Race Report Ironman Lake Placid 2008

Lake Placid was the next opportunity to qualify for Hawaii after the disaster of Ironman Coeur d’Alene. Jumping from Ironman to Ironman is definitely not the optimal approach in the search of a strong performance, but this is just the way it has turned out unfortunately.

The ideal situation was to qualify at Busselton last year and then devote most of my US season to racing half ironman’s. The next best scenario was qualifying at Arizona in April and then concentrating on half ironman’s.
It is no great mystery to me why things have turned out the way they have, so I don’t feel a great deal of disappointment at the current situation. My own decisions have contributed almost exclusively to the outcomes of the past 4 months, but I have no regrets at all. I have made a few changes, and I am quite confident these changes will yield positive results – maybe not in the immediate future however.

The journey, in our case, involved a one stop flight from Denver to Burlington, Vermont, followed by a short drive to the ferry terminal in Burlington, where we drove onto the “Adirondack” for the crossing of Lake Champlain. The final step was a very pleasant 1 hour drive from Port Kent to Lake Placid.

My original Lake Placid role was to support Raija in her racing efforts. This was Raija’s one and only opportunity to qualify for Hawaii, as it was the only US based Ironman that had available slots. Chris O’Brien was another in “my stable” to be a lucky recipient of an entry into this event and it was the catalyst of a holiday for the whole family.
The majority of the remaining US Ironman events were fully subscribed and generally are only a few days after the race ends the year before. It is a common site to see queues 800m long the day after most North American Ironman events as athletes sign up to be a part of the event the following year.

Raija and I were in contact with Chris and Jaq from the moment they left Australia. It was, however, pure chance that we ran into them for the first time in Lake Placid. We were lolling about Mirror Lake, in the vicinity of the race start, when we heard a “G’day mate” and noticed Chris strolling towards us. It was the Wednesday prior to the race, and we hadn’t been able to contact Chris for a couple of days because our phone had “no bars” in Lake Placid.

They were all there, Chris, Jaq and kids - Millie and Matt, and it was bloody good to see them all after such a long time away from my group of athletes. They were all jetlagged to buggery, but taking it in their stride.

We spent a lot of time with Chris, Jaq and kids over the week and had a great time. They were in their element, all of them, especially the kids. The only bummer for the week was Millie coming down with Tonsillitis, but she “tigered up” and was bright as a button again in a couple of days.

One of the highlights of the week was the antics of Chris after hearing a coach/trainer addressing a group of athletes on the intricacies of heart rate monitor use during the race. This dude was saying all the right things, but it was his assertion - “I have ridden a 5.08 Hawaii cycle split, so I know what I am talking about” that was the fuel for some hysterical role play’s by Chris over the following days.

The weather leading up to the race was almost perfect but we had a rehearsal of what was about to come on the Saturday before the race. In the morning, a thunderstorm kept us out of the water for about 30 minutes. There was heavy rain, thunder and lightning and it was obvious the water was not the place to be.

People were still swimming, blissfully unaware of the situation; others were making a beeline for the nearest exit point. We observed a number of ducks in the vicinity swimming into the shallows and walking onto the beach – enough said.

Saturday afternoon was a repeat of the morning. Raija and I were safely ensconced in the confines of our accommodation, but Chris and family were attending the kids Splash’n’Dash.

Matt was entered and keen to put in a good performance – no doubt spurred on by the sight of the two kids sporting matching triathlon outfits and hydration belts (for a 2k run in the rain) as he lined up in his board shorts (in fairness to these little tackers, they were probably part of the “fuel belt” crowd I sighted from time to time around the place).

Unfortunately, a storm turned the event into a “Dash” only and Matt impressed by finishing second. Chris and Jaq said they have never seen him run with so much competitive spirit.

I think both Chris and Raija had a healthy level of anxiety prior to the race. Raija had a good endurance base to count on, and, despite a limited preparation, especially in the running department, Chris was in shape for a good race.

I had told Raija prior to the race that I thought she was good enough to earn a Hawaii slot in this event. She wasn’t quite as confident.

Hawaii qualification was going to be a bigger task for Chris.

I had patchy preparation and was, as always, going into the race with a healthy disrespect for the distance. If I made it to the finish line, I was confident of the Hawaii slot looking after itself. Making it to the finish line in an Ironman event has been a problem all summer and I chose to ignore this fact once again.

From my perspective, Mirror Lake is a wonderful venue for the swim; sheltered, clean and picturesque. There are two parallel lines of small buoys suspended from underwater cables that form the boundary of a rowing course and this acts as the skeleton of the swim course. Larger buoys are attached to the underwater cables to form a 1.9 kilometre rectangular loop.

It is, however, a bit narrow in the start area and there is little hope of most people finding clear water at any stage. Raija said she was around people all the time, but said it was manageable after the first quarter of the swim. I noticed that Raija had a black eye after the event. She had been kicked in the face during the initial stages of the swim, but, being the trooper she is, shrugged it off and soldiered on. Raija exited in 1.08 and was very happy with her swim after feeling she wasn’t swimming very well in training.

