Sometimes when I sit to write my blog, I don’t even know
where to start. I guess I’m still getting over the electric energy from Lake
Placid. Actually, I first want to start off by giving a huge shout out to Ben
Rausa. He’s the race director for IM Florida and IM 70.3 Gulf Coast. He’s a
retired aircraft technician from the USAF. I met Ben on Friday afternoon during
the kids dip n dash and running race. He and is wife were out volunteering. And
then throughout the course of the weekend, I kept running into him: prior to
the swim start he was on the beach helping, at the turn off on the run onto
river road Ben was there, and Monday morning Ben was outside the Convention
Center packing up some signs. I guess it’s a great reminder that people go above
and beyond to put on first class races for the athletes. (Besides directing IM
Florida he helps out at Placid as well as well as Mont Tremblant and who knows
wherever else). I think this is why I love the sport so much. You always meet
new and unique people.
Short Synopsis.
Awesome week with Dad, Mom, Claudia and the kids in Lake
Placid. A first class race with a rich history in the sport. I had a better
than anticipated swim (1:06), solid bike (4:57), and wicked run (3:01). 1st
in the Male 35-39 Age Group, 2nd Amateur/Age Grouper, and 11th
Overall (including the Pros)*. And really the icing on the cake was posting the
fastest amateur bike split and the fastest amateur run split.
*You can’t really compare the age group race to the pros. It’s
completely different…pretty much two separate races on the same course. They
had a non-wetsuit swim, we had a wetsuit swim. They race with the group
dynamics while we have the benefit of slingshoting (especially if you’re not a
greater swimmer like me!)
Long Version…!
Monday we made the relatively short ~3hr drive from Ottawa
to Lake Placid with a quick stop in Potsdam for lunch at the Village Inn Diner.
A hole in the wall place that you wouldn’t see unless you were looking for it.
It’s a great spot with great food and excellent service. In Lake Placid, Claudia
had managed to rent a house about a five minute walk from transition (sweet!).
I don’t think we’ve ever stayed that close to the action. This would make life
significantly easier for the family on race day!
Tuesday I did a loop of the bike course. I had heard it was
a hard bike course, harder than Tremblant. I was pleasantly surprised when I
was able to ride the whole course in my Big Chainring. It definitely has longer
climbs than Tremblant and a little more elevation gain, but the actual
difficulty of the climbs I think is substantially less than Tremblant (I can’t
ride Tremblant in my Big Chainring). I think the fact that I had ridden the
course prior to the race proved to be a big advantage. I was comfortable riding
the course and I had at least ridden the descent into Keene.
Wednesday and Thursday were some activation workouts and
Friday was a day off with spectating the kids’ Ironkids races on Friday
afternoon.
Saturday I did my final activation workouts and then dropped
off my bike at transition. I tried to stay off my feet as much as possible,
spent some additional time in my Rapid Reboot, and then in the afternoon I met
up with Mikael Lemaire and Marco Cote (both fellow Cdn Armed Forces athletes)
to get a picture together. I enjoyed my favourite prerace meal of chicken
stirfry and rice for dinner.
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| Marco, me, and Mikael! (Well done boys!) |
Sunday morning I had set my alarm for 0345, but I woke up
shortly before 0340 hrs. I got up, made my usual prerace breakfast of a bagel
with jam, a couple eggs, a glass of orange juice, a banana, and of course a cup
of coffee with a little cream. At about 0420 I headed up to the speed skating
oval (ie. transition). There was no line up for body marking so I quickly did
that then dropped off my bike special needs bag (one aero bottle with ~500mL of
Red Bull + one F2C bottle of ~800 Calories of Glyco-Durance with some additional
Electro-Durance added in) on Cummings Street. Transition opened about a minute
later. There was only a small group of people at transition at this point so it
was pretty quick pumping my tires, placing my nutrition (1 x 400 Calorie Bottle
of Glyco-Durance in my front hydration bottle + 1 x 800 Calorie bottle of
Glyco-Durance behind my seat) on the bike and powering up my Garmin Edge 820. By
about 0445 I was done in transition and headed back down the hill to our house.
