Ironman Mont Tremblant - Triathlon

This was my first rolling start and I was a little nervous. We lined up at the back of the 1:20-1:25 group fully expecting to go 1:30 but was hoping to catch some fast feet in the group ahead.

The start was continuous but methodical. No one ran in and there was no chaos. It was kinda nice. I didn't do a great job drafting directly behind someone but I think that because we ALL got in the water together it was one continuous draft until the turn buoy.

Usually at this race you get the washing machine affect right after the turn but this time - nothing. The whole swim was calm and smooth - but seemed to go on forever so I was SHOCKED to see I set a 5 minute PR on this course (the only IM Swim I've done as Choo was cancelled).

Nothing really. Maybe not blow off some of my OWS during training :)

It's hard to compare prior years because they shortened the run from the swim exit to the tent but I think this transition was decent considering I changed shorts (do you know how hard it is to change out of wet shorts into dry ones?) (2015 12:09 and 2016 10:48)

OH and I stopped to pee. Figured I'd rather sacrifice my T1 time rather than my bike time :)

Nothing

This frustrates me because I feel like biking is my strong suit and I can do so much better. I'm getting back to the fitter next spring along with my PT to address what I think may be some of my issues. Only took me 4 years to figure some of it out.

One of my friends who has done this course twice before came to sherpa. It was AWESOME. She had her bike and was moving around the course and was everywhere taking pics and yelling inspirational things like "move your ass!" She was also texting my coach so I'd get tidbits like "coach says drink water and take salt" when sherpa told her it was getting warm.

However, I had a decent bike at a half earlier in the season and a GREAT bike at Choo last fall so coach says success creates success so with that, although my bike wasn't as great as I would have liked it, for the most part I felt ok and got a 36 minute PR for this course.


I have to figure out how to ride more consistently for a low VI.

About the same +/- 30 seconds for IM t2 including costume changes.

43 minute run PR. Boom.

I'm not a runner. I don't like running. I never want to run a stand alone marathon.

Having said that, I had some really good training runs this summer leading up to today and I had a good feeling about my chances for a PR.

I exited T2, saw my mom and some friends which was neat and headed out to the hills. I had a plan: Walk the hills and aid stations and run the rest (or as much as I could). I felt ok on the first loop. My stomach got a little wonky early on. Hit a portopotty (nothing really significant here to report ;) ) and then continued on. I went through the usual "I don't want to be here" yadda yadda yadda but it never got to be that bad.

If you've been there before you know the restaurant/hotel on the corner just before you duck into the rail trail? Well Sherpa parked herself there with a drink and made friends with everyone on the patio. So whenever one of us from my tri club (about 15) ran by, the WHOLE PATIO would yell "GO RANDEE." I think she was there for 3 of the 4 times you go by it! Again, she was so awesome!!

Going through the village at the start of loop 2 is just amazing. SO MANY SPECTATORS and saw so many friends along the cobblestones.

I went down the red carpet towards the swim exit, took the left towards the red bull arch and hit the hill and started walking. I was walking with a few guys up the hill and I told them "trail runners walk the hills. That's my story and I'm sticking to it." They all liked that!

There was 1 guy who I was chatting with for the next half mile or so and we would go back and forth. We hit a downhill and he was still walking so I said "c'mon, free speed, it's downhill, let's go." Finally I said "Gregg you go ahead and have a good run. I'm sure you're going to be faster than me." He said "I'm enjoying talking with you and I like your plan of walking the hills and the aid stations so let's run this together." I said "ok!"

I can't even tell you how much Gregg helped me on that run. There had to be at least 3-4 times I said "go ahead I don't want to slow you down." And he was like "nope, you made me run down that hill now let's go." There were so many times I really wanted to walk but I didn't want to slow down his run. This was his first IM and I didn't want to be the person that killed it - so we ran.

And by having someone to run with and chat with my mind never really went to that dark place I think we all go in the second half of an IM run.

I knew I was doing well but I didn't look at my watch much and I never got overly excited because anything can (and does) happen in an IM run. I did share with him I was headed for a PR and my goal was to finish in daylight. When we got back into the village with a mile or so to go we hit a hill. "I said this is a hill, we walk." By this time the sun had gone down and it was nearly completely dark. He said "nope, run, you can do it. There is still ambient light and we can get you your daylight finish." And so we did. We got to the last stretch and I said "go ahead and have your moment at the finish." I gave him a few seconds and followed behind.

We double high fived at the finish but I lost him after that (got him on Strava and Facebook so I'm sure I'll get my chance to thank him again).

I owe that run PR to him.

I went right to the watermelon and said "can I have a lot of that?" They said SURE and loaded me up.

I got my stuff and wandered around a bit and eventually found Phil who missed my finish because without his phone he didn't realize I was about an hour behind him (he didn't have a great run due to GI issues). We got lots of pics and waited for friends and had a great time in the finish tent - poutine aside - BLAH.


It's Mont Tremblant - what can you say?! The worst part is driving through Montreal to get there :)

I'm glad I finally had a decent race there - and oh yeah, a 1 hour and 28 minute PR.