Lake Placid Act 2

[RogerBarker]

2010 was my second Ironman, and second time in the Lake Placid IM. Last year (see Lake Placid Ironman Virgin no more) I had finished, but was disappointed with the fact that my legs wouldn’t work as they are supposed to on a run. This year, my training plan was to get stronger on the bike and have some energy left in the legs for a decent marathon – my strength. My second goal was to qualify for the World Championships in Kona – I actually could have gone in 2009 as the qualifying spot rolled all the way down to the 11th finisher in my age group (65-69), so my 7th position could have taken it; however, I had entered the Berlin Marathon and paid for a holiday in Central Europe after Berlin, so had decided that I would not take a Kona spot if the opportunity came up. Ever since, of course, I have questioned that decision – would I ever get a second chance?

In order to improve my bike performance I did several things:
* Regular spinning classes at Chain Reaction on bikes with watt meters – nothing like hard data to measure performance!
* Weekly Saturday morning group trainer rides in a friend’s basement – on a Computrainer when one of the owners didn’t show up
* Bought a new Cervelo P2 and secondhand ZIPP 404s
* When the weather improved, I rode lots of hills, attended the TTC Collingwood training camp, Nigel Gray’s Lake Placid camp – my last 4 hour ride 2 weeks before the race included climbing the 6th Line hill in Milton 3 times.
* My tune up races were the Milton Sprint and Welland Half Ironman – too bad the Muskoka Long Course had to be rescheduled this year due to G8 conflicts.

Domestic arrangements in Lake Placid were the same as last year – townhouse with Ed/Elaine, Paula/John, Ben (and Jan this year). All good! The weather leading up to the race was hot and humid, but race day was good – cooler, less humid and overcast.

As I am a poor swimmer, I started at the back, way to the right of the shortest line, and didn’t suffer the kicks and turmoil that some did – in fact I was all alone until the pros and faster age group swimmers started overtaking me well before I finished the first loop! My time was pitifully slow, 1hr 59 minutes, some 15 minutes slower than last year, but I felt OK. Ben was my stripper and sent me on my way – Transition 1 was quicker than last year as I swam in my TTC bike shorts, so less changing was needed. I only saw one bag left on the racks so was second last in the age group at this point.

I was determined to start the first bike loop ‘easy’ as everyone advises, and had target heart rates to keep me on track – however, as before I found this very difficult and consistently spiked well above my targets on the hills. The second loop felt good until the climb from Wilmington to Lake Placid, which was tough, but my splits were roughly equal. My nutrition worked well – started out with some gels and powerbars, my own mix of Gatorade/Eload (I prefer the taste of Gatorade to Eload), and took water and Powerbar Perform drink and gels at the aid stations when my stuff ran out. I took about 8 Lava salt tablets on the bike. The total bike split was 7 hr 3 min, 35 minutes quicker than 2009, and I knew that I had passed a number of age groupers, but not sure how many. Yeah! But did I leave some legs for the run?

I set off on the run with encouragement from Ben and Jan – this time I did a better job of setting out conservatively and taking time to settle into a rhythm. I checked my pace – 9 minute miles felt good! My first loop I only walked at a couple of aid stations and the hill into town. I passed a few more age groupers, and on the second loop saw # 2315 on River Road who I thought was probably leading the age group. I saw Annette on the run course looking strong, also Ed, Nick, Paula, Jana and Ted who was still running at that point. I continued to push, but had slowed somewhat and walked on the hill up from the iron bridge this time. I took water or sponges to cool myself down at most aid stations, Perform drink at every other aid station, and occasional gels and salt tablets. I finally caught and passed # 2315 at the 1 mile to Finish marker on Mirror Lake Drive – he must have walked after I passed him as he finished 12 minutes after me. All in all, I had a great run, 4hr 4 min, roughly 30 minutes slower than a typical marathon time for me, which is what Nigel says we should run in an Ironman – not sure that I believed him at the time! My run was 39 minutes quicker than last year, so I guess that I did leave enough in my legs. My finish time was 13 hr 22 min 39 sec, 1 hr quicker than 2009. It was great to finish strong in daylight – last year was pretty dark one hour later. I waited at the finish for a couple of running friends to come in, and was told by a guy I chatted with that my age group was won by a Danish athlete who broke the age group record. So I had some food, a complimentary massage, picked up my unused Special Needs bag before checking the posted results – imagine my surprise to learn that I was #1… Wow, I did it, Kona here we come!!!!!

I took my qualifying spot Monday morning – no way I was going to miss it this year, now I really have to work on my swimming – no wet suits in Kona!

Afterthoughts:
* Spectator support was fantastic – TTC members, training friends and their partners, NRG coaches and a whole bunch of folks I didn’t think I knew,
* The volunteers are great,
* Nice to see first timers Annette, Christina, Nick and Jana do so well,
* How important it is to stick to your race plan and not panic when things don’t go well (my swim time),
* I have to keep pinching myself to make sure that I am not dreaming,
* What a wonderful community we are part of as triathletes,
* How lucky I am to be able to do this stuff at 66 years old.

[trosen]

A great report and well deserved success!

Ted

[pvannostrand]

Great Job Roger!!!! You worked so hard ....you earned that spot in Kona BIG TIME!!!
If you have any room in your suitcase please consider me:)
Cheers!
Paula

[Ben Lawson]

Awesome day, Roger. I'm so glad I helped a tiny bit and got to see you on the run.

[Ben Lawson]

Awesome day, Roger. I'm so glad I helped a tiny bit and got to see you on the run.