Yesterday, the announcement went out that after careful
consideration Ironman Lake Tahoe will not be continued. So as I sit back and reflect on my post-race
analysis, I’ve got to put it all in perspective that I am thankful to have been
part of this amazing event.
And what an epic venue it was. The weather lined up perfectly. The difficult course was amazing. Staying
at the Village at Squaw with a balcony above the run course finish was the
perfect spectator setting filled with good shopping, good food and good people.
Leading up to the race my training has been rock solid
including a weekday routine at 5 am plus some weekends for the longer sessions
leading up to the race. My only concern
has been for the last 2 months I have had a lingering breathing issue with a
couch I attribute to the Rough fire causing poor valley air. I shifted my training to indoors to help kick
my cough but unfortunately I took it with me to Tahoe. I can tell in my training this was impacting
my run so I reset my run expectations accordingly and registered for the Surf
City Marathon 20 weeks after Tahoe in order to defer my running goals to a
future race.
The plan for Tahoe was to swim & bike as hard as I can
at elevation so that when I am on the run I’m so oxygen depleted that the voice
in my head can’t event talk. My friends
joke that I bike the run out of my legs but how could I resist racing head to
head, all out, on a course like this. Go
big then go home.
I used the self-seeding start to line up with the 30 min
wave and I landed a 33 min swim. This is
the same exact time I did at Vineman. I
like aggressively lining up toward the front where I can follow the heels of
the fastest group. The podium finishers
in my age group are doing 30 min so I have 3 minutes to improve to par and will
change up my training next year to close this gap. Currently, I swim about a mile 2-3 times per
week whenever I can fit it in and without any structure. I know adding the structured intervals and
technique drills next year is where the improvements will come. 3 minutes on the swim is not much on the
overall time gap I need to close, however, it would put me in at the front to
start the bike race with that competitive lead group taking the race experience
to the next level.
I nailed a fast T1 transition at 4:33. I made the call ahead of time to go minimal
and did not put on arm warmers, gloves, etc. because on my temp check swim/ride
on Friday I knew I would only be cold until I hit dollar hill and that was
worth it.
I landed a fast 2:49 bike leg. This included spinning it out on the climbs
to conserve. This bike course was the
most fun I have ever had on a bike. When
I arrived in transition I felt almost alone and only 15 minutes back from the 3rd
place front end of the race. No doubt
there is still a big 12 min bike gap to close but all it takes is hope and
having the winners in sight running when I rode into transition is not
something I have experienced. Ironman is
a world class field, not a local race where you’re a big fish in a small pond. I will take this image of seeing the eyes of
the 3rd place AG podium finisher into next year’s training for sure.
I nailed a fast T2 transition at 2:06. My legs felt strong coming off the bike as I
had conserved on the bike hills and spun it out the last few miles.
As anticipated, I lost it on the run. I couldn’t cough it out to get my full
breath. As my friend Teresa likes to
say, suck it up buttercup, so I just finished with a slow 2:16 half. The scenery on the run course was beautiful
and I was happy to be out there living life to its fullest after riding the
highs and running the lows of this amazing experience.
Although my breathing was impaired, the fresh air I did
take in on the run smelt clean, the water I gulped swimming all out tasted pure
and the mountains I saw on that bike peaked my senses with a memory that only
gets imprinted through rich life experiences.
Thanks for the memories Ironman Tahoe!
