August was an extremely busy month for me. I accepted a new job and moved to Richmond, VA.
While the move was exciting and I've been planning this for a long time, it was not a stress I was looking forward to as I prepared for Ironman Mont-Tremblant. The timing of my move allowed me to move in 8/6 only to return to Buffalo, NY 8/14 for the week leading up to the race. The move couldn't have gone more smoothly. I was moved in and settled into my apartment 12 hours after leaving my doorstep in Buffalo. Two weeks out from the race, the move also served as a chance to acclimate to some warm weather before racing in weather I expected to be mid 70s in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.
I cannot speak highly enough of the triathlon scene in Richmond. Within hours of landing, I had a number of athletes reaching out to me and hooking me up with the popular swimming, cycling, and running spots. I happened upon a really cool bike shop that is big into mountain biking and I think I'll be adding another member to my fleet once I have some spare cash.
Enough about the move. If you want to know more, come visit me and I'd be happy to show you around! Winter training camp anybody?!?
The week in Buffalo flew by and before I knew it, I was on my way to Rochester, NY to meet up with Billy Boi for the drive to Mont. I love road tripping with Bill because we go nuts and get each other all kinds of amped up. This trip was no exception and I found myself confident and ready to get out on the course.
Upon landing in Mont-Tremblant I found it hard to believe that there was less climbing than IMLP. The race venue is absolutely stunning and surrounded by mountain peaks. Very reminiscent of the Adirondack region although this looked terrifying.
We were able to start checking out the course and my mind was put at ease. The roads are nice and rolling, without a single rock to be found. As a matter of fact, we saw a crew sweeping the course, by hand, Saturday afternoon.
We settled into our hotel and became familiar with the venue quickly. After taking care of all the Ironman formalities (checking in, dropping off gear bags, checking in bikes, etc), we started to prepare our bodies. In Richmond, I had been picking the brain of a very talented athlete, Danny, who races a very similar style to my own. Crush the swim, lay it out on the bike, and try to keep it together on the run. He told me about one of his pre-race routines which was right up my alley. The picture below shows my lunch Saturday night, a large 18" pizza half cheese, half mushroom and onion, delicious! Bill decided to get a smaller, fully-loaded, pizza and a full spaghetti entree on the side.
On the verge of exploding, we relaxed in the hotel with our feet up the remainder of Saturday afternoon and evening. As we were watching some fantastic Canadian television, I did a 3 hour salt load and topped up on water. We listened to Aqueous Transmission by Incubus while we visualized our races and tucked into bed around 10:00 pm. For the first time, I fell asleep right away and slept well through the night.
3:30 AM came interestingly as we woke up to the song of the weekend and started to get out gamefaces on:
I threw down the essential pre-race breakfast of rice pancakes with banana, OnceAgain Nut Butter, and honey. If it's not broke, don't fix it.
We were on site at 4:50 AM and waited around to get into transition and finalize our bottles and special needs bags for the day. Lines were long and it took a bit longer to get through the bathroom lines as we were heading down to the water.
I am a big fan of huge races because I get into the hype. Ironman Mont-Tremblant took that hype to a new level. Walking down to the water, two fighter jets flew overhead as one of my new favorite songs blasted through the air.
This was the last music I heard as I dove into the water and started to get to work for the day; not a bad tune to have stuck in your head.
