2022 IRONMAN Mont Tremblant
Ironman Mont-Tremblant 2022 Race Report
· Goal 1: Finish the race
Status: Achieved
· Goal 2: Finish the run feeling strong
Status: Achieved (sort of)
Days leading up to race day:
Driving to Mont-Tremblant my anxiety was through the roof (e.g., I thought my phone charging cord was a bug in the car and I jumped 5 feet when it touched my leg). I knew that this time around I had put in the training required to have a good race which made me feel better and more confident than in the days leading up to IM Louisville 2018, but also increased the self-imposed pressure because now I had no “excuse” per say for not executing the race plan.
My goal for the days before the race was to avoid eating vegetables, so that my stomach would stay happy through the race, and to keep up with carbs and fluids. It was tough to get enough food in me because due to race nerves and taper I wasn’t very hungry, but I tried to eat something every few hours and always have a snack on hand (which is how I ended up with Pop tart crumbs in every crevice of my purse).
My shakeout swim, bike, and run felt pretty good. My legs felt a little stiff during the run, but I heard from others that stiffness is expected. During the shakeout bike and run the town was buzzing with athletes and it was nice to be running and biking alongside them. I saw my friends IRL that I had been texting with about race training and preparation for months and met some of the ladies from Coeur Velo, who I had only met via Zoom on the bike trainer on cold winter mornings.
Race morning:
Race morning, I had a banana and a couple sips of coffee before making my way down to the transition area to put the remaining nutrition on my bike and drop off my special needs’ bags. It was 5:30 AM when we got down to transition, so the sun was up enough that I didn’t need to use my head lamp. It became more and more real that pretty soon this thing was going to start! After dropping off my nutrition and bags, and Andrew pumping my tires so I could go find water, we took the long-ish walk to the swim start. I got pretty warm during the walk and ended up ditching my fleece and fleece pants. I met up with the Revel team for a photo on the beach after hitting up the bathroom and put on my wet suit. Before I walked over to the swim warm-up area, I guzzled my Maurten-CAF, which did not go down so well with my nervous dry mouth, but I got it down and chased it with some lemon-lime Nuun water.
I got right into the water to try to get used to it as much as possible before lining up. I jumped up and down 4-5 times, dunking my head in the water, so that when I started the race it wasn’t a shock to be quickly submerged. I swam for 2-3 minutes, gave Andrew a hug, and we went our separate ways to line up in our expected time areas.
Swim
I lined up at the swim start in the 1:20-1:25 mark. I was so thrilled to be lined up with Jen, from Coeur! I could hear the 6 seconds of beeping, letting waves of swimmers off, and we kept moving forwards, which was a little ominous to me. I was particularly nervous about the swim 1) because of all of the people and 2) it would be my first real iron-distance swim because the swim in Louisville was shorted 3) none of my training swims got to that distance. I knew that I could do it because my aerobic fitness was there, but fear of the unknown in the water had me anxious. I was lined up in my carousel and I purposely lined up on the outside, so I didn’t feel trapped between the other swimmers. I ran into the water and off I went. One of my goals was to avoid going out too hard, so I focused on my head position and my breathing, keeping a nice even breath, and looking up every 6 strokes to sight the buoy. In what felt like a few seconds, I could feel hands tickling back of my feet, and I gathered that some faster swimmers were behind me but hoped they would find their way around me. While 2 of them were swimming around my they started to come in towards me which made me panic a bit, so I stopped, let them pass, re-oriented myself, and kept going. I was feeling efficient and strong, so I glanced at my watch, and I was flying! I wasn’t sure if I could maintain the pace I was holding throughout, but I didn’t feel like I was over-exerting so I figured I would keep going. I tried to focus on all of the things I had been working on, reaching far ahead of me, and really using all of the parts of my catch. If there was a time to put it all together, this was the best time! Even though the water was relatively calm that morning, the swimmers were causing it to be a bit choppy, but it wasn’t bothersome. I had the thought that it was like we were a school a school of fish and this thought was confirmed when the buoy to turn came quicker than I anticipated, and the turn was effortless because it was as if there was a current pulling me along, helping me turn. On the swim back, I started to get really warm in my wet suit and thirsty, so I took a couple sips of lake water. My arms started to burn, but I was still managing the quicker pace and my breathing was still even, so I kept going and just hoped that my arms would last. I kept looking at the buoys, but I couldn’t remember how many there were supposed to be on the way back, so if didn’t matter much, it was just nice to be knocking them down one by one. I started to be able to see the swim out flags and I got really excited, I was definitely going to do it. I kept swimming until my fingers almost touched the bottom of the lake and then I stood up! I unzipped my wet suit while I was quickly walking to the stairs and started to pull my arms out of it. I ran up the stairs to a cheering crowd oriented myself to where I was going. I spotted Jen so I ran a little quicker to catch her! She must have also crushed the swim, which was SO awesome to see.
