This ended up being really long, so I’ve broken it into parts. You can find the rest here (when they’re ready):

• Part 2 – Swim
• Part 3 – Bike
• Part 4 – Run
• Part 5 – Aftermath

Well, I completed my first full distance Ironman triathlon on July 22 in Lake Placid, New York. It’s been a long journey of training leading up to it, and it was certainly a challenge that should never be taken lightly.

I had been practicing at the shorter lengths of triathlon, first to just try it out, then to see if I could do longer distances. Every time I reached a little further, struggled up a new hill, or pushed my pace a little faster, my body kept growing stronger. My previous injuries essentially vanished other than a few aches in my ankle after long cycling sessions. Finally, I signed up for a full distance Ironman. That’s a 2.4-mile swim, 112-miles on the bike, and then just a little 26.2-mile run. Yep, it ENDS with a marathon after all that swimming and cycling. Who would put a marathon at the end?!?!

How was I going to train for that? I used a training plan provided by a monthly subscription service called Trainer Road. It is mainly a cycling training tool, and is used in conjunction with an indoor trainer. Their training plans give you options to choose between three options for training time per week, and different stages of the training (base, build, specialty). I had to modify the plans quite a bit to fit in with my atypical work schedule, my fencing practices, and planned travel and events.

I rode several cycling events in preparation for Ironman Lake Placid (IMLP). I completed my first century ride (100 miles) on a flat course, followed by the Gran Fondo New York, and the Rev3 Quassy Half. You can read about those in the links. I was a bit worried about IMLP after I raced the Quassy Half. I had trouble with my breathing during the swim and just barely made the cut off at the end. IMLP is a hilly course (like Quassy), and I just didn’t have enough race experience to anticipate my pace for the event other than to know that I’m a solid back-of-the-pack-er.

As race day neared, I had been sick since the end of April and had to cut a lot of training out of my schedule in order to get some rest and be healthy. I finally felt better and stopped coughing about 2 weeks out.

I’m not sure that I appreciated the taper as much as I was supposed to. This is the time in your training when you start to back off on the distance and hours so that your performance (theoretically) peaks on race day. With illness cutting into my training, I had essentially been tapering for weeks already. I tried to resist the urge to cram in a few last extra long sessions. I had heard that it’s better to race 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained. Even during the taper though, you don’t rest. You’re still working out, and my plan called for several workouts during race week, up to a final short run the day before the race.

We drove to Lake Placid, NY on Thursday of race week. I had spent hours making exhaustive packing lists, planning for my transitions, and finally stowing it all in the back of the car. We finally arrived at the venue in the late afternoon, just in time to make athlete check-in.

Lake Placid has a history in sports. This small Adirondack village has hosted two winter Olympics (1932 and 1980), and was the site of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey game. It still functions as an Olympic Training Center for bobsled, skeleton, luge, freestyle skiing, biathlon, and other sports.

Ironman has held a full-distance triathlon in Lake Placid since 1999, and the race is the second-longest running Ironman in North America. This year’s race marked the 20-year anniversary for IMLP.

You can’t miss the signage for the race when you drive through the downtown area. The transition area and tents were nearly assembled when we arrived, all centered around the Olympic speed-skating oval off Main Street. Athlete check-in was located in the Winter Olympic Museum.

This being only my second Ironman-branded event, and first full distance triathlon, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect. It turned out to be a similar process to the Eagleman 70.3. They verified ID and then handed me a card with my bib number. I had to sign a couple of pages of waivers and verify emergency contact and medical information. Everyone was weighed, and the number was recorded in your waivers. I think this was to help assess dehydration on race day in case medical assistance was required.

I received my athlete packet at the next table. This contains your race number stickers (for your bike helmet, bike, gear bags, special needs bags, and your run bib. It also has tickets that you can hand off to friends or family members who can then pick up your bike and equipment bags when you’re done with them on race day. This is where they also clasp a wrist band on you that marks you as an official athlete for the weekend. Get used to wearing it, because you can’t race without it.

After that, I picked up some swag. This bag had a flag, tiny dry bag, a restaurant coupon, and a poster. The last stop was for timing chips. That only took a few seconds as the volunteer assigned a chip to your race number. After that, I marched outside and over to the Ironman merchandise tent to pick up my bag. This was a pretty nice gym bag with straps to convert it to a backpack, although I have heard some complaints about the orientation of the logo. By that point, everything was closing for the day, so I met up with my family and we moved on to check in to our bed-and-breakfast and relax.

