Ironman Lake Placid, Part 1, " The Swim, also known as the Battle"

So the two days prior to the ironman start I was in my hotel ( The Mirror Lake Inn, which was beautiful) and had a lot of thinking to do. The mental game is never good for me and I had to really work hard to stay in the moment and know that I was fully prepared and then some to have a good race. It was hard to be alone but friends were coming up and joining me for dinner to relax me and then Phil was arriving on saturday, so I knew I wasn't going to be alone for long.

I had a few shake out workouts to do, the weather was hot and humid ( not unusual) but race day was looking to be good. A little cloudy, some sun, maybe a little rain but no higher than the high 70's.

On friday I checked in at the high school, got weighed ( boy I was pissed I gained 2lbs during my taper) and then walked through the ironman village at the oval, took in the scenes, listened to some of the pro's talk about their tactics for the race. One racer ( Tara Norton from Canada said, " I swim like I don't have to bike, I bike like I don't have to run and I run with whatever I have left- notice she didn't place in the top five", anyway, I digress, I was getting a bit tired and went back to the hotel to rest. It was a bit out of the way but only a 15 minute walk to get back to the Inn. I took a nap, and waited for my friends, Michelle, Nancy, Gary and Maureen to meet me for dinner. They did a great job calming me down, telling me I was well prepared, chatting with me and making me laugh, its so nice to have very supportive friends and friends who do the same thing I do so they understand everything that your feeling and thinking inside. After dinner I went back to the room, got all my gear bags together and went to bed.

Saturday was a routine day, did my swim in mirror lake, beautiful and 73 degrees, a little bike to check out my wheels and gearing and little run. I finished, showered and went to the oval to drop off my bike and my transition bags. After that it was picking Phil up at the Saranac airport at 2:30p, and having fun for the rest of the day with my hubby.

I chatted with coach around 3p for some last minute race strategies and thoughts, its amazing how thorough he is and amazing he can walk me through my whole race step by step and not miss a bit. We talked about pacing, nutrition, the thoughts I might have during the day, etc... I felt like everything was in order after I chatted with him but unfortunately my brain started to think and I had a really hard time wrapping my brain around racing on sunday and going through the pain cave again and the " What if's" I have a bad bike or bad run, I didn't want to fail again, I didn't want to feel that pain again, both emotionally and physically. I started to cry a bit, feeling defeated afraid that the run was going to do me in again, I was glad Phil was coming because I needed a hug and I needed him to tell me I was going to do ok.

I picked him up we chatted, had dinner, rested on the beach across the street from Mirror lake Inn and fell asleep. He is so confident and mentally strong, sometimes Phil has a hard time listening to my mental weaknesses, the, " not believing in oneself even though you did all the training and hit all your numbers type of weakness". We went to bed around 9:30 ( or I should say tried), slept about 3-4hrs and woke up. Not too nervous, not too worried about the swim, however I was told the day before that 3000 people were in the race and that it was going to be a" BATTTLE" out their in the lake.

Oh well, its just never pretty on that swim and I new I probably would get the shit kicked out of me" , anyway, I showered and made my way down to the oval with Phil and my special needs bags, did all the necessary things I needed to do after eating my breakfast, taking a poo and pee and putting on my piggy tails. We walked down to the oval together and he helped me get things situated, I checked my bike, pumped my tires and put all my food in my bento box. It was time to leave the oval and head to porta potties one more time and then get my wetsuit on. the weather was holding out, not too bad, I couldn't get into a porta potty the lines were too long, I was kinda bummed because I probably had one more little poo to do ( I don't mind peeing in my wetsuit) so I knew I needed to hold it until after the swim because the pro's just went off at 6:50 and I had just a few minutes to head into the water after kissing Phil and getting on the front of the line.

Ok, In short because this post is getting too long, the swim was brutal, from start to finish, I never had any room, I got hit so many times in the head and face by the men that I just plainly got pissed off and started hitting them back. I stayed away from the line because its just too crowded, I made my way out of the first loop at 30 flat which was okay given how much congestion was on the swim and with 700 more swimmers in that lake I was ok with the split, I ran around the deck and hopped back in for the next 1.2 mile loop which ended up being 3 minutes slower because I ended up on the line and got the shit kicked out of me again, this time I got clocked right in the middle of my eyes and then in my mouth which gave me a fat and bloody lip, I started seeing stars a bit and my siting was a bit off and I started drifting away from the line and more to the right, I needed to stay on course, I only had about 400 meters to go and it was hard because my lip was feeling huge and I was really pissed off. Anway, got out of the water at 1:03 something, a minute + faster than last year but definitely feeling a bit beat up and a bit dazed when I got out. The wetsuit strippers got my wesuit off within seconds and I was off down the long ass run to T1. I saw all my friends as I ran out, Phil, my coach Janda, Sara, Greg, Maureen, Nancy, it was awesome, however, I was definitely a bit loopey in the head so after getting my bike transition bag I saw a MD and she kept me in the tent a bit longer to make sure I was ok to get on my bike. After she cleared me I realized I didn't have my sunglasses with me ( oh shit) but, off I went, 8 minutes in T1.

Tomorrow, Part 2-The Bike, also known as, " slow down you ass its the first loop, I guess I'll see you on the second loop and pass your ass".