Also known as “suddenly Boulder doesn’t seem so tough” 🙂
Lake Placid was my 3rd IRONMAN this year, 6 weeks after Boulder which itself was a very tough day with the altitude and high heat. Lake Placid also marks my 10th IRONMAN just 2 more to go (Wisconsin and Chattanooga later this year) until I can apply for the legacy program and at some point the opportunity to partake in IRONMAN Kona.
My training since Texas has not been going great. I think doing an IRONMAN every 6 weeks is very aggressive and I’m fatigued physically and mentally however the last 2 weeks have gone pretty well and I think most of it is mental and was feeling mentally strong and in pretty good shape. Placid was going to test that 🙂
Like Boulder, my family came with me. We flew into Montreal and spent a couple of days there where we took the kids to the science museum and wandered round the old town. I went to a Tim Hortons and ate Poutin and a maple leaf donut. This was about as Canadian as I felt possible 🙂
We drove the 3 hour trip to Lake Placid on Thursday where we checked into the High Peaks Resort which is the host resort for IRONMAN Lake Placid. Note that although its the host resort it is actually pretty far from the village and the transitions. There are many other hotels much closer FYI. It was a nice enough resort though and the staff were very friendly.
When we arrived we went and registered at the convention center which was all very standard and then went and registered the kids for the IRONKIDS run on Friday and the VIP passes so the family had a good view at the finish line. As usual bought a few things in the store including a complete Lake Placid IRONMAN tri shorts, running shirt and bike shirt in addition to a donut IRONMAN bike shirt 🙂
Lake Placid is a small town but there are a lot of places to eat with a huge number of Italian restaurants so lots of pizza and pasta choices 🙂 There is also a Ben and Jerrys ice cream store which we may have frequented daily. Also a nice chocolate shop with giant chocolate raisins!
On Friday we had the IRONKIDS run. It said it started at 2:00 however before the half mile run they had the kids dip and dash who all had to finish so the run didn’t actually start till 2:45 and it was a hot day. There were a lot of very grumpy kids. I definitely think it would make more sense to tell people different start times for the various events.
After the run I laid out all my gear. This event added lip balm sunscreen as on boulder my lips got a bit burnt. As it would turn out sun was not a huge problem for Lake Placid 🙂
Saturday I took my bike and bags down to the transition area. The run and bike bags are kept together on a set of hooks which was pretty cool. Your morning clothes bag went on the same hook on Sunday so was easy to collect everything at the end of the day.
For the rest of the day I pretty much did nothing. Pasta for lunch and as always pizza for dinner. We watching Paddington Bear 2 in the room 🙂 I bought tri-tats for this event so put them on before bed. Went to bed around 8:30 and actually slept pretty well. I got up at about 3:15 to eat my apple sauce, protein shake and bagel. I checked the weather forecast and it had stayed with rain starting around 8am and finishing around 12 with temperature of 55 going up to 72 later in the day. Greeeaaaatttttt.
I walked the half mile down to transition, pumped up my tires, put on a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water (which I never even opened) however the morning clothes bag drop off was at the transition and so I just hung around the transition area sitting in the men’s changing tent rather than going to the swim start. The water temperature was about 74 so wet suit legal, woo hoo! With an hour before the 6:40 age group start I put on my wet suit, applied the spray on lube around my neck, put on some sun screen and put my morning clothes bag on the bottom hook next to my run bag then walked down to the swim start.
It wasn’t raining yet but was 55 and pretty chilly. The swim course was two loops (really just out and back) but they were really keeping people pretty tight on the swim course not letting people stray too much out by way of people in canoes telling you to move over, which meant frequently you would bump into people, get stuck behind people and a few times get kicked by people. It was a rolling start where you self seeded into your estimated finish time. I know a few people with anxiety around the swim were unable to finish because of how bunched together they made us. I thought the swim was fine though, finishing in 1:29:59 (no matter where I swim I’m always 1.5 hours). Sometimes it’s good to be a bigger person so if people do knock into you its fairly easy to knock them back out the way. 🙂 You have to get out the water between loops and they had some water to drink which was nice. It started to rain during the second loop which made the water a bit choppy. Overall the swim in Mirror Lake was nice and you had great visibility to see the buoys so was easy to stay on course. I also saw the underwater line a few times that connects the buoys and if you can stay on it provides the shortest path without having to sight the buoys. Problem is everyone tries to do that 🙂
After the swim its a run to the transition area (which really wasn’t that far, I had heard half a mile but was nothing like that). Grabbed my bike bag off the hook, into the tent, put on my new bike shirt, applied the butt chamois butt’r stuff which really helps with the saddle pain and is much better than a bar type thing I used to use. Applied some sun screen, stored my nutrition and out I went. Into the rain. I turned on my bike computer but it was having problems finding GPS so didn’t register the first .25 mile of the ride but thankfully started showing my speed pretty quick. It was now raining a lot. A lot of cold rain, in the cold. 55 degrees. This would be the state of the entire first loop pretty much. I was freezing for most of the first loop and it was a cold that felt like it was going down into your bones. My new white socks were basically black by the end.
