Ironman Lake Placid - Christine

It’s been almost two months since IM Lake Placid which has given me a little more time to reflect -- but overall, I’m just as happy today with the effort / results as I was when I crossed the finish line. I think the one thing that strikes me more now is my mindset on race morning and especially at the beginning of the bike. The weather conditions were not ideal -- it started to rain as I was making my way through T1. And when I jumped on my bike and started pedaling out of town, I was greeted with a pretty strong headwind. I had been expecting the first 20-30 miles of the bike to be the easiest part of my day. But they weren’t... the conditions were actually pretty miserable. BUT I think this is where some good coaching really helped me (and probably saved my race). I had been worrying about the weather all week as it consistently called for rain and thunderstorms on Sunday (while it was absolutely gorgeous leading up to the race...). Not to mention that I had been picturing beautiful weather in my mind every time I thought about the race. It was supposed to be sunny with blue skies and a high temp of oh 75, maybe 78. But Mother Nature obviously had something else in mind. So needless to say, I was a little stressed about the weather (esp since I was so looking forward to doing the entire Keene descent in aero and not sure how I felt about doing that in 15-20 mph winds / pouring down rain). So as race day started approaching, I couldn’t wait to talk to Audra as I knew she would help set me straight (as no one else could). And that she did. :-) She really helped change my perspective by helping me realize that this was just part of the racing experience - and that I had to learn how to deal with the conditions on race day (as they were, not how I wanted them to be). And to accept that there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it, so just embrace it and go with it. We also talked about how I should tweak my plan if the conditions were worse than expected, etc. And even though I had been receiving similar advice from others all week, I really needed to hear it from Coach A. And then I was fine. After we hung up, I don’t think I thought about the weather again (and even had to remind myself at one point that it was going to be raining). And I was even more surprised at my attitude when I started the bike. In reality, it was pretty miserable - cold, wet and windy. Not at all what I was hoping for, but for some reason, I wasn’t really all that bothered by it. I felt more amused by it than anything else -- like, are you kidding me? Could the weather possibly be any more shitty right now?? But I wasn’t angry or upset about it -- I didn’t really have any emotional reaction. I just started asking myself “okay, so what are you going to do about it?” Based on my discussion with Audra, I knew I had to change my plan and let my timing goal go out the window. It was all about saving my legs at that point. So I tried to let go of my expectations and just focus on conserving my energy. Thankfully the wind was only a factor for about the first 15 miles of each loop - it was fine once we made the left turn out of Keene and started heading toward Jay. And it eventually stopped raining around 11:00. The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful (with the exception of my bike computer dying at the beginning of the second lap - not sure how that happened since it was 100% charged that morning…). I finished in just under 7 hours … not the time I had been hoping for (or knew I was capable of). But on the bright side, my legs felt pretty damn good when I started the run (all things considered).

So onto the run… At first, I was a little fixated on my bike time -- I had a pretty strong feeling that it was off -- esp when I ran into a DM teammate in the changing tent and she asked me if I had experienced a mechanical on the bike. :-/ But many thanks to RR friend, Carolyn Basista, who did some amazing on-course coaching at the start of the run. Carolyn ran beside me for a few yards just to check-in, see how I was doing, etc. I kept asking her about my bike time but I noticed that she gracefully kept side-stepping the question, until I finally said “you’re not going to tell me my bike time, are you?” And she said, “Nope, don’t worry about it. Just focus on the run. Stay in the here and now” (or something to that effect). So that’s what I did. Even though I was disappointed with my bike time, I knew I had set myself up for a pretty good run so I felt encouraged by that. And I just tried to focus on the positives. I was pretty happy with my swim -- I had been aiming for 1:15 and finished in 1:16. I had made it through the bike in one piece and didn’t have any mechanical issues. And the weather had improved throughout the day and was actually pretty ideal (party cloudy and high around 75). Plus I had stayed on top of my nutrition and hydration all day. I could tell I had a lot left in the tank - both mentally and physically.

The first loop of the run went by pretty quickly -- I was able to keep a pretty steady pace (a little slower than planned) but there was no unintentional walking (so was very happy about that). I only walked the aid stations and the two steepest hills -- which was all part of the plan. Things eventually started getting “real” around mile 16, but that’s to be expected. My knees started hurting (something I hadn’t experienced in a long time), but I had hit a groove and I knew I was not going to start walking unless my legs just completely gave out and I collapsed (which seemed like a real possibility at times :-)). But I just kept plugging away -- completely absorbed in the moment. And as I got closer and closer to the finish line - the miles started flying by - mile 18, mile 21, mile 24 --then finally mile 25 (which seemed like the longest mile of my life!), I knew I was going to make it. My legs were in fact not going to give out (so that was exciting) and I was able to finish right around 4:30 (which was my goal - so super happy with that). And more importantly, I was able to stay strong until the end and finish with a smile on my face.

Looking back, I can honestly say I enjoyed everything about this experience - from the training, to race week to the actual event. And as soon as I crossed the finish line, I knew I was going to do IM Mont Tremblant in 2019. So I think that speaks volumes about my LP experience (as I wasn’t sure I’d ever do another IM after finishing Cozumel in 2014). So yeah, I’m super excited about 2019 and can’t wait to see what’s in store for Year #2 as an RR athlete.