T-2 days
I had registered the day before which was a pretty awesome experience. I think the biggest tri I had done previous to that was Timberman and I think there were about 1,100 athletes for both the sprint and half distances. Lake Placid had a new high for racers at 2,100! First I picked up a registration card that had all my specifics on it including emergency contact information, health insurance carrier and number.
The next stop was weigh in. I had been taking Liquid Endurance from Hammer which is a glycerol product used for super-hydrating. Part of the loading process with this product is to weigh yourself regularly so that you don’t gain too much weight. The product is most often used when racing/training in hot weather. However, even though the weather report was calling for temps in the high 60’s, low 70’s, I thought that I could use every bit of fluid I could retain. My weigh in was 192 even. This was exactly what my scale said that morning.
Next I moved on to pick up my packet. I was helped by Jean, an awesome volunteer, probably in her 60’s, who had a calming demeanor that would put anyone at ease. She was perfect for her role of checking in nervous athletes. My packet included a lot of stuff and was a little overwhelming.
There were five labeled bags:
• Morning Dry Clothes - for the clothes you were to the transition site but didn’t need after you put your wetsuit on
• Swim to Bike Transition
• Bike Special Needs – accessible at about mile 55 of the bike
• Bike to run transition
• Run Special Needs – accessible at about mile 12.5 of the run
There was also an 8 ½ by 11 sheet with a whole bunch of “94” stickers, which was my race number. There was one to affix to each bag, one small sticker to attach to the bike stem, a large number for the bike and one for the helmet. There were two bib numbers, one with my first name and one with my last name. The instructions were one was to be for the bike that had to be on your back one was for the run which had to be on your front. I opted to only use one, with my first name, on a race belt and just flip it around between the bike and run. However, the paranoid side of me still packed the bib number with my last name in the bike to run transition bag just in case I needed it.
There was a little blue ticket with my number on it as well. This would turn out to come in handy (as you’ll read later in the report). This ticket was necessary in case someone else needed to pick up the bike and transition bags besides the athlete.
The last thing that Jean did was to attach my race bracelet. This would give me access to everything I needed to for the weekend, transition areas, banquets, etc.
My last stop was the optional goody bag area which I couldn’t resist. I tried to take advantage of every opportunity to load up with goodies and souvenirs.
Also on Friday was my Son’s Splash and Dash race. It was a 50 yard swim and ½ mile run. There aren’t too many fatherhood moments I have experienced in my 8 short years as a father where I was more proud than to see my Son do this race. There were probably 25 8-year olds heading out to a buoy 25 yards out and back, it was an amazing sight to see, the swim was just as rough as an age group swim start! He was extremely nervous for the swim but did a great job working through it, went on to his transition area and looked awesome on the run. It was a beautiful sight to see!
T-1 day
Saturday was a day of nervous anticipation that at times seemed to crawl while at other times of the day seemed to fly by.
Saturday was preparation day. After breakfast we came back to the hotel room and my wife took my son to the pool so I could get ready.
I laid all of my bags on the bed and started to organize. I had to turn in the transition bags that afternoon as well as drop off my bike. The special needs bags didn’t need to be dropped off until race day morning but I thought it would be easier to pack everything at once so that’s what I did. As a result of this need to pack everything at once, it also meant that I had to have all of my nutrition ready which was a whole other process of preparation.
I tackled most of the nutrition prep first. My nutrition strategy included calories and supplements. I take supplements from e-caps every hour after the first two hours. They included 1 Mito-R Cap, 2 Race Caps, 2 Anti-Fatigue Caps and then 1 Super AO ever other hour. I use tiny Ziploc bags to make my hourly doses and then just rip the top open with my teeth, empty the pills into my mouth and then wash it down with water. Thankfully the Super AO pills are darker so I could tell the even hour pills from the odd hour pills. I made up enough baggies for a 7 hour bike and 5 hour run.
