IMLP Race Report-Took longer to write this report than do the race
Ironman Lake Placid 2012 Race Report-Definitely Need Advice on Nutrition
Short Version-13:14:XX…Definitely not a PR, 1st time in Placid, 7th Ironman. Began this race knowing it would not be a PR day, as life got in the way of the type of training I would have liked to get in.
Long Version-
Ironman Lake Placid was always a bucket-list race for me. I live in Chicago-the flatlands of the US-so I knew that IMLP would be a difficult course, but figuring I’ve raced IMWI 4 times and IMKY 2 times, I thought it was doable. I’ve heard IMWI was much tougher than Lake Placid-but after this year, I will argue that concept until I’m blue in the face.
I was racing alongside my husband, Mike, and father-in-law, Fred. Mike and I left Wednesday morning for the 15.5 hour trek to Lake Placid. We made it about 12 hours Wednesday, just outside of Syracuse, then finished the drive Thursday morning. When we arrived Thursday I could not believe how BEAUTIFUL the area was. I am used to the farmlands of Illinois and Wisconsin-this area was absolutely breathtaking. We immediately drove to our hotel to unload the car, then back to the expo to register. FASTEST registration time ever, in and out in roughly 10 minutes. Next was the EN dinner-It was really great meeting so many people from the team and putting faces to posts J
Friday morning we met the team for a swim early, then back to the room for a short ride. Later we went to the Ironman dinner. And then Saturday involved checking in our bikes/bags, and lots of feet up time!
Race Day
4:15am wakeup for a half bagel with PB, banana, and Gatorade. Made our way to the Olympic oval to pump up tires and get body marked. Nothing to eventful-just ready to get this show on the road!
Swim-1:12:XX
I get extremely worked up about Ironman swim starts. My anxiety gets the best of me when 2500+ athletes begin to swim at the same time. So my strategy for this race was to start as far to the right as I could, and slowly make my way back on the swim course. Yet-the course was still so congested and a nice kick to the face knocked my goggles off. Awesome. Treading water near the beginning of a mass start swim to put my goggles back on was NOT an easy task. But staying in my box, I did not get too worked up about it. Kept on swimming-finished a few minutes slower than I would’ve liked-but no big deal-it’s a long day after all J
Bike-6:48:XX
This was one of my slower bike times for Ironman courses-but I was not too upset about it because due to my lack of time on the bike this year I decided to keep my watts in Z1 throughout the entire ride. Starting off easy, staying in my watts, and focusing on nutrition kept me occupied while climbing the mountains of Lake Placid. Nothing to memorable about the bike portion of the race-but I was happy to discover that the descent was not as scary as I thought it would be, the climbing was not as bad as I anticipated, and I stuck closely to my practiced nutrition plan-which included 250 cals/hour of infinit and a bottle of water between every aid station. Because I did this with nutrition-and peed twice during the bike-I thought my nutrition was spot on-little did I know something would come back to hurt me during the run…
Run-5:03:XX (Blah)
I started the run feeling like a million bucks-happy to be off the bike, excited to get my run on. My run training went really well this year-I was hitting all my zones on all of my runs, and I was continuing my New Year’s Resolution of running each day of 2012. My run nutrition plan was set-a gel every 3 miles on the run followed by LOTS of water. I started my first 6 miles out of town right where I should have-Z1 + 30 seconds, and by mile 6 I was ready to drop into my Zone 1 pace. Gel at mile 1 and mile 4. Hit mile 7 just fine, had my 3rd gel, and then my stomach went to hell. I don’t know what was the problem-my nutrition plan on the bike and run went great in training, but just after mile 7 I started having terrible stomach cramps/bloating going on-to the point where I had to stand by the side of the road for a bit to try and work of the cramps. Running at this point became next to impossible-I tried walking for 30 seconds, then start jogging again-but the pain wouldn’t subside. This was my routine until about mile 13 when I saw Coach P-he suggested to try coke, which I had not tried yet. But just before the next aid station-bad went to worse and I needed a porta john FAST. And so became my routine for the next 8 miles or so, jogging from porta john to porta john-this was not pretty, friends. I tried whatever I could to calm my stomach a bit-water, sipped on coke, nothing too heavy though because I didn’t want to irritate my stomach anymore. Finally around mile 18 the bathroom stops ended-Im pretty sure because I had nothing left in me-and my long last 8 miles began. Walking/jogging/shuffling through the last 8 miles was frustrating for me because it was not due to leg fatigue or “checking out” from racing- I literally felt like I had NO energy to move. But somehow, someway I was able to keep my one thing in mind (and literally said it aloud several times to myself) and get to the finish line.
Finish-13:14:XX
After I finished, I was taken directly to the med tent where I was weighed in roughly 6 lbs under where I originally weighed in. I’m assuming this was due to the bathroom stops so frequently during the run because I was fully hydrated during the bike.
While any Ironman finish is a victory in itself, I am very disappointed with how the end of my race went. I am frustrated with nutrition holding my back from running to my potential. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my nutrition figured out so next year I’ll dominate at IMWI 
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Comments
I'm sorry your IMLP experience wasn't everything you wanted it to be. I'm glad you were able to deal with the descent to keene, I know you were a bit nervous about that. And you're far from the only person that had nutrition problems on the run (I'm about to post my RR). I'm glad Coach P was able to give you some advice and at least you were able to run the last 8 miles.
Good luck and enjoy training for IMWI next year.
Anyway, glad to hear that the hills weren't as bad as you feared. My only question is when will you return to IMLP in your quest to slay the beast?