Message posted by: Kelly S.

I am super excited about my race experience at Tupper Lake this year. Last year, this race was my key race and this year I am in training for IM Lake Placid so I was excited to see how my training would allow me to do in the half distance. Last year I had even tapered for this race where this year I had a full workout week last week and still did really well. I was so excited by my finish yesterday. As you read this, you will realize that I am a slow triathlete but I am a very determined.

First, I slept really well the night before the race and even fell asleep in the car ride to Tupper Lake (about an hour drive). That was a first for me ever that I got a full night sleep before a race – with everything packed up and ready to go the day before the race I think it just made me so much more relaxed. Second, it was raining when we woke up and it continued until I got off of the bike. Third, the sun came out during the run.

The swim was ok. I struggle in the swim usually keeping my cool but I tried to find a strategy that worked for me envisioning it just being me, the bouys, and the water. It seemed to work. I also had someone else from my heat that was swimming the same pace as I was and breathing in the opposite direction as I was so I was focusing on her the entire time just to keep calm. (I don’t think she knew she was my calming factor but I thank her for that) I swam a 44 min 1.2 mile – this was 7 minutes faster than last year. I was really excited seeing that time exiting the water and carried that excitement through transition onto the bike.

The bike was much easier than last year even though I did go out too fast – the hills seemed really easy this time after training on the LP IM course. It was raining most of the way so everyone was covered in road spray so I spent a good amount of time eating road gook when I drank out of my bottles. I was making sure my nutrition was going well – even ate a few bananas because I was worried about cramping. Infinit nutrition is fabulous and kept me feeling great for most of the bike and run. I rode the 56 miles in 3 hours 47 minutes. This was 4 minutes faster than the bike last year. I wish I was faster on the bike as this is my area of concern when it comes to Ironman.

I learned last year that if you are in transition and need to use the porta poty, do it because otherwise somebody will see you peeing in the woods. So, I used the jon and still had a t2 time of only 3min 33 sec.

The run started out really well. I ran the hills at the beginning which I didn’t run last year. My legs felt really great. The mile markers were off since my last 1.1 miles registered at 3 min 3 secs, this actually made me feel like I was going much slower than I actually was which may have made me go faster. I walked through the water stations after mile 8 because I was starting to feel dehydrated – but my stomach was just sloshing around even though I really wanted more water. I don’t tolerate gels and gatorade well so I was sustaining myself at this point on oranges and water and hoped that I got enough solid nutrition on the bike with oranges, bananas, infinit (the only thing that doesn’t kill my stomach), and PB&J. This guy ended up running with me from mile 6 to the end – funny though, he could have been going faster but decided to run with me. He talked to me a lot and that allowed me to be distracted enough from the pain that I just kept trucking. I was not mu
ch of a chatterbox though, he did most of the talking. It was interesting. I did the half in 2 hours 31 minutes (I did the half last year in 2 hours 41 min). I was very happy with this time.

Total time was a 7 hour 11 min race. That is a full 20 minutes faster than last year. I am so excited. I just hope Ironman can treat me as well. I am really concerned about the bike portion of Lake Placid Ironman but I keep telling myself that my legs will be fresh instead of beat up and tired when I start IM because of a taper that everything will be ok. I really had a great time at Tupper though and hope that that high of doing well will keep me going through the next 4 weeks.

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