Ironman Lake Placid 2005

I signed up for Ironman USA Lake Placid a year ago on what felt like a whim. It is very easy to fill out a form online and give them my credit card information. Too easy. I said this in an email to my friends before I left for Lake Placid and I’ll say it again; I think there should be a 10 day waiting period between the time you give them your credit card and you are actually charged. No penalty if you change your mind. That doesn’t mean I would have backed out but it does give one time to think about the impact training for an Ironman will have on life as you know it.

For the last 6 months I’ve been keeping a training blog so I won’t go into details about how I got ready for the event. Let’s just say, it took more work than I thought. And I learned training for an Ironman can’t be done alone. Without my husband, training partners, friends and CoachCal I wouldn’t have been able to do this.

I arrived in New Hampshire 10 days before the event to stay with my parents and get acclimated to the weather. There had been high heat and humidity for several weeks and it would take some getting used to. We don’t have that kind of weather in Seattle and I’d mostly been training in the cold, rain and wind. When I arrived it was hot, very hot, and so humid it felt claustrophobic. I would be in trouble if this is how the weather was on race day. I got in some easy training and spent as much time outside as I could. Not exactly a scientific approach to acclimation but it seemed to help.

My race wheels arrived on the Tuesday before IMUSA. I had rented Zipp 404s from http://www.racedaywheels.com/ because I wanted to be fast and look good while doing it. There is a local bike shop in Plymouth called Rhino Bike Works. Big props go out to them for getting my bike in shape for the race. They swapped out the cassette, gave it a tune up and made sure everything was straight and trued for the race. My bike has never performed as well. If you are ever in Plymouth, stop by and say hello. They are great. With my race wheels on my bike I took a few short rides around the neighborhood and packed it up in the car for the 5 hour drive to Lake Placid. We arrived Thursday afternoon and went to our cabin to get settled in. The cabin was right on the bike course and was about as cool as you could get. This place was an old-school Adirondack log cabin with a huge center room. It had lots of space to spread out my gear and pace around packing my transition and special needs bags.

Duncan and I headed down to the expo on Friday and poked around, checking things out. There was the usual assortment of race stuff and I restrained myself and only bought things that implied I was there, not that I had finished. Registration brought the coveted silver arm band and a weigh-in. I had apparently put on some weight at my parents’ house. Damn, too late to do anything about it now. I was given the run-down by a nice volunteer who told me about where to put my race numbers and how to check in my transition and special needs bags. We went back to the cabin to start packing my bags for the race. I didn’t want to be rushing around trying to get everything together because I knew I would forget something. I had made lists of what to put in each bag so I knew what was going in, it was just a question of remembering to actually put it in.

Karl had flown up from Florida to cheer me on and he met us for breakfast Saturday morning. Having him there was great since he had been through all of this a month earlier in Coeur d’Alene. After breakfast we headed back to the cabin to get my bike ready to be checked in. I rushed around for 45 minutes doing last minute checks then headed down to transition and the athlete’s meeting. We met up with Karl afterwards and he came back to the cabin with us. About 10 minutes after we got back my mom arrived with the two terriers, Brodie and Maggie. Having dogs around really helps relieve the tension. They are a riot and kept me entertained while Duncan, mom and Karl went for a drive. I stayed behind because I needed some time to myself and a nap. I made some Kraft macaroni and cheese and ate that for dinner with potato chips. Iron fuel. Some ice cream for dessert and I was ready to finish up my special needs bags and get to bed.

I woke up at 4:30 am to get in something to eat and pull my stuff together. I drank a Carnation Instant Breakfast and some coffee. More Iron fuel. Critical to my success! It was a beautiful morning with a bit of a chill in the air. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky which bothered me a bit since racing in full sun all day can really dehydrate you and get damn hot! At least the humidity had cleared thanks to the thunderstorm the night before. We arrived at the transition area around 5:15 so I could drop an extra tire tube and Co2 cartridge in my bike bag then headed towards the swim start. The lake was beautiful. The fog was floating on top of the water and the crowds were lining the shore already. The pro women had their own start this year and they got going at 6:25. By that time the full implications of what I was about to do sunk in. This was going to be a very long day.

