Since I had done Shelburne two weeks ago, I had an idea of the result I was looking for. The bike at Shelburne was two miles longer than a traditional olympic distance, and my finishing time was 2:57:12, so I thought I should be able to do around 2:46:00 for this race. Truthfully, though, my real goals for any race are to have a good swim, and to finish. This year, race organizers decided to move the start from the 8:00 a.m. time they've had since its inception, to 7:00 a.m. in order to accommodate Labor Day traffic. Lake George is about 100 miles away, so I decided to get a hotel room for the night before the race. And as long as I was there the night before, I did my packet pick-up to save time race morning. We got a bag, a pair of cycling socks (nice!), a water bottle, and a long-sleeved hoodie (even nicer!) I'm always happy to get some different race swag. We had dinner at The Village Blacksmith restaurant, a local steakhouse. The steak was delicious, but probably not the wisest choice the night before a race. Back to the room to read, surf the Internet on my iPad, play Words With Friends, anything to keep myself distracted. I had a very good swim in Mirror Lake with a friend earlier in the week, my best all season, and I was determined to not have a freak out over the swim. Lights out at 11:30, and I actually slept some. The alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. I made myself oatmeal (I brought with me) in the microwave, while my husband fetched coffee from the local Stewart's. I love Stewart's stores, they are the best. We were just five minutes from the race venue; my husband dropped me off with all my gear near transition before 6:00 a.m. I found my bike slot in transition, left everything there, brought my bib to be scanned, and picked up my timing chip. After body marking, I set myself up in transition, and chatted up some of the women nearby. Bike slots in transition are determined by bib numbers, which are determined by age and sex, which determine swim waves. Long way of saying that the people racking their bikes near mine were 40+ year old women. It's actually comforting to find out that everyone worries about the swim, not just me. I found a couple of very good friends in transition, which is also comforting on race morning.
(That's me with my hands on my hips. No idea what was on my mind at that moment.)
Race instructions were at 6:45 on the beach, so I had my wetsuit on by 6:40, and got in a quick swim. The water was 73 degrees and smooth as glass, just perfect. There were seven swim waves, and mine was the last, so it was a long, nervous wait. We finally got in the water and waited for our signal. I positioned myself to the outside, but not all the way in the back. We got the countdown to go at 7:22. I immediately just started swimming. No panicky feeling, lots of room in front of me. They had five large orange or neon green buoys on each side of the course, very easy to see. I sighted often, and just focused on swimming from buoy to buoy, counting them off as I did. I realized a couple of minutes in that I forgot to start my watch--again!-- but this time I paused for a second and started it. I was in a good rhythm out to the turn-around, had no difficulty at all with breathing. I sighted about every sixth stroke, and because the buoys were so visible and there were so many of them, I didn't have to pick my head up much and interrupt my stroke. About three buoys from shore, I starting passing people. Not many, but I was picking off a person every couple of minutes. I saw a guy in a white cap--they had gone out three waves before mine! Somewhere around the last buoy, I touched someone's feet and looked up and saw several people just in front of me. Where the hell had they come from? I couldn't work it out at the time, but realized afterwards that I caught them! I'm not a fast swimmer, but I'm as steady as a metronome. I think they were people who went out fast and ran out of gas. I swam until my hands touched bottom and I stood up and started to peel off my wetsuit. I was running out of the water with other people, a rare thing for me. My watch said 35 minutes. I knew it was more like 38 minutes, but still, that was 2 minutes faster than Shelburne. 
(Look at that smile! And green caps went out two waves before me!)
