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!