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IMMT 8/12-8/18 Race Week
This is it. Last week count down. Headed to the lake for a swim , packing up and headed to Newport Vt. (Dads house to drop Otto off at puppy summer camp) which is 1/2 way to Mont Tremblant.... Headed to MT on tuesday!!!
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I do have a question about driving up there. Is a 9 hour drive withe bike on the roof rack a bad idea if I have a rear disc on the bike? Would it stress he wheel? Make driving stability a challenge sometimes? Trash gas mileage? Or should I bring up a training wheel and put the disc in the car. My wife would just lurrrrve that.
Any tips on where to exchange money? Here in the US or in Canada? Any difference?
Lake Placid was a fun little town to hang out in leading up to race day and it was great to spend it with John and Chris' (Christine Kachinsky won her age group F40-44 last year) family. They were so sweet! I also leaned heavily on my cousin Keith Wick and his wife for advice and counsel as I was busy goofing up my plan for a calm couple of days before the race. Heh. Keith helped me preview the descent to Keene. We went for a nice preview swim and just chilled out. Sweet. On Saturday, I did a swim without a wetsuit just in case the lake had warmed up. While I was on the beach I wound up talking to Ali Fitch as she got ready to hop in for a swim but I didn't know who she was. Her handler came up and gave me a wary look and gently made it clear that I should back off. I was just about to show her the plastic bag trick. I'm such a dork. I was quite impressed with the story of her comeback and then completely wowed by how she swam. Like a small motor boat. After the race I read her blog and she remarked that she was surprised to be 3 minutes slower than usual with her 57 minute swim. Yikes.
Canada takes American dollars and credit cards ... I dont think there is a need to exchange money.
A friend who did IMMT last year recommended we exchange a small amount of cash at the airport because there were a few cafes and such in Mont-Tremblant that only took cash. So we'll probably do that.
Tim- you are really building back up quite nicely. Great job!
As for me, I dropped my bike off yesterday for Tribike Transport. Wow- talk about making it feel real! Thankfully I had a friend with me and we made a shopping/day trip out of the whole thing so I wasn't freaked out too much. The swim today felt so easy. Funny how it felt like "only" 2000 meters today but 3 months ago felt like "ugh, 2000 meters!". Certainly does build confidence!
And let's quickly talk about Race Day kits. If you are NOT wearing an EN kit this year, could you please post a pic so we all know what to look for? I won't be wearing the EN kit this year. I've decided to wear my hometown team kit instead this time around. The kit is still fairly recognizable, not too many out there with a wave design! And I will be rocking the pink EN Chica visor too. So if you are looking for me on the run course (from the sidelines or on the course), I'll look something like this:
Actually, that's wishful thinking. Chances are that when you see me I'll look more like this
So, here's another vignette from last year.
The morning after, we got up early to head south and so while we were waiting in line at the Starbucks in town I struck up this conversation with a young guy with a surfer dude haircut next to us wearing a blue race bracelet.
Me: "How did you do? You feel good? Did you do well?"
He says "I took third."
Me: "Great! In your age group? Awesome!"
Him: "No, I took third."
OMG! It was Romain Guillame! I am REALLY such a dork. At least he laughed when I told him yesterday was my first and I was so happy that I actually lived through it.
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I guess IMLP 2012 was a race rehearsal for him. He went on to ring up an 8:40:48 the next month to win IMMT 2012. I simply cannot imagine.
Fly to New York Sunday.
Fly to Copenhagen Sunday arrive Monday.
Train to Kalmar Wednesday.
That's roughly 5000 miles total one way. Yes, international travel across the pond complicates things. Fortunately, I knew to get my train tickets on site. I bought a family roundtrip tonight for $202 compared to $860 that we were quoted from a Eurorail booking agent in Chicago. Food is pretty expensive here and there is even a large deposit on plastic water and soda bottles.
Meanwhile, we are all wondering what happened to summer. This is easily going to be the coolest IM I have ever done.