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| Abby, me, and Ruth! |
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| All set for the start! |
At 0600hrs Claudia, Ruth, Abigail, and myself headed up to
Mirror Lake for the swim start. Dad, Mom, James, and Klara had decided they
would wait to see me on the bike. I kissed Claudia and the girls and then went
out for a quick warm-up swim and then lined up. I figured conservatively that I’d
swim about a 1:10 and maybe a little faster if I had a really good swim. So I
lined up in the 1:00-1:10 swim coral. I put myself about a quarter of the way
back figuring I’d probably be able to find a set of feet to swim off. At
shortly after 0640hrs I was off. I decided I would swim a little to the left to
try and avoid any of the chaos. Surprisingly the first loop of the swim was
relatively uneventful. There was of course a little contact around the two turn
buoys, but other than that it was really tame, thankfully. I was able to find a
good set of feet for most of the return trip. I felt very comfortable in the
water and having to run out and back into the water for the second loop kinda
messed up my rythm. I didn’t get much of a draft around the second loop, but I
just tried to focus on relaxing and swimming steady. I was surprised to see
Mikael as I exited the water and realized that I must have had a decent swim.
Though at the time I had no idea and really wasn’t too concerned. Swim 1:06:50.
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| Heading out! |
I went through transition efficiently, but made sure to take
the time to slip into a pair of socks and apply some additional sunscreen. Then
it was off to start the bike. I had one goal and that was to go sub 5hr on the
bike. So I really focused on pushing a solid effort, but not going too crazy. I
was passing quite a few people and was a little surprised how relatively easy
it was to ride my way up to near the front. I went through the first loop in
about 2:26 and my power numbers were probably a bit higher than I wanted. I believe
I was sitting at about 208W Avg and 220 NP. So I told myself to back off the
effort a little on the second loop, but not so much as to not break 5hrs. I
didn’t struggle on the second loop, but I certainly didn’t feel as strong. I
had some minor cramping, or more like I felt the muscles starting to cramp in
my left and then right quad then right hip so I simply started to increase my
intake of F2C Electro-Durance around the 3.5-4 hr mark. I had done a good job
of consuming all my Glyco-Durance so by the end of the fourth hour I was out of
Glyco-Durance. I knew I had the Calories in me or at least they were being absorbed
in the stomach so I switched to water and Electro-Durance from my bento box for
the duration. (Note: For contingency I put 2 x Rekarb Gels, 1 x HOT SHOT, and 1
x tube of Electro-Durance in my Bento Box). I was happy to be off the bike knowing
that I had achieved my goal of biking sub 5hrs and now it was a question of how
well I could run. Bike 4:57:49, Power 199W Avg, 216W NP. Oh yeah, and top speed of 89.9km/hr on the descent into Keene!
Note: I made the mistake of leaving the normal F2C Water
bottle lids on my bottles instead of replacing them with the high flow lids. As
a result the Glyco-Durance was coming out too slowly so I put the concentrated
mixture in my front aero bottle by removing the lids. For next time, I either
need to completely fill up the bottles by adding additional water and/or by
using the high flow lids.
I was happy to see my personal cheering squad at the bottom
of the first hill. I was feeling very strong. Perhaps not as strong as I felt
at Ironman Arizona in 2016, but I was feeling quite good. I figured I’d go by
feel as that has generally worked well. I was slowly realing in a couple of the
other age groupers in front of me and running through a few of the pro men who
had clearly hit their limit, but were prepared to just finish. It was great to
see Brad Williams and Colin Laughery
(both racing in the pro field) out on the course. I had raced against both previously
in the age group ranks and had watched them make the switch to the professional
field. I have so much respect for these guys. The run was really solid, but it
was quite humid on River Road. With about 16km to go I could start feeling both
my quads starting to tighten up though I think it was more fatigue than actual
cramping. To ensure I didn’t cramp, I pulled out my second F2C Electro-Durance
tube from my race belt and started taking a little every couple kms. Each
kilometer my quads got progressively worse, but I focused on just continuing to
run just reminding myself to continue placing one foot in front of the other. The
last 10km were very tough, but knowing I didn’t want to get passed was enough
to keep me going. Run 3:01:17.
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| Heading onto the red carpet and the finish! |
Final Time 9:12:36. 1st M35-39, 2nd
Amateur or Age Grouper, and 11th Overall. Perhaps more importantly I
had achieved my goal of biking sub 5hrs on the course while still executing a very
good run (though it would be nice to have achieved a more even split).
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| F35-39 and M35-39 Podium |
A big congrats to Matt Malone on being the first overall
amateur and to Brad Williams for finishing 10th in the Professional
Field.
