Gary Lewis 2018 IMLP Race Report

WARNING - ITS LONG.  I like to read past race reports and gather little bits of info which helps me understand the race, so pardon the length

Wow, what a difficult but fun race.  There is great atmosphere in Lake Placid.

This was a combination family vacation, repayment of SAUs and Ironman.  We flew into Buffalo, stayed overnight in Canada overlooking the falls and spent the next few days playing tourists in New York.  Arriving in Lake Placid on Thursday morning by rental car.  We checked into the Hampton Inn.  This was a pricey option, but I feel was worth the money.  The hotel is right on the course and they understand their guests.  Everything was geared towards supporting the racers and their families.  We checked in and signed up for race morning breakfast.  You can pick up your brown bag in the lobby on Sunday after 3:30AM which includes a banana, bottle of water, hard-boiled egg, bagel, peanut butter, jelly, cream cheese, yogurt.  All the things I would normally eat without the hassle of going to get them.

We had a 3:00PM appointment to ride the bobsleds at Whiteface and then team dinner after.  Bobsleds were fun and it was great to put the faces to some of the names at team dinner.  The team dinner was at the Crowne Plaza, which I almost booked, but after walking up that hill, my wife was elated that we didn’t stay there.  Mariah had some SWAG for us, we went back to our hotel and then went to the Rite-Aid to get a few things and stopped by Ben & Jerry's for dessert. 

When we got back to the room, I decided to start assembling my Ventum, to hopefully ride the Keene descent on Friday.  I got it all put together, but the front brake was rubbing on the wheel.  Not just a little, but really rubbing.  Decided the best thing was to take it over to Ventum in IM Village on Friday and have it checked out. 

Friday, the family left to go see Vermont, which would give me time to get everything in order and them time to go Ziplining, tour the Ben & Jerry's factory, cider mill and stay at the Von Trapp Family Lodge.  Needless to say they had fun.

Friday:

Went to the Team swim at 7:00AM.  Normally, not big on swimming prior to a race.  I am a confident swimmer, but wanted to try out swimming in my Castelli race suit under my wetsuit.  I also want to see the cable everyone was talking about.  I had received advice in my race plan from @Scott Dinhofer and @Al Truscott that I should fight for the cable on race day if I wanted a fast swim.  I learned that the cable is a yellow rope that they tie the swim buoys onto to keep them in place.  The practice swim was valuable because I learned if you follow the cable blindly, you run into the buoys and get caught under them causing stress and it messes up your rhythm and breathing.  Swam one lap, got out and headed back to the hotel.  Walked past the Bacon cookout on the beach and had the free self-serve buffet of waffles, banana, yogurt at the hotel.  At 9:30 headed to Main Street to go to the 4 Keys talk at the theatre.  On the way, I ran into Steve, Brenda and Jason having coffee in the park.  Sat with them.  Watched the 4 Keys, and went back to my hotel to get my bike.  Grabbed my bike and headed over to Ventum.  Dropped it off, and went to lunch.  After lunch, I went back to pick it up, and they said they needed to replace the front brake assembly.  The rear brake was problematic, but he said he adjusted it.  They only charged me for parts, gave me the EN discount and let me watch the whole process.  They replaced the cable, made some adjustments and I was back in great shape.  Can’t say enough how great they were to me.  Walked over and listened to the athlete briefing.  Now it was too late in the day to go riding, so I went back to the hotel and started assembling my bags.  Went to bed early, to catch up on some much needed sleep and tried to get my body on Eastern time zone. 

Saturday:

Game plan to mix up my nutrition and put into disposable water bottles that should be similar to the ones I expected on the course.  Since my family took the rental car, they took the water bottles as well.  I would have to wait for them to return to do that.  Hydrate with Infinit, relax, finish bags, took a nap.  Watched the five old YouTube videos from Coach Patrick about racing Lake Placid.  Really tried to sharpen my knowledge of the course even though I had never seen it.  The course was going to be different this year, but most of it the same.  Important take-away was there was a legit hill from Jay to Wilmington.  Dropped off bike and my race bags.  Spent time understanding transition, visualizing how it all worked and then went to back to the hotel.  Family came back later and I mixed up my nutrition bottles and put in the fridge.  My wife put on my Tri-Tats and early to bed.  Set alarm for 3:45.

