2009 Lake Placid Race Report

For the third time, with the support and encouragement of my wonderful family, friends and colleagues, I have been fortunate to arrive at the starting line of an Ironman triathlon, Ironman USA, in Lake Placid on July 26th, 2009. My training consisted of a total of 386 hours over 43 weeks of swimming, biking, running and weight training. I swam 181,700 meters, biked 4,490 kilometers and ran 771 kilometers.



Pre Race

• Up at 4am for breakfast. Our motel was open for breakfast for us at 4am. They provided an excellent spread, lots of cereal, bagels, breads and fresh fruit, everything you could ask for.
• I had a bagel, bowl of cereal and Gatorade and took 2 8 hour Tylenols.
• Left the motel at about 4:45 for Lake Placid. We were lucky and got a parking spot on the hill just in front of the Crowne Plaza hotel. Unloaded the bike and walked down to the street in front of the transition area. Once on the street we joined in with a long line of people making their way, very quietly, down the still very dark street.
• I scoped out the body markers, I always like to make sure I get a good one! Paul from Ottawa did the honours, he had done the race in ’07 and was just there to volunteer. I asked him if he had any last minute tips, he told me to hold back on the swim a minute or so and let the pack get away first before joining in and to take it easy on the first loop of the bike because the second loop will really get you.
• After body marking, I went to the bike to check my tires and make sure it was in the right gear, etc. I never pump up my tires on race morning because I think it just opens up an avenue for something to go wrong and I think the minimal pressure lost over night is negligible. This time I decide to do it on race morning. I topped off the front tire, no problem, went to the rear and I couldn’t get the pump head to engage on the valve properly. The pin that holds the lever on the pump head had come out on one side, I pushed it back in and tired again, no luck. Great, now I had broken the valve screw down off the end of the valve. I cursed to myself for deciding to pump up in race morning. OK, there’s still time to fix it. I grabbed it off the bike rack and was off to the bike technicians at the end of the transition area, of course it was at the far end of the oval. I joined a line with a few others in the same predicament. While we were waiting we heard the tell tale bursts of a couple of other people that had just over filled their tires and blew a tube. With the tire fixed, I headed back to get it back on the rack and get out of there. The transition area was packed, people everywhere all going in different directions. I went to the rack to T1 and T2 bags and put my Forerunner in my run bag. Finally got out of there and met back up with the Family at the entrance.

Swim Distance 3.8 kilometers, Time 1:14:59, Place 67/181 in age group

• The swim takes place in the beautiful Mirror Lake, named for it’s perfectly calm surface. It is a great swim venue and the swim course is marked by an underwater cable that runs from one end of the lake to the other in a 2 kilometer rectangle which we swim twice. The marker buoys are anchored to this cable just about everyone wants to swim right along the cable to avoid going off course and swimming any extra distance. The water is usually cool to cold so wetsuits are a must.
• We headed up the road to the swim area and dropped off the bike and run halfway bags off which was just up Mirror Lake Drive a bit.
• We found a place for everyone to settle in on a hill just overlooking the swim start, it was about 6:30am. There were a few thousand people there, and I didn’t think we’d be able to find Tim and Alex before the start, but all of a sudden we spotted each other and I brought them over to where the Girls were sitting. I changed into my wetsuit, made sure I had my cap and goggles said my goodbyes and headed off to the water.
• I joined a long line of people making their way into the water, everyone has to pass over a timing mat to officially check in, and that way they can make sure everyone is accounted for at the end of the swim. The skies opened up and we had a good rain which lasted for a few minutes before subsiding. I wondered if it was a prelude to a very wet day!
• 6:55am I was in the water and waiting for the start. It was still overcast and looked like it could start pouring again any minute. It looked like a lot of people decide to hang back and avoid the scrum of the mass start and were waiting at the back of the beach area. At 6:59 I started swimming toward the line of start flags and got there just as the cannon went off.
• This was my first time in a mass start. It was everything that I had ever read or heard about it. It’s impossible to take that many people that are vertical in the water, maybe a foot away from each other and have them all go horizontal and start swimming at the same time. Every arm stroke I took landed my hand on someone’s leg or back, people were grabbing my feet and legs and when I could turn to breath, someone was less than a foot away on either side. It was impossible to swim. I took an elbow in the temple from a woman that filled my goggles with water, she actually stopped and apologized as I was readjusting them. A bit later I took a kick on the lower back from someone as I was swimming alongside them and I guess a bit under them.
• As I approached the end of the first loop of the swim, I looked up at the clock and thought I read 45 minutes, oh no! That’s way too slow for me, as I swam closer I saw it wasn’t in the 40’s but in the 30’s! I went through and over the mat in 36:54, amazing for me. We ran across the beach and drove back into the water to do it again. For the second loop people had strung out a lot more and I could actually start doing something that resembled swimming! I think I got off course a couple of times on the second loop, I didn’t have the mass of bodies all headed in the same direction to keep me going straight and it cost me a minute or so. At the end of the swim, as we getting closer to the clock, I saw that I could beat 1:15 if I really moved it! I ran through the water as soon as it was knee deep and ran up to hit the timing mat for a 1:14:59 swim split.
• They have wetsuit peelers at Lake Placid to help you get out of your wetsuit. As soon as I was out of the water and across the mat, a fellow unzipped me while another one stripped the wetsuit off my arms and down to my waist. Lay down he yelled over the noise of the huge crowd, I laid down on the ground and he yanked the wetsuit off like a giant rubber band snapping, I jumped up and he tossed it to me and I headed up the to the transition area.
T1 Time 7:26
• It’s a long way up to the speed skating oval where the tents are set up for changing so I just took it easy on the way and let my heart rate settle down. The crowd support is great in Lake Placid, the entire route was lined with people on both sides cheering and ringing cow bells like crazy.
• I grabbed my T1 bag off the rack and headed toward the tent. The tent was packed so I stopped just outside the tent and quickly pulled on my shoes, helmet and tri top and stuffed my jersey pockets with a power bar and electrolytes. I had arm warmers and gloves, but didn’t take them.
• A volunteer told me to just drop everything and they would make sure it all got back into the bag. I ran around the end of the tent and into the bike rack area, I heard my number being called ahead and someone was already at my bike, getting it off the rack. They wished me luck as they handed it over and I thanked them, checked that my tires were still inflated and I was off.

