IMLP Race Report - Art Paterson

My goal for 2017 was to improve upon 2016 IMLP time of 13:35. My official 2017 time was 12:46 which was not too far off my estimated 12:20ish and almost an hour faster than 2016.

Swim: 1:19:16 - 3 mins faster 2016

In 2016 I had a crazy amount of anxiety leading into the swim - my heart felt like it was going to pop out of my chest at the swim start. This year I was a lot more relaxed going into it as felt the comfort of doing it before and generally more confident in longer swim distances.

The LP swim is really as much of a full contact swim as you can get. It was even more so than I remembered from previous year but that may also be because of the more aggressive line I chose. I started way right and stayed on or close to the cable for most of the swim. I felt I went a little too hard on the first lap at ~38mins so slowed it down a bit on the second lap.

T1: 9:39 – uneventful about 4 mins faster than 2016
I switched to bike shorts in 2016 but had the EN tri suit on this year which was great. Also didn’t wear socks for the bike which shaved off a bit of time. Got in and out smoothly.

Bike: 6:30 - 19 mins faster than 2016

I felt great the first loop - the ride conditions were just perfect. I really took it easy on the climb out of town and let a lot of people pass. After the Keene descent I started to dial into zone 2 power target of 170 and cross referencing to hear rate. I had originally estimated a 6:20 bike and after loop 1 I was right on track at 3:10. I knew the wind would pick up a bit on the second loop but it picked up a lot more than I had estimated and added another 10 mins to the second loop.

I felt very dialed into my nutrition on the bike and peed once on each loop. Adding more sodium to by IM bottle was nice as I didn’t need to take the saltsticks…one less thing to focus on! I ended up getting 4 gels down out my target 5 but ate 2 more bananas than I had planned so net/net pretty close to target calories

T2: 6:42 - about same as 2016

This is where I had a problem that almost resulted in a DNF. I was so focused on trying to improve all areas of my race and was rushing to get my bike shoes off and socks/run shoes on that I threw my back out. This happened once before about a year ago in my family room at home and I went right to the ground for about 30 mins then couch for ~2 hours and then chiropractor. I had a decision to make and it was either DNF or MTFU so went the obvious route. I did a light stretch of hammys and got on my way. I saw the family exiting T2 and my wife snapped a picture…it’s funny to look at now as I look totally awkward forcing the smile but you can see I’m hurting big time.

Run: 4:40 - 20 mins faster 2016

My initial focus was trying to do anything to deal with my lower back issues. At this point it was either cross the finish line or put me on a stretcher and I felt if I could get through the first 3 miles I could get through 26. Every few miles it would actually feel okay and I would forget about it for a few minutes than would come back but all in all I was happy that I was able to push on and finish

I felt great with my run nutrition. I put 3 saltsticks in each EFS flask and drank all of the first one and ¾ of the second before switching entirely to cola for the last 8 miles or so.

It was great to see so many EN folks on the course. Also hearing the coaching reminders from Coach P “chin up thumbs up!” were always appreciated and helpful when form starts to slip. And the LP crowds are just awesome…coming through town gives you that added adrenaline boost you need.

Finished pretty close to goal time and considering the circumstances I’m happy overall with results