on myself by thinking What If??? At the 24 mile marker I looked at my watch, and I estimated that if I could run the final few miles, I might be able to pull off a sub 14-hour Ironman. I compressed my mid-section with my arms to limit movement/sloshing; I put my head down and went for it. After uploading my Garmin data afterwards, I see that I ran a 10:44 split for the last 2 miles to run under the clock reading 13:57:55!!!!
Afterwards
After the race a great volunteer walked around with me a bit as my stomach was killing me causing me to be hunched over. Then it was time to start taking it all in. Overall I am very happy with my results, my C Goal was to finish, my B goal (realistic goal) was to go sub-15 hour and my A goal (dream goal) was to do 13 hours. Looking back, I know that if not for the stomach issues, I would have been damn close, possibly even beating my A goal. In a way I am actually happy about it, b/c I am already looking forward to going back next year and hopefully bettering my time!
Special Thanks
I think that its only proper that I start this race report with saying thank you to some people, for they are the ones that not only help make things like this possible, but also make it so enjoyable along the way. Obviously the biggest thanks go to my loving wife Laura. Thank you for putting up with all training hours, the countless triathlon talk and of course the amount of $$$ that I put into triathlon; NONE of this would be any fun without getting to share it with you.
Thanks to both my parents and Laura’s parents for making the trip up to Lake Placid to watch the Ironman. Being able to enter/complete my first Ironman with my family looking on and cheering made it that much more special. To my Mom and Dad, thanks for battling the hills, I know it wasn’t easy. To Mr. & Mrs. Frigate, thanks again for the sign, it made spotting you all that much easier and thank you SO much for capturing my finish on video; having that is priceless.
To all the people at my work and to all the members of Facebook that Laura had been in communication with during the race, thank you for your support, best wishes and congratulations. Finally, and not that they will be reading this, but a huge thanks to all the 3000+ volunteers and countless spectators at Ironman Lake Placid, your support, and especially your incredible attitudes truly made this an event to remember.
OK – Now to the Race
Swim (1:19:42)
I never thought that I would say that my best and most comfortable swim would have been had in my very first Ironman, but that was definitely the case. My initial goal was to swim somewhere between 1:30 – 1:45. Based off of some pool swims, I thought that if I had the swim of my life, I might be able to pull off a 1:25, so to go sub 1:20 was just amazing. Before the race started, it began to rain. Never having swam in the rain before, I didn’t know what to expect and needless to say, it added to the nerves a bit. I was ready to go and just wanted to get into the lake to warm up. Once they said we could go in, I think I was the first person into the lake. A minute later I had to exit the lake, as they announced that they only wanted the pro’s in at that time, time to wait a little bit more. Finally they let the age groupers in (around 6:35) and I was able to warm-up and get to my start spot that was way off to the side and back from the starting line. I got a little nervous that I had positioned myself too aggressively when some people around me were talking about swimming a 1:07 split, yikes!
As advertized, the first lap was definitely more congested that then second, but by staying wide it wasn’t too bad. Luckily I settled in almost instantly and felt calm throughout the entire swim. Being able to bilateral breath, thank you Laura for signing us up for those swim lessons, made all the difference in the world. The only real mayhem was going around the turn buoys on the first lap, for the first time I had my goggles partially knocked off, but a quick adjustment and I was back on my way. Coming out of the water after the first lap and seeing the clock at 38:50 got me so excited, too much I think as I went out probably a little too hard to start the 2nd lap. Once around the turn buoys for the second loop, I was starting to get a bit tired, but I knew that I was on my way to a great swim split so I just cruised in!
T1 (12:42)
Well my goal was 10 minutes, but it is quite a run from Mirror Lake to transition, plus with stopping to go to the bathroom, I guess my time wasn’t too bad. Maybe it’s because you get to sit down that you don’t realize that it’s taking you longer then it feels. I have to be honest; I don’t know how people pulled off sub 5 minute T1’s here. There is still definite room for improvement; something to work on next year!
Bike (6:44:40) (16.61 MPH)
The bike went great, I followed my plan which was to take it easy on the first lap, just spin up all the hills and keep my watts around 150. The rain had ended sometime during the swim, but it made for wet roads on the beginning portion of the first loop. That was a concern for me as there are a few miles of steep descents between mile 7 and 14. I decided that staying upright on the bike was the most important thing, so I decided to just stay up on the base bar and ride the brakes a bit and not exceed 30-35MPH. The first lap went by fairly quick and at the end I stopped at special needs to be pleasantly surprised that my frozen bottles were still cold.
By the start of the second loop, all the roads were completely dry, which made for a quicker descent this time around 40+ MPH. I stopped once at mile 60 to hit the bathroom. I thought it was a good sign, my body was taking in fluids and things were functioning properly (I only mention this now because it will become an issue later in the day). The wind was out a bit, especially the last 12 miles or so climbing back into town. All-in-all the bike went well. My final average was 16.61 MPH which was great. My thoughts going in would be to finish somewhere between 16 and 17, so I was psyched. The only negative portion of the bike was around mile 90-95, I could begin to feel some fluids sitting pretty high in my stomach and I was wondering if this was going to become an issue later in the day.
T2 (9:43)
Similar to T1, I really didn’t feel like I was in transition for almost 10 minutes, but that was the case. While there I tried to go to the bathroom, but no luck L I knew at this point things were going to get a bit rough during the marathon.
Run (5:31:08) (12:38 mile)
So it only took about 2 miles of running to know that my body was not absorbing liquids and that it was going to be something I was going to have to deal with for the entire run. Originally my plan was to go out and start running between a 10:00 – 10:30 mile pace. I accomplished that early but by mile 4 I was stopping to try to go to the bathroom and was walking the aid stations. I stopped again another couple of times to try to get the liquids out (in more ways than one :-) but NO luck. I decided to walk the challenging hills and at the halfway point, my half-marathon split had me doing 11:25 mile splits. Considering I stopped 4 times or so, walked the aid stations, and the challenging hills I was completely happy with that.
Luckily for my own mental well being, I knew this pace wasn’t going to last but I was OK with that. The bloating was getting worse and the pain increasing. I saw Laura and her parents at the halfway point, I handed my fuelbelt to Laura as the pressure of it against my stomach was too much. But I knew if anything I would be walking my way to becoming an Ironman and I was completely at ease with that. Finally by mile 17 it hurt too much too run and I was walking. I ended up walking 7 miles from mile 17-24. During this time I got to chat with a few fellow soon-to-be-Ironmen. The one nice thing about Ironman is when and if you are walking late in the race, you are defiantly not alone. This helped because while walking, my legs still felt OK and so did my cardio conditioning, it would have been very easy to really get down on myself by thinking What If??? At the 24 mile marker I looked at my watch, and I estimated that if I could run the final few miles, I might be able to pull off a sub 14-hour Ironman. I compressed my mid-section with my arms to limit movement/sloshing; I put my head down and went for it. After uploading my Garmin data afterwards, I see that I ran a 10:44 split for the last 2 miles to run under the clock reading 13:57:55!!!!
Afterwards
After the race a great volunteer walked around with me a bit as my stomach was killing me causing me to be hunched over. Then it was time to start taking it all in. Overall I am very happy with my results, my C Goal was to finish, my B goal (realistic goal) was to go sub-15 hour and my A goal (dream goal) was to do 13 hours. Looking back, I know that if not for the stomach issues, I would have been damn close, possibly even beating my A goal. In a way I am actually happy about it, b/c I am already looking forward to going back next year and hopefully bettering my time!
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