For calories I planned on separating the bike and run into two containers each. Several months ago after figuring out how many calories I need to put in a particular container before every single ride or run, I created a spreadsheet that I just need to put in the length of the ride or run and it will calculate how many calories I need to bring with me. It also allows me to put a ratio of where I want my calories to come from. I planned on using Hammer Gel, Sustained Energy and Perpeteum.
So I put in 7 hours for the bike and 5 hours for the run which gave me a total of 1,925 on the bike and 1,125 on the run which was based on an hourly caloric intake of 275/hour for the bike and 225/hour for the run.
I split the amount needed for the bike and put just the powder into two 24 oz. bottles and filled one 5 serving gel flask. I would fill one of the bottles just prior to the bike in T-1 and then fill the 2nd bottle at the beginning of the 2nd loop. I’m not a fan of really warm calories so I thought that separating them out would leave each bottle a little fresher and more palatable later in the ride.
For the run my plan was to split my calories into two Fuel Belt flasks, freeze them and store them in a small flexible cooler with an ice pack, put one flask in my T-2 bag and one in my Special Needs run bag. The idea being that they will have thawed by the time I got to the run in the mid afternoon.
After getting my fuel together I set out to pack my bags. In my T-1 bag I put my bike shoes, GSTC socks, 2 CO2 cartridges, 1 five serving gel flask, helmet, head band, 3 coin purses filled with Endurolytes and arm warmers (it was expected to be a chilly wet morning). I brought super size zip loc bags with me and put my bike shoes and socks in them as these bags would be sitting in the rain overnight. Also in my T-1 bag I had a Ziploc bag with two notes that I had my wife and son write to me. I gave them instructions to write something I would want to read in case I felt like giving up. I hoped not to use them but it would be nice to have them with me…just in case.
In my T-2 bag I put my run shoes, GSTC socks, fuel belt, 1 five serving gel flask, hat, sunscreen, two coin purses filled with Endurolytes and knee strap. In my bike special needs I put 2 more CO2 cartridges and two tubes and in my run special needs I put a 2nd pair of shoes, dry socks, 1 five serving gel flask, 1 Fuel Belt flask with my fuel, a few Gas-X and Tums tablets in case my stomach wasn’t doing so well, and a small Ziploc baggie with extra Endurolytes.
On my bike I had two tubes, one tire and two CO2 cartridges. I was completely self sufficient with the exception of water which I planned on taking from the course.
After checking and rechecking my bags and bike a few times it was time to head down to the transition area and drop everything off. Not more than 30 minutes before leaving it started to rain, hard. There was a good steady rain for our entire walk down to the transition area. I racked my bike, covered it with a huge plastic bag as it was expected to continue raining overnight and into the morning. Next I hung my transition bags on the racks next my number, 94, swim to bike on top, bike to run on bottom.
After getting back to the room I got off my feet and watched some TV. At about 4 my awesome wife got some pasta ready along with her homemade sauce. I tried to keep my diet as regular as possible and brought the pasta and sauce I normally eat along with my typical breakfast foods. After eating and laying out my clothes for the morning my family and I piled on the bed and watched a movie and I was asleep by 9.
Race Day
I probably went a little overboard on alarm clocks, but I wanted to be sure I didn’t oversleep. I’ve had dreams over the past few months in which I wake up at the time the first wave is supposed to be going off. So, I setup a wake up call for 4 AM, plus my watch, plus the alarm clock in the room plus my PDA. After all of that I woke up on my own at about 3:55 and didn’t need any of them!
I started the morning off with a Sustained Energy/Hammer Gel breakfast of about 400 calories. After a trip to the bathroom I packed up my transition bag with my wetsuit, bike chain lube, two Hammer Gel packets, bike fuel bottles, goggles, anti-fog solution and bike tool kit. I also had two fuel belt flasks in the freezer with my run fuel that I wrapped with ice packs and packed into two separate flexible coolers. One would be for my run special needs and the other for my T-2 bag. I contemplated bringing my bike pump but I read that Inside Out Sports would have plenty there.
