![Race Report: Ironman Lake Placid 2018 [July 22, 2018]](https://chanthony.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/122_m-100830410-DIGITAL_HIGHRES-2178_127442-18768242-1.jpg)
Race Report: Ironman Lake Placid 2018 [July 22, 2018]
a recap of my 3rd time racing Ironman Lake Placid, setting a personal best and finishing within the top 15!
Tag: ironman
IRONMAN 70.3 Syracuse Recap
Race reports should be written and posted in a timely manner, but sometimes it gets pushed back 2 months. Better late than never, right? In lieu of my normal race recaps, I wanted to share a quick recap of the 2017 Ironman 70.3 Syracuse triathlon race. After a dismal result at the Boston Marathon in April, I quickly shifted gears and started building cycling fitness. With less than 2 months to build towards Ironman 70.3 Syracuse, the race was purposely placed on the calendar as a motivator/icebreaker in order to jump-start the build towards Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga, TN. So how did I perform?
The swim in Jamesville Reservoir is pleasant. Having done a handful of swims since last November’s IRONMAN Cozumel race, there was no expectation to swim ‘fast’. The result? A mid-pack swim finish in 38 minutes and 22 seconds.
The bike portion of the race is normally my favorite. However, Mother Nature had different plans this year, giving the racers a steady headwind/crosswind for the majority of the bike course. There aren’t many windy race conditions where I regret using the disc wheel but this bike ride was one of them. Nevertheless, I put my head down and let the legs do their thing, producing a 2 hour 38 minute, 56.8-mile bike split – is it really that difficult to map out a true 56-mile bike course?
Does an extra eight tenths of a mile on the bike course equate to a short run course? In this case, it does! Total run distance was 12.8 miles, instead of 13.1 miles. The run was not enjoyable, but luckily, Christina was out on the course cheering and I was able to steal a kiss. The two loop format made it easy to spot some familiar faces along the course, which made the hills and heat hurt a little less. The result of this run was consistency, bringing me to the finishing line in 1 hour and 31 minutes.
Total race time – 4:52:36
Thank you to Christina for being my race support.
Thank you to CEEPO Triathlon Bikes, ISM Seats, Rudy Project, Zoot Sports, Brickwell Cycling & Team Chocolate Milk for the continued support throughout the race season!
![IRONMAN Cozumel Race Report [November 27, 2016]](https://chanthony.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/img_1456.jpg)
IRONMAN Cozumel Race Report [November 27, 2016]
My first time in Mexico was surely a memorable one! I will post a non-race report post later on, but for now, I want to get the race report out of the way.
Travel:
Getting to the race was very simple – I flew on Thanksgiving morning from NYC, took a little break in Miami where I met up with Jill, a fellow Team Chocolate Milk teammate. By 1-o-clock in the afternoon, we had landed in Cozumel and was on our way to the resort. After a quick bite, Jill, Tom and I went and picked up our bikes from TriBikeTransport over at Chankanaab (swim exit/ Transition 1). Because our hotel was hosting an American style Thanksgiving buffet, we stayed put and did not go in Centro Cozumel (downtown) until race check in.
Swim: The swim course is a point to point 2.4-mile swim from the Marina Fontaur and exits at Chankanaab dolphin aquarium. Jill and I lined up in the 60 minute to 70 minute corral. Our plan was to swim together for as long as possible. We ended up swimming about 20 minutes together before the cross currents split us apart. Apparently, the swim currents had changed depending on which line you took – if you were closer to shore, it was ‘slower’, whereas if you swam further out away from shore, the current was more predictable. Hindsight is 20/20 and if I had the opportunity to do this again, I would have swam as far from shore. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the swim despite a very slow 1:17:07 split, nearly 6 minutes slower than my 1:11 swim at IRONMAN Kona just 6 weeks prior.
I exited the water in 36th place in my age group, giving myself plenty of work to do if I wanted to content for a podium spot.
Bike: One thing that I learned from Kona was that I needed better nutrition management in the heat. 6 weeks ago, I had depleted my sodium and potassium levels on the bike and I was not going to have a repeat here in Cozumel. So this time around, I decided to do a full change into cycling bibs and my ZOOT Kona cycling top. Having a cycling top gave me the sense of security that I would have all my nutrition for the ride – until I can find a better way to store and allocate my nutrition, I will take the time penalty from changing into cycling gear.
There really isn’t much to the bike course. It was 3 counterclockwise loops of the island. The west side of the island was a slight tailwind throughout the ride and the entirety of the east side of the island are all cross-winds. And yes, the winds became more intense with each loop of the island.
The plan was to stay in aero position as much as I can, with occasional back stretches. It was important to stay tucked in and low, especially on the windy eastern portion of the island. My ride had a Normalized Power of 201 watts, my first time holding over 200 watts for the IRONMAN 112-mile ride.
Being that the course was actually 113-miles long, I rolled into transition just over 5 hours at 5:01:35. This relatively strong ride dug me out of my 36th position after the swim and put me into 5th in my age group (which I later found out from Maggie out on the run course).
Run: I sure wasn’t going to run the 26.2-mile marathon in my cycling shorts and jersey, so I did another full change into my favorite running gear – my New Balance 3-inch split shorts and Team Chocolate Milk singlet. I also wore 2XU compression socks, which I found much more comfortable than not wearing any compression.
After 5 hours on the bike and the sun beating down on my back and head, I felt very hot once I hit the pavement. My legs felt like bricks for the first few miles. In fact, I couldn’t find a ‘comfortable’ run stride until the first turnaround at mile 4. Did I mention that the run course is also 3 out-and-back loops? Essentially, each out and back was 7km out and 7km back.
To take my mind off the fact that I had to run 3 identical loops, I decided to break down the 42.2km marathon into 4 repeats of 10km and one repeat of 2.2km. The 10km splits were 50:27, 53:17, 55:52 and 56:45, follwoed by 10:28 for the final 2.2km. Total marathon run time: 3:46:47
Finish Time: 10:16:40, 84th overall, 4th in Men’s 25-29
