IMLP Race Report (Official)

The following is an executive summary of this blog and my race report. 
If you've been reading my blog throughout the year, thanks for the support. 
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
I don’t quite remember how or when the IRONMAN seed was planted in my head but last year I found myself at IRONMAN Lake Placid as a spectator. After spending the day watching roughly 2400 athletes swim, bike and run for the majority of a sweltering, hot day, I was infected by their passion, determination and perseverance and decided to sign up for IMLP 2013 the next day. 

It sounds so easy,: “just sign up”. But it was probably one of the hardest parts of my IM journey. Signing up meant standing in line for 2-3 hours. And standing in line for 2-3 hours meant listening to others around me talk about their various tri experiences to-date. And listening to other people’s tri experiences made me think of my lack of tri experience (read: an expired NLS certification from 1998, one RLCT completed two years ago, and a couple of half marathons). And thinking of my lack of tri experience made me want to walk out of that line. And I almost did – about five times. But I didn’t. I stayed in the line. And I signed up. 

The month of August was spent coming to terms with the enormity of the task in front of me. In September I started to train. It went something like this:

Train, train, train. Feelin’ good. Train, train, train. Feelin’ bleh. Train, train, train. “I’m going to rock this thang!"  Train, train, train.  “Holy crap, I’m going to get rocked!”  Train, train, train.

And all of a sudden it was July 28, 2013. 
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RACE REPORT:

THE SWIM
I woke up at 4:30 am having gotten a decent night’s rest. The weather was overcast but the thundershowers they had been predicting all week were holding out. I had breakfast (2 hard boiled eggs, 2 pieces of toast with PB). Put on my swimsuit, my timing chip and my sweats. Grabbed my morning bag - currently with wetsuit, goggles and swim cap (this would be swapped out with my sweats when I got to the beach). Double checked I had all my nutrition, and my special needs bags, then headed to town. 

Bodymarked and getting
ready to warm up.

Got to transition, checked my gear bags and added my nutrition. Left transition, got body marked, then headed to drop off my special needs bags. Special needs bags are available to athletes at the half way mark of the bike and the run. You can put anything in them. Spare tubes, food, clothes. In my bike special needs I had some extra energy bars, shammy cream, extra tyre tubes and C02 canisters. That's about it. In my run special needs I had some candy, a bag of chips, a long sleeve shirt, an extra pair of socks, and another gel belt full of gels. At about 6:15 I slipped on the wet suit, took a gel, and got in the water for a quick warm up swim. I was back on the beach and packed in with the masses by 6:30 when the shot went off for the PROs to start. I then proceeded to wait. 

IMLP swim start.
That's me. Near the back. In the pink swim cap.

With IMLP being one of the races trying out the new SWIMSMART initiative this year, once the PROs started, instead of all the age group swimmers entering the water at the same time, we entered the water in a rolling fashion based on expected swim time. I was expecting to finish somewhere around 1h50 so I was near the back of the pack. I entered the water around 6:50. 

Given the new swim start and the fact that I was closer to the back of the pack, I thought I’d have a pretty uneventful swim but not so. In the first loop, there was a lot of contact with other swimmers and I felt really swum over. I'm guessing this was because we entered the water just before that first swimmers started their second loop. But I won’t complain too much because during the second loop, it cleared up quite a bit. I was able to swim the cable, never had to sight and came out of the water at around 1h30 – a whole 20 minutes faster than my average beach-to-beach time. Bam! Added bonus: Mike Reilly called my name as I came out of the water. Double fist pump! Got peeled (it took two people to get my suit off it was so tight) and headed for transition.

TI:
15 minute transition time. Boo :( 
I did a full change so I was expecting something high, but not that high. I had hoped to at least improve on my 70.3 transition time but instead I up'd it by 5 min. I blame it on getting stuck in my sports bra (not an easy thing to put on while wet) and having to take a 5 min. pee before getting on my bike. Definite room for improvement.

THE BIKE
Key thoughts heading into the bike: 
(1) Stay ahead of my nutrition: Check. 
(2) Negative split: Not so much.

Having bonked on a training ride a week prior, nutrition was top of mind for me, more so than ever before. I had a gel in transition and then ate half a LARABAR about 15 min. into the course and then another half bar every half hour. I took a piece of banana at every aid station and went through three bottles of PERFORM, each with a NUUN tablet. 

I am so thankful for my earlier trips to LP and familiarizing myself with the course. I split it into five parts in my head (climb out of town & descent; Jay & Upper Jay; Ausable Forks; Wilmington; Bears & Cherries) and just started checking them off. First loop was done before I knew it. Took a peak at my watch and freaked myself out a bit when I saw my time (15 min. faster than any of my training rides … with others pulling me.) Thought I may have over done it and would surely blow up on the second loop or the run so toned it down a bit on the second loop. Five parts: check, check, check – potty break (I tried SO HARD to pee on the bike but it just wouldn’t happen) – check, check. 

One of several signs my support crew had set up along
the bike course.  Seeing and reading all the different signs
is such a great distraction at one of the toughest parts of the course.

T2
7 minutes. Meh. Not much to say. More room for improvement.
Seems like a long time just to change my shirt, shoes, put on a gel belt and a hat.  Mind you I had to take another epic pee. Otherwise, the volunteers are amazing. I had just dumped my bag when a volunteer asked if I needed help and not really thinking I just said “no thanks, I’m good”. But bless her heart she ignored me and just started taking things and handing them to me or putting them on me.

Part of my loyal support crew. Passed out.
Being a spectator is tiring. Seriously!

THE RUN
Grr … this is the part that bugs me the most looking back on it now. I ran about the first 6-7 km and then started a cycle of run/walk. I can't help but think it was only mental fatigue vs. true physical fatigue because it was never a struggle to start running again and I still managed to run the hills each time so I obviously had it in the tank. 

Getting some words of encouragement from my hubby
as I head into my second loop of the run course.

Regardless, I was pretty happy during the whole run. My nutrition was still on track and no stomach problems (a gel every half hour, a cup of water and a cup of Gatorade at each aid station and some chicken broth on the second loop) and it looked like I was actually going to finish around 14 hrs when at the beginning of the day, I was questioning whether 15 hrs was possible. If I ever had a down moment, it was at the start of the second loop. I could taste the finish but still had about 2.5 hrs to go. That seemed like a really long time, despite already having completed about 12hrs. But I started talking to a fellow athlete and quickly forgot about it. 

IRONMAN: Complete!
Official chip time: 14:08

The final turnaround on Mirror Lake was a beautiful sight. I conjured all the energy I had left and decided I’m running the rest of the way – no if/buts about it. Not too difficult given all the cheering fans. They're energy literally carries you to the finish. 

Running into the stadium was CRAZAY! Music is blarring, everyone - and I mean everyone - is screaming your name as you pass by. I remember coming around the final corner looking towards the arch, and a kid literally slides horizontally out of the crowd like on some kind of conveyor belt. (It was a family friend sticking out one of their kids. My support crew didn’t want me to miss that they were there.) I gave Erica (friend’s daughter) a high five and then ran through the arches. Funny, now that I think about it, I remember Mike Reilly saying my name but I don’t remember the ‘YOU. ARE. AN. IRONMAN!’ part. Doesn’t matter I suppose. I've got the medal to prove it :)