IMLP RR
This was Ironman #2 for me, with my first being Louisville in 2008. I've been part of EN since winter of 2008, so 3 years to learn a lot, get faster, etc. My training leading up to the race had been pretty solid, although I did not have the number of long bikes that I had hoped for. I also wasn't able to do a big tri week or weekend of any sort. Going in I told folks my expectations were to come in between 12-13 hours...if I go under 12 I would be ecstatic, and if I go over 13 something would have to have gone wrong. Quick summary is that I came in just about WHERE I expected time-wise, but not exactly HOW I thought I would do it. Short story is that my swim was faster than expected, bike was slower than expected, and run was also a bit slow. All in all, though, I had a great time there...much more fun than Louisville, and I would definitely do it again.
Pre-race
My 11-year-old daughter Ellie came with me to the race, and we flew in on Thursday afternoon. We got there in time to meet a few folks at the bar, and then we went to the crepe restaurant for dinner...it was SUPER good. For you foodies (talkin' to you Beth), we split 1 savory crepe (ham, asparagus, and brie), and a 3fer of sweet crepes (wild blueberries and lemon curd, apple pie, and s'more). They were all super good. We were staying out side of town just off the Au Sable loop in a 2-bedroom cabin. The place was nice, but no AC, and it was f'in HOT (85-90 all week until raceday)! Ellie had a bit of a meltdown because we were in the middle of nowhere (vs. a hotel in town) and it was really hot. We got the fans going, though, and it cooled down enough that we got decent sleep.
Friday we went to the 4 Keys talk, picked up the bike from Tri-bike, and spent the afternoon swimming down at the beach. Ellie did the fun run, but she was a long way back from the winner (chip of the old block there!). For the record, the older kid fun run winner was a 12 year old girl that rocked a 5:43 for the one mile race!!! Went to the team dinner Friday night and had a great time meeting everyone.
Saturday Ellie and I went in early to drop the bike and bags, then we walked up to the Olympic Museum. It was super cool...lots of old skates, old bobsleds, medals from all the Olympics, etc. Definitely worth a visit. We sat down and watched the actual video replay of the 3rd period of the Miracle on Ice. Ellie plays hockey, and 13 of the 20 players on the team + all the coaches are Minnesotans, so that was super fun. We had dinner Saturday sitting outside on the patio of an Italian place with Tracy Wood and then went home to bed.
Swim (1:16:14, 1066OA/216Div)...looks who's crackin' the top half on the swim now?
I'm not that great of a swimmer, and I compound that by usually doing only 1-2 swims/week vs. the 3 in the plans. My work/family schedule just doesn't give me enough time to get to the pool. This was my first ever race in a wetsuit, though, and I felt relatively good. I lined up way right, waited about 30 seconds after the gun went off, and then jumped into the scrum. It was a little rough, but not nearly as bad as I thought it might be. (or as bad as others thought) My goggles were all foggy, so sighting was impossible, so I just followed the crowd out and back on lap 1. I had no idea what my time was for the lap. Lap 2 I ended up right to the right of the line for a while until I realized there were only a couple of folks inside the line, so I went in there. Someone suggested that in the forums earlier, and I have to say, that made life very, very easy for me. I just sited off the wire and paddled along. On the last leg into shore I found a good pair of feet and was barely working at all swimming along. Between the wetsuit, the wire, and the current created by all the people in front of me, I can't really imagine the thing being any easier. Saw Ellie on the run into transition and gave her a high five...she was really smiley which made me feel great.
Bike (6:22:52, 1084OA/259Div)...WTF?
I'm not sure exactly what I didn't do right on the bike, but I had expected to go at least 20 minutes faster than I did. Both RRs were around 5:55. I'm going to send in my file to be Cruciblized, and maybe we can figure it out. My hypotheses, though, are that not riding the course at all prior to race day (see point about 1-2 swims per week above), falling a bit behind on nutrition on lap 1 (left ~1/5 of my Infinit in the bottle), stopping to pee 3X, and not holding the watts as steadily as I could going up the bigger hills combined for a slow first lap. I started off going super slow up the big hill out of town...the usual story. I just kept thinking, "there goes Timmy"...or am I Timmy...whatever. A couple people gave me the ol', "come on, you can DO it" as they huffed and puffed by. Going down the big hill I bombed by at least a hundred or so folks...lots of people sitting up riding the brakes. Au Sable was great...felt strong on the flats and held watts better. The hills back into town seemed like they would never end. I was hitting the water pretty hard, and it was definitely feeling hot too. Coming into town I swapped my fuel bottles (3X concentrate Infinit) and realized I hadn't drank all of bottle #1...uh oh.
I rolled really slowly through town looking for Ellie. Didn't see her until we got to the big right hander just past transition. She was there with Traci and the McCrann gang, so gave her the thumbs up and rolled on out. It was around then that I realized I'd done something like a 3:17 for lap one which seemed really slow. I made a commitment to hit the watts a little harder going up in lap 2 and continue to hammer down like I'd done on lap 1. I think that made a difference, but I'll have to get WKO+ to look at it more closely. Here's the summary data (I tried to hit lap every hour after the first "just rollin' along" section):
| Lap | Time | Distance | Avg Watts | Avg Speed |
| 1 | 0:49:50 | 14.77 | 118 | 17.78 |
| 2 | 1:00:19 | 20.86 | 157 | 20.76 |
| 3 | 1:00:06 | 15.04 | 159 | 15.01 |
| 4 | 1:03:26 | 17.35 | 140 | 16.41 |
| 5 | 1:00:01 | 21.21 | 150 | 21.21 |
| 6 | 1:00:07 | 15.23 | 164 | 15.2 |
| 7 | 0:27:07 | 7.18 | 152 | 15.9 |
Target watts were 165, so clearly I undershot my effort. Got to the run still in good spirits, though, so 'nuff said.
