Ironman Lake Placid - Worth Every Dollar (And There Were Many Dollars Spent)

"Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
 Try to make ends meet
 Try to find some money then you die
 I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
 You know the one that takes you to the places
 Where all the things meet yeah"
Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

Let me first say, if you ever plan to race Ironman Lake Placid, put more money away than you think you will need to make the trip very feasible. It was well worth it but it is an expensive trip & I am not talking about the entry fee alone. In all, if I were to sit down & calculate expenses for the trip (counting entry fee), it will be close to $2000+ for a four night stay & race but it was worth every penny!

When I returned to triathlons 4 years ago, I can say, I doubted whether or not I would return to the Ironman distance. I have competed at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships in 1995 & 97 with one finish of 10:33 in 1995 & a DNF in 1997. While I tried to convince myself over the years, I always knew I was not fine with DNF in 1997 & I did have to eventually return to 140.6. At the time of my return to triathlons, there were still a few 70.3 triathlons that you could qualify for Kona & I honestly believed that would be the only way I would return the the 140.6 distance & Kona. But shortly after my return to triathlons, Ironman changed that & the only real way to qualify was at a 140.6.

Fuck, what the hell were they thinking!?!?!?

Could I handle the possibility of 2 Ironman distance races in one year?

At the same time, I was thinking that I can't let my last 140.6 (regardless of race) be a DNF. So after some coaxing, I registered for Ironman Lake Placid. Here is my race report:

Ironman Lake Placid

Swim

The swim is two times around a 1.2 mile loop in Mirror Lake. After the first loop, you exit the lake & run about 15-20 yards on the beach & return to the water for loop 2. Unlike almost every triathlon I have competed, the swim is not set up in waves by age group. It is self seeding with corals similar to some of the major marathons. The corals were set up in 10 minute increments. Feeling realistic about my swim, I positioned myself in the 1:01-1:10 group. The first loop was quite chaotic & crowded and it seemed impossible to get a steady rhythm going until I turned the 2nd red buoy to return to the swim start. Even though I expected to see a slower time, I exited the 1st loop at 34:24, so all is not lost yet. The 2nd loop felt much easier as the crowds had thinned a little. It was easy to get a good rhythm and maintain it for the entire loop. The time for my 2nd loop was 34:36, so I pretty much even split the swim. While not as fast as I had hope, I was on land so the real race can begin!

T1 - 6:24

Bike

As expected, the 112 mile bike course is the toughest bike course I have tackled in a race. Over the two loops, each competitor was challenged by 6000+ feet of climbing! As challenging as the course sounds, I will admit....I LOVED IT!!! Exiting T1, after that slow swim, I knew it was time to fly! I quickly got a good rhythm on downhill out of transition & carried the momentum into the climb out of Lake Placid. Quickly, I started passing competitors & never looked back. So many times on the climb, I wanted to tell some of the competitors it is much easier to climb out of the aerodynamic tuck! It boggles my mind that triathletes continue to attempt to grind up a hill in the tuck! Sometimes it took a lot of restraint to not snicker as I went by them. After the climb, there was a fun & fast descent into Keene where I topped out at 45 mph! With a little more mass, I think I could have easily topped 50mph but I will trade that mass for the killing the climbs & dropping the other riders. The middle portion of the loop was flat to gradual grade climbs. The final 13-15 miles of each loop were the toughest as you headed back into Lake Placid. On the return, you had to tackle the 3 Bears which was a combined 3 climbs over 2.2 miles. After all was said & done, I covered the 112 miles in 5:24:28/ 20.71mph , moving from 430th  to 79th overall. I crushed that course!

T2 - 4:57

Run 

Entering T2, my body felt very nourished & hydrated but in the back of my mind I was thinking about how the legs will respond to the climbing of the bike course. The 2 loop run course would add another 1,184 feet of climbing to the day.  My plan for the run was simple, keep heart rate between 148-155. The exit out of T2 & onto the course is a downhill out of town leading you to the early climbs. The legs loosened up very quickly over the first few miles of the run. I settled into a good heart rate & was taking on fluids at each aid station. I started the run with 4 gels attached to my belt with plans to take them at certain parts as practiced in my training. Leading up to an aid station near mile six, I took my first gel out of my belt & water at the aid station. Over the next few miles everything seemed to be rolling along until when I reached for the next planned gel in between aid stations........When I reached for the gel, I realized that at some point between mile 6 & mile 10 all of gels had fallen out of my belt & I still had another mile + till the next aid station. I did not panic as I thought it really was not that far till the aid station. Once I got to the next aid station, I made a point to walk through & attempt to play catch up on the nutrition. I was able to hold things together through the 1st loop with the only minimal walking at aid stations only. The 2nd loop was not as pretty as the first. Miles 13-18 were a combined run/walk but was still holding 9:15-20 per mile. Playing catch-up was not working & miles 19-24 was where the death march was in full effect! Regardless, throughout this stretch, one thing was for certain......finish & hear the call "You are an Ironman"! During this stretch, there was more walking than running but there were a lot of people doing the same but I kept telling myself.....Death before DNF!!! Watching others do all they can to finish kept me motivated to achieve the ultimate goal of finishing. Around mile 24, my body started to feel better & I was able to run the remainder of the course. In all, the combo run/death march took 4:11:44 dropping me 148th overall of the 2700 competitors who started.

Overall 10:56:36 -148 of 2700 competitors

I will admit that I am very hard on myself about my results even when most people think what I accomplished was good. At the same time, while results were not perfect, I am very happy with my  result from Ironman Lake Placid. First, I accomplished the ultimate goal of finishing a 140.6 distance race after years of never thinking I would tackle that distance again & erasing the DNF,in my mind, from 1997. Something even bigger for me was the ability to adjust goals throughout the race & not give up because it was not the perfect race. To many people gave me their utmost support & well wishes to give up because it was not the perfect day. And if you really think about it, a race of this nature, how often will you have that perfect race. I can also say that even without the issues on the run, I was not going to qualify for Kona on this day as the top 3 competitors in my age group broke 10 hours...WOW!!!

What's next?

The remainder of this season will be filled with 4-6 sprint or olympic distance races. So far this season, I have only raced twice & I am itching to race. I may potentially race a sprint this weekend & the next. Obviously the training volume will be reduced & workouts will be  at a minimum until 100% but this past week my legs seemed to return to normal a little each day. Over these next two weeks, the sprint races will be considered my workouts.

My focus for 2017 will be on the 70.3 distance & qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, which are returning to the US in 2017. At this point, my plan is to return to the 140.6 distance in 2018. One I need to save up money for it & secondly, at my age, not sure I want to be putting my body through this every year!

Major 70.3's for 2017 are yet to be determined at this point..........

Stay tuned.......

"I am an Ironman" (Again)