T1
I ran into transition, and someone handed me my bike bag. I went into the women’s changing room and found a spot to put my bike stuff while I took off the rest of my wetsuit. I was slightly discombobulated, and it was a little bit dark in the changing tent, so trying to find things in my bag was a little difficult, but I managed. First thing I put on was my helmet, so I didn’t forget that. I threw my sleeves, sunscreen, etc. into the back of my jersey just in case I needed them. It was cloudy and I knew it might rain, but if I know anything about mountain weather is that it can change in the blink of an eye. I opened my Maurten-CAF and gobbled that down to replenish my glucose and top up on the caffeine for my biking adventure. I grabbed my bike and ran out of transition!
Bike
The start of the bike was an exercise in self-control as people on crazy sweet bikes were passing me, but I was very focused on maintaining my power target. Today was not the day to go off script, especially this early in the ride. It felt really good to be on the bike; the bike always feels like home to me. Exiting the village there were tons of people cheering! “This is going to be fun,” I thought and fun it was! The first loop felt fantastic. I was able to cheer on all of the people I know throughout which gave me such a boost. Having the open highway for real estate, was good for passing but bad if the sun was beating down. Thankfully it was still partly cloudy, which was keeping the temps down, but I did notice it was quite humid. When I noticed that is when I should have adjusted my hydration plan to include more salt and fluids, but alas, I did not. (More on that later.) I kept reading the signs telling me how far I had gone in kilometers and did the math to see how many miles I had gone, but I realized I didn’t know how long I was going to be on 117, so it didn’t really matter. After the turn around on 117, I knew there was one long climb before Duplessis, and I was very excited for that part of the ride, so I chugged along. The climb felt like a long grind, and I was thankful when it was over. The rest of 117 was uneventful. I got off the highway and was making my way back into town. I was feeling really good, and I saw Andrew coming the other way and he told me to have fun, and fun it was. Coming into Duplessis I grabbed a water bottle! I had seen so many people lose water bottles, so I dumped the water into my bottle, a strategy I ultimately abandoned for time’s sake. I was coming up the hill after the aid station and I saw Coach Dave and Tracy at the roundabout! I was so excited to have them out on the course cheering.
Duplessis started as I thought it would, in my lowest gear, smooth pedaling, deep breathing and grinding up them. Watching friends come the other way, flying, I knew I had that to look forward to. I took it easy during the short reprieves from the climbing, as I was supposed to, using it as a time to eat, drink, and get my breathing under control before the next climb. There were some great fans on the side of the course playing music and yelling with a bull horn. I was very focused on getting to that turn around to enjoy my descent. The turnaround finally arrived; it did feel a bit farther away than I anticipated. It was time for the fun roller coaster! Unfortunately for me, I got kind of stuck behind someone who wasn’t pushing on the downhills as much as I intended but I couldn’t quite pass them without burning my legs. It was still a ton of fun.
