First off- Thank you for all the well wishes and congrats! It was a surprise to see the thread but a very nice one.
Prerace- Due to academic commitments, I didnt arrive in Lake Placid until around 7 pm Friday evening. NASports was understanding enough to realize that when given a choice between getting to Lake Placid in a timely manner versus graduating on time that they would be the flexible ones and allowed me to register Saturday morning. I did a short swim before registering Sat morning and then rode the run course and back up the 3 Bears to Northwoods Rd after registration to check the bike out. Used new wheels (Zipp 404 w/ Conti GP 4000 tubulars) for the race that I had ridden a few times previously but never raced so checking the bike out was important. Shifting well and I felt pretty good. No sign of the knee pain that had hobbled my training for the previous 2 plus months. Made a few too many trips between the expo and the hotel, ate dinner at 5 pm, got a snack at 8 pm and tried going to bed around 9:30 pm. Slept some between 1 and 3 but otherwise awake all night. Got up at 5 am, drank my chocolate milk, got bodymarked and took the special needs bags out. Actually remembered to put my glasses in the swim to bike bag and filled the water bottles on the bike. Went back to the hotel to put the wetsuit on and then went down to the swim start around 6:30 am. Crossed the timing mat and hung out in knee deep water until after the national anthem. Typical race morning with the sick nervous, why the heck am I doing this feeling that makes it hard to get any nutrition down. First Ironman or fourth, it hasnt gotten any better.
The mosh pit in Mirror Lake- the swim, 2.4 mi
Most triathlons in the US do wave starts for safety reasons but Ironman events are still mass starts. What that means is that all 2000+ competitors crowd into a space and start trying to swim when the cannon blows. Of note, only about 30% of an Ironman field is typically female so most of those 1400 guys swimming over the top of me have at least 50 lbs or more on me. Oh joy. So I lined up in line w/ the buoys but a ways back. When we started I got sucked right up to the line of buoys that everyone tries to follow. As I cant see very well without my glasses, its an ideal place for me when Im not moshing with 2000 of my best buds but I got killed there this time. I was getting pounded so bad that I started looking for the safety kayaks, something I never have done before in 10 years of racing but getting there I got to clearer water first and went back to swimming along. The next tough point was the turnaround and it was as scary as the start. The rest of the first lap was pretty tight and I finished it in around 39 minutes. It was a couple minutes slower than I was expecting but I was comfortable w/ the amount of effort I was expending. Second lap was clearer, spent most of it parked within 10 feet or so of the underwater line. On the second half of the second lap I got nailed really hard on the right eye. Had to fix the goggle and my vision didnt clear up until the second lap of the bike, or about 4 hours later. Have a cut on my nose from it but no black eye as I was expecting. Exited the swim around 1:23, got stripped? and jogged to T1.
Prerace- Due to academic commitments, I didnt arrive in Lake Placid until around 7 pm Friday evening. NASports was understanding enough to realize that when given a choice between getting to Lake Placid in a timely manner versus graduating on time that they would be the flexible ones and allowed me to register Saturday morning. I did a short swim before registering Sat morning and then rode the run course and back up the 3 Bears to Northwoods Rd after registration to check the bike out. Used new wheels (Zipp 404 w/ Conti GP 4000 tubulars) for the race that I had ridden a few times previously but never raced so checking the bike out was important. Shifting well and I felt pretty good. No sign of the knee pain that had hobbled my training for the previous 2 plus months. Made a few too many trips between the expo and the hotel, ate dinner at 5 pm, got a snack at 8 pm and tried going to bed around 9:30 pm. Slept some between 1 and 3 but otherwise awake all night. Got up at 5 am, drank my chocolate milk, got bodymarked and took the special needs bags out. Actually remembered to put my glasses in the swim to bike bag and filled the water bottles on the bike. Went back to the hotel to put the wetsuit on and then went down to the swim start around 6:30 am. Crossed the timing mat and hung out in knee deep water until after the national anthem. Typical race morning with the sick nervous, why the heck am I doing this feeling that makes it hard to get any nutrition down. First Ironman or fourth, it hasnt gotten any better.
The mosh pit in Mirror Lake- the swim, 2.4 mi
Most triathlons in the US do wave starts for safety reasons but Ironman events are still mass starts. What that means is that all 2000+ competitors crowd into a space and start trying to swim when the cannon blows. Of note, only about 30% of an Ironman field is typically female so most of those 1400 guys swimming over the top of me have at least 50 lbs or more on me. Oh joy. So I lined up in line w/ the buoys but a ways back. When we started I got sucked right up to the line of buoys that everyone tries to follow. As I cant see very well without my glasses, its an ideal place for me when Im not moshing with 2000 of my best buds but I got killed there this time. I was getting pounded so bad that I started looking for the safety kayaks, something I never have done before in 10 years of racing but getting there I got to clearer water first and went back to swimming along. The next tough point was the turnaround and it was as scary as the start. The rest of the first lap was pretty tight and I finished it in around 39 minutes. It was a couple minutes slower than I was expecting but I was comfortable w/ the amount of effort I was expending. Second lap was clearer, spent most of it parked within 10 feet or so of the underwater line. On the second half of the second lap I got nailed really hard on the right eye. Had to fix the goggle and my vision didnt clear up until the second lap of the bike, or about 4 hours later. Have a cut on my nose from it but no black eye as I was expecting. Exited the swim around 1:23, got stripped? and jogged to T1.
Anne
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