If it wasn't obvious from my sporadic updates and my monthly recaps, I was quite undertrained going into this race. I hadn't even hit 1000 miles on the bike before the cannon went off which, for a race like IMLP, is NOT good. IYKYK, amiright? I had some decent swims and running had been iffy but not complete trash.
The things I had on my side going into this race were:
- 11 years experience doing long-course triathlon (9 of since my first full)
- a great mental game
- knowledge that I had probably similar training (relatively speaking) going into my first 70.3 and I survived that okay
- knowledge that regardless of anything, it was going to hurt.
Could all those things override the lack of training? According to the mental exercises I did at night before falling asleep to try to keep the nerves at bay? Yes, they were going to.
(spoiler: they did)
Lead Up
In typical T and B fashion, we road-tripped out to the race. Yes, from essentially SLC. We left Sunday afternoon to get a few hours down the road in Wyoming. Monday took us to Omaha. Tuesday took us to my relatives in LaPorte, Ind., and Wednesday took us to Syracuse, NY. Thursday brought us the rest of the way.
Chalked the car at the World's Largest Truckstop. Almost forgot!
We drove straight to athlete check-in and then off to the hotel.
Photo op Adirondack chair.
Village. Also yes, the hat made its return. It's the best for pre-race nerves.
After check-in, officially into town to grab some lunch, check in to the hotel, and unpack the car. We flopped for a while (ugh so many days in a car), eventually got dinner, and heard from our buddy Randy (an old MX12 teammate) so we went over to say hi to him.
Friday I got to swim in Mirror Lake and experience the joy that is the cable and knew that come hell or high water, I was going to get on that damn cable on race day. B took a day to himself and went down to Saratoga to the race track; I got a mani/pedi.
Saturday was a super quick spin on the bike before getting everything ready to get dropped off.
Oh gear bags.
Bike racked. Even though I came back to it a few times. First because I forgot a bottle on it (that I was using to hydrate with that day) and then because I forgot to let air out of my tires. I swear I've done this before ...
Gear bags dropped off.
With my favorite volunteer.
My official tri team right now - Feisty Triathlon. It was the North American Tri Club Championship, so there was a banner with all the clubs represented. Had to go find mine.
Dinner got a touch dicey that night; if you recall, I like to do a pre-race breakfast-for-dinner. I had talked with the restaurant at the hotel the night before to see if it would be possible (even though not technically on the menu). The person I talked to said it would probably be fine - and even said where they'd be working the next evening. Well, I didn't see them Saturday and at first it seemed like my simple eggs and toast wouldn't happen. I was trying not to freak out too heavily about this - I knew someday this tradition would probably have to fall away (probably if I ever raced overseas) - but it wasn't easy. Thankfully, it ended up working out (although I still got the backup meal I ordered which ended up being TERRIBLE so I'm glad I got my eggs and toast). I feel bad for restaurants in towns around these big races because athletes tend to be super high maintenance and have a lot of dietary restrictions so I don't like to be a difficult customer (also helllooooo trauma from childhood re: parents), so I was ridiculously apologetic and thankful to our server and we tipped him a lot.
Pretty sure I slept that night, but also don't remember. Eh. It is.
Race Day
Woke up just fine with the alarm at 4am, got ready, and went over to the free continental breakfast the hotel put out for us. Unfortunately, it was all just carbs. I ate a few bites of bagel, but that was it. Since B brought his gravel bike (oh yeah we got gravel bikes!) to bounce around the race course with, he offered to grab some protein-y type food for me from Starbucks when they opened later.
Like three bites of bagel later, we headed down the half mile or so to transition. I pumped up my bike tires, filled up my bottles, loaded my pickle chicken into my bento, and then dumped my handheld in my run bag. I then dropped off special needs (or personal needs, as they were called here)(which also weren't the easiest to find) before finding a spot to hide out at until B got back from coffee.
And got a sunrise picture over the IMLP rock.
B brought me back a ham and swiss croissant, but I wasn't really able to eat that, either. This was going to be quite possibly the least I'd eaten before an IM since my first in 2013. It also just was going to be.
Water temp was 75ish, so wetsuit legal for us AGers, but not for the pros. So hooray for that.
Oh hey, found a Randy again.
Waiting to enter.
The Swim:
Even though I unofficially swore off two loop swims after Rattlesnake in 2010, here I was doing another one. Oops. I seeded myself in the 1:40-1:50 group, thinking that would be fair given what I did in Madison and how my training was. I was able to fight my way onto the cable early and stayed on it, which was AMAZING.
I should probably clarify: for those that aren't familiar with IM Lake Placid, they lay a cable along the race course in Mirror Lake. It's a few feet down so you don't touch it when you swim (although the little buoy things attached to it will probably smack you in the face if you swim on top of it), and the water is clear enough that you can follow it. Some say you can see it a few feet off the cable - like if you're six feet in either direction - but I preferred to keep it within probably a foot of me. If you stay on top of it as I did ... also be prepared to swim directly under the IM inflatable buoys because ... ooooops.