I went back into town for the turn around and just after that there were about 30 people chanting my name on the sidelines. I have no idea who they were and thought maybe it was some of my friend’s families. I later found out that the fans on the sidelines were looking up bib numbers and chanting, which explains me hearing someone yelling “Sara” and swiftly getting corrected by another cheerer. The sun started to come out and I could feel the wet heat coming off the pavement. Thankfully the Personal Needs stop was soon so I could put on some sunscreen. Of course, when I stopped, and someone grabbed my bag and was holding it open for me, there was a wasp (my arch nemesis). I tried to ignore it and grabbed the sunscreen to put on my arms and neck. Note to self for next time, open the sunscreen tube before! I wasted some time getting the seal off. To my surprise, I found all the chafing on my neck when I was slathering it on. I thought for a second the wasp had stung my neck (my silly anxious brain). This was another opportunity for me to note just how sweaty I was, particularly in the sun, and plan to adjust my nutrition and hydration plan, on top of that I had not had to pee, but alas, it did not compute. I was supposed to have a Maurten-CAF at this point, to maintain caffeine levels, but they only had the regular on the bike course, so I was glad I had more of my Skratch chews but they didn’t have the level of caffeine I would have gotten from the Maurten-CAF. Oh well, off we went!
I cruised back onto 117 and felt a few raindrops. I could see dark clouds ahead and was thankful for the sun coverage but hoping the storms wouldn’t be severe enough that they would cause a safety concern. I saw Andrew coming back from 117 and knew he must be having a great race and hoped the sun didn’t zap him on the highway. Heading out on 117 I didn’t realize I had a tailwind, I was cruising along, eating, drinking. My legs started to ache a little bit, but that’s pretty typical for me on a long ride. I kept eating my Skratch chews, despite being kind of tired of the sugar at that point. I got to the turn around on 117 and that is when I came face to face with the reality of the headwind. Thankfully, the clouds had taken over at that point and I could actually see some lightning in the distance. I was hoping it would not get any closer than it was, but with the direction of the wind, I knew that it was likely inevitable, but hoped I could get off of the highway before it was directly overhead. I tried to keep my body in as aero of a position as possible to minimize the effect the headwind would have. Whenever I got out of aero to drink my water, I could feel my body acting as a wind sail. The final time through the long 117 climb was a bit of a slog, I could feel the fatigue and was happy not to have to do that again. Based on how my legs felt with that long climb I knew Duplessis might not be as fun as it was the first time. I grabbed another water bottle from the aid station and this time just tossed my personal bottle, hoping my bottle cages were tight enough to keep it in. It was quite difficult to drink the water they were giving out on the course because of the flip top. In the future I’d likely just try to remove the flip top and store it somewhere instead of fussing with it each time I went to drink. I also could have dumped it into my Speedfill for ease, but I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep track as well that way. I was coming to the end of 117 and the wind really picked up, I could see lightning a lot closer, and hear loud thunder. It started to rain, which honestly felt kind of nice. I’m not sure if the storm made people leave the sidelines but coming back into the village it was quiet. There would be no crowd energy for Duplessis round 2, understandably, because I wouldn’t want to get struck my lightning either. I started making my way up and the grinding was slower this time around. I tried to keep my pedal strokes even. This is when I started to feel some pain in my right Achilles, which was really strange. I’ve never had Achilles’ pain on my bike! I stood up on one of the descents to try to stretch my right calf and it felt better, so I figured that was the likely cause. This is when I started to look at my Garmin to see how much longer I had. I guess I can say that at around 106 miles, I started to do a bit of a countdown. I wasn’t sure where the turnaround was on Duplessis, but I knew it couldn’t be too far away. I finally reached the turn around and there were ~4 miles left (I think). My plan was to use the downhills to my advantage 1) because I was tired and 2) because my Achilles hurt when climbing so if I could minimize the pain that was preferrable. This time I was also somewhat stuck behind someone who didn’t have the same plan of attack, so I used a bit of energy to pass them because I thought it was worth it and I think it ultimately was. The last 2 miles felt LONG – really long. I was going to be very happy to be finished with the bike portion. I was excited about the run, but something felt a little off, which became more evident once I was off the bike.
T2
I got off the bike and felt like I was on a boat, which should have been an indication of what was to come and an indication that I needed salt and water ASAP. Once I dizzily racked my bike and hobbled my way to the transition tent, I sat down to take off bike shoes. Everything was wet, so I was glad I was changing into fresh socks. I still hadn’t gone to the bathroom, and I felt like I had to go a little bit, so I stopped on the way out of transition. The porta-potty was an adventure, because of how much everything around me was rocking. I came out of the bathroom and ran to the first hill.
