2019 Ironman Lake Placid

On July 28, 2019 I competed in Ironman Lake Placid. This was my second time competing in a full 140.6 Ironman event. This event is unique, as I am part of a 4 man team representing a charity/campaign that looks to assist military veterans who may be struggling with their transition back to civilian life. To learn more about it, check out the website: Project 2.0

Quick Race Summary:

For those only interested in the numbers, here's how my race went...

Swim: 1:20:07
T1: 11:23
Bike: 6:21:56
T2: 8:09
Run: 6:39:23
TOTAL: 14:40:57

Pre-Race:

I headed out to New York on Thursday before the race. My flight took me from LAX to Dulles (Washington, DC), and then to a small airport in Plattsburgh, NY. From there it was about a 1 hour and 10 minute drive to an Airbnb rental house that my team and I were using in Saranac Lake, NY. It was just a few miles out of Lake Placid. By the time I got to the house it was after 11pm, and all I had time to do was unpack and assemble my bike. It made the trip with no damage, which is always a relief.

Having coffee, overlooking the swim course (Mirror Lake)

On Friday, I took care of race check-in, and did a 45 minute test ride on my bike to make sure everything was good to go. I also had a chance to see a bit of Lake Placid, and in particular, the famous ice arena where the "Miracle on Ice" took place back in the 1980 Olympic games.

Meeting The Voice of Ironman, Mike Reilly

Saturday, I did my last shakeout run (an easy 20 minutes near our rental house in Saranac Lake), and then headed into Lake Placid to do bike and gear drop-off, as well as get a practice swim in Mirror Lake. My teammates and I just did an easy 700 yards or so together. After that, we did a few other errands in town, then headed back to the house to get off of our feet and start conserving energy for the race. Dinner consisted of pizza and pasta (I usually do something rice/chicken based the night before, but pizza and pasta actually sounded good, and sat pretty well with me). I was in bed at around 10:30pm, not too worried about sleep, since I never sleep quite right the night before a race anyway.

Site of the Miracle on Ice (1980 Olympic Hockey)

Race Morning:

We were all awake at around 3:30am or so. Our goal was to get out of the house by 4:15am. I did my usual routine as far as nutrition goes, got dressed, then made sure I had everything I needed for nutrition drop-off, morning clothes, and the swim start. We drove to a designated shuttle spot near a fire station outside of town, then boarded a shuttle that took us near the transition zone. We all made quick work of the last minute details such as adding nutrition to our bags and bikes, airing up tires, etc. We regrouped near the swim start, and just relaxed for awhile before finally suiting up for the swim. I also had a chance to hop into the water and swim a few yards, which I almost never get to do, so I took advantage of that. Finding the morning clothes bag drop-off was actually a pain, and then after that we had to push through heavy crowds to get to the correct spots for the rolling swim start. I wanted to start with the 1:10-1:19 group, but I was only able to push myself to the 1:20-1:29 area, which turned out to be just fine. After a few more minutes of waiting, the race was underway.

Swim:

Finishing Lap 1 (me in the red top)

I got underway, and immediately there was a lot of contact. A cool thing about swimming in this lake is that there is a cable that sits 4 or 5 feet deep and runs the entire swim course. If you are able to stay above it (or a few feet to the right or left) you can almost use it as a swim lane line and not even have to look up for buoys to navigate the course. While this is nice, it means that everybody is trying to stay close to the cable, and it made for lots of bumping, slapping, and dunking. I took a few good shots to the back of the head, got kicked in the face, shoulders, and ribs. I did a good job deflecting a lot of it (there are also advantages to NOT being the skinny guy in this sport, I'll put it that way) but it got annoying after awhile. The course is two laps, and you get out of the water after one lap, and jog a few yards back to the swim start for lap 2. I exited the first lap in exactly 40 minutes. I was hoping for anywhere between 35 and 40, so this was fine. The second lap seemed to go by faster than the first one did. There was still a lot of contact with other swimmers, but I was used to it and didn't feel like it was slowing me down much. My second lap was 39:46, so almost identical to lap 1. I couldn't ask for more even pacing. Though this is a bit slower than my last full ironman, I was happy with the effort. I conserved energy and was not the least bit fatigued.