Run (4:35:21 966OA/194Div)...Sure glad when that was over!
Got through transition quickly and hit the run. Goal was to stay ~10:00 for the first 6, then drop it to 9:30s for as long as I could. It's definitely a much hillier course than anything I run around here, so I knew that I would have some ups and downs in there. First out and back went by without much fanfare. Saw Ellie again and stopped to say hi on the way out. Ended up running a big chunk of the race with a guy from Atlanta who was doing his first and going about my pace. Nice guy and pleasant to have someone to chat with. Managed to keep the first 6 just a little under 10...drank water + ice every station and Coke every other which seemed to be working fine. Gave P all the encouragement I could when he caught me around mile 8 (for me...19ish for him). He was in his bad patch, and I'm pretty sure my threat to smack him on the @#$ if he didn't start running is what got him that Kona slot! If I had realized how close Chris G was to a slot I would have threatened him too. I dropped the pace for miles 7-8, but just couldn't hold it there. Pace popped back up to 10:00ish on the way into town and then crept steadily up after that. It was super fun to see everyone out on the run...just tons of EN mojo all day long. Lap 2 was a struggle for me...stomach was giving me problems, couldn't figure out what to eat, sun was beating down and giving me a headache, etc. Ran everything except the aid stations and the 2 big hills, though, and just pushed on through. Saw Ellie and Tracy on the last pass into town and they told me they'd see me at the finish. Last out and back was pretty painful, but I knew the end was near. Someone from the team was in special needs and gave me big shout outs going both ways, so whoever it was, THANKS! Hit the oval and did the classic TDF zip up the jersey, take off the glasses for the photo shot, only I dropped my glasses and got passed by about 4 people when I stopped to pick them up. That was OK, though, because it put me in a big open space so I could come across the line by myself. Thought about a bunch of ENers sitting at their computers watching the finish and tried to put on a good show (big smile, double-arm fist pump, + gang sign)! Here's the mile splits if anyone is interested:
9:44, 9:55, 9:31, 9:51, 9:44, 9:49, 9:30, 9:28, 10:08, 10:08, 10:36, 10:18, 9:37, 10:20, 10:19, 10:31, 10:58, 9:53, 11:27, 11:00, 11:08, 11:40, 10:38, 11:26, 11:18, 10:55
Total (12:28:20 949OA, 209DIV)...I'll take a 30 minute PR any day!
Caught up with Ellie and Tracy at the finish line and headed over to P's to grab my stuff and change. Went to the Pub hoping to see the team, but by the time we ate dinner and had a beer, Ellie was on her last legs, so we headed straight home to bed. All in all I enjoyed LP much more than Louisville and would definitely come to race there again. The town is nice, the course is fun, and there are lots of fun things to do. We finished off the weekend Monday morning by going to the Bobsled/Luge/Skeleton training center and Ellie rode the bobsled. I would have done it, but I was afraid I'd sit down on the sled and never get up.
Great meeting/seeing everyone at the race site. It's awesome to be part of such an inspiring, fun, and enthusiastic team. Thanks for all the support on the course and over the weekend. Special shout out to Maura McCrann and Tracy for helping out with Ellie on race day. I really appreciate it. She had a great day, and I can't thank you enough for pitching in to make sure that happened!
Comments
Thanks for the foodie report, too. Wild blueberry and lemon curd crepe? Thank sounds amazing. And just may put IMLP on my dance card for 2013.
Great RR and congrats on the 30 minte PR!
Great job on you race. Loved the report. Ellie is a trooper. IM spectating is exausting. And then no A/C? Poor kid. Surprised she did not bop you in the nose
I totally get the frustration with the bike time. Same thing happened to me in 09. My Race Rehearsal was 15 min faster for 112? Never figured out why. Maybe hills? I think LP had more climbs than my RR?
Thanks for always being fun and encouraging here in EN. You are awesome.
CC
I love positive race reports, even when things aren't ALL positive. 30' PR is something to be very proud of, and Ellie sounds like a great kid.
Bill,
Great race and a 30 minute PR is excellent. I missed your finish as I had powered out and went to the hotel for a quick nap. You are correct the EN team is great and it was nice to meet you in person. Nice job on pushing the coach through his rough patch.
Gordon
Nice race and RR. Very nice to meet you in person as well. People always talk about the hills on the bike at LP but it seems like everyone then forgets those hills on the run. The flat parts have hills and the 2 big hills are well, big. Very well done!
It was great to see you on the run course - sorry I couldn't run w/you though.
Great job Bill!!! That course is challenging for sure, Congrats on the PR! It was great hanging out with you & Ellie. She was a pleasure to hang out with. Glad she did the bobsled!
Bill - Don't beat yourself up about your bike. As you know, it's better to have a steady run than a super bike and a lot of walking. I think the road to bike improvement next time is hidden in this quote from your report: "although I did not have the number of long bikes that I had hoped for. I also wasn't able to do a big tri week or weekend of any sort." There really is no substitute for getting in the miles, not even an emphasis on speed work, and some focused long bike days back to back to back about 12-9 weeks out can have a big impact.
NICE RACE!!!! Congrats, Bill!!!! Very happy for you. We loved Ellie's reports all day!
Let us know what you figure out about the bike. It will be interesting to hear what you think once you break it down. Personally, I think you did great al the way around!