Mark Yost – Ironman Lake Placid – Sunday, July 23, 2017

There’s something special about Lake Placid. This was Lake Placid #10 for me and the 8th year a group of us had rented a 100+ year old mansion just above Main Street. It’s a perfect location: a ten minute walk from the Olympic Oval (transition), a 5 minute walk from the swim start at Mirror Lake, and about 75 feet from Starbucks. Ideal. I shared the 7-bedroom house with my sons (Matt and Nathan), Bob & Sadj Bartolo, Kevin D’Amanda and his 2 friends (Adam and Carol), Sergio and Marie Vazquez (plus 2), Vita Laignel, Wiebke Hannigan, Dave Miller and Stephanie Hill. Lake Placid week is one of the best weeks of the year: hanging out on the porch, tune-up swims at Mirror Lake, a few easy bike rides and a run or two around Mirror Lake. Every year was special, but the highlight this year was seeing Sergio finish strong as the clock approached midnight. A special thanks to Brian Eisentraut for racing strong and bring the spirit of Dean Siedlicki back to Lake Placid. Brian bought Dean’s tribike to race in his first Ironman. (We forgot to tell Brian that he was supposed to race in a speedo). The weather this year was perfect all week as well as on race day. Dry, low humidity, highs in the low 70s. Water temp in the low 70s as well. We had the annual race talk on Friday, but it was more of a group therapy session than anything. Everyone had raced Ironman before, although Lake Placid was new to a few. The main themes were familiar: Ironman racing is all about issue management; the only things you can really control are pace, hydration/nutrition, and attitude. We also talked about Lake Placid tricks and, of course, how to deal with adversity. My race was predictably mediocre. My old coach, Karen Smyers, always told me, among other things, that you get the race you train for. This year, Ironman training ranked behind family, work and Matt’s youth elite racing schedule. My swim and bike volume were about 50% of what I consider optimum. I had only two mountain rides, dropped out of my masters swim group, and did what I could to nurse my Boston Marathon run fitness through the Lake Placid finish line. I always say: swim with swimmers and bike with cyclists. I did neither. Nevertheless, I thought I could finish near 11 hours if I could put a decent marathon together. I was wrong: 11:53:00, finishing 8th in the 55-59 age group. Race day, I got up 4 hours before the gun in order to process some nutrition and get things together without pressure. I was at the Olympic Oval ten minutes before transition opened at 4:30; I got body-marked, pumped my tires and loaded my nutrition on the bike. A final check of the transition bags hanging on the hooks. Matt dropped off my special needs bags, and I was back at the house shortly after 5 a.m. At 6 a.m., I headed down to the swim start for a practice swim and the 6:45 a.m. (or so) rolling wave start. Swim: 1:14:49 (30/161 AG) (1:56/100m) Aside from Kona, this is the best swim in Ironman. Mirror Lake is calm, clear and (except for 2011), it has always been wetsuit legal. The buoys are connected by a cable which is visible from the surface. Since 2013, Ironman Lake Placid has used a rolling wave start, making the race even faster. (Between 2010-12, the mass starts were growing increasingly violent as Ironman packed up to 3,000 racers in tiny Mirror Lake). The success of a rolling wave start depends upon people self-seeding themselves properly. There are placards which allow you to group yourself according to your finish time, in ten-minute segments. I chose the middle of the 1:10 to 1:20 group, expecting to finish around 1:15. I’m usually around 1:12 or 1:13, and have been as fast as 1:08, but my swim splits were slow this year (probably because I was only swimming 2X per week for a total of about 6,000 yards.) You do yourself no favors, or anyone else for that matter, by seeding yourself with a group that swims faster than you do. Instead, you invite violence because people will be crawling over you. And you don’t get any extra time, because the clock starts when you cross the mat. All of this was explained, over and over, but for some reason, many of the slower swimmers were in front of me this year. I’m a runner with stiff ankles; I almost never pass anyone on the swim, but well into the first loop, I continued to fly by some of the slowest swimmers I have ever seen. Too bad, because if you seed properly, everyone gets a group draft and there is far less contact. My key for the swim is to follow the feet of a swimmer just a tad bit faster than me. Ideally, I’ll follow his or her feet, and he or she will follow the cable. I had a good draft in loop #1, leading to a 35 minute split. No such luck on loop #2, following a pretty ugly pair of feet with a crazy kick for most of the way, leading to a 39 minute split. Out of the water and up to the wetsuit strippers, who pulled off my Xterra sleeveless in a few seconds at most. (This year, I switched away from a wet suit that hung up on the ankles, so now I’m brave enough to use the strippers. In the past, I was afraid of showing up on You Tube being dragged around the beach on my @$$ because my suit wouldn’t clear my ankles!) T1: 6:13 It’s a quarter mile run or so to the transition racks. You grab your bag off the hook, into the tent for a quick change and then out to the oval. I had the absolute worst transition spot this year as far as possible from the