Chris swam a very impressive 1.00.29. He said he only hit five people on the way around. To his credit, there were no female competitors amongst the victims (or so he said). Actually, that is a complete fabrication – I have no idea how many fellow athletes Chris biffed.

At the start of the swim there was no rain and when I finished the swim it was raining cats and dogs. I was informed after the race that it had started to rain not long after the gun went off, but I failed to notice, even when exiting the water after the first lap, running around the jetty, and diving back in to start the last lap.

I started close to the buoy line as I had visions of swimming along the cable line for the majority of the swim. This meant navigation was possible without lifting the head too frequently – a luxury not available in most swims.
I am a realist these days, and when the gun went off I knew I had no hope of tagging onto the faster swimmers - they have too much top end speed.

I settled into a comfortably hard tempo and swam solo to the first turning buoy at approximately 900m. I noticed one swimmer to my left moving at exactly the same velocity and thought the best thing to do was to pull in behind and get a free ride for the return journey.

When I pulled in behind it seemed ridiculously easy, and, before long, a few of the swimmers from behind had caught up and I was soon part of a small group.

I had a decision to make, either stay with the group and possibly give away more time to those faster swimmers in front, or take the initiative and swim hard for the remaining portion of the swim, knowing that I would probably take those in my group along for the ride.

There was no decision to be made and I pulled out from behind the swimmer in front and went hard again. I could feel intermittent tapping on my feet the rest of the journey, even as I was navigating through the tail end of the field as they completed the last portion of their first lap. The traffic started to thicken with 900m to swim and got progressively worse as I neared the finish. Getting through the throng required constant vigilance and changes in direction and was wearing thin towards the finish.

I exited the water 5th in 50.50, about 4 minutes adrift of the fastest two athletes.

The cycle portion consists of two 90k laps in spectacular terrain. There is 5-6km climb out of town followed by 10km mostly downhill. The next 60km can best be described as undulating, with a 5 – 8 minute climb in the most difficult portion. The final 15km back to town is uphill – with the steepest section just out of town. It is by no means a steep finale, but it feels steep when you have 175km in the legs.

To make it more interesting it was wet. It was more than wet, it rained non-stop all day. When I say all day, I mean all day. There were no rain breaks, only a decrease in rain severity. One of the concerns in these conditions is coming to grief on the bike. The long downhill was an unknown initially as we had only attacked them in the dry - there were some tight bends to negotiate at speed, but they turned out to be nothing to worry about, even in the wet.

The other concern in these conditions is body temperature. I was wearing my Sports Fever “hello girls” one piece suit, and never felt cold at any stage of the cycle leg.

In summary, my cycle leg could best be described as ordinary. I was competitive on the climbs (for most of the cycle leg anyway) but was hopelessly outgunned on the downhill and flatter sections.

I was giving away time from the start of the cycle leg to the finish – and it became exponentially greater as I progressed. By the time I had climbed out of town just after starting the second loop, I was experiencing significant fatigue (ie I was rooted) and it was just a matter of getting to the finish in one piece such that I could salvage something on the run.

I think my deficit at the start of the run was close to 20 minutes from the leading two athletes. I soldiered on regardless and felt that I was still capable of a top 5 finish.

I felt great when I first started the run, my quads were relatively fresh and I took off like I was running a half marathon. However, a couple of kilometres later I realised I wasn’t in great overall shape at all. My back was in spasm and I was forced to walk. I walked and intermittently ran for the next 5km before getting extremely cold and disillusioned. I was shivering badly and decided that it was time to call it a day.

I waited at an aid station, wrapped in a blanket, for 20 minutes or so before getting a lift back to transition.
That made three DNF’s in three Ironman races for this season – happy days.
The focus then shifted onto Raija’s race.

I went back to our hotel room, had a shower and checked her position on the internet. She was lying in 5th position in her age group at that stage and was close to a possible Hawaii spot based on the 4 slots allocated in her age group the previous year.

I then ventured out into the rain to find her on course. I did see her earlier in the run as I waited for the “sag wagon” to pick me up, and she looked like she was in great shape, good leg turnover and a positive attitude to go along with it.

I found her at about the 37km point of the run course and she still looked great. Despite having to walk up a steep hill at that part of the course - along with 99% of the other competitors - she remained positive and appeared to have good energy.

She chugged in the last 5km and crossed the line with juice still in the tank. I was hopeful she had passed at least one of her age group competitors to move into the top four and have the chance of earning a world championships slot.

We found out the following morning that Raija did finish fourth in her age group and was awarded a Hawaii slot. As this was her major goal for the whole of 2008, it was a very satisfying outcome for the both of us. She was understandably over the moon, and it was reward for some very hard work over the preceding four months.
Chris, after a very good swim and cycle, soldiered on to the finish in the run. He was extremely happy with his race and the event/experience as a whole.

It is onto Ironman Canada for me – we will see how that one goes.