i've been bugging my friend lindsay to do an ironman together for a few years. after florida she has been waiting for the perfect time. then she got engaged, had a wedding and well, you know how that goes. we were planning on boulder, but it filled up rather quickly, so we kept bouncing ideas around. eventually, we chose tremblant. fast forward a month and my friend robin flew up from st. croix for my b-day and i was able to "convince" her to sign up for immt, her first full distance. and then... well, that's what this blog update is for.
my goal all season was to try and qualify for kona at imchoo. i can't say i have a great chance, perhaps 10-20%, 40% if i have an amazing day and a few studs don't show up. immt isn't the best race to do 5 weeks prior from my A race, but the chance to do a race with good friends is hard to pass up. all in all, i had about 10+ friends up there racing, it was great to share the experience with everyone.
i rented a condo not too far from transition, about a 10 minute walk. robins mother, my father, and stepmom came up to be our support crew/sherpas. we drove up early thursday, with stops in hanover and burlington for food. it was a long drive, but we got up to mont tremblant at around 5:30pm. we got settled quickly and met up with my friend bike to ride the duplessis section. it wasn't bad, my goal was to ride it easy up and hammer down, to practice the lines i would take on race day. we got back and i went out for a short run. i won't bore you with details on the next few days leading up to the race, pretty typical stuff. meet up with friends, practice swim, gear setup, registration, stare at all the bike porn.
me and robin, goofing around
robins mom, it doesn't get more tourist than that... adorable
the venue is just fun, you don't see this at another ironman
love the athletes village, lots of fun little shops, tons of food
wildlife was abundant, and friendly
Race morning: woke up at 4:15am, friend an egg, had a sesame bagel, 20oz of water with a scoop of skratch (aka 2 servings, d/t stupid skratch ratios). i also drank 1 boathouse farm liter of vegetable/apple/green juice stuff, it was tasty. i sat for 15 mins and went back to bed for 20 mins. wokeup, got dressed and had a banana on my way to transition. i got to transition pumped up my tires. i immediately lost my friends and decided to just make my way down to the swim start and get my wet suit on. got to the swim start and barely got my wet suit on in time to get a 2 min warmup swim. i got in line and my wave was about to start.
swim: goal 1:10. result: 1:20
i'm an awful swimmer, always BOP. but for the first time in my life, i have been training for the swim. it's not a lot, but 100K yards for this IM, which is more than all my previous IM combined. the first 500 yards were great, i'm generally in back looking at caps, but i was in the middle of it, feeling good and taking a good line. i would say around 750 yards i noticed the water getting more choppy. no big deal, i'm ok. by the time i hit the turn the chop got worse. i never gulped any water, but i was definitely working harder than i had expected to. my pace slowed considerably as i was trying to site and find feet to follow. at one point some big guy swam up to me and literally punched me in the back of the head, i was pretty pissed as i was in open water, off to the side. the bad news: i swim slow, the good news: i wasn't tired at the end of the swim, my back didn't get tight. i was moving much faster towards the last 700 yards, i def didn't put the proper effort in.
transition: goal: none. result: 7:xx
transition was a bit long, but not bad, i passed a ton of people on the way to the tent. once there i decided that i should try off a bit and prioritize not getting sick, afterall, it was a training day for me. i slapped my shoe covers on, since i knew it was going to rain, and i put a trash bag laid flat, inside my suit.
bike: goal: no time goal, just keep average ftp at 150, NP under 150: hr zone 2-3ish, no power spikes over 400. my ftp is 204watts, i weighed about 56kg (123ish lbs) race day. not ideally race weight, but i didn't want to starve myself to get lower. with it being a colder/rainy day, i figured the extra insulation would help. result 5:27
the bike got off to a fast start, i started swim wave 1 or 2, so i was able to start the bike dry. 20 miles in i decided to ditch the trash bag... ugh, bad idea. i also had gloves that i stuffed into my chest.... then... just as i did that.. the rain started. it never stopped by the way. 2:41 first lap. i kept power low. the climb at the end of the first lap wasn't bad, i did my best to keep the power dry up the climbs, i ran 11/28, but wish i had a 30, just to keep the power a little lower.
there was a lot of drafting the first lap, especially at the turn around on 117, i fought a pack, they passed back, i fought again. this went back and forth a few times. it was stupid of me, i should have learned after cozumel, you can't beat 10 cyclist. it wasn't until the duplessis that i was able to ditch them. it was raining, but i managed to stay in aero pretty comfortably coming down. riding it the day prior helps, being further up front in the course helped too. kept the skittish cyclist away, i guess.