Total off day today. Tomorrow, I am going to run an easy 3 miles then take the family to Tivoli Gardens, a 170 year old theme park.
YIKES! And I thought Canada was gonna be bad! That's good advice for whenever someone is doing an overseas race.
That's me in the middle in that previous photo. The guy in blue is my college buddy and the guy on the left is EN WSM (and my MUCH younger cousin) Keith Wick. Here's what I'll sorta look like on the run. I just hope those numbers above me don't start with a '1' and a '3' this time.
Bike check in - On the way over to check in my machine I noticed a new clicking sound coming from the center of the bike that coincided with pushing down the left pedal. It was very noticeable and I went through a bunch of diagnostics to sort it out but I wound up narrowing it down to the bottom bracket and that meant it was time for a bike shop. Oh golly. High Peaks Cyclery is right there on Main so I stopped in. They were very nice and found that some kind of bushing or gasket thing was falling apart on the left side but they didn't have the proper replacement part. They were only able to pack it back up and say that I should be okay for the race. While I was waiting I got to hang out next to Logan Franks as they worked on his machine. Logan took 8th overall on Sunday. With all the sudden distraction about the bike, I had forgotten to bring over my run and bike bags for check-in and when I saw the racks full of bags as I rolled in at 2:55 I began to panic. Two different volunteers told me that I wouldn't have access to that area in the morning and I begged them for some extra time and they gruffly said to hurry. So hurry I did, with the help of Kira quickly dropping what she was doing and driving over to town to get me to go back to the hotel. I gathered everything I could and rushed back inside the racer area. As I was putting the bags together I realized I was still wearing my riding glasses and didn't have my regular glasses. I also realized I was wearing my racing shoes. Great. So now I'm barefoot and without my glasses. Call Kira again and confess yet another gaffe. This was getting silly.
I would have been fine but waiting in line at the bike shop and having it take so long to be 'fixed' put me in a bad place. It was over 2 hours wasted and I totally forgot some important things there. The end result was actually pretty funny.
Maybe so, and you're welcome to tag along, but the likelihood of my doing or saying something stupid increases exponentially the closer I get to any pro triathlete.
I am so going to miss your calm and caring guidance, Keith. For Kira and me you and your wife were the best thing about IMLP. Sure, I had some great Mapso mates up there but you made all the difference in the world.
Bike - Coming down the winding hill on the bike exit I got a huge chuckle at the hay bales at the bottom of the hill but I was careful. Everyone else was and I saw no one need their assistance on that sharp left at the bottom of the hill. I saw Kira and the Mapso contingent just as I headed out of town and waved with a big smile. I was feeling quite good. Yes, the bottom bracket was still making the little click with each revolution but it seemed to have calmed down so let's rock and roll. On the last long winding climb before the big descent I passed a guy who had a big spider working on making a web between his seat pack and his left seat stay. The thing had a body about the size of a dime. I debated about telling him and that got me freaking out as to whether I had one back there too… I hate spiders. Since he had no bottles behind his seat to blindly reach for I didn't say anything.
So, do ya like spiders, Nemo?
Got my final chiro adjustment and massage today, nothing like a little snap-crackle-pop to make you feel good!
As far as race day clothing...
I'm sure it'd probably be warmer to wear this:
But I'm sure that won't work while in aero position.
So this is what I'll look like when I'm coming up behind you:
But I'll be wearing a newer version of this TriBike Transport tri top, probably in red:
Then, afterward, I'll look something like this (minus the porn stache - aka "race stache"....maybe, haven't decided yet):
Clear as mud?!?
Peter- it's funny, I don't mind spiders that much (as long as they aren't too big). But crickets freak me out!
Scott- I would pay $ to see you ride with the bow tie! HA HA HA! Great pics.