Swim (0:53:56, 2 M25-29, 28 OA):
I was happy to be in the first AG wave and I started just how I started in IMLP last year. Out hard, watch for anybody to make a move, and jump on their feet before they can open up a gap. Right away things started to go great. A group of about 8 swimmers formed and started tearing down the side of the course. I sat on the back and went for a ride, swimming moderately and not having to sight nearly as much as if I was leading. My breathing settled in and I went to sleep. About halfway down the side of the course, things started to mix up. One group started to sight incorrectly and split. Picture a line of four swimmers side by side forming a double-wide echelon. I was int he wrong group and quickly jumped off of my group, into dirty water, and had some work to do to bridge the gap. It took about 3 minutes to chase the group down but once I did, I maintained my pace, settled my HR down and went back to sleep. The other group faded and the group I was in started to ramp up the pace a little bit. I was drafting, 4 swimmers back, and still working pretty hard to hold feet. We made it around the first turn and the group stayed together well, navigating around some of the pro female athletes. We swam about 3 minutes to the other side of the course and this is where my day started to go sour. Turning the corner, we ran straight into the back of a huge group of pro females. It was hard to keep track of our dark green caps so I started chasing feet of people that appeared to not be wearing pink caps. At this point, I was swimming pretty hard as our group was stretching out. As the group snapped back together, I missed my position and started to fall off the back. Knowing that I could easily swim with these guys as long as I closed the gap, I started a few very strong efforts to bridge. It wasn't working and I started to get nervous. This group was MOVING! I spent the next 5-7 minutes putting in strong efforts and when they didn't appear to be closing, I'd settle back in and recover until I was ready to burn another match. I tried this about 3 times before I realized that the gap was not going to come back to me. I had the following internal dialogue, "These guys are flying. I really want to be in that group and I know I belong in that group. I want to bridge but I have a long day and all I can do is ruin my race by expending too much energy right here. I have confidence in my riding and I'll bring it back somewhere I can be in better control." It was torture to watch this group swim away but I really feel like it was the right decision to let them go. In the future, I'll be sure to put myself in a position where I will not lose feet but huge bridging efforts can drain you. I swam in no-mans-land for a while until two guys from our wave just sort of appeared a few yards over form me. I merged into their group and began to work with them into the finish. Overall, I know I could have been 51ish had I held those feet however you will not find me complaining about a 53 any day. I had a sigh of relief exiting the water as I knew my day was in no way in jeopardy and my decision to save some energy was validated. Most important, I saw Russ on the run to T1 and whenever I hear "Nice swim!" from Russ, I know it truly must have been. He has very high standards for the type of swimming I do and he will be the first to level with me if I don't swim well.
T1 (0:04:12):
T1 was very uneventful. Loooong run to the tent but once I was in, I dumped my bag, grabbed what I needed, thanked the volunteers and got right out to my bike.
Bike (5:28:33, 11 M25-29, 105 OA):
I had a plan made through QT2 Systems based on my training indicators and past performances. The plan called for a bike split of 5:25-5:30 with HR and power goals. I had only rode 5:46 and 5:49 in IMLP the past two years so I was hoping this would happen but I honestly had my doubts. Don't take that as not having faith in my training and preparation but it seemed like so much of a drop in time. I got out and stuck to the plan. My HR was a bit high but my power was exactly where it should have been. I nailed my nutrition plan and took some time to really enjoy the course. The first section of the course feels like its an overall elevation gain when you drive it but it's honestly nothing more than rolling hills and it's decently fast for the amount of climbing you accrue. The second section of the course really makes the course fast. There is a long out and back section that screams down the highway and you can really get moving here. You can keep tabs on what's going on in the race and for the first loop there was no wind out there. The second loop picked up a bit but it wasn't anything major. The next part of the course rolls back toward transition and you tear through the village, lined with spectators, before starting the only difficult part of the course. The out and back beyond transition is the only part that has any noteworthy climbs. The great thing about this course is that all steep climbs are short and all decently long climbs are not steep at all. I may have touched my brakes 4 times each loop and that was due to the fact that there were 180 degree turns at the out and back sections. I knocked off the first loop right around 2:43 and this was the first time that day that I had a feeling something unexpected was going to happen. I h ad stayed well within myself and was able to ride 2:45ish for the second loop, feeling only slightly tired but comfortable and in control the whole time. QT2 preaches patience and I feel like while I may have over exerted slightly based on HR, there were not really any points where I burned a match or got into a battle out on the bike course. I let people go by on the climbs as I stuck to my 250 watt ceiling and I brought them back on the flats and descents. I'm a firm believer in this strategy and I'm glad I didn't start to race as I saw multiple M25-29 guys go by.
T2 (0:02:05):
All weekend, if people asked me if I was ready for the race, I kept saying "I can't wait to get out on the run course." This didn't mean that I wanted the race to be over or that I thoughts the bike ride was going to tear me apart, I just had this feeling inside that based on the way I had been training and the way my race strategy was designed, something wild was going to happen on the run. I got through transition without issue and emerged out of the tent and started a painful journey.