It's a long run up the beach, across and up the road, through the chute, and across the timing mat into transition. Stripped off my wetsuit, put on my cycling shoes, grabbed a small bar that I had opened before and stuffed it into my mouth, and put on my helmet. I have the new Giro Air Attack with the face shield. It was a cloudy, muggy morning, and it apparently had rained a little while we were in the water. My shield was wet, making it hard to see. I ran out the other end of transition, crossed the timing mat, mounted the bike and took off. Because I was in the last wave, I was also one of the last 50 people on the bike. 416 individuals did the race, plus 51 relay teams. (There were also 133 men and women racing in collegiate nationals, but they went out in the first two swim waves and are fast, so they were well into the race before I even got on the bike.) The first part of the bike course climbs away from the lake, then follows a bike path for a few miles. Only two people passed me on the bike; one guy from a relay team and I played cat and mouse for most of the race. He finally dropped me about five miles from the end. He was hammering it hard, and I still had to get off the bike and run. The other guy and I did the same in the first few miles, then I dropped him for good around mile 10. Riding the bike path was very dicey. The path is narrow and was open to recreational riders. It's also very curvy and wooded, and with a dark and cloudy morning and a wet visor, my visibility wasn't good. So "relay guy in the orange jersey" was a god-send. I stayed legal distance behind him and let him lead the way. Once off the path, the rest of the course was mostly rollers, which I love. I had my Garmin on the main screen, and mostly focused on heart rate. I just kept catching and passing people the entire ride. I ended up with the 84th fastest bike time overall. If you subtract 30 to account for the people who came out of the water behind me, I literally passed 300 people on the bike. I drank one 200 calorie bottle of Heed and had one GU gel on the bike.
Back into transition, and out for the run, I saw some of the collegiates finishing the race. I forced myself to not think about that. They had started over 20 minutes before me, and are, what, 35 years younger than me? Can't dwell on stuff like that. I have never done this run course, though a friend had cautioned me that it's hilly. It's a two-loop course that gains over 250 feet per loop. The first hill came almost at the start, and is longer and not too steep. The second hill comes about two-thirds of the way into the loop, and is shorter and steeper. There were three water stations; I grabbed water at every one, took a quick gulp, then doused myself with the rest. It was getting very muggy, and I was starting to feel it on the run. When I got to the steep hill on the first loop, I saw some people walking, and I told myself, "Thou shalt not walk." I dropped my eyes down to the road, and ran leaf to crack to leaf until I was at the top. The second loop was easier since I now knew what to expect. My first and fifth miles were the fastest; around mile four I was really wishing for rain, it felt so muggy. There were tons of people cheering us on. The road back to the beach was lined with cars. On the first loop, I was feeling kind of guilty that we were holding them up. On the second loop, when I saw some of the same people, I realized that they were parked there specifically to cheer on the racers. It was so awesome, it really gave me a mental boost. The run seemed to go pretty quickly. I didn't feel like I was really hurting until the fourth mile, but once I climbed the steep little hill, I knew I had mostly downhill to the finish. When I got to the finish chute, I found a kick, and saw 3:09 on the race clock. Minus the 22 minutes for my wave start, I knew I was close to my goal.
A local brewery, Adirondack Brewery, sponsors this race, and each racer could get two free beers. My stomach wasn't feeling that great. I drank some cold water, then went down to the lake to rinse off and cool down. I felt much better afterwards, and hit the beer tent for my first beer. Saw some friends there, and we did the debrief. I was so happy that I'd had a good race, so happy to be drinking a beer with a friend. I went to the food tent after and had a little bit to eat, then checked the results sheet. I saw my official time, 2:47:22. Okay, a little slower than I thought I might do, but I knew the run was much hillier than Shelburne, and so my run time was a little slower. Then, I saw a "20" and a "2" next to my name. I had to follow the numbers to the top of the column before I realized that I had finished 20th woman out of 132, 2nd in my age group! I truly had not expected that. This is a big race, attracts people from all over. I just didn't consider the possibility that I would have a high finish, or place in my age group. Yes! I changed into dry clothes, then waited with friends for the awards. My friend, Lynne, did the bike for a women's relay team, and they took first place. Another friend, Jim Adams, took 2nd in his age group. I had walked with Jim for part of Ironman Lake Placid, and he gave me his finishers cap afterwards. We all got beer glasses, nice!
(Not sure what that face is about. I look like I'm about to cry!)
On the ride home, I was really sad that the season was over. I started with the Lake Placid Spinervals camp, had a seriously low moment at the Y-tri, and finished feeling like I had accomplished so much. I'm planning to do some running races this fall, and to start back to building base October 1st. My goal for next summer is a half-ironman, maybe two. Can't wait!
Race stats: 2:47:22, swim-00:38:26, bike-1:13:12, run-00:51:48. (Official results)
