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| Actual finish time is 12:58:01 |
Ironman Mont Tremblant would be my first attempt at a full Ironman distance triathlon. The idea started last December where I thought life conditions (child care, work, family) were right and I would be able to fit training for an Ironman into my life. I'm not getting any younger and who knows when I might have this opportunity or time to train like this again. Life gets in the way sometimes! This was going to be a big deal for me so I decided that I would take my family along. They had never seen me race so I really wanted them to share this experience with me. The cost was substantially higher taking everyone to Canada but we were making a race vacation out of it and in the end I was really happy they were there! As things would have it, my wife Kelley has a friend, Lisa, who lives in Toronto. Her and her family would end up driving 6 hours to stay the week with us up in Mont Tremblant. They would end up being a huge help and a pleasure to spend the week with!
The Trip
Tuesday(Finish packing, catch late 11pm flight)
Mont Tremblant is a small ski resort town about 90 minutes out of Montreal Canada. It would be a 5-6 hour flight from LAX to Montreal. We left on a Tuesday night redeye flight out of LAX. Fellow Pasadena Tri Club member Shane gave us a ride to the airport. The kids were excited as this would be their first trip on an airplane! I was hoping we could catch some sleep on the plane but still be a little tired so to jump start the time change acclimation and get to bed early the next day.
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| Thanks Shane for dropping us off at LAX! |
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| Girls got to visit the cockpit |
(Arrive Montreal, Commute to Mont Tremblant, Dinner with Canadian Friends)
We arrived in Montreal around 7:30am and got out of the airport car rental about 8:30am. I had planned on doing a little sight seeing in Montreal before going to Mont Tremblant but everyone was zonked out and it was raining so it was mostly just driving through Montreal without getting out of the car. We then headed up to Mont Tremblant stopping at a Walmart on the way to pick supplies and a few toys to help keep the kids occupied for the week.
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| This is what you see for most of the drive to Mont Tremblant, trees and more trees! |
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| Our 2 bedroom condo is a privately owned suite within the Hilton. |
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| Mont Tremblant pedestrian village. We will be running down this on race day! |
We would meet up with Lisa, Peter and their boys, who drove up from Toronto to hang out with us for the week. It was a reunion of sorts as Lisa is my wife's Kelley friend from China when they were young. They have seen each other in 25+ years!
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| My wife Kelley (left) reunited with her long lost friend Lisa from Toronto. |
Thursday
(TriBike Transport, Expo, Run Preview, and EN Dinner)
I went and picked up my race packet in the village and also my bike from TriBike Transport. Fellow Pasadena Tri Club member Sebastian texted me that afternoon to go on a run so I met up with him and we did a little course preview while the family and crew went to explore the village and expo. Later I met up with Endurance Nation teammates for dinner. It was great meeting the other EN athletes and picking their brains!
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| The support crew (My girls and Lisa's boys) at the Expo. |
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| The kids planning their support banners. |
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| Lisa, Peter, their boys and my girls. |
Friday
(Swim practice, Athelete's Welcome Banquet and Mandatory Meeting)
In the morning I went out for a swim preview. Water was a nice 70 degrees. I'm kind of a chicken when it comes to swimming in open water when there aren't a whole lot of people around. Something about being by myself and not being able to see the murky bottom. For some reason I got spooked when I came across a large underwater mossy pipeline leading from somewhere. I'm just not a fan of stuff like underwater algae covered pipes, algae covered buoy lines, etc. Soooo.....I cut my swim a bit short..... I just wanted to get a feel for the water anyways.... :) Yeah I need to HTFU!
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| Going for a little swim recon! This is actually at the swim exit. |
Later that night was the athletes banquet. I went on my own and Kelley and the kids had dinner with Lisa and her family. The food was so-so but they had a cool Euro dance music band playing along with Circ de Sole type dancers. After dinner came the mandatory athletes briefing and the voice of Ironman, Mike Reilly, was there doing the MC. It got kind of boring because they had to keep repeating everything in French. After the meeting I meet back up with the family to watch the fireworks show! Pretty classy if you ask me. The EN guys say they don't do fireworks at other IM races, just here!
