IMLP Race Report - Jim Daley
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Here is my race report from Ironman Lake Placid. This is copy/pasted from a post I did on my Facebook page, so the intended audience is not the EN crowd, but I don't know if I will have time to write a seperate one, so here it is. This is not so much the data/analysis of the race, but my experience as a first time Ironman. Power data is at the bottom. What an amazing day. Thanks to EN for making it go so well!!
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I had three goals going into the race. In order they were:
1. Enjoy the experience, have fun, and finish;
2. Run the entire marathon;
3. Break 13 hours.
My alarm went off at 2:00 am on race day morning, and I downed two bottles of Ensure to top off the calories, then tried to get a couple more hours of sleep (did not work so well), and was up for good at 4:00 am. Had my second breakfast and gathered the last of my gear, trying not to forget anything. It’s hard to stay focused in situations like that! I got into town around 5:15 am and made the final race preparations – topped of my tires with air, put water bottles on the bike, etc. Then I made my way through town, meeting up with family and friends and getting body marked on the way to the swim start in Mirror Lake.
I got in the water and situated myself roughly in the center of the starting line, about 5 to 10 people back from the front. The Lake Placid swim is known for the cable that runs underwater along the buoy line, and if you can swim within 20 yards or so of that cable, you can see it and not bother lifting your head out of the water to check your direction every few strokes. That can save a lot of time and energy on the swim. The problem is 2,500 other people have the same idea, and it can get very congested along the cable. It was an incredible few minutes treading water, waiting for the gun to go off. The energy from the other swimmers around you, the crowds all along the shore, the music, is amazing. Your heart is pounding waiting for the gun to go off. You know it’s coming, and have no idea what is coming during the long day ahead.
Then boom! – the gun went off and I started swimming. Went about 10 stokes and had to stop – we were just too packed together to make any forward progress. I spotted some relatively open water to the left and went for it. I kept veering left without realizing it, and before I knew it I was crossing right over the cable, and ended up on the left side of it, with the buoys to my right side. The vast majority of the swimmers are on the right side of the buoys for the counter-clockwise swim loop. Staying on the left is legal as long as you make the turns around the outside of the corner buoys. Being to the left of the buoys was great – I was in relatively open water, swimming fast, and out of the melee that I could see going on just on the other side of the cable! I still ran into traffic from time to time, and even got my goggles kicked off my eyes at one point, but it was really not bad. The hardest part was merging back right to get around the turn buoys. The entire field was converging on those buoys, and it was impossible to swim around them. We were all so packed together I half swam, half treaded water around the first buoy, fought the crowds all the way to and around the second buoy. That took a lot out of me and I had to slow up the pace to recover after the second turn. On the way back in I kept just off the left side of the cable. At times I was right over the top of it, and even swam right into one of the buoys! I had estimated that my total swim time would be about 1 hour and 20 minutes for the 2.4 mile swim. It’s a two-loop course, and you have to get out of the water, run along the beach, and get back in for the second loop. Coming out of the water after the first loop I checked my watch and saw 36 minutes – nice! Back into the water for loop 2 and kept the same strategy – to the left of the cable all the way around. I’m pretty much middle of the pack in the swim, so I ended up finishing the swim in a big crowd of fellow swimmers. That made for a comical swim exit - a huge mass of swimmers all hit the beach at the same time, and the ones in front were not getting up and out of the water fast enough. More and more swimmers kept coming in, piling up on top of each other like a bunch of spawning salmon. I got stopped a good 50 feet from the shore, still well over my head, and everyone was thrashing around trying to get to the shore, but not much forward progress was possible! Was like a big washing machine. I finally got out, with a swim time of 1:15, for an average pace of 1:47 per hundred yards – five minutes faster than I expected.
It’s a long run from Mirror Lake to the transition area at the speed skating oval, but pretty incredible. The whole route is lined with screaming spectators. I managed to say hi to my family along the way. Once in the transition area I wasted a confused minute or two trying to find my bike gear bag – I thought I had marked the spot well the day before but something did not seem right. And there was row upon row of 2,500 other identical gear bags hanging on racks. Finally found it and entered the men’s changing tent. That was like entering a different world. Dark, hot, humid, and packed with hundreds of wet people ditching swim gear and getting on their bike stuff. I was wearing the same triathlon top and bottom for the duration of the race, so it was pretty simple for me. Ditched the wetsuit, goggles and cap, then sock, sock, shoe, shoe, helmet, glasses and go! On one wall of the tent was a line of trough-style urinals, so I took advantage of that. Back into the sunlight and fresh air and I yelled my race number to one of the bike handlers. I made my way through the oval, was met with my bike, got on, and navigated the series of steep 90 degree turns at the bike start. Through the crowds and out of town, and I breathed a sigh of relief to be through all that in one piece. I relaxed and settled in on the bike for a long ride. After an extremely hot and humid the week, we had perfect weather for the race – highs in the mid 70’s, partly cloudy, and low humidity, and it felt great to be riding. A total of 10 minutes and 15 seconds for the first transition, so room for improvement there.
