Wheels’ IMLP 2014 Race Report
For a first timer, I think a key part of executing my race plan was to be organized so I was relaxed as possible at the start line. I had a checklist for all of my gear bags that I had put together before I even left for Lake Placid. I usually never sleep the night before a race, but I did for this one, and I think that was because I knew I had all my ducks in a row. All I needed to do race morning was show up. Also, don’t crash your bike and end up with a separated shoulder and broken rib 3 weeks before the race…it’ll mess with your race plan…
Pre-Race
The day before the race, I carb loaded in the morning, something I tried for the first time training for IMLP. Usually I carb-load the night before, but after talking to Jim Sullivan and doing some research I thought I would try the big breakfast strategy. After breakfast I settled in w/ my feet up, watched TV and ate a whole bag of pretzels washed down w/ water and Gatorade. Lunch was a turkey sandwich, then dinner was pasta and chicken. Instead of forcing myself to sleep at a specific time, I just fell asleep watching a marathon of “The Big Bang Theory”.
Race Morning
Coffee, boost, apple sauce, and Gatorade…want to feel like a nursing home patient, sign up for an ironman (don’t have anything for breakfast that you can’t pee out). Went down to transition, put bottles on the bike, air in the tires, and flasks in my run bag. One note about the tires, I learned from Russ Lepage that when you check-in your bike the night before, let a little air out of the tires. Then, the morning of the race, pump them up. This reduces the chance of a blown tube before the race. After transition I checked my bike special needs bag (handed it off to James Gebo, this started a recurring theme of seeing fellow Cyclonauts in orange volunteer t-shirts, chief among them Jill Herrick who I swear there must more than one Jill because she pops up EVERYWHERE), then off to hand in the run special needs bag. In the bike special needs bag I had three bottles, gels, bars, one tube, and two CO2 canisters. For the run I had two flasks, Vaseline, one gel, extra salt tabs and Tylenol.
Once all the gear was checked, I went over to Cyclonaut central at the playground, found a place to sit, and started to relax. This is the point when I put it into cruise control. I’ve swam, rode, and ran enough over the past nine months training for this, now there’s nothing left to do but let muscle memory take over. I checked everything off my to-do list, the gear was taken care of. I knew that if I could survive the swim and not crash on the bike, I would be able to walk 26.2 if I had to. With the shoulder and rib I wasn’t overly confident in my bike handling or ability to run a marathon.
Swim
During my training I had a sub 70-minute 2.4M swim as a goal, but that was out the window. Once I had gotten range of motion back with the left shoulder, I tested it in the pool and open water to settle on a 70-75 minute range for my swim time, so that’s where I lined up. On both loops I went out to the far left of the field to protect the shoulder, but unfortunately I found myself constantly right in the pack at all the turns. There were moments at the turns (especially on the second loop) that I was caught in a pack and slowed down. But with clean water on the left, I was cruising comfortably. Came out of the second loop w/ a time of 1:10:21 and Jill yelling at me “Go Bill, go!” It scared the crap out of me (maybe the first time on the day, but not the last), I didn’t expect anyone to know me at that point, but then I saw it was Jill and started laughing to myself.
I got the wetsuit peeled off of me (I do my own stripping) and started the run down to transition. All day I had the gorilla game face on, but whenever I heard my name or “Go Cyclonaut” I tried to give a thumbs up. I appreciated EVERY word of encouragement, but at the same time I needed to keep it calm.
I knew it was raining at the second turn buoy on the second lap of the swim, but I had NO idea what was really happening. Crossing Main St going into T1 I heard the first rumble of thunder, and I said to myself “Crap, so I got a 2.4M swim in today, and that’s going to be it, they’re going to cancel the race.” This had happened before at Syracuse 70.3 in 2013, but as soon as I had that thought, a volunteer started yelling, “Don’t worry about the thunder, race is still on, get on your bikes!” Game on…
Bike
Looking at the forecast the 10 days leading up to race, I knew a thunderstorm was possible, but was hopeful it would just pass by. I got my bag, put my shoes and helmet on…lubed up, left my sunglasses in the bag, and slammed the gel and Gatorade I packed in my bike gear bag.