I did have to detour off course a tiny bit before the first turn thanks to some ridiculous mucus situation going on that didn't really clear up, but it cleared up enough for me to keep going (and every now and then, wipe snot off my upper lip while swimming. Triathlon: so glamorous).
Exiting loop one. Photo (c) FinisherPix.
Time: 45:54
Seeing my time did make me happy (YAY NOT AN HOUR LIKE IN MEMPHIS) and I took a quick second at the start of my second loop to pee (I have not yet mastered peeing while swimming) ... and proceeded to have issues finding the cable again. Oops. Found it quickly though and stayed on it again for the entirety of the second loop. Ironically, it was harder to stay on it for loop two than it was for loop one, which is the opposite of what I was expecting, thinking that more people would be out of the water, but alas.
I popped out, looked at my watch, went "HOLY SHIT," and went to get stripped.
Starting to peel myself out. Photo (c) FinisherPix.
Time: 1:34:58 (53rd division, 429th gender, 1625th overall)
T1:
I saw B as I was running toward the oval/transition and yelled something about a swim PR, and he yelled something back along the lines of "I hate you." I don't blame him.
I tried not to dally too much in transition, though my bags were NOT where I (and my wonderful bag check in volunteer) left them. I guess in past years, they had racks for the bags, and didn't this year, and it apparently threw everyone off.
I popped some Aquaphor on the back of my neck right away for the wetsuit chafing, tossed on some more sunscreen, applied a tiny bit of chamois cream, stuffed my pockets full of food and other random stuff, put on my shoes, helmet, and sunglasses, and bounced out, carrying my bag to dump off as I grabbed my bike.
Time: 9:22
The Bike
Soooooo ... I didn't actually preview this bike course. At all. I didn't pre-drive it, watch videos (except for the Keene descent), nothing. I pre-rode like five miles of it and that was it. I knew it was tough and had a lot of climbing.
As advertised? Yes.
In short (because I could get into a lot of detail here), the bike course was absolutely fucking brutal. It was gorgeous - probably the most scenic and pretty of all the IM bikes I've done yet - but holy shit it was hard. It was also probably especially harder for me given that I was so undertrained. I'd gotten in what, two rides with a lot of climbing? For a course that has anywhere from 5500-8000 feet of elevation (oh Garmin discrepancies; fwiw, mine had 7500)? UGH.
Of note:
- the Keene descent was my favorite part of the day. I know how to descend a hill and I BLEW past people. Out of all the downhill portions of the day (of which there needed to be a lot more), I maybe got passed once on one of them, and not at all on Keene either time.
- Sometime after Upper Jay and before Wilmington Notch (maybe after the Haselton out and back?), we got a headwind. And at that point of the ride, it is (seemingly) all uphill and that headwind was SOUL SUCKING. Particularly on the second loop.
- I have never wanted to quit a race as badly as I did after loop one. If there hadn't been a good 10-15 miles early on in the loop that I liked so much, I may have considered throwing in the towel at special needs.
- Sometime around, oh, mile 45, maybe? maybe earlier?, the ball of my right foot started hurting. On loop two, some arch pain joined in and there were large stretches where I was crying (or some facsimile of it - I don't think the tear ducts were popping out tears) because every. single. pedal. stroke. hurt so goddamn bad.
- Sometime after 100 miles, I quit taking in food.
I think the frustrating part was until that headwind constant hill soul sucking bullshit, I was having an OUTSTANDING ride. And then all that hit. And my ride went to shit.
But damn, was it pretty.
B getting me early on.
Photo (c) FinisherPix
Ha, the photog got me putting my food away. Photo (c) FinisherPix.
Pretty sure this is from one of the early climbs on loop two. Photo (c) FinisherPix.
Sometime later in the bike. Photo (c) FinisherPix.
This pretty much sums up how much I hated my life heading back into transition. Photo (c) FinisherPix.
Some very helpful (*rolls eyes*) woman was yelling out the time as we passed special needs again ("It's 4:45 pm!"), just reinforcing how terrible life had gotten. Thanks, lady. You were probably the same asshole I heard on the run (read on for that).*
Time: 8:09:22 (53rd, 435th, 1702nd)
T2:
I'm pretty sure the same woman (in a Galactic print Skirt Sports skirt) who stripped me out of my wetsuit also took my bike away from me, and if I had been more coherent (or in a better mood), I would have given her one of my volunteer wristbands, but alas.
They rerouted us a different way into the change tent for the run, which was a bit confusing at that point in the race. Not a lot of volunteers in the tent so I was on my own for prepping to run - which don't get me wrong, it was fine!; it was just a bit odd. Overheard a woman next to me saying that was one of the more brutal bikes that IMLP has thrown at people, so that was nice.
Otherwise, tried to keep moving and popped out on the run.