The next day brought brilliant sunny weather, low humidity, and only light winds. It would have been a great day for a race. Instead, we traveled to Mirror Lake for a practice swim. First, everything you may have heard about Mirror Lake is true. It is a long and narrow body of water with a public access swimming beach adjacent to downtown Lake Placid. The water is very clear for a northern lake with probably 20 – 30 foot visibility.

The Ironman buoys were already in the water to mark the course, but in case they weren’t, other smaller permanent buoys are there for water sports (something with boats). These small buoys are all connected underwater by a cable that stretches all the way across the lake. This is the fabled cable that you can follow during your swim so that you don’t have to sight. It even crosses at the far end where the Ironman course runs, so you can literally follow the cable for the entire race (more on this later).

I swam about 1000 yards for my practice swim, cutting across the course early. It almost felt like a race because there were an awful lot of other swimmers in the lake. I couldn’t quite tell how the end of the swim course was oriented, but I knew that it was two loops with a short run across the beach between them. The water was a pleasant temperature, about 74 degrees F.

We rested after that and then I headed out on my bike for a short spin along the course. Everything seemed to be working on my bike. My husband rode along, and we found a route from the B&B to nearly the start of the bike course. It turned out that scoping out this stretch at the beginning of the bike course was a great idea. The course leaves transition, makes a hard 180-degree turn (which we didn’t see until the following day), and then goes down a pretty steep hill before a left turn. Apparently a fair number of racers crash in this section, so it was good to ride through most of it before the day. The next part of the course leaves town along some rolling hills. We passed the Olympic ski jumps on our right and turned around shortly after that to head back. It wasn’t a bad ride, and I was feeling good about the race.

The next day was my last workout before the race. I woke up early (for me) and met my brother for a slow 1-mile run. My training plan had called for 20 minutes with some sprint efforts, but since I had not done that many sprint workouts in training (sick), I cut it short. From there, I only had to pack up my equipment bags and bike and drop those off in transition. For a full-distance Ironman you have the option to change clothes between each leg. Changing tents for both men and women are provided. Instead of your normal transition set-up, each athlete places the swim-to-bike clothes in one bag and then the bike-to-run clothes in another. You grab the bag, take it into the changing tent, and then just run through transition to get your bike. They actually don’t let you store anything else near your bike.

You’ll also have two special needs bags (bike and run) that are positioned halfway through these sections of the race. You don’t have to drop these off until race morning. Additionally, you’ll have access to your equipment bags and bike on race morning so you can add anything that you forgot. I didn’t place my nutrition/water bottles, bento box, or computer on my bike until race morning.

Once our gear was tucked away, we left town to drive the bike course for a preview. Now my husband had ridden one loop of the bike course that morning, so he was able to narrate our drive with his own experiences from the morning. I’ll save the details of this drive for my section on the bike segment. I felt better about the race after seeing what I was going to be up against. It may have been nice to preview the run course also, but since I was already planning to walk all the hills, it didn’t matter as much to me.

Soon enough it was time to get to bed. I double checked everything I had laid out for the morning, and I think I managed to fall asleep by 10 p.m.

Next: Part 2 – Swim

See all my race reports here.

Well, this race report for the Quassy Half triathlon has been a bit delayed, but here it is! I raced this event in June 2018. For me, this was a practice race for Ironman Lake Placid, and was my second 70.3 mile distance. My first 70.3 was Eagleman last year (race report here), which was a vastly different type of course, compared to Quassy.

Location

So Rev 3 puts race on all over the country. Quassy is known as the Beast of the Northeast, and is in Middlebury, Connecticut. The race venue is the Quassy Amusement Park, which is an odd little place. Anyone can wander through the park, and access to individual rides is through tickets, much like a traveling carnival or local fair. The park had a separate water park with limited access for members or possibly people who paid for the day. This was full of pools, water slides, and also had beach access to the lake.

Quassy Amusement Park water slides.

Travel

We drove from New Jersey to Middlebury, and it was an easy 2-hour trip. Our hotel was the Hampton Inn Waterbury and was a few miles from the race venue. When we first arrived in the area, we went straight to the park for packet pick up.

The entrance to the parking lot was a little congested and confusing. Triathletes were arriving in cars, jogging through the area, and getting a last spin in on their bikes, all while the general public was attending the amusement park. Transition was set up in the middle of the parking lot also, adding to the congestion. We were able to park though and managed to find packet pick up. We had to walk through the park and then around and down toward one of the wooden roller coasters.

Once we found the right place, packet pickup was smooth and easy. Swag included a t-shirt, visor, and buff.

So much stuff to organize and pack.

Like many 70.3 distance races, athletes were supposed to check their bikes into transition on Saturday. I wanted to get a quick spin in, so I headed out along the start of the course for a few miles. This took me right out of the park, down a busy road, past the turn to the run course, and to the first turn of the bike course along a quieter wooded street. I turned back at that point, just feeling a need to move a bit.