I kissed my wife and walked out the door at around 4:45 for my 5 minute walk to the transition zone. It was a chilly morning, I’m guessing somewhere in the mid 50’s and there was a pretty good contingent of athletes making there way to the transition area for the 5 o’clock opening.
The first stop I made was body marking. Even though I had the number 94 pounded into my head for the last 36 hours from the transition bag numbers, bracelet, bike number, etc. I still found myself checking my bracelet to make sure I told my bodymarker the right number.
After body marking I made the ¼ mile walk up to where the special needs bags needed to get dropped off. By the time I got back it was about 5:25, I still had over an hour before I had to be at the swim start. It had started to rain pretty steadily at this point and there was a constant flow of Mike Riley’s voice (the voice of Ironman) in the background with time checks and instructions. I had random thoughts as I made my way through the transition area to my bike of Mike Riley saying my name at the finish line followed by “You are an Ironman!”
I made my way to my bike and dropped my bag and made a trip to the porta-potty. Thankfully there was still a pretty short line. Once I got back to my bike I took the plastic off and placed my bottles in the cages, topped off my tires, lubed my chain and reset my bike computer to zeros. After all this it was only a few minutes after 6. As I looked around there weren’t that many people getting wetsuits on yet so I decided to walk through the transition area to see if I could find any other GSTC racers but had no luck.
It was time to get the wetsuit on, which wasn’t an easy task as it had been raining since I got to the transition area and getting on a wet wetsuit can be a lesson in patience. Inching it on a little at a time I got it up to my waist and made a final check of my bike before making the trek down to the water. As I packed the sweatpants and sweatshirt that I had worn to the transition area into my Dry Clothes Bag, the bag promptly ripped so I decided to stuff everything into my transition bag and try to find my wife or one of my parents prior to the start and hand it off to them.
As I walked to the swim start and made a loop through the crowd I realized that bringing my transition bag with me may not have been the smartest idea. There were thousands of spectators and athletes wandering around and I had no idea what anyone I was looking for was wearing. So I anxiously scanned the crowd for about 5 or 10 minutes as I wandered. Finally at about 6:20 I found all of them! It was good to have a few minutes of familiarity prior to heading to the swim start. We got a few pictures, some video, hugs, kisses, etc. Before taking off I took one of my gels and washed it down with some water.
Once I got over to the swim start it was like herding cattle. There were over 2,000 of us who had to pass through a six foot wide timing mat before heading into the water. Hence the organizers request to get us to the swim start by 6:30 for a 7 AM start. After I made my way over the mat and into the water I took a few strokes and felt good. I kept on swimming over to where my family would be watching from and connected up with them one more time. Got a few more pictures, a few more kisses and I made my to the swim start line.
I think it was between 6:50 and 6:55 at this point. My coach had recommended I start near the front but over from the guide wire by about 30 or 40 yards and then swim a diagonal line to the first turn buoy. The idea being that it wouldn’t be quite as crazy out wide. I had been working on my swim a lot over the past six months and felt pretty comfortable so I made my way to the recommended area about 5 yards back from the start line and over about 40 yards.
As I was getting there the National Anthem started. I check my watch and my heart rate was at 103! The nerves were setting in. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, layed on my back, closed my eyes and tried to relax. The wetsuit kept my feet and head up and I found myself pretty relaxed two minutes prior to the start. I heard the one minute to go announcement and got myself prepared for the cannon. When they say Ironman races don’t start late, they are not kidding. There was a clock on the dock where the announcer was and the cannon went off right at 7:00 AM.
One of the toughest times training for me was the swim. Not the distance, but the time doing laps got so boring after a while I found these workouts more a mental exercise than a physical one. I mention this because of the irony of my Ironman swim. I was so hyper focused on finding open water and keeping my stroke and breathing steady that before I knew it I was at the first turn around. The swim back on the first loop was slightly less crazy, but not by much. It was still too rough to get over to the underwater guide water so I stayed about 10 or 15 yards over from that point and tried to keep a good rhythm.