I chose to place myself about 2/3 back from the start and about ½ in from the right. It was a water start which gave me an opportunity to spot a line without getting trampled on the beach. The horn went off and I was on my way. I didn’t suffer near the abuse I expected I would. I had mentally prepared myself for being kicked, grabbed and swum over since the field was almost 2000 strong. Instead, I was able to find open spots and if I stayed to the right I could still have people on both sides without feeling penned in. I didn’t experience the panic that I usually get when starting the swim and that alone made me feel great. I got into a rhythm pretty quickly and started plugging along. I did get some foot grabs and bumps but nothing I couldn’t handle. I made my first loop in 43 minutes, right on target, and still felt great. Back in the water and this time the field had spread out a bit and I could move closer to the line under water without getting mauled. The problem with this was I kept bumping into people who were stopping to get a look around. I became trapped behind some slow, confused swimmers and had to go around them. Being on the line also meant more traffic in general so I decided to stay to the right for a while and have a clear swim area. This ended up costing me time on the second loop but my goal was to be out of the water in 1:30 and I pulled it off. Swim time: 1:29:51. Close! Still, I felt really good about how it went and knew I was off to a solid start to the day.

The run from the lake to the transition area is very long. It goes down a block or more from the lake and since my bags were about as far away as one could possibly get from the changing tent I lost a good 3 minutes just getting to the damn tent. Once inside I moved quickly but carefully to get on my helmet, shoes, sunglasses, etc. Then, off to my bike, which was also about as far away from the changing tent and bike start as you could get. Another 1:30 or so lost just getting my bike. My total transition time was 8:44. Much slower than I wanted it to be but much of that came from travel time. I was in and out of that tent a quickly as I could be without forgetting something. There were two notes in my bag. One was from me, reminding me to race my plan and some notes on drinking every 15 minutes, taking it easy on the first loop and not forgetting the salt tabs. The second one was from Francesca. She made me promise not to read them until race day and I had kept my promise. She had some words of encouragement to share and she made me smile. What better way to start the day? My strategy of only packing what I need into the transition bag really helped me stay focused. I’ll remember that for the next time. I see Karl on the way out and I give him a wave.

I hopped on the bike and headed out on what I knew was going to be the most difficult part of the day. The course starts through down, down a hill with some very sharp turns. Once outside of town the road opens up and there is the first hill of the day. This one isn’t nasty, just enough to wake you up and get your legs pumping. At the top of the hill was our cabin and my mom was standing at the end of the driveway keeping and eye out for me. I yelled “Hi, mom”, as I passed by and everyone got a huge kick out of it. I told her I was feeling great and headed off down the road. I had decided the day before not to drive the course. I was tired and needed to sit on the couch more than I needed to strategize my bike. I was in this thing for the long haul and as long as I stuck to my nutrition plan I would get through it. Plus, it was a double loop so the first loop would give me the information I needed to get through the second one. This is really unusual for me since I typically like to plan out every detail but when the event you are doing is this huge there isn’t much more sweating that can be done over it. I figured it would stress me out more to know what was coming.

Whenever I told people I was doing Lake Placid they always said, “Why?? That is a really hard course!” That never inspired confidence in what I was doing. The bike has the reputation of being one of the most difficult Ironman bikes and I found out why. It isn’t really one specific hill, although there were some monsters, it is the continuous hills. The downhills were great but the uphills were killer. Many people told me to take it easy on the first loop because I would need the energy on the second loop. They were right. It is easier said than done, however. I was feeling good and decided to go with the flow. I didn’t hammer the hills but I did push myself on the downhills and flats. I knew my second loop was going to be slower so I didn’t mind getting in a little extra speed on loop one. There are a couple places that were particularly hard on the body and on the psyche. There is an out and back on Hazelton Road with a very healthy hill. It was tons of fun going down to the turn around but what I found disturbing was the look on everyone’s faces as they were coming back up the hill. Wow, that was a blow to the mental game. At this point the song “No Sleep ‘til Brooklyn” by the Beastie Boys popped into my head and never left. It served as my anthem.

