It's interesting to look at the different years and the DNF rates. I have done this race in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2019. I felt like 2019 was the toughest conditions on the bike. I also noticed what I thought was a lot more people walking on the first lap of the run. I didn't walk, but I could definitely feel the work from the bike hampering my run.

One note, the first year for IMMT was 2012, not 2014.

Thanks Dale, have both a good coach and a good macro plan!
The run will just be whatever I can get it to by race day unfortunately....been doing alternative work towards it but need to get a niggling injury all sorted. Prior to the latest pause in that I was running close to as fast as I have ever been and that was off a pretty low running base so I have some confidence will get to race day with some decent pace in the bag.....

Well the swim was wetsuit legal and the course was super easy to follow if you stayed to the inside. If I had to swim without a wetsuit I would have probably added 20 mins to that time.

I just realize that I don’t bike like a man. I need to get way better at that so I can run better.

Has anybody seen anything about 2020 registration? It used to be that those would go out Monday after the race for prior year racers and AWA Gold.

Buddy of mine got his AWA invite yesterday, and I got an invite today for being registered to a tri club in my IM profile. Neither of us did the race this year.
FYI we both decided to book hotels as good chance we'll go next year. Looked like they were already getting quite booked up.

IMLP was also my 1st IM and while I don't have another IM to compare it to, this one was brutal! I'm a pretty awful AOS, average biker and runner. My times were: 1:19 swim, 5:55 bike, 5:08 run. I was so nervous about blowing up on the run I did everything I could to keep my HR/RPE and nutrition in check on the bike but by the time I got off, despite mentally feeling pretty good, my legs were completely zapped. I do a lot of my training on Zwift and if I have one takeaway it's that if I'm going to do a hilly race, I need to be outside training on hills (same goes for running!). I had a great time and was completely blown away by the feeling and emotion of crossing that finish line but I was very disappointed that I didn't really have the chance to "race" the run.

Looks like it got up to about 79 degrees, which was a bit warmer than forecast for the day. I did the race on Sunday and was definitely slower than anticipated. It was my first full, so take that with a grain of salt. The wind did pick up during the second lap and I remember thinking on the first lap of the bike that it was already getting hot. My legs were more shot during the run than after any of my 100+ mile ride then run bricks. I ended up finishing 5th in M40-44 with a 10:15 and many of the people around me during the run were walking. I think the only reason I slid into 5th was because I gutted it out and didn't walk.

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"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

I got an email already for early registration (Tier 1) starting Aug 4th.

Now to chime in the OP, I was there and PR’d by 34 minutes but way slower than the OP (I ended at 12:55). Why did I PR? I think it was all about the right pacing in tough conditions (especially headwinds in the 2 bike lap). I think here’s what factored in for some whom I could see on the mid pack (I guess that’s where I was) that either significantly slowed on the second half of the bike or flat out blew up on the run (3rd IM for me and I have never seen so many people walking):

First factor: Tailwind on the first lap and weather: people I could see where going too hot and heavy, many accelerations onto Jay. The first time that I saw people in trouble was on the first loop on the Jay hill. I’m not a particularly good climber, but basically dropped most of the people that I biked onto Jay with, and this is considering that when we hit that hill there was literally a Tour de France like Peloton there (the drafting was pretty bad there but simply unavoidable).

Second Factor: Headwinds, bad, on the second loop. People burning matches on the first with tailwind, then hit a wall with the headwind. I tried to stay within myself HR wise and did for so the entire bike, posted a 3:11 first half of the course (including a stop on special needs) but a total of 6:29, so the second half was 8 minutes slower without a stop (I would then say more or less 10 minutes slower at same effort).

Third factor: Heat on the run and with factors 1+2 combined you could see many people walking and early. Pacing was a big thing on Sunday. I personally couldn’t take anything in after mile 8 (bad GI issues) and decided to simply jog to the finish line instead of pushing on the run and walk a lot (just walked the aid stations to get a bit of coke, water and ice).

All in all I thought it was a tough race but the reality is that the course and the environmental conditions in LP make it a very tough race anyways. But I’m really surprised about the DNF% this year. I thought it was very tough but not as tough.

I had to check that number. My notoriously inaccurate device recorded an average of 88 and a high of 95 for my run. But I see where at least one source shows a high of 79. That's sort of crazy.

Third time doing this race and did a mini camp two weeks ago on the course. On both loops there was wind in your face heading out of town to the bobsled facility, that's not usual and the wind as soon as you turned around at the end of the Hazelton out/back was killer.

