Race Report - Ironman Lake Placid 2009

That was one hell of a race! I drove up after work on Wed and arrived around 2:30am. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent just milling around, registering, getting some easy swims in, shopping, short easy jogs, eating, cigar smoking. A real Adirondacks vacation. We had a great rental house in the perfect location 2 miles out of town but ON the run course directly across from the olympic ski jumps.

Pull up a chair for this posting, cuz I'm going to rant and rave for a bit and then get a little granola on you at the end.

Race morning started at 4:50am, I think, with a cup of hot oatmeal and a banana. I tried to throw down a bagel too but I couldn't. Jus' mom, "Mrs. M", gave Liz, Jus, and me a ride to the race start. I checked to make sure my tires still had air in 'em, filled up my aero bottle with water, made fun of all the people who cover their bikes with plastic bags, and then stripped down to my race suit and checked in my dry clothes bag with the clothes I wore to the race. I met up with Phil in the transition zone, he was doing his first ironman but I knew he was very well trained for it. He looked calm but a little anxious so I suggested we head down to the swim start to get away from all the nervous energy. I got body marked on my way down, #637, my new favorite number for the day.

What a world of difference race morning was this year compared to last. I had no time goals that I really cared about and I really only had 2 aspirations for the day....
1) above all I wanted to have a blast this time and really enjoy the day, last year I was too focused on time
2) I wanted to have a good marathon. I had a rough 2nd half on the run last year and I wanted nothing more than to at least enjoy the run and at most maybe nail a 4:30 marathon.

Given my rather underwhelming goal set for the day I was sort of dead inside. I had absolutely no nervousness, no fear, no anxiety, nothing. I admit when I waded out to the starting line a jolt of a adrenaline shot right into my heart, I was pumped and ready to have an awesome race.

Swim time: 1:16:46 [ 1:49 / 100 yards ]
At the start of the swim it was raining like it always does in Lake Placid. God must hate that place b/c he is always trying to drown it. I waded out to about 10 yards off the end of the dock where Mike Reilly, the announcer, was standing and maybe 3 rows back from the start line stretched across the lake 10 feet above the water. It's a deep water start so you have to tread water for 5 minutes or so till 7am when the canon goes off. I put my face underwater and checked out the 2500 pairs of legs kicking and thrashing in the water...it would have been a cool picture. As Mike apparently says every year just minutes before the start is "the one thing you can always control out there is your attitude". When I heard it this year it rung true and I was in the perfect state of mind for this day. Booom!!!! The first 200 yards are slow, hectic, and I don't dare put my face in the water for fear of catching a kick to the nose or teeth. I swim defensively during this time and always have an arm extended in front of me as a shield, not pulling back on my swim stroke until the other arm is already out in front. This lasted for a few minutes and I eventually found a pocket of space meant for me about 5 feet inside the swim line. I had moments here adn there where I was in a good draft but overall I found my position annoyed me. Either someone was trying to steal the feet I was drafing from me and I'd have to put a deliberate elbow into them or I'd be drafting off some swimtard who had an onorthodox side kick or something. Hey man, face down and enjoy the swim...the difference between a great swim and a crap swim is like 5 lousy minutes so who freaking cares. I swam slow it felt like, I could have swum to England at that pace I think. My experience has shown me that I can't go too hard in the swim, I can always recover on the bike if need be...but I was comfortable just hanging in the pack. I expected to be 1:15 and 1:20 in the swim and that's right where I was, only 77 seconds slower than last year! I guess swimming is a little like riding a bike...once you get some level of proficiency at it...it's there for good.

I did a nice, easy jog up to T1 where I got ready for the bike ride. It had stopped raining and the sun was beginning to shine, I'm not sure what this meant...does God take breaks from trying to drown towns? Usually as you're running through the transition zone someone is yelling out your race #'s so by the time you get to your bike rack someone is holding your bike for you ready to go. This year they missed me so I fetched my own damn bike, I don't need your stupid help anyway! : )

