First off, I would not have known about this race if it wasn’t for Tim Russell – a Saratoga Springs based elite triathlete, who convinced me to do a training race while we were in Lake Placid for Ironman recon. Whether you are new to triathlon, or looking to improve your performance, check him out at Thoroughbred Triathlon !
Once again, a big THANK YOU to my sponsors and supporters:
Team Chocolate Milk – #Buildit, the most delicious recovery drink.
Headsweats – super comfortable visors & hats, discount code: CHANTHONY25
ISM Seat – comfortable & innovative saddles
I drove up to Saratoga Springs on Friday, met up with Tim, packed my bike and gear into his SUV, and carpooled towards the Adirondacks. Breaking up the drive from NYC to Saratoga Springs to Lake Placid definitely made it a more pleasant and time-passing experience. We checked into the Pines Inn, then made our way to Tupper Lake’s Wild Center where we picked up our race packet. We followed up registration with a quick swim at Racquette Pond, where we will be swimming the 1.2 mile leg of the race.
Race Day
Since we stayed in Lake Placid, we still had to wake up pretty early for the 8:10am start time of our race. By 6am, we had loaded up the SUV and were on our way to Tupper Lake. Tim’s music of choice during the drive over pumped me up but I wasn’t fully awake until I downed the large coffee from McDonald’s. Caffeine loaded, bikes checked in, and we were on our way!
Without much structured swim training leading up to this race, I knew that my swim time wouldn’t be anything spectacular. Nonetheless, after finding a good number of feet to draft off of, I was able to manage a personal best 38:33 swim split. Transition #1 took me 62 seconds.
The 56 mile bike course was spectacular! It was a 28 mile out and back with some rolling hills and a few steady climbs. It definitely simulated IRONMAN Lake Placid in some aspects. Knowing that Tim would be blazing fast out of the water and on the bike, I knew that he would have gained a good 10-15 minute lead. I saw him about 2 miles away from the turn around – right on target – he was in 2nd!
As far as my legs felt, they were heavy for the first hour into the ride; the result of my previous workouts during the week. I was able to open up the legs before the turnaround and then really tucked on the way back to transition. Right after the turnaround, I passed a really strong looking female and alter found out that it was Donna Kay-Ness – an Ironman legend! Pretty cool to chat with her and her husband Erik after the race. Anyways, I was very happy to be able to find my legs because it resulted in a personal best ride of 2:26:48.
T2 took just 58 seconds and I bolted onto the run, hoping to find my stride early on. Like Tim said in his post, ” Treat every race like it matters, even if it’s “just a training race!” – and that’s exactly what my mindset was on the run. I knew that going into T2, I was in 15th or 16th place overall. My goal – run steady on feel and chase down anyone in front of me. Luckily, I found my stride early in the run, catapulting me towards a personal best run split of 1:27:57. It’s important to note that the entire run was done as a negative split, which allowed me to find an extra gear towards the 2nd half of the run, chasing down 5 or 6 guys to finish in 4:35:14, 9th Overall & 1st in Age Group M20-24.
Post Race
It was all smiles!
On to the next one: IRONMAN LAKE PLACID!