We got to Lake Placid early. The race director, Brian Delaney, set my bike up in the primo location in transition. I got my area set up, and took my bike for a quick spin. Decided to go with my shallower rear wheel with the 12/27 cassette. Put my wetsuit on and did a warm up swim almost all the way to the first buoy. I felt good. It was a beautiful, sunny evening and the water was smooth. I got out of the water and listened to the race instructions. Now, one thing I've noticed is when I get out of the water and don't remove my wetsuit right away, it "suctions" to my body. That's the only way I can describe it. I really should at least unzip my wetsuit after my warmup swim, then zip it quickly and pull the neck down to let some water in before I start swimming. I was all the way to the back, where I always start. Another thing I need to change. I only swim freestyle in races, and once I get into a rhythm, I'm fine. The problem is, I'm always swimming with the breast- and back-strokers, and I can't get going. The same thing happened last night. The race began, I started swimming, and I was immediately on the feet of slow people or whip-kickers that I couldn't get around. My wetsuit felt suffocatingly tight, and I was starting to panic. My heart rate was through the roof, and I could feel that weak, hypoxic feeling in my arms and legs. I entertained the thought of quitting for one second, but just couldn't stomach the thought of being a two-time loser. So, I just kept swimming. I somehow made it to the turn-around buoy, then managed to find some open water in front of me. Sighted a few times, only had to adjust once. I swam right into the exit, stood up and hit the lap button on my watch, and turned around to see how many people were still in the water. Shocked to see maybe 20 swim caps, and that only 11 minutes had elapsed since the race start. I always feel like I'm in the water forever, and that I'm last. Next race, I'm positioning myself about 3/4 of the way back. I think that's where I truly belong, and hopefully, it will keep me with the freestyle swimmers.
As I ran into transition, I yelled to my husband to grab a gel for when I finished the bike. That weak feeling was translating into a hungry feeling. I think I just imagined it, but it couldn't hurt to have a gel. I knew I had a 100 calorie bottle of Heed on the bike, so I should be okay. I did a quick transition, about 1:30, then headed out on the bike. I hammered it. I love the bike leg; I feel so strong, and I'm always so glad to be done the swim. Headed down Mirror Lake Drive to Northwood Road, a little climb there, then down to Route 86, and a lovely, fast downhill through the Notch to River Road. I passed everyone I came to. I was flying! After the turn on River Road, there is a little bump. I passed a couple of people there, then thought it would be a good time to grab another drink before I settled in the aerobars to time-trial River Road. As I reached down to put my bottle back on the seat tube, I muffed it, and my bottle went under the bike. Dammit! I just got that bottle at Ididaride the day before. I was only four miles into the ride, and there went my calories and fluid. It was a cool evening, maybe low 70's at this point, so I made an instaneous decision to leave the bottle. I had my handheld for the run, and my husband would have a gel ready for me. That would have to be good enough. River Road is made for me, with a few little rollers to work. I continued to pass people. I heard an admiring, "Whoa!," when I passed one young guy. I heard my watch beep a 5 mi lap and saw 12:56. The next beep, after turning from River Road to Route 73, and climbing the hill after the bridge back up to Route 86, showed 14:37. A spectator on that hill cheered my Team Placid Planet kit, and told me I had a cool helmet (Giro Air Attack with the face shield ). I did the math, and knew my ride would be about 35 minutes. Took the right on 86, back to Northwood and Mirror Lake Drive. My husband had the gel ready for me, and I was in and out of transition in about 45 seconds. I was worried that my shins would start rebelling, or I'd just suffer a general rebellion from my body because of the 75 miles the day before. I felt a little redlined as I ran that first mile on Mirror Lake Drive. I made the turn onto a dirt road just as my watch beeped a one-mile lap, and I was shocked to see 7:46. Holy crap, I was flying! The dirt road is a bit of a climb. A few people passed me shortly after transition, but then I started passing people on that dirt road. I made the turn-around, and had a nice downhill in front of me. Started to feel like I had my legs under me. Back to the end of the dirt road, my watch beeped again, and it was just two seconds slower than the first lap. I was back on Mirror Lake Drive with a mile to go, and I just pushed as hard as I could, keeping a good rhythm. Only two guys passed me after the dirt road. I heard my watch beep one more time before the finish (I can never figure out how to run the shortest distance on a race course), and I had run a 7:36 mile. Another tenth of a mile and I was at the finish line, so happy to have finished the race feeling so strong! My watch said 1:12:59. (Link to results)
Afterwards, everyone who races grabs a raffle ticket for some awesome prizes. I know they do the raffle every week. I'm not sure what the prizes typically are, but this week they had running shoes, fuel belts, beer from Lake Placid Brewery, shirts, googles, socks, gloves...all great stuff. I didn't win anything, but the age-group awards were coming up next. Before the raffle, I had wandered over to the table at the finish line where two formidable-looking women were entering results on a laptop. I tried peeking over their shoulders and got the hairy eyeball, and was told that Brian would give the results, so I slunk away, not knowing how I finished. After the raffle, Brian called out the age-group winners, starting with the youngest to oldest women, then the same with the men. There was a table full of items to choose from: Baseball caps, water bottles, nutrition and hydration, gym bags, etc...Again, awesome swag! Now, Lake Placid is a world-renowned vacation destination, which typically draws very fit people. Around 70 individuals and 10 teams did the race this week, and they were from all over. A woman from Far Hills, NJ won my age group. She beat me by about two minutes. When all the age-group winners were called, I started to leave, thinking it was over. I was half way to my car when I realized it wasn't over, and they were calling 2nd place winners. I got back just in time to hear my name, and I picked up a nice gym bag. I was very happy with my performance, happy that I toughed out the swim, and that I was walking away with some swag. It was almost 9:00 at this point (if you do this race be prepared for a long evening!), so we went to Wise Guys for dinner--they serve until 2:30 a.m. and the food is great. On the way home, I swung onto River Road and found my water bottle. Bonus!
**A Team Placid Planet group email went around the next day, and a couple of race veterans commented on how rough the swim was. One guy was sporting a bump on his head from being hit or kicked. I know I wasn't near that scrum, but there were a lot of people for this shoreline swim, so I don't feel so bad for feeling like it was a tight swim.
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