I finished the first loop in about 34 minutes though I don’t remember the exact time on the clock as I climbed out of the water. I walked briskly on the beach and back in for my 2nd loop. The 2nd loop went much smoother. I was able to keep on the guide wire for almost the entire 2nd loop and felt strong and smooth. My chip time on the swim ending up being 1:09:37 and I was happy with that time.
It is a small thing but having wetsuit strippers is a nice luxury that I hadn’t experienced before. When trying to remove my own wetsuit at the transition area I inevitably get a cramp in my calves while trying to pull off my wetsuit. That wasn’t always the way I wanted to start the bike. Getting it stripped off went smoothly and I began my run to the transition area. The highlight of this run was seeing my son, getting a quick smooch and moving on to get my T-1 bag.
The male changing tent was quite a sight. Not your typical triathlon transition area. I was handed my T-1 bag by a volunteer and entered the changing tent. I apparently finished with just about every other male athlete because it took me 30 seconds just to find an open seat. Most people were already in their bike gear because they had it on under their wet suit. There were a few who did a complete change into bike shorts with a full pad and bike jersey. I had my sharp GSTC uniform on so all I had to do was get my shoes, socks, helmet and arm warmers on before heading out. I also put a gel flask and my wife and son’s notes in my rear pocket on my tri top. As I got to my bike I filled one of my fuel bottles with water and I was off for my 112 mile ride.
The first loop of the bike course was pretty crowded. There were drafting rules in place just like every other tri but I’m not sure how you could enforce them given the number of athletes that were packed so close together, particularly over the first 10 miles where the course has a lot of rollers that seem to be mostly uphill than down. I heard a great tip during the pre-race meeting which was to ride in one gear easier than you thought you needed to for the first loop. That is just what I did as I constantly reminded myself I had a good 6 ½ hour ride ahead of me.
The roads were still pretty wet at the beginning of the bike. I don’t think it was raining anymore but it couldn’t have stopped more than a few minutes before leaving for the bike. Almost exactly at the 10 mile mark is the infamous 6 mile downhill with some pretty steep grades. On my training weekend a few weeks earlier I had hit 50 MPH on this hill. I kept it slower on the wet descent almost out of necessity. There were still a lot of cyclists on the road, all descending at 40 – 45 MPH. It was a thrilling ride, except for the grit I had in my teeth at the end from the spray being shot up by other riders on the road!
One thing I noticed at the bottom of the downhill was that my heart monitor wasn’t picking up my heart rate. Sometimes I experienced this in training where it was a very dry day and the wind on my bike kept my chest and uniform dry making the reading of a heart rate difficult. I didn’t think too much about as I figured this would change once I started to do some climbing.
The next several miles after the downhill are mostly flat and you could see the clouds were beginning to break up. The temperature was probably in the mid 60’s at this point and the air was nice and dry. The roads were also starting to dry up so I was feeling pretty good over the first 35 – 40 miles before taking the infamous left hand turn onto Rt. 86 which was the beginning of a mostly uphill end to the first loop.
The last time I rode the course was on Father’s Day weekend. The average temperature in the Adirondacks during the summer is the mid 70’s. Well on Father’s Day weekend it was in the mid 90’s and humid and I rode the entire course….barely. The last 20 miles, which are mostly uphill was absolutely miserable. I was out of energy and dehydrated and puttered along at 8 – 12 MPH till I reached my hotel. I then promptly wondered out loud what the hell I had done signing up for this race.
However, I realized on race day that this may be have been the best thing that could have happened to me. As I climbed that first big hill in Jay I felt strong, fresh and as the course moved there seemed to be a lot more flats, down hills and up hills with shallower grades than I remembered from just a few weeks ago. I think my altered state on Father’s Day weekend made the course a whole lot worse than it was, such that race day seemed to move along relatively easy. I reached the end of first loop in great shape, made a quick stop for my special needs bag, filled my 2nd fuel bottle with water and was off into town where I got a quick glimpse of my family and the familiar face of a GSTC team mate. That was a great boost.