I stopped by the athlete briefing which was held near packet pick up. This was touted as mandatory, but I doubt every athlete made it there. They did explain the swim course, and the different turns for the Half versus Olympic distance, which was helpful.

I slapped stickers on my bike and left it in transition before trying to scope out the swim start. The problem with that was that only those people who had access to the Quassy water park were allowed on the beach. Fortunately, the employee watching the gate let us sneak in a short ways to peek at the beach. There wasn’t really much to see anyway – sandy beach! Couldn’t tell exactly how swim exit would be set up yet. The swim buoys were all out already, which was helpful. The Olympic distance swimmers would turn at a yellow buoy and cut across sooner before turning in, so it was good to visualize how far out that would be.

Finally, we decided to drive the bike course before it got too dark. I had been practicing hills more than I ever had in the past, but I wanted to see what I was up against. It’s tough to describe the Quassy bike course until you’ve experienced it, so let’s just say that it certainly looked like I had my work cut out for me.

Finally we headed to the hotel for check in there and then a hearty dinner. The hotel was adequate – nothing special, but fine. Dinner was at D’Amelio’s Italian Eatery in Waterbury.

Race Morning

We woke up bright and early on race morning and checked out of the hotel. I had everything organized and ready to go, and everything went as planned.

Nutrition Plan

My nutrition plan for the day consisted of two bottles of Gatorade Endurance, Clif Blok Mountain Berry blocks, Nutri-Grain bars, Mott’s applesauce packets, and Rice Krispies treats on the bike. I would refill with Gatorade Endurance or water, depending on how I felt. For the run, I would switch to Gu Smores flavor and on-course options (water, Gatorade, cola). This is what I had been using in my training.

Weather

Weather on race morning was cooler than I would have liked. I wore my Coeur two-piece tri kit, but pulled long pants and a sweat shirt on over top. I think I’m getting used to this whole transition thing. I set up my tiny area and felt like I had everything ready to go. Then it was away to the swim start, to wait.

Swim

It seems like more triathlons are switching their start format to a rolling swim start, where athletes group themselves by estimated swim pace. I think I like this approach, although this was my first experience with it (more later). I put myself at the back of the 2:00/100 yard group, figuring that I usually average a tiny bit slower than that.

The water temperature was supposed to be 72 degrees, which I was worried would be too cold for me. However, I had managed to get a couple of open water practice swims in that were in that range, so I should have known that I’d be fine.

The down side of the rolling swim start was that for a slower athlete, I had to stand around for a while. This made me cold – even with my wetsuit on, I was shivering before I ever reached the water. However, when it was time to go, I spashed in, dove under, and started my swim. I realized that the water felt pretty nice!

I started out swimming fine and tried to keep myself calm and slow. I tend to feel dizzy after 300 – 400 yards, so I was waiting to get past that point to really settle in. I felt fine and kept it steady for a while, but then hit that first turn. As soon as I made the right-hand turn, I started to struggle. There must have been a little more wind, or the direction change pushed my out of balance or something. I started getting splashed with more chop, had trouble sighting, and felt lost in the middle of the lake. My heart rate surged and my breathing became more ragged. I had to stop and tread water to sight a few times. Every time that I thought I was headed on course, I felt like I was further from the other swimmers and the track where I should be. I saw a kayak lifeguard on my left, so I knew I wasn’t really alone out there. She told me I was off course, which I knew, but it helped to have her acknowledge that she saw me. I finally found a buoy ahead and decided that I could make it there. My heart rate was still too high, but I found a rhythm and kept going.

I was not so happy at this point.

I had thought that this buoy was the turn buoy for the inbound leg, but when I got there, I saw that I had one more to go. Looking back at the swim, it seems that there were only two buoys marking the far side of the course. I think it would have helped to have at least two more out there. At this point, I grabbed onto the buoy and let myself rest. I took deep breaths and waited until my heart rate fell to a more tolerable level. I realized that I had been trying to bilateral breathe through choppy section and I should have known to switch to one side sooner. I got myself together, made a plan to breathe only on the left, and swam away from the buoy.

This new plan worked out much better. I still wasn’t happy out there, but I knew I’d be okay and could finish the swim. I reached the turn, headed in toward shore, and just kept going. Of course, it felt like it took forever, but I was less than ten minutes slower than my goal time.