During the ride I was playing yo-yo with a couple people, particularly Benjamin with the Speedy Reedy jersey and a guy with “Wrinkles II” on his numbers. I had asked him how many Wrinkles there were and he said not many. They were both good company and provided some much needed comic relief along the way. At one point I saw Benjamin in the side of the road, peeing, and told him he needed to learn to pee on the bike. He said maybe next year. Funny stuff. Of course, later on, I stopped by the side of the road to do the same thing. I hadn’t peed at all on the first loop of the course and that made me very nervous. My stomach was cramping something awful at this point and I got really worried. Was it because I wasn’t hydrated? Was my stomach shutting down? Was it my saddle pushing in the wrong place? I decided there was only one way to get this party started and it seemed to work. Back on the bike for me but I spent the rest of the ride worried about how I was doing physically. My stomach continued to cramp and I had a hard time convincing myself to drink anything. I made a quick stop at special needs and was able to get down a half a pb & honey sandwich with a few potato chips. Duncan and Karl were there and I didn’t want to worry them so I didn’t say much about how I was feeling. Back on the bike. Things were starting to look pretty grim by mile 70. I was overheated from the sun reflecting off the pavement, I couldn’t see any other bikes in front of me and I was beginning to doubt whether I could finish the bike in time. The road was shimmering in front of me like the road at Kona does in all of the Ironman coverage. I felt like I caught a small glimpse of what it would feel like there. I sat up on the bike thinking that being in aero was contributing to my stomach problems. That seemed to help a bit but not enough to make me worry any less. I finished up the bike at 4:53 pm and headed to the changing tent. This time I took a few minutes more than I intended to because I was pretty out of it at that point. I had packed only what I needed in my t-bag and put that on a little slowly. I was given a rub-down of suntan lotion and off I went, starting the run at exactly 5:00 pm. I had 7 hours the finish the marathon and it was at that point I knew I would finish the race.

I had committed to running the first half of the marathon and was determined to stick to my plan. The first mile of the run was really painful with stomach cramps. I ended up walking much of the second mile in an attempt to get my stomach to settle down and relax. That worked and off I went again. I was mentally a bit foggy so I took a glucose tablet that Francesca had given me in her special goody bag. I was also popping the Rolaids and between the two I started to feel a bit human again. What also really helped were the pretzels I had brought along. They absorbed the acids in my stomach and really tasted good going down. The run is a pretty out and back along some of the same road the bike was on. It passes through the swim area and town before another quick out and back for a flattened figure 8. I felt surprisingly strong on the run. I was able to manage an enthusiastic jog for the first half and felt I was going to come in under my goal time of less than 16 hours. Imagine that, not just finishing but finishing under my goal time! I was focused and stayed with a good rhythm. I saw Wrinkles on the run and we kept each other company on and off. We were going slightly different paces but managed to catch each other occasionally. I saw Benjamin pass by me inbound on the long out and back and I said hi. He looked strong and said “hi darlin'!”. That gave me a boost so I picked up my pace a bit. That lasted maybe 5 minutes. My jog was starting to slow down but I expected that.

