It is still dark out and our condo is quiet as I roll out of bed the morning of Ironman Mont Tremblant. My main task of the morning is to get my bottles ready for the day. I sit at our table with 6 bottles of G2 and a big bag of Carbo Pro. 6 bottles are each filled with 3 scoops of carbo pro to get me through the day of racing. I manage to eat a bagel and take a banana with me for the walk down to transition.
Leaving the condo, transition bags in tow, I quickly realize I am not the only one heading down to the race site. Everywhere I look there are athletes heading down to site. A quick trip down the village gondola and I am in transition. There is not much to do as our bikes were brought in the day before. Check the tire pressure and put a bottle into each of my two cages. Into the transition tent I drop off my special needs bike and run bags. The walk to the swim start is about a mile long but thankfully I am right on schedule. Arriving at the swim start I am kind of alone. Steph and Sydney are still asleep (I don’t blame them) and they are the only people I know onsite. Pacing around the site wasting time before I pull on my wetsuit. My broken wetsuit….during a training swim 2 days earlier the zipper broke on my wetsuit and I was not sure it would function properly for the race. Steph was able to pull off some mending magic and we crossed our fingers it would hold. I was one of the first 30-40 people on the beach and was able to sneak in a warm up swim with the pros. O Canada was sung , an F-18 flyby and we were off.
The Swim
The swim start was very narrow so I decided to move to the far right hand side and swim just outside of the buoys. Turns out it was a smart move. There were others swimming there with me but not nearly as many as there could have been. The only problem with swimming outside the buoys is that prior to the last buoy I have to ‘merge’ back onto the right side of the buoys. Needless to say the first turn was pretty aggressive. The remainder of the swim was fairly uneventful and I stood at the swim exit to see my time of just over 1:08. Honestly I was disappointed only because my swim at Ironman Canada
T1
After a 400m run from the swim exit to the transition tent, a quick change I was running towards my bike. I was looking for Steph and Syd as I approached my bike and did not even notice the two other cyclists that I nearly ran into as I spotted Steph and Syd.
The Bike
For whatever reason I got on the bike and felt weightless, I was flying past people as we climbed our way away from the village. Settling into a good spot I found myself moving very well through the field. Lap one of two continued to be very fast (2:36) as I returned to transition, looking for Steph and Syd near special needs I was disappointed to not see them but not surprised at the same time since there were people everywhere. Immediately it was clear that the second loop would have some wind added to it. Riders I spoke with agreed that there would be about a 22km head wind coming back. Funny thing was it never showed up, the wind seemed to be swirling but never really slowed things down for me. A personal accomplishment for me was with about 25km left on the bike, I passed a female rider and I noticed a ‘P’ on her calf. P for professional, I was stoked to be passing a professional athlete who started 10 minutes before I did. Lap 2 was a bit slower but not by a lot (2:46) but my back was feeling pretty tight coming off the bike.
T2
Looking for Steph and Syd again and once again I could not find them as I moved through transition. A quick change and a much needed pee break and I was off on the run. Looking at my watch I knew that I had 4:20 to break 11 hours. Great news since that is what my run split was at Ironman Canada
Run
My back was still tight but as the km’s ticked by that issue got better and better. I was running fast and felt great. I was ignoring (or forgot) great advice I received while training for my first Ironman, “teach yourself to run slow”. I was at the 10km mark in 50 minutes and did not take a break from running until km 14. I quickly realized that my energy stores were fading fast and I needed a pick me up. The last 5km of the first run lap were spent walk/jogging and trying to take in calories that I was lacking. The 20 km aid station had me take my first sip of coke at an aid station. Coming back into the village I finally spotted Steph and Syd. I was so happy to see them as I was in a bad place at the time. A hug and a kiss for both, I told them how disappointed I was because I would not break 11 hours because of how I was feeling. Always supportive, Steph reassured me that I could get there and I was back running down the village to start lap 2. Never having used coke before at a race I did not know how my body would react to it, but I did know that I could not stop drinking it for the rest of the race. Each aid station was spent walking and obtaining the calories I needed. Km 26 was the turning point in my race. At the end of an aid station I met Chris. Chris was in a tough spot, we started talking and soon found out we both had the 11 hour time goal. Doing quick math in my head I told him that if we ran 6 minute kilometers for the rest of the race we would have 9 minutes to spare. For the next 15 km’s Chris and I kept each other moving forward at a great pace. We would walk the aid stations to intake the calories we needed and immediately start running after. We talked about our families, work, and previous racing experiences. Every few km’s one of us would pipe up and thank the other for keeping them moving and we both agreed we would not be doing as well without the other. The last 15km’s were long don’t get me wrong but having a partner to run with made it seem fast. By the time we could see the village we had only lost 2 minutes of our buffer and knew we would both break 11 hours. I ran down the village through the crowd, cheering and pumping my fists in the air. Crossing the finish line in 10:53.
Ironman is not a solo effort, everything about this event is a team event. I cannot do this race without my team behind me. The support from family and friends is essential to my success on race day. I am alone on the road but they are always with me.
Mr. E
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