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| Circ de Sole type dancers at the banquet. Weird Canadians! |
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| Electronic Music with Harps.... Musicians from Quebec. |
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| Mike Reilly, voice of Ironman. I was hoping I would get to hear him say "You are an Ironman!" |
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| Kids loved the fireworks! |
(Bike and gear bag drop off)
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| That's a lot of bikes! |
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| Bike dropped off and set up in transition with my own marked transition spot. |
As this was my first Ironman my main goal was just to finish. I used a triathlon time calculator and padded my times given that I've never been on this course and came up with this time goals\happiness meter before the race:
- < 13 hours = happy
- 13-13:30 = satisfied
- 13:30-14:00 = meh
- > 14 hours = happy to finish but something went wrong
I was hoping for a cool weather race. Mont Tremblant historic average temp is around 75 but this day would push 90F with 90% humidity! Ugh! I was thinking it wouldn't be as bad as the athletes had at IMCDA (Zack) so just count my blessings. Race morning was cool enough. I woke up at 3:45 and had breakfast and had plenty of time to get my PRP on. (Pre-Race Poop) I headed down to transition to drop of my special needs bags and walked to the beach for the swim start.
Swim (2.4 miles)
Expected Split: 1 hr 40 min (From my last swim practice at Belmont Shore.... I know, SLOW!)
Actual Split: 1 hr 30 min 03 sec
IMMT is a wave start so I start at the back of my wave as I'm not that great at the swim and didn't want to get beat up by people swimming over me. Water temp was around 70F and there was plenty of room and time to warm up for the swim which was great. At St George I pretty much went in cold and ended up paying for it a bit. Here I didn't have that problem so it was a great start to the swim. It was pretty foggy when we started and could just barely make out the next buoy. There was a stretch where the water got choppy and I got a little worried about getting motion sickness but it smoothed out after a bit. Nothing eventful about the swim and for some reason I didn't see that large underwater pipeline near the swim exit that I saw a couple of days earlier! After the wetsuit stripper peeled of my wetsuit I was still getting my head straight so I walked\jogged instead of running the red carpet to T1 to change into bike gear. I get into the transition tent, find my bike gear bag and head to the changing room. I throw on the helmet, sunglasses, and gloves. I then put on anti-chaf on the toes, put on socks and bike shoes and found a volunteer who gives me a good coat of sunscreen and out the door I went.
Transition 1 time: 10 min 20 sec
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| Race morning, hard to see but you can see between the flags.... man those buoys go waaaaay out there! |
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| I wasn't the fastest in the water for sure! (I live to far away from GRA...) |
Bike (112 miles)
Expected Split: 6 hr 15 min (Course Average)
Actual Split: 6 hr 12 min 29 sec
As I started the bike it was cool and overcast. Cool enough for me to forget to hydrate often and after the 1st hour I didn't even finish 1 bottle. I did stay on my nutrition plan which was pretty much 1 gu, salt tab, and 1/2 lara bar every hour. After the first couple of hours it started to get hot and I picked up my hydration. Soon after I had the urge but was afraid to stop at the aid station because it looked crowded at the port-a-potties but as I passed it I saw a vacant one and I slammed on the brakes and jumped in. Altogether I had 6 minutes of non-moving time on the bike which equates to 2 minutes a pee stop (3 stops). I guess I need to learn to pee on the bike. I contemplated it but I was wearing socks and did want to ride all day with pee soaked socks. I finished the first loop in 2:58 which gave me hopes of doing a sub 6 hour bike.
The second half is when the it started to get really hot and I started to fatigue and my time suffered adding maybe an extra 10-12 minutes compared to the first half. My target power was just above 160w but I pretty much knew I couldn't hold it as the heat and the up coming marathon run was weighing heavy on my mind.
Stats
145w NP (target was 160w)
227 TSS
.605 IF (target was .70)
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| It was nice a cool during the first hour. |
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| The support crew looking out for me! They are so awesome! |
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| Giving the crew a "Hang Loose" sign. |
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| Hard to notice the scenery when you're racing. |
Transition 2 time: 3 min:56 sec
I got off the bike and handed my bike to a volunteer. That was a first. I've always had to rack my bike before. So there I was in my bike shoes running without my bike to get to T2. I should have learned how to dismount leaving the shoes on the bike. I stopped and unbuckled and carried my shoes to the T2 tent and was hit by a giant wave of pee stench when I entered the tent. I guess a lot of people pee on the bike and leave their smelly shoes, socks and whatever in the T2 tent and it smelled pretty bad! I grabbed my bag, changed into my Hoka Clifton2 running shoes, threw on my hat and headed for a volunteer sunscreener. There we only 2 volunteers and the one I had ran out of sunscreen and I got kind of pissed at them. I really shouldn't have as the volunteers are the heart and soul of the race but I got caught in the heat of the moment. He grabbed another bottle and layered a huge glob on me and I ran out looking like a ghost!
