Ironman USA Lake Placid - TriathlonFull Ironman

I decided to start in the same place as I did in 2007 when I did this - towards middle about half a dozen people back. What a completely different experience it was this year to 2007. In hindsight (and if I ever did this race again) I'd start way right towards the front.
I don't think I was able to swim more than a couple of proper strokes for the entire first half lap. It was chaos. I got so fed up of being bashed and people grabbing my legs at some points that I shouted at people to get off me - of course a complete waste of energy and they couldn't hear. At some point my watch got knocked so I didn't have a running time for the day and also at end of loop one my timing chip got pulled loose so had to redo that. Loop 1 was around 32 mins I think but I decided that for loop 2 I was going to swim wide just for a bit more of a pleasurable swim. Of course that meant less draft but I didn't care at that stage.



I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed with my swim time as it is a few seconds slower than last time and I know I've improved but it didn't really matter at the time - just move on.

I have to say that although I've never had a hankering to do multiple ironman races I probably wouldn't choose to do this again simply because of the chaotic mass start - there were too many people and it just wasn't fun.

This was OK. I jogged along into transition, changed fairly quickly and off I went. I was right at the far end from the bike exit so the logistics meant it was always going to take a while but in the scheme of the day no big deal.
It was clustered to get out of the bike exit, then the guy in front of me dropped his bottle and had to come back for it so we had to wait - nothing earth shattering though

Could I have done this faster? YES. Does it matter in the scheme of things NO

I am a little surprised it is quite as long as I didn't change (wore my tri top and shorts throughout)

Hmm, where to start. I should say that I was happy with the way my whole day turned out but with hindsight I have lots to say!

My first loop I took easy but steady. I wore my HRM but didn't look at it til yesterday. I can't access splits now but I think my first loop was around 3:02 and I remember thinking "wow, I don't feel tired, I'm not sore, I feel fresh". I felt fine on the second loop too. I was really really conscious of being told I was a strong biker so take it easy and save it for the run. I think in hindsight I took it too easy. I really used the easy gears up the hills and just pedalled along. My mantra from EN was "just ride along". My HR for the last 11 (hindsight here) was 140 which is only mid z2. My av HR for the whole ride was 135 which is at bottom of z2 for me.
Lazy girl I am - but in my defense, in 2007 I had an awful run and one of my major goals this year was for a better run so I was rather cautious.

Thinking of myself as a relatively strong biker I am disappointed to see myself ranked lowest in the 3 sports for my AG for bike.

On the positive side, no flats, perfect temperature, nutrition fine (I only peed once though) so really overall quite happy with this - I just know I could have done better :)
Max speed on the descent 46.6 (darn still can't get that 50 they talk about).

Ride it a bit harder.
But this isn't a distance that you can tweak here and there to see what works unless it consumes your life!

Volunteer took my bike - she even wheeled it whilst I remembered to take the garmin off.
All felt fine. I sat down in the changing tent and took my time changing shoes but all smooth and OK

Nothing

I stuck to my plan like glue. First 30mins I told myself keep it really slow. This was hard as my legs wanted to go faster and it was down hill but the plan was to come in around 9min miles and I was just under this so all good.
After that I just plodded along quite happily. As planned I walked aid stations whilst eating/ drinking and parts of the 2 big hills (plus one small hill in the middle once) but else ran the whole thing.

I delayed the coke til half way. I remember stopping to talk to my mum and dad on the way out on loop 2 at just over 2 hours and telling them that I was fine but I may be a little longer on loop 2 as I was starting to feel a bit tired. And then I started on the coke and I felt fine! I remember having these absurd conversations with myself about how race doesn't start til mile 18 -20 and then I was supposed to put down a good last 10k - but that started at bottom of big hill so was ridiculous! When I felt tired and was going from mile to mile I put it all in perspective by telling myself of course I was tired I was on mile 19 of a freaking marathon!
I finished strong, never in doubt and my last mile run split showed I still had some juice left!
Mentally I nailed this race.
My pace for the whole day was around 9min miles to 9min 15ish. The overall is slower because of the aid station stops and the hills.



It was weird because the limiter seemed to be my ability to take deep breaths. I could only breathe shallowly for this whole run and actually for the whole of Monday too. I'm perfectly healthy so no idea why this was but I'd like to figure it out.

I guess if I want to average 9min miles for a marathon I have to run 8min miles to allow for aid stations and big hills!

Family was there at the finish.
Went and sat in the food area with a fellow Brit who I'd actually met whilst running on our training weekend a few weeks ago.
Then headed up to tennis court for rendezvous with them.


Hmm, good one. Better ask my coach!
My goal was 11:15 and with that I figured I might have a shot at top 4 in my AG.
This year I don't think I'd have got that anyway and there were a LOT of girls in my AG about the same finishing times between 11:15 and 11:45.
I'm relaxed about that. I had a good race. I finished feeling fine.
I had a day of struggling to go down stairs but by mid week feel completely normal so have bounced back really well.
I have loved the challenge of this distance but I don't want to commit the time it takes in training to do this again. For me, there are too many other things in life I want to do. I need to discuss with coach Mary before I figure out which shorter distance I could become more competitive in - cos even though I don't want to race again this year I know next year I'll need another challenge


What can I say it's an Ironman!
But the swim isn't really a competitive swim anymore for anyone but the fasties out front. Think they need to do something about that - even if they set men and women off separately maybe?