Bike Distance 180 kilometers, Time 7:03:17, Place 109/181 in age group

• The bike is a two loop course, so the conventional wisdom is to take it real easy on the first loop and save your legs for the much tougher second loop and the marathon.
• The bike route starts on 73 innocently enough with a couple of mild climbs and a nice quick downhill. Just after the first bridge is where the real fun begins! For about 7 miles there is a slow steady climb out of Lake Placid. As usual everyone was very quiet climbing this hill. The only sounds are people breathing, the occasional gear shift and the crickets chirping on the side of the road.
• Once we reached the top of this climb we started the "long descent to Keene". This a long downhill that seems to go on, and on, and on...during this 5-6 mile decent there are 4 or five yellow diamond signs picturing a truck on a downhill grade cautioning to "use low gear". The first time down the road was still wet from the morning’s rain and it was tense. We were all still grouped closely together and I admit I was on the brakes most of the way down, just trying to stay in the 50kph’s. The last thing I’d ever want to do is take someone else out of the race. I followed Coach Rick’s advice and kept my head up and my eyes open. I was passed by some people like I was standing still, usually preceded by them yelling ‘on your left’ at the top of their lungs as they flew by. At the base of the descent there were 6 ambulances, lined up in a row and a fire truck, just waiting to be call up the descent to help someone that had crashed. I only saw one rider being tended to, about halfway down, on the opposite side of the road.
• At the base of your final decent, you turn left and head to Keene, and continue north onto Upper Jay, and then on through to Jay. This stretch is relatively flat and we seemed to have the wind at our backs, it was a nice break from the constant up hills.
• Once in Jay we turned to head towards Wilmington. This 3 mile stretch is mostly uphill. I got up out of the saddle a few times to recruit some different muscles and get a bit of a stretch. This part of the course was littered with gloves and arm warmers as now the temperature had risen and it was hot and humid, much more than anyone expected it to be.
• This short stretch ends when we turn right on the Haselton Road out and back. This is a stretch of 7 miles out, 7 miles back and includes 2 good sized hills. It was nicely shaded and the prevailing grade is downhill on the way out and slightly uphill on the way back. Believe me, this was much more noticeable during the second loop (from approximately mile 85-100) than the first time around (when you're doing it from approximately mile 30-45).
• Towards the end of the out and back, the road didn’t feel quite right, it was fresh pavement and very smooth. I looked down at my front wheel and saw it was losing air. NO! I rode over the white line along the right side of the road so I could better see the width of the tire and sure enough it was going flat. Maybe it’s just losing air and I can top it up I thought to myself. Ya, right. I came up on an intersection where a volunteer was stationed and pulled in for a pit stop. As I was slowing down, my flat front tire bit into the soft shoulder and over I went. I hit the ground as the volunteer was running over to me, are you ok he asked? I brushed the sand off myself and got the wheel off the bike. What should have been a 3 minute exercise turned into a 12 – 15 minute ordeal. First I was using Park tire levers and just couldn’t pop the tire off the rim, finally using 2 of my levers and one of the volunteer’s we got it off. New tube in, check to make sure the tube isn’t pinched under the bead and fill it. Guess what, my CO2 inflator won’t fit on the HED wheel! What next! Luckily Dave the volunteer had a pump with him and we got it filled. I’ll be fixing that before Louisville!
• Once off the out and back we continue on to Wilmington to make the turn back to Lake Placid. I saw our motel owner and daughter sitting out in front of the motel cheering everyone on as they passed right by the motel. I yelled out to them and they saw me and wished me good luck.
• Hello last 11 miles! This stretch of the course contains the famous 3 bears and 2 cherry hills and in my opinion is the toughest part of the bike course. On the first loop everything went well but on the second loop we rode into a headwind that was unbelievable. Whiteface Mountain is known as "Iceface" during the winter months, the winds on the mountain blow away the loose snow exposing the ice underneath. It felt like a hurricane force wind as we struggled up this section. I looked down at my computer and would be lucky to be managing 5 mph! and my average speed was dropping like a clock rolling backwards. It seemed like forever, but we finally reached the last stretch of hills on 86, Little Cherry, Big Cherry, Mama Bear, Baby Bear and Papa Bear. This is a succession of hills that is draining, steep and hard. There were lot’s of spectators along the last couple of hills because of their close proximity to Lake Placid.
• After the final climb on 86, we turned on to Northwoods Drive and made our way back to the transition area.



