The Dexter family was in Lake Placid, New York a few weeks ago while my wife Christina competed in the Ironman triathlon (swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles). What follows is her humorous race report. I thought you might enjoy reading it.
Here’s
my list of learning experiences from Ironman Lake Placid 2013:
1)
Lesson Learned:
Challenge your Anxiety Disorder. The day before Ironman is when you drop-off
your bike & transition bags. I do not recommend this format:
Step 1 – take a trip to the
nearest ER with one of your children who is in terrible pain with an ear
infection.
Step 2 – get halfway there
and realize neither you nor husband have wallet (no insurance cards and no
money) so drive back home.
Step 3 – realize by the
time you drive back and head out again you may not fall within check-in time.
So leave Cruz with Ryan and now make plans with Ryan’s brother and sis-in-law
to drop-off Ironman gear.
2)
Lesson Learned: All
Ironman Swim Starts are Scary. I have now experienced an IM mass swim start, rolling 1st come/1st
serve swim start and rolling
self-seed/projected time wave start (like a marathon start – gather in
chute next to sign w/your projected swim time) where you sprint into the water
from the beach (Lake Placid was changed from a mass start to this format this
year). Here’s my assessment of the various swim starts.
Mass Start (IMWI,
IMAZ) Rolling 1st Come
(IMKY) Rolling Wave
(IMLP)
Placement: chaos chaos chaos
Overall swim: feels
long feels
long feels
long
Beat up: yes yes yes
Bottom
line is they’re all tough in different ways. I think Ironman is leaning towards
the Rolling wave/projected time start to be ‘safer’ as people have died during
mass starts. However, this particular format at Lake
Placid is 2 loops. So we run out of the water to the turn around
and go back in. Therefore, I don’t know how much ‘safer’ it was for individuals
in later waves as the 2nd loop was completely littered with people
so they were swum over anyway… I think the ideal scenario would be this type
rolling wave start but an out and back course.
3)
Lesson Learned: Don’t
Think You’re cool.
After my experience at Kentucky (I didn’t realize I needed to basically spend
the night in line to get a good swim placement start -1st come/1st
serve), I was DETERMINED to get a good spot at Lake Placid after I heard format
was changed to ‘rolling’. Naturally, I assumed that meant it was the same as Kentucky. So we set our
alarms for 2:45 (totally normal) and were down at the swim start by 3:30 a.m. …
1st IN LINE!!!! Soon, others arrived and oddly they were there
because of Ironman Kentucky
experience, as well… WE WERE ROCKSTARS!! It wasn’t until right before the
actual start that we realized people were gathering under projected time signs
and we were going to run in from the beach. The 6 of us that had been standing
there for hours felt pretty stupid … good thing we were 3 hours early!!!!
4)
Lesson Learned: Don’t
Make Fun of Others.
In the past I’ve always been entertained by people ‘warming up’ before an
Ironman. I would say, “I’ve got all day to warm-up!” haha. HOWEVER, when the
swim start is a sprint off the beach, it is probably necessary. I didn’t expect
the sensation of the heavy arms/legs that probably happens from the surge of
blood when you are SPRINTING into the water from the beach (I’ve had this
happen in sprint races before but never in an Ironman. Not a good feeling
entering a 2.4 mile swim). THIS would have been a good day to warm-up! Standing
for 3 hours isn’t enough activity…
5)
Lesson Learned: It’s
Good to be King.
The Pro’s at this race had such an advantage! We were not allowed to swim on
the inside of the buoys (we kept buoys to the right; pro’s had buoys to the
left). So not only did they begin 10 minutes early- their course was shorter
and they didn’t have mass amounts of people to swim over! I think from now on I
will enter the pro division (J). Don’t get me
wrong. I thoroughly enjoy being elbowed in the face and constantly whacked on the
back (note: wetsuits are really worn for their armor-like properties), but a
long swim with the entertainment of watching other fend for their lives might
be nice!
6)
Lesson Learned:
Challenge Your Anxiety Disorder…More. 2 years ago I wrote about descending the
hills on my bike reaching the speed of 50 mph. Now add rain …
7)
Lesson Learned:
Always Be Colorful.
