Ironman Lake Placid - Race Report

IRONMAN LAKE PLACID 2010

25^th July 2010

Build Up

This race has been in my race calendar for a whole year.  I watched the 2009 race live on my laptop and entered the day after.  The idea was to do a race in a 'holiday location' so Lynn and I could make a nice holiday out of the event.

Fast forward 12 months and the race arrived.  Training had gone pretty well, with a strong focus on aerobic endurance rather than speed or strength.  Joining Mersey Tri at the start of the year introduced me to new training opportunities – particularly on the bike - such as the Sunday club rides and the club trip to Ireland – as well as some great training partners and mentors.  The £12 club membership fee was undoubtedly the best Tri investment I made!  The only blip to the training was a knee injury about 7 weeks out which resulted in significant scaling back of cycling and a stop to all running other than my warm up races.  These warm up races had gone well.  I hit a sub 5 hour Bala Middle, taking 30 minutes off 2009, ran a 2.20 in Liverpool for my first Olympic and raced well in Ripon (Olympic+).  Swimming in all of these events exceeded expectations, with my cycling improving with each one.  For both Liverpool and Ripon I ran with the injury.

Travel and logistics I can take no credit for. Lynn arranged everything. Flights, hotels, itinerary, car hire, the lot. Given that the race is off the beaten track, this was no mean feat and something I really appreciated.  Lynn also gave me 100% support in the build up to this race, appreciating my need to spend 6 hours on a bike on nice sunny Sundays and then ensuring all of my nutrition needs were met when I got back!  This support motivated and inspired me too and without it, my race would have been a lot different!  I probably don’t say enough how much this support means to me.

We arrived in Lake Placid on the Thursday, following a flight from Manchester and a night in Boston on the Wednesday and a six hour picturesque drive on Thursday.  Preparation for the race leading up to race day consisted of one 30 minute run on Thursday to stretch out the legs, biking for 90 minutes on Friday and then shaving my legs (for the first ever time) on both Friday and Saturday!  The rest of the time was spent shopping at the expo or wandering around the beautiful town of Lake Placid, where the locals really embraced the race and treated athletes like superstars!

Race Morning!

Race morning arrived with a chorus of alarm clocks, all three set to 4am. Breakfast consisted of one peanut butter and banana bagel and half a cream cheese bagel washed down with some Ironman Perform.  I showered whilst Lynn prepared my gel bottle which was going on my bike (14 gels diluted with a little water).  All was calm and relaxed.  We made our way from the hotel, down the hill to a quiet transition area where I quickly inflated my tyres to 150psi, put water in my aero bottle, added the gel bottle to the bike and attached and set up my Garmin.  By the time I left transition, and had been through body marking, the area was filling up fast and the buzz was growing.

We made our way down to the swim start and found one of the few spaces left on the bank - it was packed with athletes and spectators - and there was barely enough room for me to put my wetsuit on. After a few quiet words with Lynn, and with emotions barely in check, I made my way towards the swim start area, where I did a few stretches and started to visualise the race and how I hoped it would go.  Once in the thick of the crowd, I could feel the excitement - and anxiety - of the other athletes, many of them iron virgins.  Having done IM Switzerland last year I knew what to expect from the race, but that didn't stop my adrenaline pumping or my ever increasing heart rate.

The Swim

With about 20 minutes to go until race start, I entered the water and did a not-so-textbook 2 minute warm up.  Then I picked a spot and bobbed up and down by the swim start.  I put myself on the front row, about 30 metres from the sweet spot of the swim (the left hand side), the idea being that I would be able to start the swim without being punched, kicked, dragged, knocked or swam over and then would be able to get over to the left by the time of the first turn (approx 950m out).  Chatting to other competitors at the start line, I suggested I was looking for a 56 or a 57 swim but I was looking for a fast pair of feet to follow.  One wise guy replied 'those fast feet you're looking for ... they'll be you'!

Boom!! The cannon fired and we were off.  I water-polo'd my first 10 strokes to see what was happening around me and seeing I had some clear water, I then put my head down and put my long training stroke into effect.  A fast 6 beat leg kick helped give me a strong start and within 5 minutes I had clear water all around me.  At this point I started veering left to join the other swimmers and hopefully benefit from their efforts.  This took a while as the water wasn't as clear as I'd thought so I bumped into quite a few swimmers.  I followed some of these guys to the first buoy and then managed to take a tight, fast turn around the buoy, which meant I was able to get onto the extreme left hand side and directly above the cable that ran underneath the water holding the buoys in line.  Looking at the cable directly underneath me had the same effect as looking at the black line on the bottom of a swimming pool, giving me no excuses for not swimming in a straight line!  At about this point I started getting a pain in my left shoulder, made worse when I stretched out my stroke.  I decided not to push it so sat in the middle of a small group and let them make the pace.  Other than being bashed by a guy who insisted on zig-zagging the course, this was a nice place to be.  At the half way point, we had to get out of the water, run about 20m and then re-enter the water to do our final lap.