Bike time: 6:50:31 [ 16.4 mph ]
OK, so I'm out on the bike and I knew this was where my whole day would be defined. If I couldn't show constraint and hold back on the bike I was going to melt down on the run like last year. I wanted to go 3:30 for each loop for a 7 hour bike total. It didn't quite work out that way. I did start easy, very easy. But here's the problem...generally speaking I don't like people. So my whole race is basically trying to get away from all the other racers so I can enjoy myself all alone on the open road. When I started the long descent into Keane I was absolutely cooking. I know I've said this before in posts but you have to understand, it's freaky how fast I get and I do NOT touch my breaks b/c I get a mad rush of adrenaline from the excessive speed. There were biketards out there in a full tuck passing people going down that hill. They think they're crazy fast so they hang out in the left side of the lane, basically blocking me. Then I come along and passed their candy asses going down the double yellow line like they were standing still. I shake my head after I passed them so they would know what I thought of them, and then I'd take back into the right until I had to pass again....like a GOOD racer should. I felt awesome and was actively trying to slow myself down knowing how different things are 10 hours down the road. I would take it easy up all the hills and not crank too hard on the flats. But any rolling terrain and I put the hammer down. When I did it was awesome. On the long climb back into Lake Placid, about mile 50 or so a chick slowly passed me on the left and then tucked back in front of me and let off the gas. The rules of racing state that once I am passed I must drop BACK 7 meters before attempting to re-pass. I had no intention of re-passing her right now, not up the hill, and I'll be damned if I'm going to drop back 7 meters while going 7mph up a hill because Shania ran out of steam after her pass. Instead I moved about 4 feet more to the right basically riding in the shoulder so it was clear I was not drafting and dropped back about 1 bike length....not that you can even draft at that speed anyway. Well, it didn't matter. A referee on a motorcycle rolled up next to me and showed me a red card which was a drafting penalty. I said "for what, for her?" and shook my head. Have you ever sized someone up as a complete loser at first sight...like you can just tell this person is a lost cause...that was the case here with the ref. Apparently someone was sucking my wheel and I didn't know it so he got a drafting call too...there must have been a quota this ref was trying to fulfill. You serve your penalty on the course that way the winner of the race is really the first one across the finish line and can get all the glory. I decided to relieve myself and get a good stretch in while serving my 4 minutes in the penalty tent. I had the company of 3 other delinquents serving time with me in jail. Justin passed me at this time and yelled out my name as he went up the hill they call Pappa Bear. Wow, he must of been cruising to make up all that swim time on me in just 1 lap. Nice! As I was freed from jail and started peddling up Pappa Bear, Liz was suddenly pedaling next to me and says "hey, Joey". I told her I was a cheater and a criminal and she should not talk to me for her own good. Then I gave her her split to Justin which was only like 3 minutes at this point and got the low down on how her swim went. We rode together through town for the most part and then I took off during the descent and long flat section following it. She came back onto me on the out-and-back section which was about mile 90. There was blatant drafting all over the place out there and I saw Liz get sort of surrounded by a small peloton. I didn't want Liz to get a drafting call so I rode up next to her and said "that's how I got my penalty on the 1st loop" and then cranked away leaving the peloton in my dust. I had to dig deep for that effort though and I was kind of pissed that I had to do it. Liz pulled away as well leaving those deadbeats to pull their own weight.

At mile 104 of a 112 mile bike I feel my back tire getting slightly squirrely. I keep looking back at it but it looked fine. It was mostly slow climbing on the last section so I asked some spectators if my back tired was flat and they said it looked a little low. After a 1/2 mile more I decided to pull off and check it. Completely flat. Ugh. What I am about to say is completely my fault and I accept full responsability for the amount of time I lost. I put that inner tube into that back tire and onto that back race rim over a year and half ago. It never saw the light of day since. I checked my stopwatch when I started the repair thinking I could do this change in like 2 minutes, it ready 7:25. As I tried to work the tire lever around the rim to pop the tire off it kept snagging on the tube. It was because the tube sort of like bonded or dry rotted to the tire over that span of time and became 1 object. Once I finally got it off I have extra long stems b/c the rear race rim is a deep dish and I didn't have the tool to remove the stem extension form the old tube and put it on the new one... so I improvised and used my teeth after trying a few other bad ideas. As I inflated my tire and got ready to rock my stopwatch read 7:35, 10 minutes to change a freaking flat. Then I realized, I didn't check the tire for what caused the flat to begin with before remounting it so I could have another flat right away...and I only packed the 1 spare tube and CO2 cartridge. Screw it, nothing I can do now. I made it back to town, thank goodness. That was my first flat during a race ever, kind of a less than ideal race to have it happen on. Oh well, if I subtract my penalty and flat tire I would have rolled a 6:35 bike leg which was way too fast for what I wanted to do. I wasn't rocking a spedometer cuz I wanted to race completely by feel and I felt good. So to hell with my plan of constraint. And since I got a bathroom break on my penalty stop I managed 112 miles without peeing in my pants once.

