Greg and I headed up Saturday after his garage sale. We went straight to the race site to check things out, pick up our kits and check the water. The sun was shining so things were looking good. We saw Lisa and Dave and spent a few minutes chatting with them. It's so great that when I see Lisa, she's so positive and cheery. She was happy to see Greg and I and I thought it was real menchy to ask out my achilles, reminding me to ice and take care of it... Dave was the same way, offering support where ever necessary.
Lisa went off to do a swim so Greg and I went to check out the water. It really wasn't that bad, more refreshing then cold. Lisa also didn't think it was so bad... and she always gets cold.
We headed off to the cottage to meet up with Sandra and the kids. Hopefully they had been behaving as she had been alone with them since lunch and it was now close to 3. We had a nice dinner and got to be nice and early.
Race morning....
Up at 5am had some breakfast and out the door at 5:30. We knew it takes about 45 min to get there and we wanted to get there early to have time for the 101 things to take care of. When we did get there, it was already very busy.... I got into transition and to my surprise I had pole position. My bike was parked right across from the bike in and out sign... now there was no chance of getting lost in Transition.
Time was moving fast now and before I realized it, I had to get down to the water... no warm up today... it was going to have to be in the water once the horn went. I made it to the start with about 4min to spare.... jumped in and moved my arms around a bunch to try and get the blood going. When the horn did go, I was off... I was really excited about my new wetsuit and looking forward to a good swim. About a couple min in I got really "burpy" almost every stroke was with a burp but thankfully no "chuck". I made my way around and came to the end at 38min. It wasn't the 36 I was hoping for but it wasn't bad...
The bike was controlled... I was planning 200 watts +/- I was feeling really good dropping to the easy ring for the tough hills (not doing anything silly) and my nutrition was going perfectly every 15min a little power bar piece. I even went through my two bottles and probably could have used more with the heat... Coming towards the end of the bike I popped a gel and was feeling great. I finished the bike at 1:49 - avg 30km/ph
The run was sort of a different story... I put my old HR strap on for the bike because my SRM reads the original coded polar and not the new WIND ones. So when the run started, I switched transmitters thinking that the new watch would just start working... It didn't... so I didn't have HR for the run. I think for Lake Placid, I'll ride the bike with my new Heart Strap... and that way I won't risk any issues for the run. It was probably a good things since I wanted to run hard get as close to 5min/km as possible to shoot for 1:15. Since I was blind I started taking a lap time every Km to at least get an idea of how I was doing. Pace was good, I remember why I didn't like those Ediscs - chewable eload disc, because I didn't have enough water with me... I liked the feeling of being free of a water belt, however, it wasn't good to get a little bit every km as I really had no gage of how much I was drinking. I did like the gels stuffed in a bottle with a little water, I just have to remember when my next gel time was because I got confused a little... I finished the run at 1:19. I was pleased! Dave told me for Lake Placid, just don't walk... even going so slow running is still fast then a fast walk... I that's what I did, I ran the whole way and was proud of that....
I came across the finish at 1:52 and change and was really happy to see Dave waiting there to congratulate me, getting me to stuff ice on my achilles as soon as possible. I was so happy for Lisa, winning the females race.
I then went to meet up with the gang to wait for Greg. He was started about 30min behind me and I saw him at about 2.5km as I was coming back in.. The gang was all hanging out, and suddenly the gels started going through me, so I hope Greg wasn't upset but I had to get back to transition and "GO"....
All told a great experience... and was really happy with my results today.
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