How I spent my summer vacation:
Cascade Campground Early Sunday Morning
Heard rain at 2 am and 3:30 am I believe.
Dry at 4:15 am. Woke up before alarm.
Nice to start the day dry and not have to set up in rain.
Bobby Olsen and I got ride from Brian Person to start at 5 am. Decided to put arm warmers into my bike bag instead of bike special needs bag. This became very important later.
Thanks to Ben Fish and Brian for all their help preparing me for the race.
Swim
I started training for IMLP at beginning of 2013 in my mind. Total swim distance in last 19 months was 301 miles. I felt well prepared after many Crystal Lake perimeter swims.
Walked to starting area without my wet suit on. Put it one while standing in a large group of racers inside start area. Not recommended. Once I had my suit on I moved up to the 1:00 to 1:10 race time area. Here on the side there was plenty of space and a bench. Should have put my wet suit on here.
Swim went ok. I started at front of one of the staggered small groups they let into the water. Therefore there was no one to draft for a while. Eventually the gap disappeared, but I still did little drafting.
I swam wide to stay clear of fray.
At exit of first loop, it was nice to see Jill Herrick greeting the swimmers at the exit archway. She was a welcome sight at the end of the second loop as well. In the middle of the second loop, I saw that it was raining and looked toward swim finish. I could not see it due to the volume of water falling from the sky. I did not see lightning or hear thunder. I exited the water at about the same time as Rick Conroy.
I was cold from the swim. This also happened at HITS Lake George full Aquabike race at the end of June. I was not as cold this time, but the cold rain did concern me. At HITS I got so cold I doubted I would finish the swim.
Garmin noted swim length as 2.63 miles. That is why my time (1:12:39 by my watch) was slower than I expected. My pace was a bit faster than Crystal Lake perimeter swims.
T1
Went ok. I ran to get my bike bag in heavy rain and entered the changing tent.
Broke ankle pull strap on shoe trying to get it on my foot. I had noticed on Thursday that my one of my cleats was showing signs of wear, but did not change it. I normally like to leave my shoes on the bike at transition, but this is not permitted at IMLP for some reason. The cleat survived the race. I put on arm warmers and a windbreaker. My transition time was slower than I expected.
Bike
Total bike miles last 19 months was 10,929.
Mounted bike in pouring rain. Could not see defects in road because all uniformly wet and pot holes were filled with water. I could not wear glasses because they were fogging. Large drops or hail hurt face and limited amount of time with eyes open. I saw a big bolt of lightning as I crossed bridge at bottom of Subway hill in town. Thunder was immediate.
Cold got worse. As a result, my whole body became tense and I biked harder to warm up. I recalled my struggle with cold on bike at HITS and had some doubts about finishing. If it had rained all day I might not have finished due to cold. Maybe next time I will keep wetsuit on 
.
Climb up hill was not too bad, but I was not looking forward to downhill into Keene.
As I started down hill, the road felt very slippery. The wind was moving my 808’s back and forth. It felt like I was hydroplaning even when I slowed down. Many people passed me on the downhill.
I find when I am cold, my stomach gets tense. This lasted for all of bike ride. It did lessen with time.
I ate anyway but felt like puking often. Ate a bit less than planned over the course of the ride. I took 8 salt stick pills which I have never done before and I think they helped, especially later in the day. I drank less than the bottle an hour I planned. I think I had 4 bottles over the course of ride.
Rain started to lessen when I made turn in Wilmington and saw some blue sky during climb into town. Bears were fun with lots of cheering Cyclonauts. Thanks!
Climb out back of town and downhill were fine the second loop. Felt best on second flat section and passed quite a few people there. However, the cold and going too hard during the rain to try to keep warm did apparently take its toll. I had no snap left in my legs during last climbs back to town. The climbs went ok, but I did not pass many people as I had planned/hoped. It was great to get back into town and start the next leg. I was hoping for a time closer to 6 hours, but my bike time was 6:32:13.
T2
Uneventful. They did not have Vaseline for my toes as I expected. They had some kind of less viscous lubricant that I put on my feet before socks.
Run
I have not really been able to run for the last two years due to arthritis in my right knee. Total miles I ran/walked in last 19 months was only 274. I swam further than that during my training.
I really did not know what to do for the marathon. Anything I attempted would be an experiment, and I did not want to jeopardize my ability to finish. The last time I did a walk/run was May 21. The longest I had walked/ran was 4.6 miles back on March 24. For these short distances I was running 3 minutes and walking 1 minute. After May, I only walked. My long walk was 8.5 miles.
On Saturday night as I was resting, I looked up a run/walk pacing page on Runners World website.
I decided to try to walk 7 minutes and run 3. I also decided to walk the first 10 minutes.
I stuck with plan and it worked. I never struggled. Walked first 10 minutes per plan and ate a package of peanut butter crackers and dark chocolate bar. This was the only time I felt a bit out of place walking. Everyone else was running down the first hill. Then first 3 min run/7 walk and it went well. I stuck with this plan unless there was a big uphill. In those cases, I walked up hill and tried to compensate by running more on the flat sections. Saw most of the Cyclonauts on the run couse. Bobby Olsen caught me on the second lap at about the 21 mile point. We walked a bit and I ran my 3 min with Bobby (first time in about 2 years we ran together)
Took water and one gel first loop and a few pretzels. Also took 4 salt pills each loop. Choc chip cookies and chicken broth on second loop.
Ran more second loop but was tired when running. Best news was that my knee did not hurt specifically. My second 13.1 was about 10 minutes faster than first. George Herrick was a great inspiration at last aid station on run. Marathon time (my first) was 5:26:12. Total time (including second loop swim and T1) from Garmin 13:26:34.
Last miles were fairly easy, unlike 70.3 in Providence 3 years ago. That race was much harder at end because I actually ran, but was forced to slow down at end. It is likely that I did not have enough salt and my body revolted. Lake Placid crowd was awesome coming back into town for second loop. I was very emotional coming up subway hill and up to the “hot” corner. This was a bad 19 months for me personally and finishing was important. Running into the oval was very calming for me. My training prepared me to finish and I was grateful I was able to attain my goal. I carried my daughter’s sister rings with me during the race on a neck chain. I hope they will remember the hard work I put into attaining this goal and that this example will help them in life.
Thanks again to all those who helped me achieve my goal!