bike out. I was almost in the 1980 Ice Hockey Rink. That’s what happens when you age up at Lake Placid. Bike: 6:08:30 (12/161) (18.3 mph) The Placid bike course is spectacular. It has some decent climbs and some delightful descents. The elevation change for two loops is about 6,000 feet, which isn’t as serious as our rides in the Catoctins and Shenandoahs where we gain 1000 feet every ten miles. The 7 mile Keene descent was pleasant this year: it wasn’t too crowded, and the roads were dry and in pretty good shape. We did have headwinds and crosswinds on the second loop, which can wreak a little havoc. I heard of one bad crash on the descent. The key is to stay in control, use the air brake first (i.e., sit up), feather the rear brake, don’t touch the front break, and stay clear of the madmen (yes, men) descending at the speed of light. I watched one other crash at a water stop because people don’t talk when they pass. And they don’t look before they pull out. Usually, an Ironman multiple bike crash is caused by stupidity. At Kona in 2013, I saw one when the cheaters, I mean members of a peloton, didn’t communicate and someone hit someone else’s back wheel, taking the rest of the cheaters down with him. Tell people you are passing. It will save your race. And don’t join a peloton. (There were a few pelotons at Placid this year, but nothing extreme like Kona.) By the way, the draft zone is now 6 bike lengths, which is a bit bizarre when Ironman floods the course with thousands and doesn’t bother to enforce drafting anyway. Cyclists always cluster on the Placid climbs, but the officials seem to understand that it isn’t about drafting, it’s about WTC’s revenue. Except for a stomach ache lasting about 4 hours, the bike leg was pretty routine this year. I had a positive split of 11 minutes, which was disappointing. I spent most of the ride dealing with stomach gas pains, which reduced my planned caloric intake by more than half. The bike is so important in Ironman racing, because we spend so much of the day on the bike and, if you want to have a decent run, you have to take in substantial fluids and calories while on the bike. I stopped at mile 56’s special needs to get more stomach meds and to use the facilities. I used to dehydrate on the bike, but I’m becoming more civilized over the years (and perhaps less competitive). The last ten miles of the Placid bike course are probably the hardest, as you climb back into town from Wilmington. This year was easier than most because it seemed that the headwind we had for the Keene descent was now a tailwind on the climb home. T2: 4:32 As I approached the Olympic Oval and passed the 1980 Olympic Hockey Rink (think Miracle on Ice), I slipped my feet out of the shoes and descended past the high school and up to the dismount line. Back through the transition bag racks and into the changing tent. I switched socks and grabbed more stomach meds, stopping for a little sunscreen. I have no clue why this took over 4 minutes. Oh year, I stopped at the portapotty too. Run: 4:18:56 (11/161) (9:52 min/mile) I look forward to the run. My plan was to start easy and settle for 8:30 pace. My stomach was pretty much under control, although I knew I was very low on calories. The first three miles felt wonderful. I had to hold back and was running near 8 min pace. Until mile 6. Then reality hit. The tank was empty and, has often happens in an Ironman, it became a survival run. I knew I’d need to walk through the water stops to make up for the calories I lost on the bike. The next 20 miles or so were all about coca-cola and gels. The sugar in Gatorade doesn’t work for me during an Ironman marathon (I only rent Gatorade during an Ironman, usually returning it violently at the finish line or in the final miles). Each mile was a slog with a walk through the water stops. At least the weather was nice. And I saw a lot of friends along the way, including Kevin D’Amanda, who passed me at mile 16, finishing in 7th about 80 seconds ahead of me. I did push the final two miles hard, as I stumbled upon a 57 year old at mile 24 and a 58 year old at mile 24.5. These fellow old farts gave me just the push I needed to run a little harder, although I knew I was probably well off the podium. I finished 8th in the age group in 11:53:00, barely a minute faster than 2008, the year of the torrential rains when I’d had three flats on the bike course! No such excuses this year. It was all on me. The finish at Placid is fabulous. Since 2009, Bob and/or Sadj have caught me as I cross the finish line. This year, it was Sadj who greeted me. Then off to the Medical Tent for a quick IV and to make new friends (a cool doc and his family from Syracuse took care of me, and I ran into Marie Vazquez, also on the Ironman medical staff). My Sherpa Matt helped me get my bike and stuff back to the house. We refueled, and then returned to the finish to watch the MMTC finishers, including Wiebke and Sergio. The Lake Placid finish line party is pretty good, but this year, Ironman tried its hardest to spoil it. For some reason, they erected VIP structures blocking the view of the common people on the hillside and, currying favor with a sponsor, they placed the Mega Gatorade bottle where the little people used to hang out. I’m back in for 2018, the 20th Anniversary of the Lake Placid Ironman. I considered doing Tremblant instead, but Matt talked me into returning to Placid. It took him about 30 seconds.