The crowds were so loud when we came out of the water.  I noticed the clock showed 36 minutes but I knew that this was the pro time, who went off approximately 10 minutes before us.  If the pro's were 10 minutes ahead, I was having a storming swim!  26 minutes for the first 1900m!  I heard the announcer mention my name shortly before I dived back in for lap 2.  Once back in the water I sat in the group and swam very steadily for the next 950m to the turn buoy.  At this point, the swim actually became a little boring!  I just wanted it to be over.  For the final 950m my left shoulder was really starting to hurt.  My stroke was short and lacked any power, particularly on the left side.  On the occasions when I did stretch out and pull properly, I went to the front of the group.  However, the pain wasn't worth it so I was a bit lazy and decided to stick with the group for the remainder of the swim.  I exited the water and saw the clock - 55 minutes.  55 minutes for a lazy swim – 5 minutes behind the quickest pro swim - wow that was awesome!

T1

I ran about 30m or so to the line of wetsuit strippers and gave myself to them.  They yanked my zip open, put me on the floor and after a couple of big pulls the wetsuit was off.  I picked up the wetsuit, hat and goggles, remembered to thank the volunteers and made the long, long run to the transition area.  The crowds seemed like 5 deep and were making so much noise.  I high fived a couple of kids on my way through even though celebrations seemed a little premature!  Upon reaching transition, I picked up my bike transition bag and made my way to the transition tent, which was pretty empty at this stage.  As I was one of the first in the tent I had a volunteer all to myself!  He sat next to me packing up my transition bag once I'd finished getting my bike stuff out.  As I left the tent, I heard my number being yelled to the bike area.  This meant that there would be no messing trying to find my bike on the racks as another volunteer would have it ready for me to pick up on the way out of transition.  Sure enough, there it was.  Off I ran with my bike to the bike mount line, where I got on and was off. Total transition time - 5 minutes-ish.

180k On The Bike

Once on the bike, I had to negotiate a short, twisting, downhill section until I reached the main roads where I immediately settled into the aerobars and settled myself down.  I kept the pace low for the first few miles in this section, not wanting the excitement and adrenaline to spoil the rest of the race.  The road soon kicked up and was followed by some rolling hills.  Before long I had overtaken my first athlete.  This never happens!  Up another couple of hills and then it was time for the screaming 10k descent into Keene.  I kept the pace manageable (maxing at 64k per hour) and didn't take any risks (keeping my fingers very close to the brakes!) – the roads were a little wet and it wasn't worth the risk of saving less than a minute on my overall time.  At the bottom of the descent came a sharp left hand turn, followed by some more rolling roads up to Jay and Ausable Forks.

I was able to get a good pace going in this section, averaging 35kph.  I was feeling great here and without noticing it, my pace was creeping towards 40kph.  I made a very conscious effort to cool it as this pace was too fast and would surely take it's toll later in the race.  This stretch of road was so picturesque, a great diversion from the race - which is probably why my pace crept up.  I was surrounded by mountains, forests, rivers and beautiful, old-style American country houses.  What a place to race!  At about 50k I had reached my first split timing mat and had to make my first turnaround, returning about 10k on the same road.  Although I hadn't been passed by too many people up to this point, I could see big groups of serious riders coming up to the turnaround that I had just negotiated and sensed I was to be overtaken by a fair few people. I wasn't wrong!

Nutrition seemed to be going well.  I had an alarm on my watch which went off every 25 minutes to remind me to have a gel (or a mouthful of my gel bottle) and this worked effectively.  I was also taking a water bottle at each aid station (sometimes after several failed attempts to grab one on the go) and refilling my aero bottle as I moved on. 

On each lap there was an uphill section - no killer hills or particularly steep gradients but 15-18 mile slog of continuously rising road, rising almost 2000 feet over 20 miles.  There are five rolling hills towards the end of this stretch which have been named Little Cherry, Big Cherry, Baby Bear, Momma Bear and Papa Bear!  I had tried this part of the course on Friday with fresh legs and it felt easy, so much so that I didn’t know what all the fuss was about!  With a 2.4 mile swim and 50 miles already in the legs, it certainly felt different than my practice run!

Towards the end of lap 1, amongst all the crowds, I managed to spot Lynn who had a big smile on her face and was screaming and shouting.  It gave me renewed energy.  I was feeling good and all was well in Ironman world!

For the second lap, I decided to hold back a little more as the back end of the lap would be really tough with heavy legs.  The road was now dry on the downhill section so I let go of the brakes a little more (not much though) and managed to reach 72kph!  It now started to get tough on the uphills - which didn’t really seem like hills on the first lap!  I tried to spin up the hills in easy gears but my legs were heavy.  This led to a pretty tough last 30k.  The five rollers on the back end of the course really started to register now.  They were comfortable on the first lap, but the second time around they were tough, really tough.  I finished my gel bottle about 40 minutes from home. I started to feel weak and a little faint on the bike.  This wasn’t good!  I had to run a marathon after this!!  I picked up a bottle of Ironman Perform at the last aid station, which gave me a little more va va voom, and then made my way up the hills to the transition.