I had heard a million times, the 2nd loop of the Lake Placid course will be much harder than the first. But I felt so good after lap 1, how could this be? Well everyone is right. Lap 2 was much harder but I still finished feeling like I could put together a decent run.
There is one last hill before turning into town on the bike course where a lot of spectators gather. The road at this point is closed so the spectators are gathered on the yellow line on the left side and the pavement on the right. It was probably the closest thing I’ll ever feel to climbing a hill on a stage on one of the Grand Tours. There was only enough room for 2 or 3 bicycles to fit side by side and the crowd was going crazy. It was one of the many instances I experienced a jolt of energy mentally that led to a physical push when my body had no desire to push as hard as it was. If only you could harness that feeling for a 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run, I might have finished near the top of my age group!
One issue I had on the bike was that my heart rate monitor continued to not work correctly. This concerned me a little bit on the hills as I didn’t want to push too hard and burn up too much energy. I had done every training workout for the past 3 – 4 years with a heart rate monitor and felt somewhat in the dark with it not working. I was still going on the assumption that the dry and movement on the bike was making it to dry for a reading and figured that once I was on the run, it would start to work again.
As I pulled into T-2 a volunteer took my bike and I made my way via a brisk walk to grab my T-2 bag. The change tent wasn’t nearly as crowded this time so I found a seat quickly and changed my socks, put on my running shoes, fuel belt, knee strap and hat and found a open space to spend a couple of minutes stretching before heading out of the tent. My transition bag, as it was in T-1, was taken by a volunteer.
As I took my first few steps on the run and saw the crowd gathered around the barriers I was feeling good. The first couple of miles of the run are either downhill or flat so it allowed me to get into a good rythym.
Throughout the entire day I had my watch timer set to go off every 15 minutes to remind me to eat/drink/take supplements and Endurolytes. This continued into the run and my intake of 24 oz. or so of water per hour seemed to be working well. I clicked off the first few miles at a 9 minute per mile pace or so and was feeling pretty comfortable. I took a 10 – 20 second walk every 15 minutes to take in fluid and/or calories.
At about mile 6 or 7 was the first out and back turnaround. It was about this point that I started to get a little more sluggish. My walks stretched out to 15 – 30 seconds and my calories, which had been going down well up to this point didn’t start to taste so good.
On the way back into town, the same few miles that were downhill on the way out were now uphill, starting with a killer hill at a very steep grade followed by a less steep long ascent to the middle of town. I ran this hill on the first loop and got another one of those mental boosts after seeing my cheering section in town. I stopped at my special needs bag, changed my socks, refilled my gel flask and grabbed my 2nd fuel belt flask filled with a Perpeterum/Sustained Energy paste.
As I made my way out of town for the 2nd loop the energy levels continued to drop and I found myself reminding me to not worry about the finish time. I had calculated at the ½ way point that at a 3 MPH walk I could still cross the line by midnight, the cutoff time. I had told my wife when I saw her in town that I would probably finish in more like 14 ½ – 15 hours instead of the 13 or 14 that I had originally thought.
But, I would go through periods of feeling pretty good and running to periods of feeling like crap and walking for a mile at a time. I tried to keep my attitude high and made the best of the situation. During one of my walks I met a 52 year old who was on his 11th Ironman, which included 5 in Hawaii. He said his goals had changed and he was just out there to finish this time. We had a good conversation for a mile or so while we walked together at about mile 15.
While I knew the notes from my family were in my back pocket, I can honestly say that even though there times when I felt like absolute crap, that I never thought about giving up, and thus reading their notes. I wanted to be able to end the race with those notes unopened.
I reached about mile 23 and was approaching those hills into town again. I could see the Olympic stadium in the distance and heard for the first time Mike Riley announcing those before me who had become Ironmen. I started to choke up and felt tears coming to my eyes and I started to envision this whole thing coming to an end soon and crossing the line with my family.
The reality of the hills then hit and the tears went away and the lump in my throat cleared as I focused completely on reaching the top of the hill. I knew that once I reached the top of this hill that I only had about 1 ½ miles left. I walked the really steep hill but started to run again as I reached the top and ran the rest of the less steep hills.
