Ironman Lake Placid 2014 Race Report

This race has been on my mind for along time. I raced in 2012 and had a bad day due to nutrition. That race forced me to change my entire game plan. I worked for two years to change who I was as an athlete and prepare to tackle this beast the right way. 2014 rolled around and it was time to take another shot at the course...here goes:

Pre-Race:
This was the first Ironman distance race where I was not nervous whatsoever, that is until I almost missed the swim start, but we will get to that later. I have been working with QT2 Systems for two season and I believe in their protocols utterly. If you take a look at their athletes in any race, you'll see that they have their game figured out. I knew that if I didn't reach my goals, it wasn't because I didn't prepare. All that was left to do was execute the game plan.
My lack of nerves was great as I was helping three friends get ready for their first attempt at the distance and it was nice to be able to focus on them for a while, knowing my plan was set and ready to rock. I even had my gear bags packed three days before traveling to placid anticipating that others would need my help.

Friday Morning Underwear Run post-swim

Warm up swim with great friends.

Race Morning:
The alarm sounded at 4:00 and I got out of bed to throw down my staple breakfast. Rice pancakes, covered in almond butter with bananas. I also drank a serving of Infinit Mudd which I think I'm addicted to. If you haven't tried the stuff, you're missing out. My dad dropped me off in front of transition then went back to get ready for the day. It was great walking into transition and seeing friendly faces. I am used to racing down south where I know very few people. Having my BTC family around at all times put my mind at ease and helped me have fun. After my bike was set I met up with my buddy Danny Royce and started to head out of transition. Once I got to bike special needs drop off I realized I had foolishly put my extra bike bottles in my bike gear bag and had to fight the crowd to get back into transition and retrieve them. I slipped the bottles in the correct bag and dropped both of my bags off at the special needs locations, which is actually a little bit of a walk. I decided it was tie to use the restroom which was timed perfectly with every other athlete in existence and ended up standing in line for about 20 minutes. This set me back quite a bit and before I knew it, I was running around during the national anthem, feeling like a moron, looking for my parents to drop off my clothes bag. I didn't spend a lot of time looking before I dropped my bag with a complete stranger, gave her my mom's phone number and wished for the best. Thank you Ms. Wattie Ink lady! You saved my morning.

Photo Op with the Rawk

Swim 26:00? but really...52:43 (3 AG/15 OA):
I made it to the beach with 10 minutes to spare, just after the pro wave had started. I spotted Danny and he helped me get my wetsuit zipped up and situated just right, thanks dude! The final ten minutes passed in what felt like seconds and we were off. I started about three people back in the 0:50-1:00 group and knew that I would do whatever it took to make the first swim group. Things spread out pretty quickly at the front with a few guys booking it and the rest of us choosing not to follow suit. After about 500 yards of pretty aggressive shuffling, we settled into a nice grove and people were satisfied with the feet they found. In Mont-Tremblant 2013, I had no trouble making the first swim group but it thinned out around the corner and I lost contact as I was near the back. I kept this in mind and made sure I was tucked safely in the middle of the group. That way, if anybody decided to make a move, I could easily cover without having to bridge. The first lap was pretty uneventful. The pace was somewhat sporadic but any gaps that opened up were easy to close down. I took comfort in seeing Danny swimming right with me but for some reason the pace felt slow. Looking at the speed the cable was passing by told another story and I entertained the idea of making a break for the few swimmers who were leading the swim. I decided that energy would be much better spent in the marathon and chilled right where I was until we saw the swim split. I knew I could always ask Danny, on the beach, if he wanted to work with me on lap two if lap one was as slow as it felt. The first glimpse I got of the clock looked like we swam a 28 for the first lap. Turns out, that was a 25 and we clicked off lap 1 in exactly 26:00, perfectly fine by me! Lap two was the most effortless swimming I have ever done inside of a race. I was taking long, slow, catch-up strokes and only sighting to keep track of where everybody was in the group. We never ran into the back of the pack until the end of the backstretch which is not what I expected. I thought the entire second loop would be a mess. The main group split, some people swimming really far left, around the athletes, and the other group swimming through them. We seemed to be making better progress so I stayed left. As we rounded the last turn buoy, a lone swimmer in an All-World cap crept past and I decided it was a good time to sneak away from our group and join him. We swam alone (I think) the rest of the way in and lost the original group. Either way, I wasn't doing anything but swimming easy and following feet. I was happy to exit the water with my best 2.4 mile swim time yet. First time under 53:00.