Exiting the swim. 138.2 miles to go!

T1:

I ran straight to the wetsuit strippers, then began the jog towards the transition area. I didn't have my watch in multi-sport mode, so I didn't track the time or distance that I spent running, but I would say it was medium (not short, but also not crazy long like it was in Taiwan a couple years back). The isles where our bags were hung were very narrow, and I had to tell a couple people to get their bags and go to the tents (they thought they had to change their gear right there by the hooks). Once in the tent, I was quickly into my cycling gear, had everything I wanted to carry in my jersey, and took the time to use the urinal trough (I was very well hydrated!) before running to my bike. I was racked at the far end of transition from the tent. I grabbed my bike and headed out to start the ride. I was surprised later to see how slow my T1 time was. Aside from stopping to use the urinal, everything seemed to have gone smoothly. Oh well. Time to ride!

I had to do a lot of passing on the right.

Bike:

The bike course starts out with some moderately steep downhill, so it was imperative to be extremely alert to avoid other riders. After that, the course goes right into what it is known for: hills! The course map says there is 8400 feet of elevation gain, but it wasn't quite that much. But still, there was very little flat terrain on the entire course. I had been working hard on climbing, and incorporated a lot of hills into my training, so I knew I was ready for anything Lake Placid could dish out. Since I also raced St. George already this year, I was well versed in carefully pacing myself on the climbs, and then blasting the downhills. This is a two loop course, and the first 25 miles goes by very quickly, including a steep descent on which I averaged about 44mph, and peaked at 54mph. The second half of each loop is where the real work begins. Plenty of hills, though nothing particularly steep or long, just a lot of uphill. The most difficult part of the course (for me) was the final 12 miles of each loop. You're 44 miles into a 56 mile loop, and feel like you are edging near the end of it, but the last 11+ miles are essentially a climb. So it goes by very, very slowly. I was doing a great job controlling my pace, keeping power and HR right where I knew they needed to be. There is a series of three hills, one after another, called Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Papa Bear near the end of the loop. None of them are very steep or long, they just appear after a very slow stretch of the course. As I was topping out Papa Bear, I felt a popping sensation in my left knee, followed by sharp pain. For the next 5 minutes or so, every pedal stroke was painful. After trying to stretch on the bike and massage the area, it seemed to settle down (also, I was beyond the hills on that first loop). I tried not to be too worried, and focused on getting back in the groove for the second lap. My time at 56 miles was 3:08, which is extraordinarily slow, but we did have a lot of elevation gain. I still felt very fresh and was doing a good job keeping on top of my nutrition and hydration, so I knew I was ready to tackle the second half of this bike course. Everything was going smoothly on lap 2, the only difference being that winds picked up quite a bit (and seemed to always be in your face on the hills, and crosswinds on the descents). Also, the rain started up. It didn't last, however. I think I was rained on for a total of 30 minutes, with 10-12 minutes of that being very heavy. It was actually a nice distraction. I finally got back to the 12 mile grind from Wilmington back to Lake Placid. Again, it was a mirror image of lap 1. Unfortunately, that is also true for the knee pain I felt on Papa Bear. In virtually the exact same spot at the top of that climb, my knee was hurting again (and again it settled down after a few minutes). I was concerned at this point, but also glad to be near the end of the ride. Winds had really picked up, and conditions for good cycling were really deteriorating. I made the last few twists and turns back into Lake Placid and finally dismounted. My second lap took 3:13, so it seems the wind and rain may have slowed me down a touch. Power and HR were still spot on (I average 175W with 127bpm heart rate) and I felt very good. Aside from the knee pain, that was a well executed bike ride for me.

It looks flat here, but trust me, it wasn't! Beautiful bike course though.

You know you paced it well when you are breathing through your nose after 112 miles.

T2:

I decided to walk to my run gear bag to take it easy on my knee. It was less crowded than after the swim, and I was easily able to get my bag and find a seat in the changing tent. Again, I needed to use the urinal trough, and again, even though I felt like I did everything smoothly and quickly, I was amazed at how slow I was (8 minutes). I really need to practice transitions more. Oh well, on to the run!