Once on the bike, the conditions forced me to take the turns out of town easy. On the flats and uphills for the first loop was to shoot for a 130bpm HR average, and don’t spike over 150bpm. That was going to be the easy part on the bike…the down hills into Keene with pouring rain was the hard part. It was difficult spotting cracks and potholes on the rough sections of road, and I avoided the painting lines like the plague. When passing Upper Cascade Lake there was a lighting strike right on the water (2nd time I almost crapped myself). To that point, the conditions were tougher mentally than physically.
Once off of the descents, the cold started to take over, my whole body was shivering and fingers turning purple. I just wanted to make it back to Placid in one piece and bag it. The thought that saved me was of a young man that I had on my cross-country team that is now a Navy SEAL. “He lives through this crap, this is his job. Ride your bike in this crap and stop complaining.” How I was I going to explain to him, “Yeah, I quit because I was cold and wet”? But how do I get warm? I went into Bear Grylls mode…I can’t get off the bike and start doing pushups, but I can start pushing a slightly higher gear without going too hard. Next, push the calories. I ate half a power bar 5 minutes earlier than my plan, then popped a gel 15 minutes early.
On the road, riding to the Au Sable Forks turn around it was still raining, but I was able to get warm and settle into the ride. Hitting the right hand turn at Jay and up the short climb blue skies appeared behind Whiteface “Okay, let’s have a good ride.” I settled into my plan, be smart, leave the bike ready to run a marathon. The next 72 miles went according to plan. For me, once I settle into my rhythm on flats and up hills the only thing I worry about is when is my next drink, when is my next feed. The second loop was awesome, started to warm up, pushed the liquids and salt, and enjoyed the ride. The headwinds on Rt 86 back into town kicked up, was even on the small ring for some short descents, but like everyone else, I just had to manage it and ride in my zone. I hit Papa Bear the second time w/ the Plourdes and George Herrick yelling at me along with the crowd, and I just thought of my daughter and I yelling “Allez! Allez! Allez!” while watching the Tour de France…I picked up a gear and in my head I had Paul Sherwin say, “Look at Wheels dancing on the pedals.”
Took at left on Mirror Lake Drive, settled the heart rate, popped one last gel, and soaked it in. The moments when I could take a deep breath and smile are what made this race for me. Took the corners around the Olympic Center and slipped my feet out of my bike shoes, and got ready to run…5:46:30 bike split.
Run
Once I got my two feet on the ground, my RACE started. Up to that point, I had to treat 114.4 miles as a 7+ hour warm-up. Months before the race during our Belchertown Beer Rides, Paul McCloskey stressed that because I was a runner, the 112 mile bike needed to be a SMART ride, not a FAST ride, ride the bike I SHOULD, not the bike I COULD. And as my daughter said, I didn’t break my feet when I crashed my bike 25 days ago. A clipped wing and broken rib were going to suck, but I was in one piece off the bike…lets run!
I had a row of chairs and a volunteer to myself in T2…he dumped the bag and said, “Take what you need, I’ll clean it up for you!” Damn this is awesome! Slipped on the socks, slammed on my shoes, strapped on the fuel belt, and donned my Tree House Brewing cap. Out of transition and onto the run, I pulled on arm coolers and it was time to settle in, keep the HR between 150-155bpm for the first loop and treat the first 2 miles of the run like the first 5 miles of the Boston Marathon, SLOW! Right on Main St, there she is again, Jill is yelling, “You’re right up there Bill! Go after them!” I had wanted to respond, “I’m ambulatory Jill, who cares about racing at this point!” But I pulled the visor of my hat over my eyes, put on the gorilla game face, gave a thumbs up, and pressed on.