Sunday:

Woke up at 3:30.  Went to lobby and brought back breakfast bags and coffee.  Ate the bagel, peanut butter, cream cheese and egg.  Headed over to transition, to fill drink tank and load two bottles in rear cages.  I found out the bottles were real loose in the cages which was very concerning.  I had one real bike bottle with me so that gave me three bottles to start, and an empty cage.  I didn’t trust that water bottle to stay in the cage, so I left in it my special needs bag.  Put two Huma gels and cliff bar in bento box.  Put the other three bottles in the bike special needs bag, pumped my tires, calibrated PM with Garmin and turned it off.  Headed over to bike Special needs to drop of bag with four bottles, Tylenol and extra gel. Walked back to run special needs.  Dropped off bag with extra socks and rain jacket.  Went back to hotel to use restroom, relax and make the team photo at 6:00AM.

RACING

SWIM 1:12:46

Expecting to swim about 1:25 lined up behind the 1:10-1:20 sign.  The gun went off and its now race time.  Started watch as I stepped over timing mat, ran to the water, dove forward and started swimming.  Swam to the cable as quick as I could find it, and started passing people for the first 3/4 of the outbound swim.  Not a lot of contact, swam between people and sighted every now and then to keep from running into buoys.  No one was passing me and I felt good.  Then I got whacked in the right eye, which jarred my goggle a little and let in some water.  Fixed it while still moving but cramped up a little, which concerned me.  Swam the remainder of the loop, still passing people, but not being passed.  Swam until my hands were on the sand, stood up, ran up the beach, looked at my watch and saw 34 minutes.  That was a real boost, way ahead of schedule.  Back in the water, but this time a different group.  This group was the same speed as me and I was trying to go between them like the first loop, but it wasn't working.  "Stay in your box".  On the cable, sighting and now there was one guy that wanted to battle for the cable and he was going to stay there at all costs.  Made the turn and still feeling good.  Mr. Stubborn and I traded arm blows and finally we were passed by two swimmers.  Whacked again.  Same goggle.  I let him have the cable, but stayed just to the left of him.  Karma won.  I essentially ran him into the buoys four times and laughed every time.  It was like watching a guy who wasn't paying attention, walk into a street sign.  Got out of the water, stopped watch, didn’t look at it, but felt like I had a good swim.  Ran to strippers, got peeled and off and running to change.

T1 7:31

It’s quite a distance from the lake down to transition.  Grabbed my bag.  Inside changing tent.  I had packed a small towel to wipe the sand off my feet, put on my shoes, put on my helmet, put my jacket in back pocket of kit, stuffed my wetsuit in the bag and ran out the other side.  I was debating the jacket. The weather report expected rain on the swim and the first couple of hours on the bike.  I Planned to use the swim as a gauge of whether to grab the jacket.  It never rained on the swim.  They had my bike waiting for me, jogged with it to mount line.  I saw Coach, Mariah and my family.  Carefully mounted my bike and I was off. 

BIKE 7:15

It was cloudy and drizzling rain.  Temperature wasn't bad.  HR was 140.  The plan was to JRA until Keene descent, drink my nutrition and set up my day.  I don’t ever ride in the rain.  In Arizona it is either sunny or it is a downpour.  People in AZ can't drive a car in the rain, there is no way I'm riding my bike in that.  I asked Coach P at the team dinner.  His advice, avoid lane stripes and potholes.  I got to the descent, and I think the rain and the hill scared a lot of people, which kept them on the right.  Flew down the hills, controlled with a max speed of 46MPH.  Kept drinking.  I wasn't going to let the cloud cover fool me into not hydrating.  Drank all of the Infinit I had, picked up a bottle of GE from an aid station.  I rode carefully up the hills trying to keep watts at high 160s.  I felt like I was  being very conservative on the climbs and fairly aggressive on the downhills.  I think this contributed to a higher VI and IF, bit seems to work on this course.  Everyone passed me going up, but I held very low watts and stayed in my box.  The climbs are legit.  I was glad to have 50/34 and 11/32 gears.  It was tough to find stretches to pee on the bike.  Your either climbing or going down hills that require focus.  Back was a little tight from all of the climbs.  I spent a lot more time out of aero than I was used to.  Teammates advised me to sit up on climbs and I took that advice.  I had sand in my shoes since the swim and it was rubbing my ankles raw.  I tried a few times to wash it while riding with water from the aid station, no luck.  First loop was looking like 3:30 split which was about 15 minutes slower than what I wanted.  Decided to not worry about outcome and to stay in my box.  Hoping the weather would clear up on the second loop.  I now knew what the course was about.  Stopped at special needs, refilled my Infinit, but had to leave one bottle because I had refilled my tank with GE at an aid station. 