I train and race with a power meter, and on my bike is a bike computer that shows the usual speed, distance, time, and cadence information, but also power data – the number of watts that I am putting out at any given moment. The goal is to stick to a target wattage that I had established during training, and to ride as evenly and consistently as possible - to maintain that power whether going uphill, on the flats, into the wind, downhill – the entire race. That is the most efficient and the fastest way around the course. In order to finish the bike leg with enough left in me to run a full marathon, I needed to go pretty easy on the bike, so the target wattage is very low. The problem is that just about everyone else is flying early in the race, and bombing up the first hills out of town. Lots of people are even out of their saddle, bombing up meaningless hills 5 miles into a hundred and forty mile race! But throughout the ride I stuck to my target power, remembering that “patience, discipline, and perseverance” is needed in an Ironman. It goes kind of like this: Early in the bike leg – I’m moving backwards through the field getting passed by lots of people. On uphills – I’m moving backwards through the field again. On downhills and flats – I’m moving up through the field, passing people. By the end of the second loop on the bike course – I’m really moving through the field and passing lots of people – many of whom were out of the saddle on hills 6 hours earlier!
Coming back into town after the first 56 mile loop was incredible. There are some short, steep hills as you come back into town, and there was a huge crowd at the top of the last one. It was a little Tour de France scene – screaming crowds, even two guys dressed as bananas running alongside the bikers. I had to laugh. Then into town to the bike special needs stop where I got my special needs bag that had my nutrition in it for the second loop. I recognized the person helping me with my bag from the Capital District Triathlon Club. She said she could not believe I looked so fresh after 56 miles. And I really was feeling great still. The total stop lasted 45 seconds, and back riding again. That would be my only stop for the full 112 mile ride. I got to see my family again just past the special needs stop, and they were yelling and cheering, which was great. The bike course then winds through town, the whole way walled with screaming spectators. It was absolutely incredible. Back out of town and I had a smile plastered on my face thinking about that scene for the next ten miles. And I was still blown away by the swim start and laughing about the spawning run swim exit. Then I passed a local summer camp, and all the kids were out lining the road beating a long row of drums and singing. I almost lost it. What trip!
The second loop of the bike course was pretty much the same as the first, although the wind picked up and I went slightly slower than the first loop, even though my power numbers were almost the same. I started passing more and more people who seemed to be having a bit of a rough time after going to hard on the first loop and were slowing down. My pacing was paying off, and I felt great right to the end of the ride. I was hoping to do the bike leg in about 6.5 hours, and I ended up doing it in 6 hours and 18 minutes, with an average speed of 17.8 mph. I was very happy with that. So far so good!
Back to the oval, handed off my bike to one of the volenteers, and ran to find my run gear bag. More confusion with the bags, running up and down rows trying to find it. Then one of the volunteers found it for me and said they were having trouble with the bags my section – the rows were all numbered wrong! Back into the dark changing tent. This time a volunteer helped me getting stuff out of and back into my bags. Paid a visit to the trough along the tent wall, and back into the sunlight and onto the run course, feeling absolutely great. Total transition time 5 minutes 30 seconds.
The first few miles of the run have some nice downhills heading out of town, and I was feeling good and light on my feet. Similar to power on the bike, for the run I was using pace, and I had certain pacing targets for various stages of the race. For the first six miles it’s a very, very slow pace, and it takes work to hold yourself back that much. There is big temptation to go out way to fast at the start of the run. The group that I train with say that an Ironman race does not really begin until mile 18 on the run, and you need to do everything right early on so that you make it that far and can then keep on running.
It’s a long race, and everyone says you will go through many highs and lows during the day. When you feel like crap, suck it up, adjust your pace, etc, and you will come around. Similarly, if you are feeling great, keep monitoring yourself and try to do things right because tough times are coming. My tough times started around mile 3 on the run. I started having some sloshy stomach feelings at about that point from taking in a too many calories early on in the run and in transition. I kind of ignored it, figuring it would go away, and continued to sip on my sports drink and get water at each aid station. Big mistake! Around mile five I developed a major stomach cramp – something that never happened to me during training. The pain was intense, and I had to stop and walk for half a mile. I knew that to recover I needed to stop the food intake and slow down. So that’s what I did, and over the course of the next five miles or so of slow running I gradually recovered. But I could take virtually no calories in for the next four hours on the run. I was concerned I might run out of gas and bonk at some point, but had no choice. Every time I tried to take something in other than water, I started to cramp up again. So it was water only for the rest of the run. And my planned walk breaks at the aid stations to eat and drink went from 30 paces (about 15 seconds) to about a minute for the rest of the race.