I had a mechanical at mile 100, took 20 minutes to sort out, tender hammy that I nursed during training reared it's ugly head around half way through the run. I was very surprised by the number of walkers out on the first 4 miles of course. Not my best day, but 10th IM finish, and likely I will be back next year.

Thorsten talks about how he calculates it in the link below. IM Frankfurt had 65% this year, and Roth 52%, for reference.

https://www.trirating.com/strength-of-field/

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-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

I raced IMLP this past weekend too, and I was off on my estimated bike and run too, though I am happy with my swim at 1:10.

My first loop on the bike was good (for me) 3:05, but I hit the wall late on the second loop. Started to rain pretty hard on and off, strong headwinds on the last 10mi climbs and the temps definitely started to creep up.

Heading into T2, I had to vomit and felt my entire abdomen cramping, which made for a SLOW start to the run, though was able to negatively split, it, which isn't saying much, since I pretty much walk/run the entire first half.

All in all, LOVED the race. The support from the local community cannot be beat.

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Tough Times Don't Last, Tough People Do.

Just wanted to give some props to Brad for standing out in the sun on Friday to hand out medals to the kids at the IronKids races, class act!

It was 79 f and 10 mph winds per almanac. I get that there could be sone funneling effect but just be happy with your tremendous accomplishment and not try to justify it further. US triathletes look for tattoos and bucket lists....nit many europeans do this.

This year was not harder but maybe some just weren't prepared as well....no???

horsten talks about how he calculates it in the link below. IM Frankfurt had 65% this year, and Roth 52%, for reference.

https://www.trirating.com/strength-of-field/

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Ok, I see where such a wrong number came from now. He counts the 4th place finisher at Kona the same as the 45th it looks like? And the podium and winner get almost nothing in regards to their strength. So the guy that wins Kona is worth the same as 50th and 51st combined.

It is very simple, but also inaccurate in evaluating strength of fields. So back to IMLP, it was not a 1/3 of the Kona field strength. Strength in numbers I guess, but that is just raw athletes competing, without really caring how they did..

One thing that is hard to account for is the rate of temperature rise throughout the day. I've been in races that have started at 39 degrees (air temp) and finished in the high 70's. It is much harder to deal with, for sure. So the absolute temp is just one variable...along with how all the athletes have prepared that year, but I do think that if it was one of those hotter/quicker days, that would be more challenging.

But in reality, Saturday 7/27/19 was worse (48>82) and Sunday was only 55>79 degrees, still +24 degrees though...

Yeah, don't disagree with your assessment there. I wouldn't say IMLP was an "easy" field, with 32 starters and a pretty solid list of decent guys, think it was an "above average" field. I think the higher DNF rate for the pro field was mainly driven by the KQ opportunity still available at IMMT in a few weeks time. Was actually surprised a few more didn't pull out from mile 15-20 in hopes of bouncing back and going to IMMT.

Will be interesting to see where LP stacks up at the end of the year in terms of field strength. At least Thorsten is tracking it, whether you agree with the method or terminology used, it gives a decent reflection of the "strength" of the field.

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-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

LP swim straight forward, bike can take a lot out of you and temps climbing into thé run can slow if not properly hydrated with a protein boost.

Last raced, 2011. Signed for 2020. Focusing on run to cut time.

I was standing on the rock wall in the “canyon” providing motivational support. The wind was buffeting me around pretty good for the 4+ hours I was there. It wasn’t a breeze. It was steady and relentless.

Later, i was also deep on river road enjoying libations and providing additional motivational support for the run with a long time IMLP crew. It was noted by a IMLP local that there were a higher number of additional Night walkers than ever before. It sure seamed nice in the shade playing beer pong and sitting in a recliner.

My non scientific hypothesis is this.
1) the water was WARM and everyone wore their wetsuits. IMO resulting in early heating and people being more dehydrated than they would normally be.
2) the headwinds were no joke. If you were not managing your power you were hating life in the 2nd loop more than normal. Add the direct sun and above avg humidity and you get more sweating/dehydration and over heating.
3) the first two directly impacted the run. Period. Most People went into the run behind. And you can’t make it back up without it costing your gut.

Fun fun fun!

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Tri is my Tribe! "Sometimes you need to slow down in order to go fast."

I would imagine that pros went no wetsuit and were not in the same hydration deficit post swim as the age groupers. That's a big deficit...you just need to do a hard 10x400m set in the pool to know how much you lose when the water temp is non wetsuit legal....then drop the temp a tad from your pool, put on your wetsuit and try the same set....sure, you'll be done 10x400m in the time you would have done 9x400m, but you'll be drinking water rest of the morning sitting at your desk at work