T2 Time 5:37

• I was glad to get off the bike, my neck and butt were sore and my shoulder hurt from the fall. I handed my bike off to a volunteer and ran in for my T2 bag. I sat down in an open chair in the tent and a volunteer opened my bag for me and started taking everything out. I handed him my cell phone and asked him to call Mom’s number, we tried twice to call Mom to wish her a happy birthday, but the call wouldn’t go through. Again, the amazing volunteer offered to pack everything up for me and told me to just go, he pointed in the direction of the exit and told me that Gatorade was available just at the end of the tent.
• I felt reasonably well at this point, but knowing that I hadn’t done a long run, over 10 miles in over 3 months was going to come back and bite me at some point. I took 2 more Tylenols and made sure I had the Tums.

Run Distance 42.1 kilometers, Time 5:16:22, Place 90/181 in age group

• I was able to keep the first 10 miles at a reasonable pace, but it was becoming a real struggle to keep running. No coincidence that my longest run in the last couple of months was 10 miles. I started doing the run/walk thing and managed as best I could. The aid stations were well stocked with everything you could need, but I felt like I had a brick in my stomach. I was sucking on some Tums and that seemed to help a bit. I was sticking to water and Gatorade and a few pretzels each time. I need to keep better track of what I’m eating and drinking on the run.
• Again in this Ironman I was amazed at the number of people walking. I hooked up with some people and we would alternate walking and running between each telephone pole. Finally the first loop was done and at least I could say that I was on the home stretch. For the second loop I started taking in some coke and chicken broth to see if that would get something going, unfortunately not. I teamed with Edgar and we did the math together to make sure we could get in less than 14 hours, we ran/walked together until we split up when I wanted to run the last mile.
• Finally I was on the last mile, headed down Mirror Lake Dr, the crowd support was phenomenal, both sides of the street were lined with people cheering and going crazy for every runner that passed them. Finally I reached the transition area and made the turn onto the last 200meters on the speed skating oval. It was amazing to see Lizzie, then Katie along the side lines going in and then Tim and Alex close to the finish line. The last 50 meters is the time to finally relax and soak it in. The big lights were on and the music was blasting and Mike Reily was calling out everyone’s name as they pass over the finish line.
• Once over the line a volunteer grabbed me by the arm and made sure I could still stand up! She walked me over to another volunteer who handed me my finishers t-shirt and hat and wrapped me in a space blanket and gave me a bottle of Gatorade. Next we stopped to remove the timing chip and she held my t-shirt and cap while they took my finisher’s photo. I looked around and tried to find the Girls or Tim and Alex, but there were so many people and so loud it was crazy. The volunteer didn’t want to let me go until she was sure I was ok, she pointed out the food and medical tents (both were full) and congratulated me again.

Finish Total Time 13:47:41, Place 90/181 in age group