I didn’t feel worn down mentally until I had to pass through town again. There is a steep hill, although short, coming in to town that was lined with people. It was great having so many cheers and shouts of my name but many of them assumed I was coming in from my second loop and would be finishing. That was hard to take. I was only half way and at that point I started to get angry. It was childish of me but I was mad at everyone for saying I was about to finish when I still had another loop to do. The bad mood had settled in. I stopped at run special needs for a couple minutes. I changed my socks because the ones I was wearing were pretty wet and disgusting. This turned out to be a mistake. I had to keep fiddling with them for the first mile or two out of special needs because they weren’t on right. A waste of time. Next time I don’t think I’ll stop for more than a minute. The water stations are spaced close enough that they have everything I need. All I’ll do is fill up on Endurolytes, Rolaids and glucose tabs. There wasn’t anything else in there I wanted. The stations were liberally stocked with pretzels so I didn’t even need to pack those. Plus, starting up again after you have stopped is really tough. On my last pass through town before heading out on the long loop I saw Karl, Duncan and Mom. Karl walked with me for a minute or so and called ahead to Duncan to let them know I was coming down the hill. They were waving madly as I passed and I smiled and kept going. That was a huge help. The mental battle had begun but there wasn’t ever a question in my mind that I wouldn’t finish. The question became when would I finish and in what condition. Going out for a second loop can be really depressing because at that point you know how far you really are from finishing. It was starting to get dark by the time I hit mile 18 and I had hoped to get one of those glowing necklace thingys. The aid stations were out of them and I got really sad. It seemed everyone around me had one except for me. The bad mood had settled back in. The stations were also out of Coke and because of that all I could think about was getting a Coke. That seemed to be the answer to all of my problems. I didn’t seriously slow down until mile 20 or so. The, I hit mile 23 and everything just stopped. I had come into town to face the hill but I just didn’t have any gas. Karl saw me walking the hill and I told him I wanted to run but I couldn’t. I wanted the race to be over but by that time my body just stopped cooperating. My legs were stiff, my arms were tired (??), my stomach was upset and my body started to fail in other ways I am too much of a lady to discuss. I still had the short out and back to do and I resigned myself to walking much of it, which is exactly what happened. I managed a shuffle occasionally and did an airplane impression when I came around the last turn around but that was all I had left. I was watching the time and back at mile 13 I was pretty sure I could hit 15:30. At mile 20 that was downgraded to 15:35-15:40. Mile 23, it was downgraded even farther to anything below 16:00 would be awesome. When I came down that last incline and headed into the speed skating oval I lost it. I was weepy, laughing, hooting and hollering all down the finish chute. In the video on Ironmanlive.com, if you skip ahead to about 1:08 into it you can see me coming in for my finish. And, you can see my leap across the finish. I wanted to finish with a flourish but I also didn’t want to fall on my face so I didn’t do a big jump, just a little one so my final photo would be of me in mid-air.

This is an intensely personal journey. It is hard to write everything I was going through because I can't necessarily articulate it. What I do remember is never wanting to quit. It just wasn't an option. When I worried it was because I was having stomach cramps and wondered whether I physically could finish. The pain was pretty intense but it wasn't enough to make me want to stop.

I have shared much of my journey over the last year with friends. Many of them have kept me company on training rides, runs and swims. When it came down to it though, it was really is all up to me. My friends helped me get there but no one was going to get me across that finish line but me. I spend many miles and laps by myself in training and spent much of the race by myself as well. Strength can be borrowed from friends but if you don't have your own personal reserve, you won't survive Ironman.

I am continuously awed by what my body is capable of. Back when I was smoking a pack a day and drinking beer every weekend I knew there was a limit to what I could do. Now, I don't believe in limits.

Many people have asked me why I do this crazy stuff. Mostly it is a test to see how far I can push myself before I break. So far, no breaks. When asked how I got into it I have a weird answer. The first endurance event I ever did was the Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day walk in 2001. That showed me I could tolerate a lot of pain. Then, what kept me pushing myself was September 11th. Not because I feel a fierce sense of patriotism but because I decided that I wasn't going to be one of those people who couldn't make it down the 70 flights of stairs to save myself. I wasn't going to be one of the people who needed help, I wanted to be the one who helps. Strange, but there it is. Self sufficiency and wanting to be the hero when one is needed. I'm not sure what that says about me, maybe it is arrogance or the desire to help people who need it, but it is the most honest answer I have.

Yes, I'm signing up for another one, Ironman Canada 2006. It is a nice time in the season, end of August, so I will have time to get in some races beforehand and do most of my training in decent weather. But, before that, ultra marathons during the winter. A whole new way to see what I am capable of. New crazies to become friends with and an even smaller club to belong to. Yipee!

Thank you family, friends, Cal and thanks to my body for taking me places most people will never go.