Spotted  the world's best wetsuit strippers, Jen and Greg, after a solid first loop.

T1 3:44:
Nothing major happened in T1. I knew I was off to a great start so I made sure I was taking enough time to grab everything I needed before I got out to my bike. I knew it was raining so I was unsure how the visor on my helmet was going to go but it was happening so off I went. I made sure to scream my number as I ran around the oval and I kept hearing it echo down the rack. Sure enough, there was GrAce, waiting for me at the end of the rack and I ran right by as I grabbed her and shouted "There's my baby, let's rock." I think I got a few laughs from volunteers, but really it was for me and I liked it :) In 2012, I made it onto the bike course 0:58 into the race and this year I was well ahead of schedule at 56 and change. Time to execute a smart bike ride...oops

Bike 5:37:03 (5 AG/69 OA):
As soon as the ride started, the rain really started coming down. Leaving town, it let up for the time being and we climbed our way up to the top of Keene just in time for the sky to open up and absolutely dump water on us. I am pretty sure I was not as wet during the swim as I was during the ride. Very likely the heaviest rain I have ever been out in and it was time to go down Keene, a famed descent, great...
I decided that going down would cost more time than riding the breaks down the hill so I never broke 40 the whole way down, quite a feat with soaking wet carbon brake pads. Kept the rubber side down and continued on with the course going in and out of bursts of rain. I was having a really hard time getting my HR under 165 which is WAY above goal HR but the descent helped a bit so I tried to keep it lower for a while with no success. Riding felt easy, the miles were ticking by, I was holding group way in the lead of the race. At the out and back I was able to count myself in 30th position. Take away the 10 minute lead that the professional men had and the 8 minute lead that the professional women had and I figured I was in about 25th place at the turn around. The fact that I know this shows that I was paying attention to the wrong elements of the race. I preach and preach to the athletes I work with to stay in your box, ignore the other athletes, ride what the training metrics tell you, and what do I do? Completely ignore my own rules and ride like an idiot for the first hour of the race. I was pushing far too many watts, driving my HR way too high, and setting myself up for a disaster of a race. I had a rude reality check at mile 31.5 of the bike. I stopped the quickest I have ever went from 22.2 mph to 0 mph by taking a ride on the pavement. I don't know what was happening before my crash, I was either checking my metrics, trying to see through the monsoon, or looking for my buddy Danny on the out and back because I was expecting him to have ridden past me by this point in the race. Either way, I remember seeing orange paint on the ground, feeling my wheels slip out from under me, and everything went crashing down, drive-side of course! I hit my knee first, then hip, then elbow before I was separated from my bike and went skidding across the pavement for about 15 feet on my back. Jersey torn, bike pieces on the ground and a sudden awareness that I had less skin attached to my body, an athlete asked if I was ok as he went by and I said "yes" even though I was still running through a mental inventory and thinking This can't really be happening, can it? What happened?" I grabbed my bottles, picked up the bike, threw the chain back on and off I went. As I started moving I checked out my injuries and realized that things could have been a lot worse, I wasn't in that bad of shape. I realized that I was lucky there was a massive layer of water on the road to help cushion my fall and allow me to skid across the surface of the road instead of having the road dig into me to slow me down. I guess they are right, "If you ride a bike, it's not about if you will crash, but rather when" and what better than the early stages of the ride in a race I have been focusing on since January. As the race carried on, my hip started to swell pretty bad and after an hour my knee went from chunky white flesh to running blood. I kept telling myself that it was just a minor setback and that it wasn't that bad. To be honest, climbing was very challenging and I was pretty uncomfortable the rest of the ride. I have a whole new respect for cyclists who repeatedly hit the deck and continue racing. My injuries weren't that bad and my body still became very stiff and fought me the whole way. The rest of my ride consisted of two scenarios. 1: athletes rode by me asking if I went down because they saw the back of me first. 2: Spectators telling me I looked great then gasping when they saw the back of my jersey and my knee which was covered in blood The run couldn't come soon enough.

