First of all a big thanks to the ST community. I have learned quite a bit from reading the various threads here and have enjoyed meeting a few of you at Tupper.
My only prior experience to any distance discipline was the Ottawa ½ marathon and Tupper Lake Tinman both this year.
Swim: Stood waist deep along the shore until about 20 sec. from start time, swam out and was MOP-BOP at the gun. Too far back as I swam into people for the first 500m. Settled into a rhythm ½ way through the first loop just trying to find a bit of open water.
Quickly realized this was pointless and found a pair of feet that I could follow back that was a nice pace.
2nd lap was uneventful and exited at 1:18
Decided to walk to transition, thought I’d enjoy the nice sunny day……
T1- Tent was like a sauna, found a seat along the outside wall and drank an Ensure and had some of a BPJ sandwich then changed into bike gear. Had it double bagged so I was dry for 3 sec., after leaving the tent.
Did remember to bring a clear set of lenses so put them in instead.
T1 – 15 and change
Bike: Kept relaxed going out of town and tried to eat and drink before Keene. High speed wobble on first descent ( note to self: Stay off the hoods and get on the drops ). Rest of Keene went as planned, rubber on the road, skin off the road. Almost forgot to mention, it was raining a bit.
Off to Jay and then to Wilmington. On the out and back got stopped behind an ambulance with about 20 others but it appeared no one was seriously hurt as a guy was standing beside a bike that looked like it took most of the accident.
Rest of the trip back to Placid was steady with a guy yelling something about Pistons coming up Papa Bear. Guess he was a big NBA fan.
2nd loop slower with the NBA fan still at Papa bear. Ride time 6:40 with 4hrs spent in zone 2
T2 – Got off the bike and as I was going to the tent a guy said “I was chasing you for 50 miles”, we had a bit of a laugh and grabbed our running gear. Still raining a wee bit.
Small cramp in my right calf but went away with a little stretching. Ditched the Fuel belt as it had the same concoction as the bike and I had enough of Ensure, Clif Bars and an e-load chaser.
T2 – 9 or so
Run: Got onto main street and felt real good, legs not sore at all and keeping a pace that I was running in training. Didn’t see my wife at the run start, but she has pix to prove it.
Saw some of the Pro’s coming home, they were moving at a good clip.
Stopped raining, sort of, light misting really. Drank chicken broth and water mostly as gels didn’t sit well.
Rain returned with a vengeance at the turn around, might as well feel at home.
Mile 10 started with an abdominal muscle cramp ( hurt this doing leg press a while back) and it seems to be a weak area, issues at Tupper too.
Ran up both hills back into town ( this time saw my wife near Canada corner ) and saw Dev and Konaexpress go by me at mile 12 ( they were at 25 ). Dev was wearing a garbage bag with no arm holes, made me laugh and forget about the ab issue.
On the second loop I thought they had served beer at the last aid station as I was starting to feel light headed, ok time to get that sugar fix. Cola and fruit with water at the aid stations.
By mile 17 I was back in the saddle and felt much better, ran at a good pace the rest of the way and saw my wife again at Canada corner ( in the good books now ). She had brought a set of truly dry clothes to change into and asked if I wanted them. My morning dry clothes bag was already loaded on the Ark. Readily accepted the offer and made my way up the hill.
Walked the last aid station to make sure my wife got to the finish before I did and had a chocolate chip cookie. By this time the rain had sort of ended but the wind was picking up, turned right on main street and onto the oval, heard my name announced and crossed in 13:20
Saw friends and family and stopped and chatted. Made plans for a massage with dry clothes in hand. Masseuse said there was a place to change but after the massage she said that she guessed there wasn’t. She did offer to hold the exposure blanket for me which I readily accepted and shed the cold wet gear for dry.
I have nothing but HUGE praise for all the volunteers , spectators and fellow athletes that truly endured almost a 3” rainfall and cheered, encouraged and supported everyone for over 17 hrs. You are all amazing people and I thank you for welcoming me into the Ironman community.
Jim