IMLP Race Report
Better late than never. Brace yourself, this is a long one:
Ironman Lake Placid is said to be the second hardest IM course only to IM Lake Tahoe. Why would I sign up for such a race? A little back story…My first IM came in 2012 when my brother, Ben, decided “we aren’t getting any younger, let’s do a full Ironman”. Sounded great, “I’ll do it if you will” was my response being almost positive his wife would not allow such a thing. Well, Ben has a silver tongue and quickly convinced her so we signed up for IM Texas 2012. The training took its toll on family lives and at the completion of Texas, his wife said never again. Cana let me sign up for IM Florida 2013 while Ben would live vicariously through me for that race. In January 2013, Ben’s silver tongue must have worked because his wife “gave” him “one, and I mean one, more Ironman” for his birthday. Ripple effect=Ethan gets to do a third Ironman!!!!
So, while still training for IMFL 2013 my IMLP 2014 journey began. Again, Ben’s schedule only had a small window of opportunity which left us to decide between Lake Placid and Boulder. We decided to scratch the high altitude of Boulder and signed up for Lake Placid.
Thursday
We left New Orleans International at 0630 and flew to Newark, NJ. Our connecting flight to Burlington, VT was delayed so up goes the stress level (a reoccurring theme throughout the pre-race period of our trip). We had it set in our mind to pick up our packets and bikes comfortably by 5:00. We made it to VT and our rental car and headed to the ferry across Lake Champlain. We made it to the ferry with minutes to spare and 3 vehicle slots remaining. The views on the drive through the area were not appreciated by us due to the mounting stress of riding/running in these beautiful mountains and missing the 5:00 closing of packet pickup. We pulled into town with minutes to spare, ran out of the car and made it to packet pickup at 4:58. The wives, excellent support crew that they are, parked and got the bikes from TriBike Transport (without ID & after a bit of haggling). We eventually found the rental house which was right on the course where we would pass twice on the bike and four times on the run.
Friday
We woke early and headed to Mirror Lake for a practice swim. That’s right, Mirror Lake not Lake Placid proper. Likely due to ¬insert large alligator joke here. The lake was beautiful, calm, and perfect temp for a full sleeve or sleeveless wetsuit. No worries about the swim (or were there…?). Grabbed breakfast then took in Endurance Nation’s 4 Keys Talk at the local theatre.
Next was the Keene descent practice ride. YouTube Keene descent Lake Placid. This is a terrifying stretch early in the bike loop where come race day I hit 48.5mph coasting. Despite being able to keep the speed below 40mph, us boys from the below sea level south figuratively (?) pooped bricks. We had lunch at the base of the descent with the just seen a ghost look upon our faces. “I’ll be ok as long as it doesn’t rain.”
Saturday
Checked the weather all day and got false hope that it wouldn’t rain. Dropped off T1/T2 bags and our bikes and were grumpy/pissy/nervous for the remainder of the day.
Sunday – Raceday
Awoke to a cool drizzle. Ok, only a drizzle, it’ll pass…? It did and we got to transition only to find that EVERYTHING we were told about race morning was COMPLETELY wrong and again, stress up. We got to the beach start without dropping off special needs bags and unable to find our wives. Stress up. Found the wives and gave them short/pissy/nervous instructions to find the bag drop off to which they accomplished as the excellent support crew they are.
The coolest part of my day came when walking to the beach. If you watched Kona last year, you saw Chris McDonnall’s story. Chris’ daughter, Grace, was killed at Sandy Hook. As you may or may not know, my primary function at the department is working with schools to educate staff on how to better prepare to defend against an active shooter and giving officers as much intel on each school in order to prepare them for the response to such an event, as unlikely as it may seem. The work is tedious, tiring, and frustrating. After seeing Chris and Grace’s story, I was immediately touched. I went to work on Monday and wrote her name on my whiteboard where it remains and is my greatest inspiration. I found myself walking next to Chris and I just had to introduce myself and tell him the effect his and Grace’s story had on me. I held back my tears and thanked him for his daughter. The man thanked me, shook my hand, and wished me a good race. Enough tear-jerking, on to swim start.
SWIM
LP uses the Swim Smart Initiative which is a self-seeding TTish start. I had a good first loop and ok second. The run to T1 was every bit of a half mile, mostly downhill on wet carpet. Oh yeah, it started raining and lightninging (not a word, but you know what I mean) during the swim and many people behind us actually got pulled onto boats and brought to the shoreline. They continued on to T1 and timing would be determined later.
BIKE
It was pouring rain, hard. And, it was now in the low 60’s. The hike up and out of Lake Placid was cool and wet, I tried wrapping my head around the fact that the upcoming descent was going to not only be wet, but areas of standing water, windy, lightninging, and hard rain. The descent began with the foreboding “trucks use low gear next ___ miles” signs. I kept good lines and was able to scrub my speed down in between terrifying steep drops. The fastest I saw was 42mph on the first lap. After the Keene descent was the only good part of the bike where fast rollers made up the next 20 miles fly by. The final 23ish miles are uphill and suck. The rain stopped just in time for that climb to get going, the sun didn’t come out until the last 10 miles of lap one and stayed dry until about mile 85 during lap 2. During lap 2, the Keene descent was dry and FAST, scary fast, smell your brake pads melting fast. I hit 48.5mph but didn’t know it until I downloaded my Garmin data. Everywhere it didn’t rain on lap 1, it did on lap 2. Another thing about the bike: I started training with power and changed my cassette to an 11-28. Not nearly enough gears to get my fat ass up those mountains. I kept the watts as low as I could, but definitely got out of zone 2 on some of the climbs. That being said, I never stood up or mashed the pedals to get up. It was hard to digest going uphill which likely led to my GI problems on the run. I rode the bike I “should” have and not the split I “could” have and ended up with a 6:57:49 bike split and the legs felt good after.
RUN
After a 7-hour bike and a rumbly tummy, I took a long time in T2 trying to reset before the run. The first 6 miles were good, I slowed myself down so as to not blow up, walked and drank through the aid stations and felt ok. My stomach was definitely deteriorating during the first lap, but it was only a little slower than I had hoped, about a 2:35 lap. The last 13.1 was just plain bad. I didn’t have any muscular problems until about mile 16, but they were minor compared to my stomach. My stomach wouldn’t let me run more than about 30 seconds to a minute before I had to walk. Lap 2 took about 3:30. Very frustrating that I couldn’t run, GI problems suck and I just couldn’t shake it.
I finished with a 14:35, not happy about the time, but I’m definitely happy to be a three-time Ironman. I got to race an extremely difficult course in super adverse conditions and come away with a medal. I had a wonderful trip to the Adirondacks with my wife, brother, and sister-in-law. I got whipped by my brother, but I am super proud of him. He raced smart and ran great. Even if I had the run I wanted, he still would have beat me. Our wives say we are now retired. Cana says for 5 years, I’m working on that. and Ben is indefinite, for now…..
Ethan
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