Ironman USA Lake Placid - TriathlonFull Ironman

I did not have high expectations for the swim and originally was thinking of starting on the outside and in the middle of the pack. The combination of the coaches advice and watching a video of the 2009 start made me find my way to about 20-30 feet right of the pier and 4-5 rows back. This was completely the right decision as the draft I got was incredible. I remember passing the second large orange buoy and being amazed at the speed it shot past considering I was swimming in my usual relaxed manner.
I spent the entire first lap being overtaken but didn't have too much contact, even on the mark rounding. I felt like I was swimming pretty efficiently, but when I climbed out onto the beack at the end of lap one I saw a time of nearly 46 mins. That was slow even for me, but I spent the next few minutes thinking that it was a long day and a 1:30+ swim wouldn't be the end of the world. Then I started thinking that the clock was no doubt set for the pros who started 10 mins earlier. I liked this idea a lot better but that time felt a bit too fast. I literally spent half of the second loop turning this over in my mind. Second lap was still pretty crowded but I sat a few feet right of the cable the entire lap (bar one point where I had to swim round someone with a very violent kick style) and was very relaxed.
My race plan had been to swim between 1:16-1:24 so was very pleased when I got out of the water and saw the clock, which now had been adjusted back to the AG time.

Not much, although I may be tempted to start even closer to the first row.

Fairly uneventful. Found biggest stripper I could who tore off what was left of my wetsuit.
First experience of the unbelievable TriLife support as I went up the chute, and even managed to see Jo in the crowd.
Got my T1 bag, took it to the edge of the tent and put, helmet, shoes and lube on. Shouted my number out and volunteer had my bike waiting for me. Getting out of transition was a shit show however. A guy in front of me slipped on the wooden ramp coming out of transition and he and bike went flying. Got round him and then got into the exit chute. Nobody seemed to have a clear idea of where to mount, and in general they were mounting too late and in the narrowest part of the chute just before the sharp left turn. I jumped on the bike, picked my way through the wobbling cyclists in front of me and took it easy down the first hills.

Be slightly more careful running from swim exit to transition. I was not light on my feet and could have easily aggravated my problematic achilles

First loop of the bike was incredibly crowded and concerned about drafting penalties I exerted far too much effort the first 20-25 miles trying to get around people. As the road surface was a little wet and the roads were so crowed I took Keene very cautiously, even ride the brakes on some of the straights. I just did not want to be taken out my someone swerving unexpectedly (as had happened to one of my team mates in 2009).
Overall I was on pace / power and the first loop felt very easy as it should do.
When I stopped at special needs everything went well with the exception of getting my bottles out of the insulated envelopes I'd put them in. Volunteers were great but I was getting a bit impatient trying to get the bottles out.
Second climb out of town and Keene descent were great. I felt like I was riding on my own through the Cascades which was great. At the first turnaround I started to feel a little fatigued which I wasn't expecting. At that point I decided to drop my wattage by about 20W and this ended up being a smart decision as the final climb back into town felt tough and I would have suffered if I was pushing harder for the whole loop.
I'd opted to keep with tri shorts for the ride and was pleased I did, no discomfort and saved the hassle of changing shorts in transition. I was also pleased with the approach of having a gel flask and water as well as liquid nutrition. Coming out of town I lost the gel flask on my top tube but as I was carrying a spare flask it was no big deal.

Not try and get myself out of draft zone so aggressively when there was clearly nowhere to go.