Run
I ran to the first hill and saw Coach Dave and Tracy. Dave asked how I was feeling, and I told him I needed caffeine. The first aid station had Redbull, so I chugged some of that, much to my dismay (YUCK), and took in some fluids. I ran down the hill and still felt very boat-like. Now that I know I was dehydrated I definitely know I wasn’t thinking straight, because I should have had some of my Base salts and some fluids and I likely would have felt better. I ran down the first hill and my breathing felt ok and my legs felt ok, but the boat-like feeling was really messing with me. I took in some Maurten-CAF and Gatorade at the next aid station and was walking the hills. Then I saw Andrew! It was so nice to get a hug and see him doing well! He was already at 11.5 miles! I did some walking and some running over the next few miles which was the strategy on the hilly part of the course. I started to feel better and once I hit the bike path I started cruising and feeling good, was taking in some Maurtens, Gatorade, and water. I was a little slower than target pace but with the walking up hills it wasn’t a surprise and I felt good despite still feeling like I was rocking on a boat. I thought maybe I was having some positional vertigo, which sometimes happens to me when I’ve been in aero for a long time. The bike path aid stations had some fantastic tunes going it was very motivating and I was doing some arm dancing as I went through! The majority of my long runs in training were on the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, so I really felt very at home on the path.
Towards the end of the bike path, I started to feel stiff and dizzier, which was concerning, especially because the hillier part of the run was up ahead. During the hills I started cramping in both sides of my abdomen which was more concerning, and I started to panic. I went to a porta john right before the last downhill second of the bike path and felt really off, my legs felt awful, and my Achilles had me in a world of pain. I started to get emotional, because I knew something was very wrong with me and after all of the hard work to get here, I did not want to have to give up because something was medically wrong. I decided I was going to walk and try to get more calories and fluids into me at the next aid stations, but there weren’t that many on the hilly part of the course and I started to falter more. I was about half a mile away from the village and had just come down the first hill (right after the Redbull aid station). I was having trouble taking a deep breath and I was overcome with emotion. I put my hands on my knees and started to cry (more like sob). A woman on the side asked me if I was ok and I told her I just needed to cry, and she cheered on my crying. On the next uphill before town, I saw Coach Dave and I really lost it and finally said the thing that was causing me so much emotion at me “I don’t know if I can finish.” Again, my hands were on my knees, and I was trying to breathe. He told me that just around the corner was the village, with the cowbells and people and asked if I had been able to keep down fluids to which the answer was yes. He told me he’d meet me at the next corner after going through the village, which he told me would have lots of people and cow bells, and I was hoping that by then I would snap out of my emotional funk and feel better. Going through the village I was still crying, but I was running! One of the Breakthrough Performance Coaches, who I now know is Sue (Thank you Sue), looked me square in the eyes and told me to keep my chin up. For whatever reason, that really clicked for me. As I ran through the village, there was the left turn to the finish and the right turn for the second lap. I could hear people being announced as Ironmans and in my head I said, “just 2-3 more hours and I can be there.” I went through the Personal Needs aids station and didn’t need anything from my bag (unless they had my sanity, which I knew wasn’t in there). I started running again and met Dave around the next corner. He told me I’d see Andrew soon and then Sheima! I walked up the hill took in some fluids at the aid station and walked down the other side of the hill where I saw Andrew, hugged him told him I wasn’t sure I would make it and cried a bunch. He asked if I was feeling ok and I told him everything was tingling in my fingertips and toes (hello, dehydration and bonking) and he told me to eat some pretzels and drink some water. I didn’t eat pretzels (maybe I should have) but I took in another Maurten gel and drank some fluids (mostly Coke and water) and kept walking forwards. I saw Meg coming in for her run into the last few miles and she said I was looking good and that all of my run training was paying off! (This bit of encouragement would also be good to have in my back pocket in about an hour. Thanks Meg!) At this point my Achilles basically seized up and I had to stop a bunch of times to stretch my calf on curbs. My stomach wasn’t feeling good on Gatorade so I took a Tums and while I was in my bag, I took ibuprofen too to see if it would help my Achilles which thankfully combined with more stretching it did. I saw Sheima and couple other people on their last few miles and they looked SO GOOD. I started running again just before the bike path and actually felt normal and the dizziness had subsided.