If you can’t be fast. Be colorful! Last year I bought a new bike that is pink camouflage.
My old bike is silver. Color brings conversation! Even if the conversation is
as simple as, “nice bike!”, I will take it! The bike portion is loooonnnnnggg
for me and as an extrovert and “social exerciser” it’s like sensory deprivation
for a psychological experiment (proceed to #9 to gain greater insight to this).
8)
Lesson Learned: Perspective is Everything. Funny …
looking back at my IM Lake Placid report from 2011- I felt so great during the
event. I thought everything was just wonderful & not terribly difficult…Including the hills on the bike course. This
year … the hills were MOUNTAINS! Lol!
The bike course was HARD! Lol! The
run course was HILLY! … I’m fairly
confident the hills didn’t grow. And Lake Placid
is the 2nd oldest Ironman out there. I think the course is the same!
9)
Lesson Learned: pain +
isolation = Christina crazy. The people in my head have lots of interesting
things to say over the course of several hours on a bike feeling not-so-good. Here’s
some examples:
“…is
that a hawk? It looks like a dinosaur.”
“… is that a car next to me? Nope, it’s my
shadow…”
“…big wheels keep on
turning … proud mary keep on burning …and we’re rolling …”
“…maybe I will flat. Maybe I can purposefully
bike over something so I can flat … damn, Ryan’s family drove a long way to
come to this… they would be disappointed …maybe if I fell over this rail into
this pretty lake”
“…If pink were a smell, what smell would it
be?”
“…what if a boulder slid down this mountain
and took me out...?”
“…Boulders… What the HELL was I thinking when
I registered for Ironman Boulder next year??!!!”
10)
Damn! I’m not gonna win! Kidding, of course!
About mile 40 on the bike, my legs started cramping/seizing. In the past, I’ve
seen people on the side of the road rubbing their legs from this, but had never
experienced it. Now I have! Yay! I’ll never know why – my nutrition plan was
going smoothly. Who knows? You never know WHAT
will happen on Ironman day!
11)
Lesson Learned: PowerBar Perform drink STILL gross. Enough said.
12)
Lesson Learned: REALLY Don’t Make Fun of
Others. I’ve
made jokes about things I’ve seen during the run but I’m fairly confident I’m
on someone else’s top 10 list of funniest things seen. Due to the cramping of
my legs, every time I came upon a hill, I would take both hands and poke myself
very hard in the origin of the hamstrings (a.k.a my ASS) to prevent them from
locking up. So, essentially I spent a good portion of the marathon grabbing my
own ass. I didn’t actually realize that I was doing this until a volunteer in a
golf cart pulled up beside me and asked, “are you okay??”
13)
Lesson Learned: Always Appreciate Others. I’m always thankful
to volunteers during any race. On a day that was in and out of rain downpour
during both bike and run, those volunteers had a ROUGH day. At least the
participants were moving! That being said, you know you’re in pretty bad shape
when going thru an aid station (run) and a volunteer says, “Here. Take this
water. You REALLY look like you need
it!” I did not feel encouraged.
14)
Lesson Learned: It’s Good to be Loved : Ryan walked/talked me
thru the barren portion of the ‘run’ (complete with downpours).Therefore, the
poor guy experienced emotions equivalent to PMS on crack: Tears when my legs would cramp; anger
when he’d say something like, “if you would just run a little now, you
could still do a ___ marathon” (cant take the competitiveness out of my
hubby!); joy when the marathon
numbers finally entered the 20’s; frustration
when the marathon numbers finally entered the 20’s; laughter
as he’d draw my attention to something peculiar happening around me that I’d
otherwise not notice. Anger when he’d
say, “only __ miles to go!”. I suppose this made my ‘normal Christina’
moodiness seem not so bad! Haha (I haven’t asked him if it seemed the same … )
I
will always say that every finish is a GREAT finish and I feel blessed to be
able to do these. I certainly didn’t feel as fabulous as I did 2 years ago when
I was there. However, crossing the finish line after dealing with
cramping/seizing legs all day was certainly just as gratifying!