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| Here I am trying to rub off excess sunscreen while I'm running! |
Run (26.2 miles)
Expected Split: 5 hrs
Actual Split: 5 hr 00 min 06 sec
I get started into the run which almost immediately starts with a climb. I took it slow as I've been hit by leg cramps many times before coming off the bike. No leg cramps but unfortunately my stomach starts to give me problems. I had been dealing with stomach issues for the past couple of months. Doctor had me on a RX of dexilant and sucralfate. I was hoping I wouldn't have any issues during the race but on the start of the run I was having big time cramps. I did have sucralfate in my special needs bag but that was at mile 13 and even then I wasn't sure how the med would affect my performance. The run was hot and they were handing out sponges with cold water to cool down and a lot of the locals were out turning on hoses and spraying down athletes as they passed their houses or businesses to help cool people off. After the first 6 miles stomach started to feel better and I picked up the pace a bit according to my race plan. The run course has a good portion on a bike trail that runs through a forest. Here we were protected from direct sun so it was somewhat a relief. I saw Danny, Seb and other EN teammates on the course. It was good to see familiar faces among all the suffering souls on the course.
My feet were starting to hurt and thought maybe my Hokas were the culprit even though I have logged maybe 50 miles in them before the race. I had my Asic Gel Lytes in my special needs bag along with calf sleeves and liquid body glide and contemplated a change. As came in to special needs I decided to stick it out with the Hokas and just put more lotion on the hot spot I was developing on my feet along with other body parts that were starting to chafe. The volunteer asked me if I wanted my calf sleeves and I declined because I was already taking too much time in special needs. I would end up regretting not wearing the calf sleeves just 2 miles later when my calf started to cramp. I came to the split where you either finish the race or go back for the second 13 mile leg. I wanted to finish and it was crushing to know that I had to go back out to repeat the last 13 miles!
On the second leg there was a lot of carnage on the course. Guys walking and limping, a women crying. This one guy called it quits repeatedly saying "I'm done, I'm done, I'm done" to a medical volunteer at an aid station. I was really feeling fatigued and chafing all over because of how much I was sweating. I even had to stop and move my timing chip to the other leg because it was chafing my leg too much. I struggled to keep an 11 min pace as I walked the aid stations. I think around mile 17 there was chicken broth which was great. At mile 20 while heading back I looked at my watch and did some numbers. I could go Sub-13 hours if I picked it up. It was going to be painful but I picked up my pace. That's when Sebastian lapped me on the run! I knew he would as he was looking strong when I saw him on the first loop. I was thinking I was so stupid to spend so much time in special needs! The last 6 miles were painful trying to make my self imposed deadline. I was thinking I must be doing a 9:xx mile pace but then looked at my watch as it was 10:xx! As I got near the finish I saw Kelley and gave her a quick high five as the course wound through the village to the finish line. I didn't know my exact time at this point so I didn't even spend time enjoying the finishing chute because I was too busy trying to make a sub 13 time! In the end I finished with only 2 minutes to spare!
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| On my way into town on the first loop. |
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| Only a few meters left! I must go sub-13! |
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| I was so happy to have my family there to share this moment with me! |
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| We get poutine (gravy fries with cheese curds...it's a Canadian thing) and beer in the finishers tent. Yum! They also had healthier choices like pasta and other stuff but I didn't want any of that! |
Summary
Mont Tremblant was a great experience. The location was great even though everything is in French and the Time Zone change was a bit of a pain. It was a pretty expensive trip but worth it. My Endurance Nation Training Plan had me well prepared and although I did struggle a bit more than I wanted to, I'm still happy with my sub-13 hour time even if it was just by 2 minutes! There were definitely lessons learned on this race but I'm not sure if I'll do another Ironman to apply the things I've learned. I know I told myself while suffering on the last part of the run that I wouldn't do another one but now that it's done, I don't know.... never say never!
Some things for me to remember in case I do another one....:
- Expect chaffing everywhere once on the run. Even around the timing chip. (Maybe do at least 1 of your longest training runs in full kit so you know where to lube.)
- Don't wait till you're in pain to take Tylenol/Advil on the run. Keep meds with you instead of at Special Needs station.
- No need to carry 3 bottles on the bike. 2 will do until the next aid station.
- Practice leaving shoes on the bike on dismount. You don't want to run to T2 with bike shoes on.
- Train without socks just in case you might want to pee on the bike (ewwww!)
A huge shout out to our friends Lisa, Peter and their kids for all the support they gave us and for driving 6 hours from Toronto to spend the week with us. It made the trip so much more fun!
Lastly I did return to watch the last of the athletes come in at midnight and the finish line was jumping off like a rock show! Lights and everything! So cool!