Once I started running again my movements felt automatic and I told myself I was going to run to the bike path turnaround and re-evaluate. I was also motivated to cross the check-in line at the turn around so that all concerned parties (Coach Dave and Andrew) knew I was feeling better and running again. I felt good at the turnaround so I just kept running and told myself I would run to the end of the bike path in general. It was starting to get dark and one of my sneaky side goals was to finish the run before they started offering the chicken broth… So, when someone offered it to me, I was disappointed, but very much thankful to be feeling good again. I took some flat coke and some water and kept running. At that point I looked at my watch and I had 6 miles left, I was going to do it for sure! I was going to finish, and I was feeling good again. My hip flexors, which are usually the thing that starts to cramp were feeling amazingly ok. Lots of really great people on the sidelines yelling “Tres Bon” and I started smiling again, but a real smile, not a fake one! I was going to make it. Before the last downhill section of the bike path there was a marching band playing “Let It Go” and it was so perfect I started singing it out loud to myself. Getting off the bike path and back onto the road it was getting darker, and the streets weren’t lite very well, so I kept singing loudly to myself and kept that chin pointed UP. I came up a hill and someone was playing “Wouldn’t it be nice” by the Beach Boys and I started singing that veerrrryyyy loudly.
I entered a state of overwhelming joy. At that point I looked down and I just had a 5k left! Just a 5k!!!! I couldn’t believe it. I knew there were some hills to overcome but I was definitely going to be done in the next 30-40 minutes! I ran through the final aid stations, thanking all the volunteers who had been out on the course for so long. I power walked as fast as I could up the next few hills into town and people on the sidelines were telling me I was so close to making it. At the final aid station I started to get a surge of adrenaline and I started sprinting into town. I did it! The cow bells and people cheering through the village was awesome. I heard my team roar, yelling my name from up above and my legs felt weightless. It was like I suddenly had extra gas in the tank (going downhill helped with that). I saw the lights and the red carpet I knew that all I had to do was keep running. I ran through the finish line and had a hard time stopping my legs, because I had so much momentum. I heard Mike Reilly say my name (I think). It all went by so quickly.
I looked around and saw my father-in-law David standing there with my medal, and he put it over my head. It was an unreal feeling. Sheima was right next to him and gave me a big hug, even though she was already showered and clean; I can’t describe how special that was. He walked with me to get my timing chip removed, get finisher gear, and my food. I found out that because he was volunteering at the bag pick up, he was able to do the honors of giving me my medal.
In the finisher tent, I sat down and took deep breathes, trying to avoid the panic thing that sometimes happens after a race. I couldn’t wait to see Andrew and Coach Dave. I AM AN IRON(WO)MAN!
POST RACE THOUGHTS
1. Problem solving mid-race is hard, but as someone post-race said, “You’ve got time during an Ironman.” It would have been beneficial for me to look at the forecast and humidity and plan to increase the salt and fluids from the start. Somehow, I missed the memo about peeing every 90 minutes, but that’s important and should have been a key indicator that I was quickly off of my hydration plan. Another tool I had, that I didn’t use, was my Base salts and I think if I would have had some of that instead of depending on the course’s Gatorade, I would have recovered from the dehydration more quickly.
2. “Chin up!” Body language is so important for my mental state, especially in the long course.
3. Having friends on the same course is a gift. After months of liking each other’s Strava workouts, texting on hot days to check in (and sometimes complain), and trading stories and encouragement, we were all out there doing it. There’s just nothing like seeing your friends do the thing!
4. The training works 😊 All of the hot days, tired days, long days on the indoor trainer, and long days in the sun, it all paid off. Having that in my pocket on race day was the most valuable tool. Thank you, Coach Dave, for taking me on later in my training season and getting me to where I needed to be safely and without injury. I knew I could do it because I had done the training, checked the box, in all kinds of conditions. It might not have been as fast of a run as I had planned, but I had done the training and was going to get to the finish line whether I was running, walking, or crawling.