I handed my bike off to volunteer and hobbled my way to transition, picked up my run bag and sat down in the transition tent where I quickly (or so I thought) changed for my run.  One of my feet had pins and needles after the bike so made it difficult to run properly to begin with, but this disappeared after the first half mile or so.  

Now For The Run …

I had so many negative thoughts running through my head at this stage 'you'll never make it', 'you've got no energy', 'this marathon will take you 6 hours', ‘you haven’t done enough training’.  I told myself that I had to remain calm and positive and keep moving forward.  I had already decided that my plan was to walk through all of the aid stations to make sure I was (a) able to fuel and hydrate properly and (b) split the marathon into 26 x 1 mile efforts.  I plodded on, the negative thoughts diluted and the miles began to tick off.  

Partly due to my lack of long training runs because of a knee injury (my longest run in the preceeding 3 months had been 20k at the Bala Middle Distance race) I had no real plan of what I was going to eat or drink on the run, other than to make sure I had something at each aid station.  I started off on Powerbar gels and water, but after the first two gels - vanilla and raspberry cream (which were warm and sickly) - I decided to switch to a cup of flat coke and a cup of water at each station.  I continued with this for the whole race.

At some point in the first 10k my mood and attitude changed.  I now had a little more energy, no longer felt faint and was now confident of making it to the end of the race without having to walk large sections of the marathon!  Judging by the relatively few people passing me, my run / walk / nutrition strategy was going quite well!  Looking at my stats, my run pace was good and slightly higher than I had 'planned' (about 5.20-5.30 mins per k or 8.30-8.45 mins per mile), but the 30-45 second walk breaks at the aid stations slowed my pace to just over 6 mins per k.  I knew at an early stage that this would mean I would miss my pre-race target time of a sub 4 hour marathon.  Whilst that would have me get near my sub 11 hour ironman goal, thoughts of target times vanished, with a new objective emerging of getting to the next aid station in 'good' shape.

My pace was consistent, albeit a bit of a shuffle, and I had become the unofficial leader of a little group of runners.  There were several runners lined up behind me, adopting my run pace and then walking through the aid stations with me!  Only when I stopped for an additional cup of water at one of the stations, did anybody pass me.  At this point, one of the guys even said ‘come on pace buddy, you were doing a good job there!’

The hills on the run course were not helping!  Apart from sapping more of my depleted energy, they were causing my legs to have twinges of cramp.  I say my legs, but it was specifically my lower calf / top of Achilles (where I have never, ever had cramp before) - on both legs!  Because of that, I was forced to walk up the last hill and some of the flat section after it to make sure I had the legs to run through the finish line!  Although this affected my run pace and overall marathon time, it was absolutely necessary.  After about half a mile of walking, I picked up my run again with about another mile to go.  At this point, I saw the legendary Michael Phelps walking alongside the run course.  I ran past him and gave him an exhausted thumbs up, to which he replied “Go man go.  Good job, keep it going!”  What a boost!  Michael Phelps cheering for me! 

Before I knew it, I was turning into the Olympic Centre, onto the speed skating track and towards the finish line, where noisy spectators were welcoming everybody home.  I held my arms aloft and lapped up the applause and then heard those infamous words “Bryan Riley – you are an Ironman!”

Post Race

I have never been so physically spent as I was in the moments after the finish.  This race took everything out of me.  Once again, Lynn looked after me, picking up my bike and bags from transition whilst I sat down for the best part of an hour (and then went for a massage).  Looking at me, she made the decision to abandon our plans of watching people finish the race and took me back to the hotel to lie down!  A race report wouldn’t be complete without taking the time to thank Lynn for all of her support, encouragement, motivation and inspiration over the past months and years.  I really couldn’t do it without her!

Race Splits & Positions

	Time	Category Position (35-39)	Overall Position
Swim	55.25	12 / 355	47 / 2611
Bike	5.58.18	122 / 355	613 / 2611
Run	4.14.42	121 / 355	727 / 2611
Overall	11.19.04	91 / 355	448 / 2611

It took a while to appreciate what I had achieved.  I had been focused on a sub-11 hour race so I was actually disappointed with my efforts.  However, I only had to look at the results properly and compare against my only other Ironman performance, Switzerland 2009, to see how far I had come in a year.

	IM Lake Placid			IM Switzerland
	Age Group	Male	Overall	Age Group	Male	Overall
Position	91	400	448	308	1266	1389
Out of	355	1897	2611	404	1748	1979
%	26%	21%	17%	76%	72%	70%

With this performance, on arguably a tougher course (hillier bike and run), not only had I improved by more than 1 hour compared to my other Ironman, I had improved by 941 places coming in the top 17% - compared to the top 70% in Switzerland!

I was 2 hours 39 minutes behind the overall winner of the race (who did an 8.40) and 1 hour 51 minutes behind my age group winner (who did a 9.28) – compared to 4 hours and almost 3 hours 30 minutes respectively in Switzerland.

The other pleasing thing was that every aspect of my race improved – swim, bike and run.

I don’t have anything confirmed for next year but roll on 2011!