Sunday July 22nd:
The scene: ~2,800 floating pink (female) and green (male)
caps located in Lake Placid’s Mirror
Lake
The past 3 days have been quite exhilarating. Sam and I left Ithaca ,
NY on Thursday evening around 7PM to make the
journey to the official Nick Kirk race crew cabin located in Saranac Lake , NY
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| Sammi and I |
Friday arrived and I
quickly realized, in a panicked state, that a key suit case filled with raceday
items never made the incredibly far journey from Ithaca the night before. A lot of this: !!!! and a little of this: ???
filled my worried mind. Apparently, in
all the excitement I blew out of the house leaving my patient bag awaiting its
lovely trip to the Adirondacks . After the use of a few profound words I
gathered my broken self back together and started to formulate a plan. Surely I could find someone who hadn’t left Ithaca and who would
graciously offer to shuttle it up with them?
With the help of my friend Ian I was able to arrange just that. Selina saved the day! J
After attending the pre-race dinner (think over cooked
pasta, loads of meaty sauce like substance, and, oh yeah, gourmet ice-berg
salad, clearly we weren’t on the VIP list) and the mandatory race meeting we
settled back into our cozy little cabin. Admittidly I did experience some pre-race jitters and stress throughout the day. Thankfully, my crew kept me together, :)
Saturday morning began with a 50 minute easy bike ride into
Placid where I met Sam to convene on the rest of the items I had to complete
before the afternoon ended; such as last minute bike adjustments, placing the
bike in the transition area, visiting my new friend Selina at her campsite to
pick-up my bag (yay!), returning back to the transition to place other cycling and
running gear in the miniscule space allocated to racer 1157 (me), and gather
with the support crew. Once together we
decided it would be best to reconvene back at the cabin in order to minimize
decision making difficulties.
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| Race cap |
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| The race vehicle |
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| Where's 1157? |
Cabin activities included shenanigans such as poster making, food devouring, quaffable consuming (minus a select one of us), nutrition planning, and much laughing.
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| The support crew hard at work |
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| The finished products |
What I've observed thus far is that the coordinated ‘cattle herding’ of athletes and supporters is quite incredible at an Ironman event. I truly applaud the race directors, assistant race directors, the handful of coordinators, and the army of volunteers that make an event of such grandeur become a reality.
...00:00:00 - CRACK, goes the race gun.
We’re off! Stroke after stroke
2,800 of us begin the 2.4 Miles of violence known to everyone else as ‘The
Swim.’ The energy is static yet
fluid. Everyone is moving in the same
general path although the splashed water seems to be suspended in the foot and
a half of air directly above the surface of the water. My choice to start in the front was a scary yet very
rewarding one. Scrambling to find a
vacant 2’x6’ area of the lake was inconceivable yet not quite as alarming as I
previously thought it would be. The
current amidst the crowd sucked me in the only direction I wanted to go,
forward. The energy fell during the
second lap as the group began to spread.
To my surprise the second lap proved to be more painful than the first
as I took a few good thwacks to the rear of my head.
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| Swim start |
01:09:19 - From the water I made my way to transition #1 located 400
Meters from the swim exit. Taking my time
I transformed from a rubbery swimmer to a 'techy' looking cyclist.
After driving one loop of the bike course I had a good
feeling that I would enjoy this ride.
From Placid the course dives down into Keene throughout which I approached speeds in
excess of 40MPH. It was during this time
and again during the second loop that I was the farthest from another
competitor (~200’) the whole race. Consequently,
loneliness isn’t a feeling I would relate to this experience. Inspiration, on the other hand, never ceased
to fuel my ambition to drive this 112 Mile expedition to 0. Much of this inspiration came from the
sidelines, encouraging volunteers who repeatedly shared their delicious (at
least in the beginning) food and semi cold bottles of water proved to bolster my very spirit. Along with this I
always had a fellow group of Ithacans or a rambunctious crew of personal
supporters to look forward to. And in return they always received a warm smile and an
occasional remark or burp of laughter for their efforts.
The ride didn’t truly begin to hit home until around mile
80, ironically coinciding with the bulk of the courses uphills. I know, I was shocked too J
Luckily I knew I only had to complete a marathon after battling the relentless Adirondack ‘hills.’ This was surely motivation and if that wasn’t
then maintaining a positive attitude was a must. My IM training included such aspects and were
labeled ‘Mental toughness' training. The technique
I chose throughout the bike ride was positive self-talk. By simply repeating a positive word or
statement in your head you can orient your mind around a positive train of
thought which eliminates any negativity from your thoughts. ‘Yes, yes, yes,…’ was as creative as I was
able to convince myself to be. Turns out
it worked, I made it to transition.
6:54:37 (bike split: 5:45:18) - During transition #2 I escaped my cyclist costume and donned
a pair of anxious running flats to embark on the final leg of this adventure.
From here on in it will be one foot in front of the
other. Getting to the run felt like a huge
accomplishment only to be dwarfed by the thought of running 26.2 Miles while
feeling more exhausted than I have felt in the past six months. The only difference was that I had adrenaline
and a sea of spectators on my side and I took advantage of both. Unfortunately, the adrenaline wore off after the first 3
Miles. The crowd, except for sections of
under populated areas kept the energy high.
I quickly realized that by simply smiling I could reap two benefits, one
was the simple act of smiling made me feel better about the indelible feelings that
persisted throughout my body. The second
was that spectators LOVED it! Yeah, it
was palpable. Instead of getting not so
motivating ‘Hang in there!’ remarks I was now getting ‘You’re looking great!’
and ‘Looking strong 1157!’ or my favorite ‘He’s not even breathing hard!’ The last one probably had something to do
with the fact that my legs simply couldn’t go faster than the shuffle I now
maintained quite steadily J
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| On the run! |
10:52:52 (run split: 3:46:37) - By far, out of the whole experience, the finishing shoot was
the most exhilarating. So much so that
it brought me to tears. Rounding the
Olympic oval seeing the crew and crossing the finish line was a powerful and
moving experience. One that could only
be topped by a post race burger and beer at the LP brew pub with a dozen close
friends and family members.
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| On the Olympic Oval |
Tomorrow morning I’ll be leaving Placid with what I came
for, an unforgettable experience filled memory complete with a tangible reminder of such, a finisher’s metal.
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| Done! |