Before the carnage.

T2 2:31:
I got off my bike and it was a struggle to bend over and pick up my cleats. This was my first indication that I was in for a long marathon. I tried to overpower that with positive thoguhts "You've come off the bike with trash legs plenty of times before, you know the run will be there once you get rolling." Got a quick change in the tent, went to leave and realized how sunny it was and that I forgot my hat and glasses. It was well worth it to go back, it just wouldn't be right to run without showing some love for the Buffalo Triathlon Club!

Run 3:46:52 (I'm not sure on place as the second swim was dropped let's go with 12 AG/100OA):
I started running and the sight of friendly faces took the pain off of my hip as I rolled out of town. People were finally noticing that I hit the deck and my coach told me "Never happened, just run, you're in a great spot." I repeated those words over and over and they lasted through the first 12-14 miles. I had a nice, decently fast, somewhat easy first loop before my hip started locking up right around mile 13. I saw some friends and family on the way back out of town and remember telling them that I was unbelievably stiff from the fall and that things were about to head south on me. As it rarely is, River Rd. was not pretty.

Still storming on lap one. River Rd out.

 Things went from bad to worse there. I noticed that my thighs were starting to bruise and I must have hit my basebar and aerobars as I came down on top of the bike earlier. That is evidenced by the fact that 1/3 of my left thigh is bruised as I write this 4 days later and it takes A LOT for me to bruise. My right thigh was a few smaller, spots to match. I really need to keep the rubber side down from now on. I was reduced to a walk through a few aid stations and the pace was deteriorating. I was my buddy Daly as I was nearing the end of River Rd. I said a few quick words to him then realized the turn around was really close. If I picked it up a lot, I might be able to run with him for a bit. I dropped the pace quite a bit but it was taking a really long time to catch him. Way to run well buddy! Eventually, we met up at an aid station and chatted for a little while before he told me to close it out. I was set on cruising it in with him but when he said that, it made me think. "If you can just run anywhere around 9s all the way in, this can still be a pretty good race." I set off down the road and started making mental calculations. I knew I was staring 10:20 right in the face. Couldn't run quite as well as I wanted to as I closed out but it was all I had. Mirror Lake Rd took an eternity as it always does on the final loop but eventually, I was at the special needs bags and could hear the music at the finish line. I put on a brave face and carried on into the oval. Running the oval and crossing that line is always special and allows me to reflect on the path I've taken to get here, all the workouts I've suffered through to get me ready, and all the sacrifices the people around me make to make this possible for me. That's a lot to think about for a 200m run and it always makes that section of the race go by entirely too fast. This year, I crossed the line let down that my goals were not reached, proud that I overcame my injuries and fought on for 8 hours after crashing, and confident that the next time I cross that line, things are going to go my way. The training was there, and it will be better next year. I made some mistakes on the course, and they won't happen next year, I realized some weaknesses, and I have a year to turn them into strengths. Once again, this course was angry, claimed a lot of athletes, and got the better of me on July 27th, 2014. You better believe that on July 26th, 2015 I'll be a tougher, smarter, stronger athlete and I will try to race in harmony with this course, giving it the respect it deserves. Until next year, 10:22:53 will have to suffice as a temporary 29 minute PR on this beast. Don't expect that to last very long!

Challenged, but not defeated. We will be back!

Additional Comments:

Thanks for everybody for the support. I did not have a great day out there and you still make me feel like I did something worthwhile on the course. I cannot thank my parents enough for all their help. It was great to spend some time with them.

I loved racing this course, having the BTC on every corner. Stay tuned as I have something up my sleeve for you!

Thanks to my sponsors QT2 for getting me prepared, Blue Seventy for the speedy Helix wetsuit, X2Performance for the best race supplement on the market, Powerbar for keeping my nutritional needs on lock, and pearl izumi for the comfy bottoms.

Congrats to my boys Clint and Day for having a great showing in tough conditions in their first Ironman!

Rocked it!

The best part of my weekend was seeing a really good friend absolutley rock out on the course. He has been a student of the sport for a year and completely changed his game. Hands down, the best finish line dance I've seen in a long time. Congrats Joe Rosati!

Crushing the course