I was methodical in T2, not really going too fast but not dogging it either. There was trough-type urinal which I made use of before exiting. On to the run, the part I was looking forward to all week.

Run time: 4:44:39 [ 10:52 min/mile ]
This year I didn't bring anything on the run with me, deciding to use the course nutrition only. Last year I had a Fuel Belt which quite simply sucked. I even saw a few on the side of the road during the run, evidently from other people realizing that fact on the run as well. I only had my stopwatch going and took mile splits starting at mile 3 just to keep track of pace. I was averaging between 10 and 10:30 which is spot on. A 10:30 pace is a 4:30 marathon which is exactly what I wanted. When I ran by the house we were staying at I saw my family who gave me my splits to Justin and Liz who were down the road by like 12 and 9 minutes by now. I wasn't really trying to run them down, I was just trying to enjoy my marathon. My pace felt awesome, it felt slow, it felt like a man in control of his race. There was another guy near me who was pacing just as slow, letting everyone pass us and making mental notes about what they were wearing cuz we would see them again when we reversed the pass in a few hours. I ran the entire 1st loop and started walking the aid stations on my 2nd loop. Of course I got to see Jus, Liz, Phil, Jesse, and a few others out there - everyone looked really strong and fresh. Kristoph's friend Steve, who were both volunteering to sign up for next year, mentioned to hold off on the cola for as long as possible because you get that caffeine boost and if you use it up too early you got nothing left for later. So held off cola till about mile 22, and it tasted sooooo good. For the run I lived on Power Gels at every other aid station and a cup of water, and an occasional Gatorade. I walked some of the real steep hills on the 2nd loop coming back into town but I sort of power walked them, fast like. I was quite literally moving at the same speed as my jog but exerting about 1/2 the energy. My pace dropped to around 11's in the 15-20 mile stretch which took me off pace for a 4:30 marathon. I started to speed it up on the last stretch by our rental house and the final trip back into town. I was doing maybe a 10:15 mile pace, which was pretty much hammering it for me at that point and I was passing people left and right. I must have passed 50-75 people in those last few miles to the finish. THIS is the way I wanted to finish my marathon, running strong and in charge of my race. With just a mile to go some dude on the side of the road saw me putting in this final big effort and said "don't stop Joe, whatever you do...don't you stop till you finish!" (He didn't know me, our names are printed on our race bibs). I wasn't even thinking about stopping at this point but putting together this kind of finish on such a great race day and hearing those words got me totally stoked. My body switched over to 100% adrenaline for fuel, my stride opened up, and it was on. I saw my family as I entered the finishing oval and high-fived my dad on the way by. Ironman #2 was in the bag in 13:04:01!

I can't eat right after races anymore, I seem to need an hour to settle down before introducing solid food. So I got a post race massage and found my family and Jus and Liz to congratulate them. They both had stellar races and very impressive ironman debuts. I was proud of them both. My family was all decked out in custom support t-shirts and were a huge help that day, they did an awesome job as usual.


OK, so let's cut to the granola part I mentioned at the start. Something is different in the air, something has changed in triathlon in the 3 short years that I've been doing them. Let's just say, I don't think I identify with that crowd anymore. I definitely don't identify with most of the tools that did IMLP. Of course, present family and friends are excluded...you are all cool cats with me. But I need a new scene! I got into triathlon b/c I got bored with just running. Now I kinda miss 'just running'. So I'm gonna run a lot. Fall marathon, then a 60K, the Goofy Challenge in Jan and then a 50 miler in the spring. If that goes well, maybe a 100 miler. When the snow thaws I want to run the Lake Tahoe Rim Trail over 5 days covering 30+ miles a day. Next year might be more Xterra/offroad triathlons than on-road triathlons. I get the sense that leaving every race bloody keeps a lot of the tools away. I'm gonna grow out a madman's full facial beard and run through the woods in cutoff jeans and no top only stopping to hug the occasional tree. I'm going granola baby!