SWIM = 54:52

T1

The swim exit was a little steep, and I had no energy to do more than walk. But now I was at the bike section, which is my favorite of the three parts of triathlon, so it could only get better now! I found my bike, and I think this was the first time I actually remembered where it was in an event. However, this was where I had worried about the temperature. The temperature at the start of the bike was 57 F. I am always cold, so I was afraid that I would be too cold as I pulled off my wetsuit and started cycling. I pulled on arm warmers and a cycling vest, and then topped it with a light cycling jacket. The arm warmers were a bit of a struggle to get on over my wet arms, but I needed them.

T1 = 7:02

Bike

The bike exit was straight-forward, but I struggled a tiny bit to clip in, still dizzy and shaky from the swim. But my cheering section was here and that helped me get going! The first part of the bike course would be easy – I had seen it yesterday. Then I knew that the serious climbing would hit me after that. My goal was to finish with enough time for a 3-hour run.

I had a lot of fun out on the bike course. The hills were certainly challenging, but I kept to my plan. Slow and steady, drop my cadence, and be patient. Steady effort on the flats, then fly down the hills. I knew that the last part of the course had more downhill sections, so it would get a tiny bit easier.

I love this photo. I actually look like I was having fun at this point.

I stuck with my nutrition plan. Unlike Eagleman, I had decided to stop briefly at each aid station. That way I could make sure that I ate one of my snacks and could refill my water bottles less clumsily. The first aid station was great and everything went according to plan. I held the same approach at the second one – eat more, refill, keep going. Finally the day was warming up and I pulled off my jacket and stuffed it in a pocket at this point. That was part of the plan also, and it worked well. The cycling vest gave me pockets that the tri top didn’t have.

By the third aid station, I told myself that I would stop for a bathroom break. After being so dehydrated at Eagleman last year, I was making a real effort to keep drinking through the ride. In the past year I learned that when I start to feel a little nauseous, that means I need to drink more, NOT stop drinking.

At the third aid station, the bathroom break went as planned. I ate more snacks, refilled my water again, and continued on. It became clear at this point that everyone along the course was in the back of the pack. That is one downside to the rolling swim start. If you place yourself at the back of the swim pack, you will likely remain in a lonelier place through the bike and the run.

Toward the end of the bike course I started to feel a cramp in my leg. I realized then that I had not been taking my salt tablets. I pulled over and found a couple, swallowed those, and then kept on to the end. My leg felt better and I rolled into the bike finish. Overall, I was slower than I would have liked, but with the hills I really had not had much of an idea of what to expect.

BIKE = 4:16:43

T2

Transition went smoothly again. I took off my cycling vest and sleeves and finished the race in my tri kit. I changed into running socks and added a visor. Compared to Eagleman last year, I felt much better.

T2 = 4:30

Run

Even though I had intended to run hills in my training, I had not had time to do enough of them. I had already told myself that I would walk up the hills in this race. Well, everyone else who was still on the course by the time I started the run was also walking the hills. Quassy’s run course was probably hillier than the bike course!

Forced smile. Why was the photographer on the uphill section?

I kept my pace slow and figured that I could speed up if I felt like it later on. After only a short distance I had to stop to take my shoe off to adjust a place where my sock had bunched up. I figured that it was better to do this early on than to wait until it caused a bigger problem.

The aid stations were spaced out about a mile apart, and the course ran through a wooded area on quiet streets for two loops. I took one bathroom break early on and stopped at every aid station for water or Gatorade. Later on, some of the aid stations had Coke, which tasted heavenly by that point.

I had a few places where I started coughing and had to walk, but overall felt pretty good. Despite walking up the hills, my pace was pretty steady and I finished roughly in my goal time of 3 hours.

Wheee! Done!

RUN = 3:00:25

Finish area

Rev 3 will allow you to have family members join you to run down the finish chute. I have mixed feelings about this as sometimes that can mess up another finisher’s finish photo. But by the point at which I was done, there was hardly a crowd finishing.

Okay, so the medals are pretty cool and Cthulhu-like.

When I crossed the finish line, I was promptly given my medal, an ice-water soaked towel for my shoulders, and water. I was able to stay on my feet (unlike Eagleman) and ate a hamburger. It didn’t take me too long to recover enough to get my bike out of transition. My husband went to bring the car closer and we were packed up and on our way home quickly.

TOTAL = 8:23:34

Other than my swim difficulties, I had a good time at this race and would consider doing it again. I would like to get faster on the hills on my bike, but this will take time to train up to. Of course, this was a practice race for Ironman Lake Placid, so I immediately extrapolated my performance to the longer distance. Even assuming that the elevation profile for IMLP was the same as Quassy, if I double my time, I could still finish within the time cutoff for Lake Placid. After some internet searches, the general opinion of triathletes who have done both events seems to be that Lake Placid is easier (distance aside). I’ll let you know soon if that is really the case.

See all my race reports here.