Finally, here is the Pro list for IMMT. I expect Peter to study this list over the next few days so he is prepared
Men:
1
Romain
Guillaume
FRA
2
Paul
Amey
GBR
3
Viktor
Zyemtsev
UKR
5
Jozsef
Major
HUN
6
Paul
Ambrose
AUS
7
Bryan
Rhodes
NZL
8
Luke
Bell
AUS
9
Clemente
Alonso-McKernan
ESP
10
Bert
Jammaer
BEL
11
Matt
Reed
USA
13
Alejandro
Santamaria
ESP
15
Brandon
Marsh
USA
16
Mike
Schifferle
CHE
17
Dominik
Berger
AUT
18
Jerome
Bresson
CAN
19
Simon
Cochrane
NZL
20
Trevor
Delsaut
FRA
21
Logan
Franks
USA
23
Adam
Jones
CAN
24
Greg
Kopecky
USA
25
Michael
Louys
BEL
26
Arland
Macasieb
PHL
27
Brendan
Naef
CAN
28
Stefan
Schmid
DEU
30
Nigel
Gray
CAN
31
Swen
Sundberg
DEU
33
Daniel
Halksworth
GBR
34
Sean
Bechtel
CAN
Women
40
Jessie
Donavan
USA
42
Mary Beth
Ellis
USA
43
Joanna
Lawn
NZL
44
Rebekah
Keat
AUS
45
Hillary
Biscay
USA
46
Erika
Csomor
HUN
47
Bree
Wee
USA
49
Christine
Anderson
USA
50
Morgan
Chaffin
USA
51
Haley
Chura
USA
54
Marie
Danais
CAN
55
April
Gellatly
USA
56
Annie
Gervais
CAN
58
Amanda
Kourtz
USA
59
Molly
Roohi
USA
60
Kim
Schwabenbauer
USA
61
Jessica
Smith
USA
62
Jennie
Hansen
USA
63
Nina
Pekerman
ISR
64
Keiko
Tanaka
JPN
65
Sarah
Piampiano
USA
66
Olesya
Prystayko
UKR
Remember the bike shop guys trying to fix my cranks or bottom bracket on Saturday? Well, I guess they inadvertently moved the chain watcher a little and I wound up throwing the chain shifting down into the small ring in front. Before that, the thing did an amazing job of keeping my chain on the ring in spite of the weird things the ovalized Q-Rings I ride do to front shifting. I almost tipped over trying to dismount and it was kinda funny. I get the chain back on the ring and get back on the road doing the best I can to wipe off the oil from my fingers. Soon after that my, nutrition alarm goes off again so I take another slug of the UCAN mix I use and well, it all comes back out about 10 seconds later. For those of you Chopped fans out there, I would have to say that oil-based chain lube would fall into the savory category and it made for an interesting counterpoint to all the sweet items on the day's menu. Yummy.
Ran 4 miles in Copenhagen this morning. It was in the mid 50s and I went out in just a Tshirt to force a little acclimation. What a difference from Tampa. But I found some running paths along a manmade lake where all the Danes where running. It was like being in the land of Barbies. And only one Ken running for every 4 or 5 Barbies with their blonde ponytails bobbing along.
"Vous êtes un homme de fer!" ? Probably not but it was fun trying to figure that out on my soggy little run this morning.
More silliness or rather lessons in what not to do:
On my way out of T2 I stopped by to get some sunscreen and a volunteer loaded up his hands with it and began slathering it on my forehead and uh, that was the second moment of bad racer behavior for me that day. I totally freaked on the guy, yelling at him about how it would run down into my eyes. I was lashing out at him while i was trying to wipe it off but there wasn't a lot of water handy at the table to do so. I should have waited to calm down and apologize but I went out of there in a shuffling huff acting like a 3-year old to start the run. Hmm, not good. So here was everyone cheering on Main Street and it is supposed to be uplifting but uh, no. I finally got my face cleared but now my glasses were smeared and my eyes were unhappy and as the apparent Mapso taste-tester I can tell you that sunscreen just doesn't seem to go well with much of anything really.