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 Swim
Comments: I seeded myself about 3/4 through the field and about 25m to the right of the buoy line. I was surprised by just how many athletes were hanging back, I mean WAY back at the shore line. I was wondering if I should do the same (my swim's not that great) but thought that was just a bit too far back. When the starting canon went off I waited 30 seconds before I started to swim and between that and my seeding, I think it worked out perfectly for me. For the most part I had very minimal body contact. I did get jostled a little bit and got a pretty light kick to the jaw but really this was nothing. I'm very happy with how this worked out. My first loop took about 41 minutes I was happy with that as well as it was on pace. As soon as I got into the water again and started swimming out I got some pretty bad cramping in my right quads. I swam over to the dock and hung onto it for a couple of minutes until is subsided. Cramps struck again about 1/4 of the way out though and I had to call a kayak over so that I could hang on. As I was hanging there, I started getting absolutely massive cramps in my right calf, hamstring and quads. They were firing in succession and the pain was unbearable. As soon as the cramps would subside they'd start all over again in a matter of seconds. I thought that my day was done for sure. It took more than 10 minutes for them to go away before I attempted to swim again with the kayak following me for a bit to make sure that I was okay. I swam the rest of the course without any kicking at all and keeping my foot square instead of letting it trail behind me. Overall, the 4 km swim went by pretty quickly and outside of the cramping I was extremely happy with it. What would you do differently?: Stretch more. I know I have tight calves which do cramp up from time to time. I really need to be more diligent in stretching after every workout.  Transition 1
Comments: Coming out of the water, I realized just how much damage the cramping did to my legs as I could barely walk. My calves, especially the right one, were hurting incredibly with each step. A couple of girls called me over and peeled off my wetsuit which was a lot of fun, especially since they were pretty cute :) I hobbled down the chute towards transition and got some high fives, and a couple of "Go Canada!" due to my Canadian flag tattoos that I put on my shoulders that morning. Grabbed my Swim to Bike transition bag and headed for the changing tent. Once in there, I was a bit disoriented trying to figure out where to go, where to sit, and how best to do this since the tent was dark and the floor was a mud pit due to all the rain. The volunteer that helped me was from Montreal and he was there to sign up for 2009 at his firm IM attempt. I grabbed my gels, salt tabs, helmet and glasses but decided to leave my arm warmers which was a very dumb move. Why I took as long as I did I have absolutely no idea. Made a quick pit stop in the porta-potty and headed out on the bike.  Bike
Transition 2
 Run
Post race
Profile Album Last updated: 2008-06-28 12:00 AM
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United States
NA Sports
18C / 64F
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 1912/2345
Age Group = M40-44
Age Group Rank = 344/398
My wife, daughter and I drove to Lake Placid the Tuesday before the race. We spent the next four days either driving, shopping (my wife did LOTS of that!) or touring Lake Placid and the neighbouring towns including North Pole, NY for my little girl who got to see Santa, feed Rudolph, etc. It was not the relaxing time I was hoping for, but oh well, my wife enjoyed it so it was the least I could do.
I tried eating healthy during our stay at Lake Placid but this was next to impossible as a result of eating out all the time. I did the best I could. Two days before the event, I started sprinkling everything liberally with salt.
On the night before the race, I slept like a log which was fantastic since I thought for sure that I'd be up fretting all night long. For some reason though I was super calm. In fact, this was the best night's sleep I had all week. At 3AM I got up and had about 600 calories of Nestle instant breakfast and went back to sleep. At 5AM I woke up and while I was getting ready I ate a bagel with peanut butter and jam. I gathered all my stuff and headed out the door.
At transition, I checked tire pressures and went to drop off my bike special needs bag before heading over to get body marked and then over to the swim start. I ate a banana at about 6AM and continued to sip on water.