Run:

My excitement to start the marathon was extremely short lived. I didn't get 5 yards beyond the timing mats before I realized my left knee was not having it. Putting full weight on the left knee was quite painful. The run starts out basically going down the steepest hill on the entire course. I had to step awkwardly to get down it, but was able to get into a slight groove for the next mile or so. By the time I got near the 3 mile mark, I knew the pain was going to get to the point where I couldn't continue, so at the next aid station, I asked to see the medical staff. They needed to radio the medic (he was patrolling that section of the course in a vehicle). Once he came back, I explained my issue and asked if he could just wrap or tape the knee a bit to help give it some support (I had hoped that would take the edge off of the pain). He didn't have the supplies on hand to do it, so I had to make my way to the next aid station (just shy of a mile away), where they had a team of medics that could help. I had wasted about 15 minutes here, and was starting to think that a decent run was out of the question, but I was still hoping to salvage the race. The medics at the next station were extremely nice, and wanted to do as much as they could. But all they had was some KT tape and Icy Hot. The tape would not stick to my leg because of all the sweat and sunblock, but they tried anyway. I don't think I made it 100 yards before it fell off. By this point, I was barely 5 miles into the marathon and unable to run. I started trying to speed walk, which did not hurt, but I knew it meant that any sort of decent run time was out the window. I was only able to hold about 15 minutes per mile at a walk. A couple of miles later, I saw one of my Ranger buddies behind me at one of the turnaround points. He was way in front of me at the swim (he's fast) so I didn't know how he wound up behind me. As it turns out, he was continuing on after wrecking his bike about 90 miles into the ride. He caught up to me shortly after that, and we continued on together. With neither of us in condition to run, we made our way around the course by shuffling the down hills and some of the flats, and walking everything else. Each time we passed the medics, I'd stop in to get more Icy Hot applied to my leg to take the edge off of the pain. When we were nearing the halfway point, I did one stupid thing: there was a drove of people cheering as we went up the long/steep hill near the finish area. Like an idiot, I got caught up in the moment and tried to jog up the hill. I actually made it to the top, but I paid for it. From there on out, my pain got progressively worse. I was still able to shuffle the downhill sections, but I wasn't able to walk at the same pace. The second lap of the run seemed to take forever. The only redeeming thing about the situation was that we were able to meet and talk to a lot of people. There is definitely a lot going on during the race, and a different vibe when you're not all out racing. And to my surprise, I actually really enjoyed it. Normally, if I had my head down and was focused on my running, I would have missed all of that. Considering that I was there as a part of a team, representing a cause, it actually gave me more opportunity to spread awareness about why we were there than had I been able to pull off a 4 hour marathon or something. So instead of being bummed about the failed run, I started trying to make the best of it by having fun, and helping others do the same. Even as slow as we were moving, we were far from alone. We had plenty of company out there, and had a nice group of friends to hang out with for the final 5 or 6 miles. We finally reached the last turnaround point just after mile 25, and even though we were hurting, we decided to pick up the pace and run in the last 2/3 of a mile or so. It was killing my knee to do it, but getting to run past the crowds and into The Oval to reach the finish line was pretty spectacular. All in all, the injury probably added a good 75 to 90 minutes to the time I think I was capable of. Certainly not a disaster (as I did at least finish) but clearly not the performance I had hoped or planned for. At any rate, I was glad to be done, and glad to hear Mike Reilly saying my name for the second time!

Notes:

-Nutrition

--Pre-race: I took a dose of lypospheric vitamin C, ate two Bonk Breaker bars, and drank a 300 calorie bottle of Infinit Jet Fuel before leaving the house. I also drank a small cup of coffee. I ate one more bar and drank a second bottle between then and the time we set off for the swim start. All in all, about 850 calories and 48 ounces of fluid.

