IMLP - Turby Wright
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My wife Carol and I arrived in Lake Placid on Wednesday with two other couples who shared the condo with us. The location could not have been better, right on Mirror Lake drive just down from the EN tent, within walking distance of the start! Our first trip to LP was to the EN camp in June and we couldn't wait to get back! Looking back, the camp was so important because I can't imagine going into this race without riding the bike course. You'd be in for rude awakening!
Got in a couple of short workouts during race week with the last being the EN swim on Friday followed by a short run. Saturday was total rest, starting out with a huge breakfast at the Breakfast Club. Awesome! Giant pancakes, bacon and eggs. By now I am feeling like I'm 8 months pregnant from eating and hydrating! This training cycle went very well for me. No illness or injury and I absorbed the training much better than when I trained for Florida 2 years ago. Then I had a few weeks where I had to cut back on or skip workouts from fatigue. This time I felt strong and very calm and relaxed. That was a great feeling to have going in!
Race morning we were all up at 3:45 and I had my 3 cups of applesauce, bagel with peanut butter and coffee. We walked down to the lake, said our goodbyes and made our way to the swim start.
The swim: (41:30-42:30,1:24:00)
I actually enjoy swimming but stink at it. I seeded myself in the 1:21-1:30 group. I swam 1:27 in Florida and since my speed never changes I figured that was close. The gun went off and we filed in. I got bumped around quite a bit on the first loop. More so than Florida I think because it is a much more narrow area. The second loop was much better and I found plenty of open water.
Off to T-1
Here is where it gets a little embarrassing. In Florida (my first Ironman) I made up my mind I didn't care about transition times. I just wanted to finish. I took my time, changed clothes etc. In Lake Placid I was more focused on my time and trying to improve. Well, other than peeing for about 5 minutes I don't know what the HELL I was doing in there!! My times were 15:40 and 9:54! I really thought I was moving along doing what I had to do. I guess not! A good friend of mine emailed me after the race and said if I hadn't stopped for a cappuccino in both transitions I could have broken 12 hours! He's right!! Another asked me if there was a TV in there. That will not happen again!!
The bike: (loop 1- 3:20, IF .666, loop 2- 3:17, IF .702, total 6:37, IF .685)
I'm not too strong on the bike so I was pleased with the effort and negative split. My nutrition worked great, 2 bottles of Perform the first hour and 1 bottle every hour after that with 3 Clif Blocks every 1/2 hour and salt tabs. This is a bike course where you need to have a plan to manage your output or you are in big trouble after 112 miles. One of our non-EN friends who stayed with us in the condo was doing his first IM. My friend Kenny Cestari (EN'er) and I made him watch the four keys DVD on Saturday and he totally put it into practice and had a great race!
One of the great things about the Lake Placid course is that you get to see your loved ones many times. I had my amazing wife and head cheerleader Carol DeFazio screaming for me and all the other EN'ers. After Carol shouted "go EN" several dozen times our friend Justine said "how many people do you know named Ian"?
Off the bike and another rest in transition.
The run: (3:50)
I come from a running background and am always glad to get off the bike and run. I started the run and felt awesome!! I had planned to run the first six miles around 9:00 min pace and instead ran the first 3 miles at 8:07 pace, I couldn't slow myself down!! Then I saw images of Rich and Patrick saying if you screw this up we are kicking you out of the group! I got things under control in the next few miles. Except for running 7:35 coming back through town on the first loop (total crowd adrenaline!) I stayed in control. I really wanted to break 4 hours. I felt really strong and didn't really start to hurt until 19 or 20 miles. The stomach was starting to talk to me so I switched to Coke for the rest of the race.
It is a feeling like no other when you know that finish line is near and you've done it!!
Total time 12:17 (including transitions)
I have to say that in addition to the first rate coaching we get at EN, the feeling of being in this race with you all is what made this special for me. Seeing Teri Cashmore pushing to an AG win, John Withrow gutting out an amazing race and everyone else yelling and high fiveing. That is what I'll remember most.
Thank you all.
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Comments
You had an AWESOME race. Great execution on the bike and a 3:50 IM marathon! Wow, you were flying out there and looked great doing it! You and Carol are just awesome people and I'm so thankful for EN to get to know great people like you!
But dude, really, 25:34 total in Transitions??? Come to my house and I'll give you a transition tutorial. Do you know how hard it would be to take 15-18 minutes off of your run split? I can help you take 15-18 minutes out of your transitions with a 1 hr lesson. Seriously, the Transitions are part of the race, think of it like a fourth discipline and get the hell out of that tent as quickly as possible next time.
Great job though.
@ John, Hey John, I'm going to take you up on that! Carol and I will take you and Jess out for dinner after. How stupid is 26 min in transition?!!
Nice report and nice race. When I saw you on the run course you seemed so relaxed and you appeared to really be flying. Hope to see you at future races.
Thanks Al! Next stop sub 12 hours.