This is my first RR....sorry, its kind of long!

Ironman Lake Placid Race Report
July 22, 2007

Cliff Notes:
Swim: 1:09:29, 653rd Overall, 105th in division
Bike: 6:33:46, 1033rd Overall, 165th in division
Run: 4:15:32, 445th Overall, 80th in division

Total: 12:14:05, 644th Overall, 110/257 Division (M30-34)

Long-winded version:
PRE-RACE:
Up at 4AM on race day, ate breakfast (oatmeal with milk, honey, applesauce, and raisins, a banana, ½ whole wheat bagel with jam, more Gatorade and water, 1 cup of coffee). Out the door at 5AM with special needs and dry clothes bags.

Once in the transition area, we dropped off the last of our bags, got body marked, put our nutrition on our bike and got my wet-suit on. I was feeling remarkably calm despite the fact that THIS WAS AN IRONMAN!!!! I think since all of my race gear was already in transition there wasn?t any worrying about it at this point. At 6:15AM we made our way to the swim start to see the women pro wave start.

We made our way into the water at 6:45AM and headed to the far right of the start area thinking we would find better water to that side of the course instead of starting close to the buoys on the left side. We weren?t alone, but it was a little less crowded. Before we knew it, the national anthem was being sung and the cannon went off and I was on my way!!! It snuck up on me since I couldn?t stop looking around to take the whole scene in?It was really cool to see the camera helicopter hovering low over Mirror Lake to catch the start of the swim!

SWIM: 1:09:29
I was hoping to go about 1:10:xx on the swim and pretty much did just that. I knew swimming this pace would be comfortable for me, and I didn?t see the point of really pushing too hard so early in the race. I am fortunate in that I am really comfortable swimming in open water so the swim was pretty uneventful although I did notice that people seemed to be swimming very aggressively, especially closer I swam to the buoys. My strategy was to stay about 30-40 yards away from the buoys, swim wide of the corner buoys to avoid the pileups, and find feet to draft off of whenever I could.

T1: 8:43
This was AWESOME!!! It was about an 800 yard run from the lake to transition but it was packed FULL of people yelling, cheering and clapping?talk about feeling like a pro!! The change tent was quite busy by the time I got to it, so I dumped my bike stuff out right as I ran into the tent. Got my stuff on, had a volunteer slap some globs of sunscreen on my shoulders, had them take my bag and I was off.

BIKE: 6:33:46
First loop: 3:11:07
Second loop: 3:22:39

I would say that cycling is my worst discipline but I came into IMLP knowing what I could and couldn?t do on the bike and planned my race accordingly. I knew I was going to get passed by a lot of people and I did. I also knew that I could really ride myself into a hole if I wasn?t careful. We had ridden the bike course in training so I knew the course fairly well and knew the hills in the first and last 14 miles of the loop could really take their toll on a rider on their second loop who had pushing too hard on them in the first loop. The first loop I concentrated on eating and drinking and enjoying the scenery making sure I wasn?t pushing too hard or big-ringing the hills, making sure I stayed in HR2 mid-high. On the second loop, I could have pushed a bit harder but kept reminding myself be patient and that I had to run a marathon after the ride! It turns out I lost about 11 minutes on the second loop since my legs were getting fatigued and wasn?t climbing as efficiently as I was on the first loop. My heart rate was still in HR2 for the flats, but getting into HR3-4 at times on the steeper hills. All in all, I wanted to ride the course nice and steady and that is what I did, more or less!

Nutrition for Bike: 2 bottle of concentrated Infinit: about 1600 calories consumed
3 pkgs of Clif-bloks: about 400 calories
Total: 2000calories (300cal/hour)
1 salt pill/hr.

T2: 6:35
Got a seat in the change tent for this one since and also hit the porto-o-john on the way through. Got my run gear on, more sunscreen and was off onto the run course!

RUN: 4:15:32
First loop: 1:59:43
Second loop: 2:15:49

Yeah, this is where ?the plan? started unraveling at the edges! I went out on the run WAY TOO HARD, all the patience I had on the bike went out the window for the run. I was feeling pretty fresh and thought I might have a good marathon in me, having conveniently forgotten I had just swum 2.4miles and ridden 112 miles! I guess I just wasn?t thinking all that much at this point and let things get ahead of me a bit, including my nutrition?.can you say ?first-timer mistakes????
I head out on the run ripping off 7:30-7:45 min/miles for the first 10K, passing guys in my AG and feeling like a million bucks! Shortly thereafter (miles 8-10) I watch in horror as my mile splits go from 8miles/miles to 9min/miles to 10min/miles and I?m feeling more and more like garbage?not a good frame of mind to run another 20K! I look down to my tri-shorts and see that I?m coated with salt I realize I need to ?reassess the situation?. I start throwing down salt pills like I?m a junkie and walking through aid stations drinking as much fluid as I can carry. I start feeling a bit better, but my stomach is really queasy and I begin making my way through the last 13.1 miles of my marathon?Gatorade and Gus are largely a no-go at this point (I think I had a grand total of 3 Gus for the ENTIRE marathon!) so I?m running on fumes at this point, going from aid station to aid station in what feels like a shuffle run with some walking in there to break things up. I pick up the pace in the last 5K of the marathon, feeding off of the energy of the crowd as I get back into town. The last out and back before the finish go by in a blur and I attach myself to a female competitor who is having a strong push for the finish line?We get to the start of the finish chute and I let her go ahead so I can slow down to take in the cheering of the crowd realizing I was 100 yards away from being an Ironman!...and that is all she wrote!

As if becoming an Ironman wasn?t good enough for one day, I was lucky to be able to watch my wife Snigglefritz (I call her Kristin BTW become an Ironman shortly afterward?.it was amazing to watch her come down the chute with a HUGE grin on her face and run across the finish line?just as fun as doing it myself?I?m so proud of her!!!! I also need to thank her since she was the one who got me into this crazy sport in the first place!

Thanks also to Sheldon?he is the one that started coaching us almost 9 months ago when Ironman was just a speck on the horizon?his expertise and guidance got me to the finish-line in one piece and with a performance I am really proud of!!!

Thanks also to all of the posters of MS forum for your support by doing the ?virtual Ironman? and tracking us throughout the day! You guys are great!