Run (3:30:21, 10 M25-29, 80 OA):
If there is one thing that IMMT got right (Honestly, they nailed the entire weekend but this was the best), it was the placement of the run start. Athletes literally pop out of the tent to a swarm of spectators who are screaming and lining the course for the first 0.25 miles. I felt like an absolute superstar and really wanted to make sure I kept things in control on the initial miles. My plan called for 2 x 8:00 miles to lead the run out. I always have a hard time running where I should off the bike as my legs feel great and want to move. Take Syracuse 70.3 as an example where I felt like I jogged the first mile and clicked off a 6:09. This race wasn't much better. I tried to keep my eyes off of the spectators and stay in my "box" (another QT2 protocol) so that I didn't get too excited. I stared at my watch, trying to keep my HR as close to 146 as possible. I couldn't really get it lower than 150 as I felt like I was walking but actually split 7:35 on my first mile. I couldn't believe it and decided to really start taking it easy on the rolling hills that line the first 2.5 miles of the course. To my surprise, I really slowed things down and split 8:00 on mile 2. Leaving transition, I knew that I had to run under 3:31 if I wanted any shot of breaking 10:00. The plan called for 10:17, best case scenario, and this is the point where I kind of said "screw the plan, I'm here to throw down", sorry Tim! I knew I had to be out around 1:45 so I started to get to work. The miles started ticking off and before I knew it, I was tearing down the gravel path, 8 miles into the race averaging 7:42 miles. At this moment, I told myself, "This pace is about to be done being easy. You have to be ready for the waves of discomfort that are about to come and you NEED to make it out the other side and get comfortable." I love my mentality so early in the run but I was wrong on how the pain was going to come, more on that in a minute. Loop one went by quickly and the last few miles proved difficult. My pace slowed a bit as we climbed through town and I knew I was going to have to be smart on the early stages of loop 2 if I wanted to be able to bring it home running. I ticked off a 1:41 for loop 1 and told myself "1:50 for a half marathon. How many times have you done that? This course was built for you! Get out there and get to work but be smart!" I got out of town fine, started to go to sleep a little bit although my legs were screaming. Here is where the real pain started to come. The trail section of the course goes slightly downhill then slightly uphill once you turn around. It measures roughly 10km and is a very fast part of the course. I knew this was going to be make or break and I needed to keep my legs together. I started to push on the way out and the pace wasn't coming. I was barely running under 8:10 and I knew that wasn't good enough. I put the gas down more and things improved slightly to 8:06, still not good enough. "Here we go," I thought. I put the pedal down and the pain started to come like a snowball rolling down a hill. Building and building as my splits remained steady. The turn around and a bit of uphill running didn't bring relief. Here is where I was saved by a friendly face. Out on a crossroad, I saw Russ and seeing him smile made me want to finish this race strong. He drove from Buffalo to watch the race and was one of our only spectators all day, truly saved my weekend. I ran by him and we shared a few words that came out very confident but I was truly scared about what was going to happen over the remaining 7 miles. Vocalizing my plan to him allowed me to buy into it and I went back to work. My stomach started to turn with about 4 miles to go. I got down as much coke as I could, which wasn't much, and nothing else seemed tolerable to I swished water in my mouth and spit it out. I continued to dump water and ice all over my body as I had been doing all day but I knew things were going to start to get difficult mentally. The last few miles were extremely rough, trying to stay focused while I was getting continually more hungry and the finish line was approaching but not fast enough. I had some difficulty getting over the hills in the final 3 miles but I was able to run the entire course which is the first time I have ever covered a marathon without a single step, not even at aid stations. I killed myself over the last 2 miles as the 10:00 mark was quickly approaching and there was still a bit of road ahead of me.
The Finish! (9:59:08, 10 M25-29, 80 OA):
I made it into the village with about 4 minutes to get to the finish line. I knew something catastrophic would have to happen in order for me not to sneak under 10:00. I took this as a chance to occupy my mind with how I had got to this point. I thought back to the 2012 season which was full of injury and frustration.I thought about the discipline, consistency, and sacrifice I held throughout this buildup. I thought of the nights I was on the trainer until 11 finishing workouts then getting off the bike to do a transition run in the rain. I thought about the days I was so busy with work, coaching, and training that I the only time I had to relax was while I was driving between each. In previous races, I had numbers in my head and inevitably set myself up for failure. A lot can go wrong over the course of a 10 hour day and I don't find it prudent to focus on what can wrong. I find it takes me away from the moment, and these are moments I want to remember every second of. The entire race, I spent a minute or two thinking about each and every person that helped me get to this point.