Passing Cyclonaut Central I gave a smile and some high fives (needed to let my wife know that for the time being I was keeping it together) and eased to mile 2. During training on my long runs I developed a plan to treat the River Road and Mirror Lake Drive out and backs as work sites, these were the parts of the course I could allow myself to race, but not push the HR over 155bpm. I hugged every tangent on my side of the road, I focused on being relaxed, on form, and on my cadence. On the climbs in and out of town, it was about survival, if I got passed, let them go, I’ll see you on the out and backs. Miles 7-9 ranged between 7:49-8:11 pace, climbing back into town my back and shoulders were tight, but I just had to gut through it. After the Mirror Lake Drive turnaround my stomach was sick of Perform, I slowed down to let my stomach process all the sugar and started walking aid stations to absorb water, cola, and salt.
I got back to work on River Road, this time doing okay at holding sub-9 minute miles up to mile 22 and I let the HR range between 155-160bpm, all the time walking aid stations but grinding through it. When I hit mile 22 and started climbing back into town I allowed myself to start thinking about the finish. Just like the bike, on the run I only think about where’s my next drink, when do I eat (in fact when I passed Cyclonaut Central the 3rd time I yelled, “Who’s got my beer!” to Andy Brower, I’m always thinking about food and beer). But here, with 4.2 miles to go, I looked at the total time on my watch for the first time, right around 10:15. “Holy crap! Keep it together knuckle-head, if you don’t blow up, you’re going sub-11.”
My wife had made a ton of signs, but between the game face and the lack of a sense of humor during the run, I only saw one. It read, “25 days ago you thought this wasn’t POSSIBLE.” Even before I crashed, I never allowed myself to think I could go sub-11 hours in my first ironman, let alone at Lake Placid. The goal had always been just to finish, how could I predict what would happen during my first ironman? And especially after the crash, how would my body react to hours of constant exercise? When pressed for a time, I conservatively estimated between 11:30-12 hours. Getting a sniff at sub-11 after mile 22, I had to fall back on my plan for the bike, “Be smart.”
I climbed back into town, not trying to push the HR past 165bpm, I hit the right hand turn onto Mirror Lake Drive and the runner in me (old habits die hard) tried to kick it in the last 2 miles…no dice…twinges in the hamstrings and calves punched the old runner in the face and the soon to be ironman said, “No kick, cruise, cruise to the finish.” I jogged through the last water stop, and just to be on the safe side, grabbed water and perform. At that last aid station, I was lucky enough to hear George Herrick say, “You’re going to do it Wheels, you’re going to finish!” To me that was better than Mike Riley telling me I’m an ironman. Having a teammate that lives in the same town as me, who knows who I am, what I’m about, and the obstacles I’ve overcome was uplifting. I hit that last turnaround and ran a 7:48/M pace the last 1.1M.
The Olympic Oval was incredible! I spotted my wife w/ the Browers, smiles all around! Joe Giannetti and Bill Lodi were there too! Along with Jill Herrick I swear those two were ALL OVER the place! They were hanging over the barricades clapping, and the soon to be ironman wanted to go over and give a few high fives. But I was on an speed skating oval, in essence a track, and the runner in me took over…hug the inside lane and kick to the finish. I gave a two-arm salute, and in Belchertown Cross Country tradition, I yelled “BOOM” at the finish (at the end of our races, if anyone PRs, we give them a “BOOM!”). A 3:41:44 run split, 10:48:13 overall.
Thank Yous
I’ve said it a bunch of times, but I’m going to say it again, no way was this even possible without the support from family and friends. And when I say friends, I’m including this entire club. From training, nutrition, race strategy, encouragement, and even medical care the Cyclonauts are amazing. This club helped me feel like a professional athlete, especially with helping me take care of the separated shoulder. Melissa Mol-Pelton was the first to tell me a day after my crash that IMLP was STILL a possibility, Kirsten Lane helped me make that a reality through physical therapy (I know the kid gloves are coming off and the PT is about to get serious), Dawn Roberts taped up the shoulder the night before the race, and finally Jill Herrick the Cyclonaut Soigneur taking care of getting us food and massages at the finish. Thanks to ALL the Cyclonauts, and especially those that braved the storms to spectate up at IMLP. Like I said previously, in light of the game face, every word of encouragement was heard and appreciated.
Okay, time for beer and ice cream.
-Wheels