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Karl Chemsi
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- Key Race for 2010:
- Ironman Lake Placid - Done 11:51:01
© 2010 Created by Mike Llerandi
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Say "Hi" to Ken for me , he is a good guy
Here is the race report I wrote
_____________________
I am finally back from Brazil and back in Ottawa, very long tiring flight, it took about 20 hours with layovers to get back here.
Here is how the race day went.
PreRace
I woke up 4 am and had breakfast (the hotel I stayed at was nice enough to start breakfast at 3 am that day for the racers) and got dressed in the race clothes. I was a bit late getting down to race site by shuttle and as soon as I arrived they were yelling for us to get to the beach, I barely had time to pump up the tires and I was running along the beach trying to get the wetsuit on. The weather at the start was good, about 15 degrees, cloudy and calm.
The Swim
The swim start was a beach start which is nice b/c I hate water starts. The course was a modified M shape. I lined up in the middle about 3 rows back just to make sure I would be in the middle of the thrashing. The start of a big race like that one is that it seems like mass confusion as the announcer is yelling in Portugese over the speakers, people are everywhere and helicopters are buzzing over us and a little low for my comfort. The gun goes off and the peaceful ocean turns into a washing machine with 1300 people thrashing for position. I don't know if the athletes in South America are bad swimmers or more aggressive but I had a very rough first 500 meters with plenty of full on contact punches and kicks. Things settled down at the first buoy at 900 m and we headed back to beach. For the most part I was able to draft other swimmers. At one point I thought a huge storm had kicked up but when I looked up the helicopter was only 10 meters above me which didn't make me feel safe and he was causing huge turbulence in the water. The currents were fairly strong in the water and during the final leg of the swim we all got pushed about 200 m along the beach and then had to work hard to get back to the beach. My swim time for the 3.8 km was 1:11 which was a PB so I was happy.
T1
The transition was a very long 400 m run away which is far when you are barefoot carrying a wetsuit. The change tent was just a zoo and there were no seats so I just grabbed a spot on the floor and got the bike gear on, not the fastest transition but ok.
The Bike
The bike course was chaotic a the start with lots of people coming out of the water at the same time and it would take about 30 km for things to start to spread out. As I mentioned earlier the bike course had large sections on a freeway and they gave us the inside lane so you came through an on ramp and then cut across 3 lanes of traffic. So there was a concrete median barrier on the left and pylons on the right separating us from the 80-120 km/h traffic. The debris on the course was terrible as cars had been hitting the traffic barriers all night and they were a hard plastic that shattered debris. The course was a a set of modified out and back sections which meant there were 12 hair pin turns which brought the speed right down to almost zero to negotiate the turns. The cobblestone sections were not that much fun either.
The first 90 km was very fast and I finished in about 2:30 (my bike computer died part way through) Then I bonked hard, at first I didn't know why I couldn't maintain my speed and was getting passed. Then I realized I had gotten caught up racing and had only drank 1.5 bottles so I backed off and drank 5 bottles of Gatorade over the next 90 km and felt better and was able to get the speed back up. Second 90 km was 2:45 so a PB for the bike portion and I was pretty happy and I actually felt like I had energy at the end of the ride.
It was disappointing to see so much drafting going on though and the refs not cracking down on it. I stayed out of any groups, I had come this far to have a good race and I didn't want a penalty or DQ to ruin the day.
T2
I admit a pretty slow transition as I really fumbled to get my socks and shoes on but I got everything I needed and headed out to run a little marathon.
Run
I started out and looked the watch, I needed a 4 hour marathon to break 11 hours which was gonna be tough but I decided to go for it despite the fact that I blown all 3 my previous IM races during the run. The first 10 Km went great and I was on pace. All the Brick workouts I had done all winter with the Hammertime group on Sunday mornings all winter with people who were all faster runners than me really helped and the legs kicked in and the legs felt good right away. Then I hit the hills. The hills were not kind to my legs, the first set was 2.5 km of short steep rollers and my speed dropped off and then there was a short flat section then a repeat of the hills just to make sure everybody's quads were shredded. At that point I knew sub 11 hours was out of reach but I pushed on still feeling strong. The 5 bottles of Gatorade I had drank late in the bike came back to haunt me as I had to pee every 2 km and I needed 11 washroom breaks during the run which was not fun and I likely lost 5 min in the porta-potties.
The second half of the run was actually pretty good for me. I readjusted my goal to sub 11:20 and began timing each one of my km's. Things were going really well and I knew I could not stop if I wanted to make it. At the the 41 km mark I looked at my watch and I said "I am gonna make it!" Then I remembered the distance is actually 42.2 Km, I hadn't calculated the last 200 m in. I have done the distance enough times I should have known that, I blame the low blood sugar. So I just started sprinting as best I could and crossed the line in 11 hours 19 minutes and 56 seconds, I had 4 seconds to spare. Overall it is a PB by about 1.5 hours
Post race
I felt great about finishing but I just could not stand up and I just held onto a pole for about 15 min until I could walk. The toes as usual took a beating with some ugly blisters and 4 black/blue toe nails which will likely drop off.
I hope the toes recover b/c I have a 24 hour Adventure race in a few weeks.
P.S There are some video clips of the race at
http://www.ironmanbrasil.com.br/eng/lista_filmes.asp?ano=2007