I thought about my friends and family that often have to deal with what we have come to call the "zombie"; a lifeless version of myself trying to hang out after long workouts. I want to thank them for dealing with my crankiness and making their own sacrifices to help partake in my goals.
I thought about the Buffalo Triathlon Club and all of the people I train with. I thank you for the never-ending support. For the lead up to this race, I was scared and nervous although your confidence in me allowed me to show up on the race line with a level head and a belief that my goals are possible. Your support during my move and racing is what keeps me doing what I do. You'll always be my hometown triathlon club! People are going to learn..."You don't mess with the WHITEOUT!!!"
I thought about my boy Rusty and his beautiful wife Amanda who are making the best of their early years of marriage. I want to thank you for allowing me to be a part of your wedding and your lives. You two mean the world to me.
I thought about Bill who I knew was out on the course, having the day of his life. Thank you for dealing with my pre-race nonsense even when you had your own race to focus on. These trips are some of the greatest memories of my life because of the people I get to spend them with and Bill is a staple.
I thought about QT2 Systems and my coach Tim Snow who hooked me up with an awesome plan and taught me how to execute. I have learned so much about myself and long course triathlon thanks to your proven protocols.
I thought about Steve Gonser at RunSmart. If it weren't for your expert eye, I would not have made it through that run without walking a single step. I look forward to tweaking my run form in the future.
I thought about Team X2Performance and how great it feels to be part of such a humble team. I have not met most of you but I feel like we have already formed a bond and safety net of support. Thank you for your kind words and thank you to X2 Performance for believing in me and allowing me to take another stab at this crazy game in November at IM Florida!
The person I thought about most this day was plastered on my water bottle, staring me right in the face. I had a picture of him that I carry with me everywhere. He has a home on my coaching clipboards, teaching clipboards, my desk, my bike color, and most importantly in my heart; Gary Grant. I cannot thank you enough for being a rock of a role model through my formative years. I wish I could share these experiences with you and call you to chat but I know you're up there watching over me and keeping me safe.
The culmination of this long day of thankfulness resulted in the greatest celebration of my life, heading down toward the finishing chute. To finish the race, you run downhill through the center of the village and wind along paths that navigate between shops and screaming spectators.
At the top of the village, I knew my hard work was done and everything had come to fruition. I looked at the crowd and decided it was time to bring them into my celebration. I threw my hands int he air, looked side to side, and started screaming at the top of my lungs, "COME ON! LET ME HEAR YOU!" and let loose some of the most primal screams I have ever released.
This continued towards the finish line and I started getting light headed from screaming so much. This may have contributed to the bonehead move that happened next but Danny Boy decided he wanted to get some extra running in on the day. I'd like to blame it on the volunteers speaking French but there was a sign clearly pointing left to the finish line, I didn't see it. In the picture above, you can see the split to the finish and the path that leads right, back through the done tent and back onto the course. As I was navigating the section to the right, I kept asking volunteers where the finish line was and they kept pointing straight ahead and told me to kept cheering. I knew it was somewhere to the left but hadn't scoped this section of the course out before the race so I figured it would curve back around. Upon exiting the white dome and getting back out on the run course, my heart sank as I realized I really had missed the finish line. I looked at my watch and saw that it was reading 9:58 when I was expecting to be done in 9:57. A volunteer turned me around, ran ahead of me and cleared a path so I could run back up the hill, around the fountain, and down to the finish line. As I approached the line, I saw the clock tick over to 10:06:++, and I thought I had gone just outside of 10:00 seeing that the pro wave was schedule to start 6 minutes before us, luckily it was 7 minutes prior and I let out one final, exhausted scream at the finish line and pulled my BTC whiteout top in a final show of appreciation. Unfortunately it didn't show up in the pictures but the fact that I poured every last ounce of myself into that race did!
Thanks again to everybody that made this one of the greatest memories of my life! I cannot thank you enough and the support has been overwhelming. I wish I could come back to Buffalo and see my BTC family but we will be reunited again! (Intermediate distance in VA Sept 28th anybody?)
The timing of a project I have been working on with Bob and Ken from the Great Lakes 100 Mile Triathlon Series could not have been more perfect. If you haven't already, check out the video HERE and see what a fantastic job Tom did putting it all together. More importantly, get into their RACES and you'll see how much heart they put into these productions. I'll be back to race with you guys sometime!
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Keep up the good work son.
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