Additionally there was a 15mph SE wind which just was the cherry on top of my misery Sunday 🙂 It hit you as a headwind but somehow never was a tailwind and rather a cross-wind trying to blow you over as you went down the hills. It was a tough course and normally you get downhill back from the uphill’s and Placid had massive downhills BUT because of the rain my brakes were barely working so I had to go down really slow. I would pull on the breaks and they responded with “meh, don’t want to”. A brake placebo. The first loop took 3.5 hours. I was looking at a 7 hour bike ride. I’m not sure how much better I would have done without the rain but it really was just very tough. There were a few flat sections but mainly it was up and then a short down. You can see the elevation data below (this is for both loops). It stopped raining by the second loop and the road dried up plus I now knew the course a bit better so I took the downhills much faster. I got up to 45 mph 🙂 weeeeeeeeeee. The second loop was definitely better than the first but I really wasn’t any faster on the second loop and my total bike time 7:01:57. Wow! My slowest ever but also I would say the toughest course ever with worst conditions ever. I feel I tried hard during the course so was pleased with it. It’s a very hard course but the scenery was amazing and the miles did go pretty fast. There were aid stations every 10 miles and lots of porta-pottys along the course which was lucky as I guess because it was so cold I had to constantly pee on that first loop 🙂
Another quick transition and on to the run. It was actually great weather for the run. Around 70 degrees but lots of cloud so no bright sun beating down on you. The course was hilly (surprise). I felt tired getting off the bike but not drained. My plan was to run downhill and flat and walk the uphills and I mostly stuck to that with the odd extra bit of walking when required. It was great seeing my family at the half way point (I also got to see them mid-point and at the end of the bike). They had orange Gatorade on the run course which surprised me, normally its lime 🙂 I brought my own nutrition and had a gel every 30 minutes, this time I used ones with caffeine! Apart from that it was the same as all the other IRONMAN events with water, coke (which I had a couple of times), redbull and later on chicken broth. They also had various types of food. The run is two loops and the volunteers throughout the event were amazing as always and the crowds were great. Everyone talks about the finish line at Lake Placid being second only to Kona and it was amazing not that I remember much about it 🙂 I was really tired and basically had tunnel vision on the finish line. I forgot to even make some kind of victory pose. I just ran across the line 🙂 Final time on the marathon 5:20:37 giving me a total time of 14:15:59 when you add in the transitions. That time is way off my best however this was a very different course, very different conditions and I really gave it my all. Sometimes I finish an IRONMAN and feel like I could have done better. I feel proud of this one and am really happy with my performance.
And the reward 🙂 Medal, hat and t-shirt goodness. You also got a mini-towel to celebrate the 20th anniversary.
I picked up my bike and bags, dropped my bike off at Tri Bike Transport then walked back to the hotel (about half a mile). Showered, ate 1/3 of a sandwich my better half got for me then completely failed to sleep all night like every other night after an IRONMAN. Could not sleep a wink. I wish I knew why. I can only guess its eating nothing but sugar all day with caffeine and I never normally drink any caffeine so am pretty sensitive to it I guess. At 5am I left the room and wondered around the town and took a picture of the lake. Really was amazing location.
At 6am I walked down to the store to join the queue. I was about number 20 in the queue and by the time it opened just before 7 there must have been a hundred people behind me. Bought the finisher jacket, t-shirt and polo as normal then headed back for breakfast with my family.
Overall Lake Placid IRONMAN was awesome. As usual the IRONMAN was a great experience. Super well organized, amazing volunteers and you just live to hear Mike Reilly tell you that you are an IRONMAN 🙂 It’s a very tough IRONMAN, I would say the toughest I’ve done. I was chatting to people who had done it in previous years and they said it was harder this year but its a great course, great finish and you have a great sense of accomplishment when you finish. It should be on everyone’s list to do. As the multiple signs on the course point out “if it was easy, it would be called your Mom” 🙂
Two more to go this year, six weeks till Wisconsin then 3 weeks after that Chattanooga!
The Iron Brit 