This year’s Ironman Lake Placid, and the family vacation that came along with it, will likely serve as one of the best memories of my lifetime. This is so, for so many reasons. First, Stephanie, Ryan, Meg & I had a tremendous time in LP. The location is idyllic for family time. Ryan and Megan enjoyed swimming, playing, live music, friends around the fire… and we enjoyed watching them have such a great time. Second, I really did learn something about myself this week. Well, maybe a few things… I learned that there are four key ingredients to completing an ironman… and I also learned that my training could be a hell of a lot more consistent!
So, now on to the report (I’ll share the 4 things that I learned within). We arrived via the Essex ferry in the Adirondacks aboard our 31’ RV. This was our first experience in an RV, and it was a good one. They make for the perfect race camp, allowing us to cook our own meals throughout the week. The RV was also essential for rest, particularly when the clouds came and the sky opened up. The beginning of the week was spent getting acquainted with the water and enjoying the area. We met Ben from Paris, our first night at camp. He and his lovely family came over for a camp fire and to discuss the course. Up early the next day, out on the bike with Ben. I had not seen the run course, so this was a particularly informative ride. Two loops, that was going to be tough! Not really any flat spots on the course either, more like a couple of big hills, mostly rolling hills… Spent the rest of the week relaxing as racers began to show up. Registration was quick and easy on Friday as were the several swim laps that I was able to do on the swim course. LP has a neat little “line” that is 5’ below the surface, perfect for staying on track while swimming! Todd, Duxbury, Tomasz, and even Tom Bircher and Cheryl Bush arrived in LP. Had a nice fire with all as the pre-race jitters began to settle in…
Race day. I slept most of Saturday, so that doesn’t make the report. Up at 4am. Shower. Gear check. Walk 1.5miles to the start (boo). I was confident that I had all my gear ready… where were my special double-secret weapons? Oh shit! I forgot my peanut butter tortillas I had made for the bike! Double shit! Oh well. Found Todd and Dux just before walking another country mile to drop off my special needs bags. We walked back to the swim start together. The swim start at IMLP is like any other mass start… like fitting a hundred pounds of fighting puppies into a 50 pound bag! Held the dock, and before too long, we were off.
Ingredient #1: Find a mantra: who/what are you doing this for in the first place.
A year before, I was volunteering for IMLP, and was able to have a VIP pass to watch the swim from a balcony overlooking Mirror Lake (Thanks to Rod!). After one lap of the swim, there were several folks who simply quit. The pounding from the other swimmers was too much. Their heart rate got out of hand. They just weren’t ready. Whatever the case, I knew going into the water that I was coming out only after 2 laps, and that I was getting on that damn bike. I stuck to the line. Despite a few feet to the face and getting swam over early, I stuck to it. In my mind, I thought of only one thing, I forced myself to focus on my mantra, the person for whom I was doing the race: Stephanie.
I have done many, many races in the past. This was the first that I dedicated to her. This proved a good decision… her face lit up when I told her that this one was for her and her only… and… when things got tough (and trust me, with my times, they got tough) I was able to focus only on her. I simply shut out everything else in the world. There was no noise. No pain. Just me and her. I would breathe, picture her, pull, breathe… and before I knew it, I was out of the water. To my surprise, there were many bikes still on the rack!
I won’t spend too long on the strippers (Todd(just before the swim start): “you know my mom is a stripper, right?” Jason: “huh~!@!?” Todd: “um, wetsuit stripper…” Jason: “ohhhhh.”… duh!)…. Or spend a lot of time on the disgusting transition/mass nudity tent… looking around, the water must have been cold though J So very quickly it felt, I was out on the bike…
Ingredient #2: Get to the run.
The bike course began with my first two HUGE mistakes (of many) in this race. I had underestimated the hill coming out of Lake Placid and headed toward Keene. All week long I had talked about the first 16 miles of the race being downhill to Keene. I received a few looks when I said this, but shrugged them off, for whatever reason. Turns out, there is one huge young-momma -shut –the- front –door hill that seems to go on forever and forever, just as you begin the bike. And it was pouring. Was it going to pour all day? Just get to the run and remember why you are out here… that’s all I kept saying to myself. The course was 2 laps, 56 miles each. I knew I could get through the first one… I’d save the second for later! My second colossal mistake occurred almost immediately on the bike as well. I had scooped a bunch of sustained energy drink powder into my profile design aero bar water holder the night before, when I racked my bike. It didn’t mix. My first big pull on my drink was almost all powdered, straight down my throat…. Yuck. It took about 60 miles to recover from a horrible feeling in my stomach.
The second lap on the bike was easier in some ways then the first. I had already had two flats. I had eaten a block of powder. None of that occurred on the second lap. It was just smooth (SLOW) sailing as I doubled the course. Ps. Bike course: F.U. to the papa bear hill, it is a monster. Here’s a look at the ugliness:
Ingredient #3: the race box.
112 miles on the bike, and oh yeah, now time to run a marathon. I knew that the bike was a solid 2 hours longer than I had hoped for. But armed with ingredient 1 and 2, I knew I could keep going. I thought to myself “they will have to drag my cold dead body from this course at this point!” The bike and run course were very family/fan friendly. I had already ridden by Steph, Ryan and Meg a couple of times, now it was time to see them on the run. About a mile in, there they were, cheering! Ryan was cute… ran along side of me and simply said “get going big boy!” and spanked me on the fanny! Off I went on what was to be a very, very long journey.
The race box is the term I learned from some Ironman website, some time ago. It refers to focusing only on what you can do at any one moment to make it to the next thing that you can make it to. On the bike, this might be the next aid station (or in my case, port-o-potty) or next bike loop. It’s a big race box because you’re moving pretty fast. On the run, the box is much smaller. It might start out by being every mile, but very quickly, it becomes, that tree up ahead, that crack in the sidewalk. The trick is to think about ingredient #1, and stay within your box. This was hard. At IMLP, there’s a doubly sneaky reason this is so hard. Once you do the out and back on the back side of course, you have to come back into town, then run a mile beyond the finish line and a mile back to head out on the second loop! All the while, fans are yelling you’re almost there! On the first loop, this was crazy, I had 13 plus miles to go, and everyone was yelling “Jason, you’ve done it, you’re almost there!!!” Ug. Stay in my box. Left right left right left…. And back out on the course I went. It was a dark and lonely second lap. Once there, I knew I could finish… though I wasn’t feeling all that great about the time. I also knew that Steph and the kids would long since have headed off to bed. I was really lonely.
Coming into town, my loneliness didn’t lift… not until I got to the dreaded out and back… the 2 miles of hell as I referred to it… and Steph was there! Ry in the stroller, asleep, Meg on her back. The thought of her had sustained me for 138+ miles, of how strong she was, how much never-quit, and there she was with both kids in tow, at nearly 11pm. She really is the iron one… not me!
Ingredient #4 That Feeling…
There is no feeling like finishing in ironman. This ingredient is as important that the rest. No matter how your race goes (and nothing goes as planned)… hearing those words “Jason Vallee, you are an ironman,” and persisting for all of the reasons above is something I’ll have forever.
Post race note. Steph carried my stuff, the kids, gear bags, and nearly me… as we walked the 1.5 miles back to our campsite.