Time: 8:24
The Run:
First of all, I'm a little annoyed that there were NO photographers out on the run course by the time I hit it. Apparently that extra hour of being slow really makes a difference. Quite a few of us back-of-the-packers noticed we had no run photos. Which booooo.
Luckily, I had a personal one for a bit of it.
Love you husband!
I did my best to do what I had been doing on runs since late in Boulder 70.3 last year which is run as much as I could, walk for a count of 20 (basically 20 breaths out), rinse, repeat.
This worked kinda well, although I threw it completely out near aid stations so I could grab snacks or fill my bottle.
In general though, this run was pretty miserable. I saw the ski jumps at one point which was totally cool, but otherwise? I pretty much just wanted to curl up and nap on the side of the road during the entire run. I felt like the walking dead for pretty much the whole thing. And my right foot? The one that hurt during the bike? Oh yeah, it never stopped after that.
Still, I tried moving as best as I could, since that's really the only thing you can do.
Coming back into town for the little out-and-back, there's about a mile directly uphill which is mean and evil (especially on loop two as it's basically the second-to-last mile). Which meant it was great to see husband there on loop one.
I have never stopped for more hugs in a race. And I may be smiling, but I am dead.
Running back down the hill of death at the start of loop two.
Loop two was a lot more of a death march. Everything hurt so badly. I started feeling nauseous at one point - I didn't eat much at all on the run and probably drank a lot less than I should have.
At some point, I started doing a lot of mental math, realizing that even though I was in so much pain, I needed to start attempting to run a tiny bit more if I wanted to finish in time. And even though the thought of quitting ran through my mind a lot during this race - more than it ever has during a race - I didn't want to. I was this far into it and I was not NOT finishing. Which is why if you look at my splits in the tracker, they pick up a bit around miles 15-18 - it's because I was forcing myself to shuffle jog more.
I'd like at this point to insert a little shoutout to my seven-year-old Garmin Forerunner 920, as it started beeping low battery at about mile 20, but survived until the end of the race just fine. Thanks, little buddy.
The final three miles felt like they were about 10 miles long. That final out and back, man ... just ugh.
But the worst was the woman with a quarter mile left - "25 minutes to midnight" - lady, if it takes me 25 minutes to go the rest of this race, just fucking shoot me. Also, I've got like 15 minutes, not 25, so seriously, fuck you.
Not helpful.*
It's mostly downhill after the final turnaround, and I was able to run a good chunk of it back into the oval. I took a walk break after I entered in, but ran around the final curve and SPRINTED down the chute.
The pain disappears - it's the most magical thing. I think I may have been crying. I somehow still managed to go four-for-four on jumping at the finish - B says you can see Mike Reilly cringing as I do it (he's probably nervous that we jumpers will eat it).
I became an Ironman for the fourth fucking time.
Oh look, a running photo of me finally. Photo (c) FinisherPix.
Photo (c) FinisherPix.
Photo (c) FinisherPix.
Probably my favorite of the finish line shots. Photo (c) FinisherPix.
DONE.
Time: 6:43:32 (59th, 456th, 1703rd)
Overall Stats:
Time: 16:45:36
60/61 division (F35-39)
469/485 gender
1771/1817 overall
We all know this was my slowest and hardest. But let's see how it stacks up, shall we?
Swim 2013: 2:02:48
Swim 2016: 1:51:33
Swim 2019: 1:49:26
Swim 2022: 1:34:58
A damn near 15 minute swim PR. GO ME. I'd like to thank the cable for helping me not swim a lot extra (Garmin had me with maybe only an extra 100m or so) and helping me not lose form/body positioning thanks to not having to sight. You're the best, cable. Love you.
T1 2013: 11:24
T1 2016: 5:34
T1 2019: 10:04
T1 2022: 9:22
Always impossible to compare. But happy I could get it back under 10 minutes, which is always my goal.
Bike 2013: 7:26:02
Bike 2016: 7:28:32
Bike 2019: 7:36:02
Bike 2022: 8:09:22
... can I not have a bike split that ends in a two? Apparently not. Ha. Slowest bike by over 30 minutes. Which I guess given how much I didn't train isn't all that bad, actually? Only losing 15 minutes a loop (ish) ... actually I'm not that mad. I got out what I put into it - a crap bike thanks to crap training.
T2 2013: 7:52
T2 2016: 9:25
T2 2019: 7:58
T2 2022: 8:24
Impossible to compare. But under 10 minutes is always nice.
Run 2013: 6:07:29
Run 2016: 6:17:41
Run 2019: 6:04:56
Run 2022: 6:43:32
Another place where I lost 30 minutes (15 minutes per loop). This is where the lack of volume training came back to bite me in the ass - I didn't have the built up ability to withstand that late race fatigue.
Ah well. I obviously know I can do better, but I don't think I'm mentally ready to do so yet. But you'll probably see me do this again in another three years.
* Okay, so I will admit that some people may like this information. It is possible. But for the most part, I think those of us chasing cuts kinda know we're chasing cuts. Or at least we should. I definitely knew in AZ (my first).