The run course is an out and back, and you do it twice. Those nice hills on the way out of town make for a tough couple of miles on the way back! All things considered I felt pretty good, and ran up all the hills, as many people stopped to walk. I passed my family by the run special needs. Since I was not taking in any calories, I did not need to stop for my replacement bottles. My family was yelling – “what about your special needs bag!?” “I don’t need it!” I said. They were thinking wow, he must be feeling good - he does not even need to stop. Meanwhile I was flirting with a stomach shutdown! I kept on running, back out of town and down the hills. There were times when I felt great and light on my feet, and times when everything ached and I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I passed many teammates and training partners going the opposite direction on the run, and it was great to yell out encouragement to each other. The sun was dropping, and it was cooling off, making things a little easier. I finally hit mile 18. Still good, and still running. Now it was just a matter of ticking off the miles one by one all the way back to town. And forcing myself to just keep running.
Back up the hills and into town. I passed Carrah on the way in and she was yelling encouragement and waving, which was great. Then the final short section up and back along Mirror Lake. What an experience the last half mile is. I could hear the cheering crowds and music inside the oval, and Mike Riley calling out names as people crossed the finish line. Down mainstreet and into the oval. Amazing, running around the oval, the place packed with screaming spectators. I crossed the line and was totally psyched. I even got the “Jim Daley – you are an Ironman!” thing over the loudspeaker. My total run time was 5:02, and total race time was 12:51.
A volunteer wrapped me in a space blanket a tried to assess my condition to see if I was okay. I lost it emotionally for a second, regained my composure, and said I was fine. I was a little wobbly and somewhat dazed and confused, but good. I made my way towards the massage tent, passing my family on the way. Once inside the massage tent I started shivering. I was suddenly very cold, very stiff, very hungry, and totally wiped out! Getting up and walking to the massage table was a painful and slow process. I started to rally after the massage, and the walking around to get my bike and gear helped. Got a shower and ended up back in town that night for a burger and a couple of beers!
I must say Carrah and Caitlin were nothing but 100% supportive the whole time I was training. Doing an Ironman is an expensive deal, and a lot of time is spent training. During the last couple of months getting in two long rides every weekend had to take priority over any travel and just about everything else. But all I ever got from them was cheerful encouragement and never a complaint. I’m very lucky.
I was also fortunate during training by having a great group of training partners right in Delmar. Most of us were training for our first Ironman, although we had a couple of veterans to give us some good advice along the way. It would not have been the same without their company on the long hard rides, all the laughs, and the camaraderie along the way. We all made it to the starting line in one piece (barely), and we are all now IRONMEN!!!
Here’s the numbers:
Official splits:
Swim: 01:15:25 (1:47/100y)
From my watch:
Lap 1 of swim: 00:36:32
Lap 2 of swim: 00:38:26
T1: 10:15
Bike: 06:18:01 (17.78 mph)
T2: 5:30
Run: 05:02:18 (11:32/mile)
Total: 12:51:29
Bike stats for those who are interested:
Target normalized power (NP) = 195 watts
Target intensity factor (IF) = .70 (percent of the maximum power I can sustain for one hour)
Target training stress score (TSS) = under 300 (a measure of how much work I did – needs to be under 300 if I still expect to be able to run a marathon).
Loop 1:
Time = 3:06:01
TSS = 146.8
IF = .69
NP = 191
VI = 1.07 (variability index – how steady I rode – should be under 1.08)
Distance = 56 miles
Cadence = 88 rpm
Speed = 18.1 mph
Loop 2:
Time = 3:10:09
TSS = 150.7
IF = .69
NP = 191
VI = 1.08
Distance = 56
Cadence = 87
Speed = 17.7
Total:
Time = 6:15:59 (not counting 45 seconds stopped at special needs)
TSS = 297.4
IF = .69
NP = 191
VI = 1.08
Distance = 112 miles
Cadence = 88
Speed = 17.9
Approaching the finish
Comments
I liked the narative style race report. It really gives a good feel for how the day and the race progressed. Great job assessing the GI issue and dealing with it effectively. That could have had a really bad impact on the second half of your run. Nice work and excellent finish.
Jim,
Nice Job on the race day adjustments and your first IM finish. The bike numbers are almost a carbon copy with the NP being the key great execution.
Gordon
Sounds like you left it all out there on the course - great effort and steady bike.