HIM-Mont Tremblant ~ Patrick Dalton Race Report
This was my VERY FIRST HIM.
Synopsis, I did what I expected on the swim, suprised myself on the bike and had a hard time with the run, which I chalked up to the heat.
Prelude
We stayed a 10 minute walk from transition in a condo. Nice spot and glad to have my own kitchen.
Made the usual Pasta, chicken and salad for a pre-race meal the night before, bunking down at around 9pm. Waking at 4:30, I got about 6 hours solid sleep. I ate 1/2c rolled oats and a water bottle full of Torq.
Walked 10 minutes to transition, set up, kept the tire pressure around 95PSI, keeping in mind the air temp was going to climb about 10 degrees before I hit the bike. Note, bring your own pump to transition. Organizers tell you not to and that there would be tech's around with pumps. I couldn't find a tech and ended up borrowing one off the guy next to me.
Transition was nicely organized with labels on the racks where you can specifically put your bike. Not sure if this is new, but it's the first time I ever saw this in a race. Great idea.
Swim
Expected Swim time: sub 40 minutes
Secret Wish: 30-35min
Pond conditions were near on ideal. Very little wind, water was a warm 18 degrees plus celcius. A nice change from the 10-12 degree temps I'm used to. My wave started at 7:15 am. I started near the back, considering I had never been in a large wave start like this, I wanted to play it safe. My strategy for the swim was to just take it easy and not get kicked in the face. I was punched in the face at one point and sucked water having to stop and cough it up at another.
The wave behind me started to overtake me about the halfway point.
Final Swim time: 39:15
Thoughts: Pleased with hitting expected time. I'm sure I could have knocked a minute or two off by pushing harder or starting further up, but I wanted to play the swim carefully.
T1
Long jog through T1, the crowd was lots of fun and found myself starting to smile and really enjoy myself.
I sprayed myself down with sunscreen when I got back to my spot; when I hit my neck it was as if someone set me on fire. I had gotten chafed pretty bad from my swim cap along my hairline on my neck. Next time, glide my neck! OUCH!
Time: 5:53
Bike
Predicted time: 3:45 or more. (based on a previous 90k training ride)
Secret Wish: Sub 3h
The course was suprisingly easy compared to the conditions I train in. I regularly encounter grades of 10-20% on my training rides, and I was expecting a long painful climb at the 10-15k mark and another going up the mountain. Not the case.
My plan was to break the bike into three sections "Stupid Easy, Easy and "Light 'er up""
I didn't bring nutrition on the bike, as I had trained with what they were provifing on the course. Unfortunately I couldn't grab some gels/gummies the first station, they didn't have the waffles I expected and the banana I grabbed broke off. I did manage to get some extra water. Subsequent station I slowed to a near stop to get stocked up. I was hungry at that point and was about 40k in or so. I wasn't pleased with that but it was my own fault. Lesson learned.
I was spinning along generally enjoying myself on the bike, not really paying attention to anything other than my cadence. I wanted to keep it around 90RPM. I was suprised when I checked the time at the 30k mark and was around 57:00. I started to work a little harder and managed to suprise myself as I passed the 30-60 markers well ahead of planned times.
When I hit the "big climb" up tremblant, I managed to out-climb most people around me. Yay training in hills, wind, fog, rain and other east-coast misery. I had a great time picking off people in my age group and fellows with Ironman tattoo's. If I came up on one, I made sure to pass. 
Fun times.
Actual Time: 2:57 Shocked with this. Really pleased!!!
T2
Made it through in just under 2 minutes. Re-Applied sunscreen (OUCH!)
Started jogging right away to loosen up. Started daydreaming about a sub-six HIM at this point.
Actual Time: 1:57
Run
Predicted: 2:00
Secret Wish: 1:50
Hot... Hot... HOT!!! I started tightening up about 1 mile in. I ate a couple of waffles at the first aid station and they turned to stone in my stomach. I decided there and then to switch to water for the rest of the run.
I would call the course generally easy, with only two hills worth talking about, the first being right away. Definetaly a speedsters course a long flat out and back on a railbed was forgiving.
The heat is not my friend, as mentioned I had trained in generally cool conditions (15 degrees average) The temperatures were around 26+ at the point I hit the run and I had felt it.
My strategy was to average around 6:00/km for the first half and then drop down to 5:00/km for the second half. Not the case. I managed 6:30 for the first half and 7:00 for the second.
The course was well seeded with aid stations with lots of options (coke, pretzels, cookies, banana's, water, gels, guimmies, ice, etc etc) I had to stop into the John's a couple of times, which cost me 5-6 minutes.
At the 16k mark I was 30 minutes from the finish, putting me in reach of a sub-6 race. I started saying to myself "I can do a 30 minute 5k in my sleep" and tried to talk myself into picking it up. But the heat was too much and I was sore. The brain was saying yes, the body was saying no. The body won.
I was tired as soon as I started the run. I don't think it was too much work on the bike, moreso it was the heat. Although I do think looking back that I should have done a few more bricks, trying to be fast as soon as I got off the bike. I do think I neglected that.
Actual Time: 2:24:54
Overall
Predicted: 6:45 - 7h
Early seasion prediction/goal: sub 6h
Actual: 6:09:32
Overall thoughts. Really really pleased. Pleased with the swim, suprised with my bike, not too happy with the run, but the heat killed me.
The race was REALLY well organized, there could have been better FAQ's on the website and the food issue on the bike was my only problem, which, in the grand scheme of things, was my own fault.
Looking back, I would definetaly do this race again. Fun course, nice swim, easy bike overall, easy run overall. Forgiving to Newbies.
Comments
As always, congrats. Finishing your first HIM is always a big accomplishment, and outside of EN it is extremely rare that anyone has all too stellar of a race on their first go at long course.
That said, I have to echo some of Matt's concerns about the bike execution, it's really hard to say how effectively the bike was paced without power and variability index, in general it's just hard for me to think about race execution without bringing power into the picture anymore. However, the comments about out climbing and picking off others definitely raise some potential pacing red flags.
It's not to say that this is inherently bad, you are allowed to out climb and pick off competitors on the bike, as long as this is done smartly, within your pacing zones, or done very deliberately for a specific purpose based on specific goals for a race. As age groupers, we have to be very mindful that the race is not won on the bike, and that we need to stay inside the box and focus on our own race, ignoring external influences that are outside of our control. There is a time where you are allowed to open up and start hunting down competitors without mercy, but that is at the tail end of the run where the finish line is truly within reach, not 2/3 the way through the bike.
Of course, I'm speaking in generalities, you may have rode entirely within your zones and still been able to do all of the things you mentioned, very hard to prove one way or another without power, but the bike very much may have contributed to your difficulties on the run in addition to the heat.
On the topic of nutrition, as others have stated there is always a trade off between bringing your own nutrition and relying on on course. By relying on on-course you sacrifice the control of exactly what and when you have access to your nutrition, but you gain not having to carry an entire bike legs worth of nutrition with you. For an HIM or shorter, this is not a big deal. But for an IM, it really starts to become logistically or physically cumbersome to worry about how you are going to secure 112mi worth of your own nutrition supply with you.
Thanks for the thorough write up and glad you enjoyed the venue!