--Bike: I started the bike with two 24 oz. bottles and my X-Lab Torpedo full of Infinit GoFar. I also had two Stinger waffles and two GU gels. I took on several bottles of water and Gatorade Endurance at aid stations. I was able to finish all of the fluids I carried as well as the solid stuff. All in all, probably close to 1800 calories taken in, and I'm not even sure what volume of fluid. It was plenty though. I had no energy issues, and I seemed to have stayed very well hydrated.

--Run: Since I wound up being on the run course for way longer than expected, I altered my nutrition plan. While I was waiting for the medic, I ate some solids (bananas and pretzels), but on course, I stuck to the usual (Gatorade early on, then switched to Red Bull and Coke later on). I was able to stomach a lot more water than usual as well.

-Gear

--Overall: I wore my two piece LG SSERT kit, Wahoo TICKR HR monitor, and Garmin Fenix 5x for the entire race.

--Swim: I wore my Roka Maverick Pro sleeveless wetsuit over my tri suit. I actually really like this setup, as it makes transition way easier and faster. The tri top caused no issues as I swam. I wore my new Roka R1 goggles (mirrored cobalt shade). The conditions were so good in the swim, it didn't really matter what goggle I used, but these were great. Good visibility, no fogging or leaking.

--Bike: I rode the Felt IA16. Gearing was 53/39 chainrings, and 11x28 11-speed cassette. On this bike course, I used ALL of my gears. Wheels were HED Jet+ Black (Disc wheel on rear, 60mm on front). I wore my Giro Aerohead helmet. This setup was fine in the winds on on the hilly terrain. The visor on the Aerohead was starting to get pretty spotty during the heaviest part of the rain, but it didn't last long enough to become a real issue. A lot of people had issues in the wind on descents, but I felt very solid (thanks to Mt. Wilson, GMR, Crystal Lake, and the river trails for preparing me to be a solid climber, descender, and good in the crosswinds!).

--Run: I ran in my Hoka One One Clifton 6 shoes. I didn't bother wearing any kind of racing flat. The Cliftons are great, and have been working really well for me. I wore a visor, and my Oakley Prizm sunglasses. No issues with any of my gear.

-Logistics

--Lodging: the entire team stayed at an Airbnb rental house in Saranac Lake, NY. It was a short drive into Lake Placid from the house, which was a bit of a hassle on race day, but was otherwise pretty nice. The house itself was great.

Our Airbnb rental in Saranac Lake, NY was nice!

--Travel: I flew United Airlines from LAX to Plattsburgh, NY. There was a stopover in Washington, DC (Dulles). It made for a long day getting to NY, and my arrival was too late to allow the use of a rental car. On the return flight, I had to leave Saranac Lake for the airport after sleeping for roughly 3 hours after the race. That made for a terribly long and exhausting travel day. I think the Ironman post-race party was still going on as Derek and I left for the airport!

--Food: Lake Placid has a plethora of good restaurants, stores, etc. Food is easy to find there.

Improvements For Next Time:

• Uh, don't tweak your knee on the bike?
• Try to stay somewhere closer to the race. Lake Placid is chock full of decent hotels and rental houses. Having to drive into town on race morning just adds a couple stressful hours to an already extremely long day.
• If arriving on Thursday, try to do it early enough to rent a car at the airport, and early enough to knock out race check-in before it closes.
• Don't travel on Monday after the race! Having to get everything cleaned up and packed away while you are stumbling around shortly after finishing an Ironman is brutal. On top of that, the lack of sleep makes the day after that a bit tough as well. 

Conclusion:

Ironman Lake Placid is an amazing race venue. The swim and bike courses were absolutely beautiful. The run was also nice, and despite the issues I had, I am very glad I did the race, and equally glad that I stuck it out and finished, despite not getting to be competitive on the run. If you are debating signing up for this race someday, do it! It is a challenging course, but totally doable. The scenery is hard to beat, and the town and people were great. I'm also glad that I got to live up to my end of the bargain with regards to the Project 2.0 campaign. I did my best to represent the team and the cause throughout the race, and the entire time we were in Lake Placid.

NEXT Race:

Depending on how quickly I recover from this knee issue, I may do IM70.3 Santa Cruz in September. And if not, then I will try for IM70.3 Indian Wells/La Quinta in December.