I will say right now that about 3 – 4 minutes after the race I passed out for a few seconds and was helped to the ground by several volunteers and my wife. The reason I’m sharing this now is because the contrast of that moment with the last 1 ½ miles makes me realize how amazing the human body is. Just like those bike laps when my energy level picked up around the crowds in town, I experienced the same thing as the streets were lined with spectators and the pull of the finish line kept me so alert and attentive that I find it so curious how I could go from this state to passing out within a matter of minutes.
As I crossed into the Olympic Oval I saw my wife and son waiting to run with me. They pulled along side and I saw my brother as well. I went over to give him a high 5 and turned back around to catch up with my wife and son. At this point we were in the straight away to the finish line. The clock said 13:54 and change. I remember focusing for the past 10 miles on if I could finish in less than 14 hours but wasn’t sure until the last 2 miles or so that I could do it. Now, here I was. I had pictured crossing this finish line a thousand times, it was such an amazing feeling to be here. I tried my best to take in as much as I could but there was so much going on and my focus was so high on the finish line that a lot of the last 50 yards seems like a blur.
I crossed the line at 13:55:06, 54 seconds before the 14 hour mark I wanted to beat, with my wife and son by my side. Almost immediately a volunteer was at my side putting on my medal, asking what size finisher shirt I wanted and leading me to the area for pictures. As I stood in this line I started to feel a little dizzy. The three of us had our picture taken and I was escorted by the same volunteer on towards the food tent. This is when I really started to feel dizzy and started to say so. The next thing I remember I was looking up a whole lot of people including my wife and son.
There were now some new faces who were clearly with the medical staff getting my feet up and covering me with blankets. I was brought into the medical tent on a gurney and hooked up to an IV. Once I was lying down, even outside the medical tent I was surprisingly coherent. In retrospect, I should have lied down on my own and prevented the need for all the support to get me to the ground.
I was in the medical tent for about an hour and had two liters of IV. As time went on I felt better and better. There were some great volunteers helping out including doctors, nurses, EMT’s, etc. One of the EMT’s actually had me autograph his shirt. He had all of his patients sign his shirt that night with their number. He actually told me a great story from a few years ago when Simon Lessing won the race. He said Simon walked in on his own saying he needed an IV while telling his Mom in England that he had just won the race! He was the one who put Simon’s IV in.
My wife ended up coming into the medical tent to check on me and bring me my recovery drink. Almost as soon as she got to my side I lost it. I got a little choked up after my first marathon and first Half Ironman but I never ended up in a full out cry after a race before. I think all of the emotion of the day finally caught up with me when I saw my wife in the medical tent. It was at that time that I told my wife that I thought that I was done with Ironman…..
I can’t remember the last time before that night when I had a potato chip. But while I was lying in my cot with an IV I saw a bag of chips with the athlete across from me. I asked if I could get a bag and finished it in about 30 seconds. I don’t know if it was the salt or I was just hungry but it was the best bag of potato chips that I’ve ever had.
Once I was released from the medical tent I went over to get a massage then got a couple of pieces of pizza from the food tent. The pizza was hot and soooo good. I don’t know how Ironman did it but it impressed me to have hot pizza at 11 pm in the food tent.
We got back to our room at about 11:30 though didn’t lie down for bed until about 12:30 as we were up talking about the day. It was an incredibly wonderful day that I won’t ever forget.
The next day I was up at 6:30, for what reason I have no idea. I think the endorphins were still pulsing through my body!
We attended the awards banquet later that morning, and because we were one of the top 5 fundraisers we were given VIP seats right up front. During the awards I got to go up on stage to be recognized which was pretty cool. It was a perfect ending to an awesome weekend.
Will there be another Ironman in my future. I don’t feel the same way I did in the medical tent. What a crazy sport that we will go through a day like this, feel like never doing another one, then wake up 12 hours later and want to sign up to do it all over again? Maybe someday I’ll be able to answer that question by doing another one…..
.