the 2nd lap saw things spread out a bit more. i really wanted to hammer hard on the bike, but figured it wasn't worth getting injured, or burnt out, i only had a week to recover afterall. 2nd lap was more and more rain, hard to the point where it hurt your face and shoulders. thank god for the full suit. the wind and rain was considerably worse the 2nd lap, especially at the 117 turn around. honestly, i loved every second of it. until i had to climb duplessis again. it was definitely more difficult. i was happy to finish the ride. at one point i was riding with some guy at the legal length. it was amazing. we were both pushing 27, it totally made me feel/experience the "pro" race. i didn't think the draft was that strong at 6 bike lengths, but at that speed, it's there! we yo yo'ed each other for a good 15 miles until some guy pulled right in front of me, sat, up and started eating. i backed off so i wouldn't get a draft penalty, by then, it wasn't worth the watts to catch up to the other guy, i was pretty annoyed at this n00b.
t2: 3mins. didn't rush it, but wasn't taking my sweet ole time either.
run: goal: 9-9:30 pace, stretch a lot, not get hurt, it's a long training run. result 4:20:xx. i started the run with some guy in my age group. it was his first IM, he looked like a strong athlete, we ran together for about 2 miles at 7:35ish pace. i immediately shut things down and told him good luck, left him with the advice of "you can make up time, but you can never make up energy". at mile 3 onwards i walked every water stop, took in plenty of nutrients/fluids, walked the hills and stretched at every other water stop. i saw lots of friends on the course, the out and back was great. the crowd support was awesome, despite the rain. i ended up running most of the marathon with female pro caroline M. it was fun sharing experiences and how doing 2 im's 5 weeks apart is a bad idea (she was toast d/t doing one 5 weeks ago.... uh oh, for me... lol).
the run course was great, after the first lap, i couldn't wait to run down that finish chute, the crowd was amazing.
final time: 11:19:xx. good enough for 53rd? in my age group. not bad for a training day.
i felt great post race, of course the sun comes out as i'm eating and changing, ha ha. i saw my dad, snapped some photos and head back to the house to get in the pool to stretch and eat. i headed back out to the course to cheer on friends. i saw robin, corrine and deidre finish. i ended up staying out and staying for the midnight final finisher. it was great, the crowd was epic and i saw my friend terry finish in time to snag a medal.
epic race finish, after 6 im's, finally made it to the midnight finish
tremblant was a great race for many reasons, but mostly because i was able to share it with friends and family. my father was pretty stoked to see me race for the first time in his life. i think it meant a lot to the both of us. making up for lost time as he said.... good news, he said he would pay if i did a race in china.. Ironman taiwan 2018... it's a done deal ha ha. i can't wait to eat everything tiawan has, then fly to china and eat everything there. do they let fatties on the great wall?
robin: i couldn't be more proud of you! i know you'll break 12:45 your next one, fix that knee injury asap! solid day, welcome to the club, girl!
john yen: so much for being one and done... solid day as well, sad i didn't see you on the run course.
mike: killer day man! congrats on your first 140.6. couldn't have asked for a more epic day.
corrine and deidre: holy cow, you gals killed it. 5th and 10th in age group at your ironman debuts? i hope the other ladies in your division are paying attention!
terry: i'm so proud of you. being on the course for 17 hours is no small task. way to come back and tackle the distance after being pulled off the course at immd just a year ago. i'm guessing your IM high is still not done.
rick, jeff, and walter: welcome to the club boys! i think you all went faster than expected! congrats, sign up for your next race yet?
rich: congrats on #2
pamela: congrats on #3, or 4? so proud of you, especially after a long string of injuries.
amanda: w00 h00! backing up a strong IMMD with a stronger IMMT!
amber: well, i think it was ironman #17th for you.. no big deal. congrats on the 4th place finish (female pro 4th place mind you). crush cozumel, remember to eat at burrito gorditos and tell tony the guy who wanted a torta in 2013 and his crew says hi!
last but not least, to my old man. glad you finally got to see what i waste so much time in my life doing. now only if i can get you to stop smoking, maybe, just maybe one day, you can be my on course cheerleader!
the croooooooo
me and my dad
female pro caroline martineau, we yo yo'ed and took turns cheering each other onwards
i'm tired of typing, gonna have some chips. i hope my legs have something left for imchoo in 4 weeks....
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