Ironman Race Week Reflections

My week in Lake Placid was awesome.  My plan called for me to leave Philadelphia on Thursday July 21, 2011 by 8:30 AM.  Before I left I did a 14 mile Bike, 3 mile Run, then went for a .5 mile swim.  Luckily, Cathy and I had packed the clothes, the in-car cooler, and cooler for the weekend the night before.  While I was training, Cathy had the kids fed, dressed, and ready to go.  Cathy was not coming with me, so I would be relying on my parents for help once I got to Lake Placid.  

It is a 6-7 hour ride so each child picked two movies and had plenty of toys to keep them occupied in the car.  We made it to a rest stop 30 minutes into New York State before we stopped for a bathroom break and to meet my parents.  We decided to get North of Albany before we ate lunch.  The ride was pretty easy and the kids were really good considering the excitement.

We arrived in Lake Placid by 3:30 PM, checked into Art Devlin’s and went over to the expo.  I knew I would not do athlete check-in until Friday morning, so I just wanted to get a feel for the town and race venue on Thursday afternoon and grab something to eat.  We walked Main Street, had some dinner, and returned to the room early to get a good night sleep since it was a long day.

Team support!

Friday I was up early with excitement.  After breakfast, my parents came to my room and we went to the Athlete’s Check-in.  Once I received all my goodies, we returned to Art Devlin’s for an afternoon of the pool and to have some Pizza from Mr. Mike’s Pizza.  The kids also had their race.  It was a perfect afternoon for a stressed out Ironman to be and two nervous parents.  Later we headed to the Athlete’s Welcome Dinner and Meeting.  The meal in my opinion was over priced and not that great, but they are trying to feed 1,900 people, so I understand and I wanted to experience everything.  The athlete’s meeting, Mike Reilly, and Matt Long were great.  I really enjoyed Matt Long’s and his story.  I had already read about him before so I knew his story, but his IMLP story was great.  The worst part of Friday was waiting for the shuttle because someone told my parents how bad the traffic was and that I should not drive, so instead I waited 45 minutes for a ride back to town from the free trolley, only a 1.5 mile ride I later found out.  Oh well.

Saturday was an early day for my parents.  I needed them to be at my room by 7 AM so I could get in my last workouts.  I wanted to swim at race time to get a sense of the conditions for race day.  Mirror Lake was pretty crowded obviously.  Everyone was burning off the stress of pre-race day jitters.  I did a short swim, 20 minutes in total then headed back to the room to get my bike.  I wanted to ride the run course, but I missed the turn at River Road so instead I rode out for 20 minutes then returned back to town and my room.  Another quick change into my running shoes for short run around Mirror Lake.

After my workout I headed to the High School Gym to sign up for next year.  Sign up for next year without even completing this year.  How crazy is that?  I was not alone however as the line was pretty long but moved fast.  The rest of Saturday I tried to relax.  We went to lunch at my parents place and took the kids to the pool.  I then returned and tried to take a nap and relax for a while in the afternoon.  I went back to my parent’s hotel to drop off the kids pj’s and other things, then grab something to eat myself.  Main Street was busy, so I just got pizza and went back to my room.  I usually would eat pizza the night before a long workout, so I knew I would be ok with that meal.  I sent out some emails, talked to Cathy, and then wrote my parents a "Thank You" note.  The note would be on the table when they came to the room before seeing me on the run course.  I thought it would be something nice for them to read as I was out on the course.

Race day was great and I have already posted that report.  Overall I was happy with sub 12 hours for my first Ironman.  Next year I plan on going sub 11.  I figured that I can knock 30 minutes off the bike with better bike training, 20 minutes off the run, and 5 minutes off the swim.  Lofty goals for 2012, but I don’t plan on being hurt next year just before.  I did not sleep that well on Sunday night.  By the time I took a shower and settled down to eat, I just could not relax enough to sleep.  I took the kids outside at 10:30 PM to give high fives to those runners still out on the course.  That was awesome.  The video is from my Mom, not Spielberg but listen to the conversation...hysterical.

Monday was recovery day.  I was up early again to get to the merchandise tent for a finishers jacket.  I knew exactly what I wanted, so I was on a mission.  The rest of the day was eat, sleep, eat, relax, then eat again.  We had tried to get into Lake Placid Pub and Brewery but that was a 60 minute wait, and my kids can’t wait that long.  We went for a nice meal at the steak house right across the street from the transition area, it was empty.  After dinner it was early lights out as we were leaving on Tuesday morning early.  

Before leaving I let Art Devlin’s know that I would be back next year, so I asked them if I could have the same room.  It was a perfect location for me.  The ride home was easy, except for when I had to get out of the car, my legs were stiff.  I was glad to see Cathy when I got in the house.  She gave me a really nice card to celebrate my accomplishment.  That night we had pizza and cold beers and I told her all about the week.  It was an awesome night for me.  The video is the finish...I hear my name at 11:52:24 on the clock.