Second loop - Still raining a little, but now there was a headwind to a crosswind going out.  Slick and gusty which made it a little scary.  Kept drinking, but now I had to pee all the time.  I must have peed at least five times on the bike and even stopped at two aid stations to use the porta-john and stretch my back.  Made the left turn in Jay and my bike started this chirping sound.  I think the back brake was rubbing, but there was nothing I felt I could do about it.  Pulses the brake, tried to spray some water in it while moving, but nothing stopped it.  At one stop, the aid station was a sand box.  Now my feet were filled with sand.  Stopped up the road a mile, took off my shoes, washed off my feet, rinsed my shoes and got back on.  I was riding along trading places with the same three people, passing them on the downhills and they passed me on the climbs.  Made it back to transition  and 50' from the dismount line, lost a water bottle.  I was surprised that was the first time it bounced out.

VI-1.138 NP-148 IF-.72 TSS 375

T2 8:59

This transition I grabbed a water bottle and the towel from home to really get all of the sand off my feet before the run.  I also had a tiny jar of Vaseline that I wiped between my toes, pulled on my socks, tied my shoes, then stuffed everything back in the bag.  Used the urinal on the way out and left feeling in great shape.  Slow and smooth, knowing that I wanted trouble free feet for the run.

RUN 5:32

This was the one area that I felt I could have done better if I had experienced this race before.  My plan was to try to get my heart rate down, be patient for the first few miles and not go out too hard.  Since this course starts the first few miles with some steep downhill, a better plan would have been to let loose the first few miles, letting the course dictate the speed.  Then settle into a more manageable pace for the long rolling out and back.  Because I was trying to stay slow and steady, I think it made me heel strike and created a braking effect.  Once I hit the flat, my heel/arch was hurting.  It changed my gait and was causing quite a bit of discomfort.  I took in GE at each aid station, limited the walking and took some 5 second walk beaks to help ease the heel/arch pain.  Decided that I would walk the uphills as needed.  My pace slowed by about a minute/mile, but I felt it was the best strategy to keep from walking in the last few miles.

After walking up the hill past Lisa G's I saw Coach P in the road.  I told him my foot was hurting, he recommended getting some Tylenol.  I saw my family at the EN tent, but they didn’t have any.  Stopped at run SN, but I didn’t put any in there.  Oh well, just suffer through it.  Came back by Coach, he reminded me about the medical aid out at mile 17.  Down the hill and saw Brenda at Lisa G's.  At mile 14, my fingers started getting tingly.  I remember Coach saying to eat bananas if that happens.  For the next few aid stations that became my treat/motivation.  Get to the next one and you can have a banana.  Alternated, with water and coke.  Got to the Med station.  Asked for some Tylenol.  They only had Advil.  Al Truscott always reminds me that it's not good to take that during endurance events.  I reluctantly took it.  At the next aid station, is when it caught up with me.  Started feeling light headed, sweaty and nauseous.  I wasn't sure that I could go anywhere.  Spent a few minutes yacking in the grass, not much coming out.  Stood up, got some water and starting running again.  Foot didn't feel bad, but legs were now cramping.  It was now time to start thinking about my "one thing" .  I started running longer, and walked the hills.  Foot pain seemed to have cleared up.  Caught up to Alicia at about mile 22, tried to get her to push and run with me, but she was hurting too much.  Turned left at the light in Main and I knew I was on the home stretch.  Walking in would not be happening today. 

This was a difficult race for me and the conditions were challenging, but I truly enjoyed it, even thru the pain.  I stayed in my box, executed the best I could with what was going on, adjusted based upon conditions and finished strong.  I learned so much and can’t wait to do it again.  My future self will be much faster.