I thought I would adopt the same approach as T1 in that I would change outside to avoid overheating in the change tent. This was a mistake as I had to do everything myself, ended up sitting on the ground and also made one of team mates stop to ask me if I was ok as he thought I'd collapsed outside the change tent I think. Took my time, but not a disaster

Use change tent and volunteers
Put on sunscreen even if the sun wasn't out at that particular moment

First 8-9 miles of the run felt great, I was splitting a pretty steady 9:35 and HR was on target and stable. Clearly at this pace I was being passed by a lot of people, but I was on plan and things looked pretty good. I decided to flip immediately to my plan B nutrition (calories from Perform only) as I just didn't feel like taking in anymore EFS gel, although I ended up carrying a flask for the whole run! I walked the aid stations, made sure I drank at least 4oz of Perform at each one so everything was on plan. My only issue during this time was that I had chosen not to reapply sunscreen in T2 as it looked like it was going to rain. By the time I hit River Rd the sun was out and I was getting concerned about getting my shoulders burned. Finally I found an aid station with some sunblock at mile 7 of so and away I went.
Somewhere between mile 8-9 I suddenly started getting cramp in my stomach, very similar to what I had experienced at Timberman in 2009. I had tried various nutrition in long bricks and runs during the year, I thought I had found a solution by cutting out protein. I had done a few long runs only on warm Perform so was happy with using it. My pace immediately slowed by about a minute per mile. I walked up Ski Jump Hill and spoke to the coaches about the problem, which at that time I thought would pass quickly. I was kicking myself that I had put a couple on antacid tablets in my special needs bag, but hadn't put any in my T2 bag. I could feel my running form deteriorate as I started running again to the bottom of IGA. Walked IGA as planned, stomach felt better, but as soon as I started running again cramp came back. Saw Jo by the TriLife tent on the way past Mirror Lake and stopped to get a kiss from her - definitely made me feel a lot better. Stopped at Special Needs and got the antacids. I've never taken these things in my life, but what the hell. They definitely helped, but I never quite felt right the rest of the race.
As I descended IGA hill I started getting a pain on the side of my left ankle (achilles was holding up fine, but now a new problem!). I walked the second half on the downhill. Earl checked how I was doing and said that I needed make myself throw up if I still had the stomach problem. I said the anatacids seemed to be helping and on I went. As I started descending ski jump hill I could feel the impact hurting my ankle so walked again. Of course, Scott plus other TriLife coaches were camped there so told them I was improving but needed to take it cautiously. When I saw Ross half way out of River Rd he said I needed to switch to simple sugar and so start taking in the flat cola. At the next aid station I took a cup along with some water and within two minutes was very close to throwing up. Got my composure back and continued. I stuck with the cola plan and it did start to pep me up.
At this time I made probably my biggest decision in the race. Looking at my time I knew that there was no way that I was going to make 11:30, but I knew it should be pretty easy to go sub-12 if I didn't blow up. I decided to take a cautious approach and just look to finish sub-12, so I walked any upward slope up until IGA hill which slowed my pace further but gave me the reassurance that I would be fine to comfortably finish my first Ironman.

Have antacid tablets with me.
Ditch the gel flasks that I ended up carrying for the whole marathon but not using
Avoid the psychology of 30 minutes time increments. I could have easily finished 10 minutes faster, but as soon as 11:30 was unobtainable I just aimed for sub-12

Catcher made sure I was ok and I walked through to the food tents, got my picture taken and met up with Jo. I couldn't stomach the idea of food or broth but managed to down 3-4 cans of ice cold Sprite (have no idea why I still wanted to drink sugary stuff!). Met with a few of the team, sat down for about 15-20 mins then went and got my bags and bike and called the hotel to pick us up.
Went straight to the bar when I got back to the hotel for a couple of glasses of Ebu and a cheeseburger and felt great.


I was surprised at my level of fatigue on the second loop of the bike. I had ridden the full course a couple of times at a higher effort without feeling that level sluggishness. It is probably a result of the adrenaline at the start, or maybe the swim took more out of me than I thought. Either way, I think I need to continue to work on bike power and endurance.
Run was hampered by struggling through with injury for most of the season and then getting GI issues. I should be able to knock 30 mins off my run time easily, but next time I'll be carrying the antacid tablets with me out of T2


IMLP is a great race, and although I think the swim is manageable with 3.5K+ participants, the bike course is not. I hope WTC limits the field in future years to no more than we had in 2010 as otherwise the first loop draft fest and real probability of a big multi rider crash on Keene will cast a shadow over what is otherwise a brilliant race.