Race Result

Racer:	Scott Baldwin
Race:	Ironman USA
Date:	Sunday, July 20, 2008
Location:	Lake Placid, NY
Race Type:	Triathlon - Ironman
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Time:	9:57:57
Overall Place:	42 / 2340
Age Group Place:	2 / 396
Comment:	25 + 8 + 2 = 1 (A 25 year dream + 8 years of training + 2 year plan = 1 goal complete)

Race Report:

The Numbers:
Total Time: 9:57:57 – 42/2340 overall, 2/396 in Age Group

Swim
1:04:58 Average HR 138
T1 4:31
Bike (5:18:20)
1st Loop - 2:33:54 Average HR 143
2nd Loop – 2:44:26 Average HR 142
T2 1:46
Run (3:28:22)
1st loop – 1:36:32 Average HR 148
2nd loop – 1:51:50 Average HR 145

The weather report call for 60% chance of rain. It rained all day on the entire course. In the end we got 3-4” of it in Lake Placid. The rain was perfect for me as I tend to over heat and sweat a bunch.

Nutrition
Pre-Race - Banana, Cliff Bar, 1.5 dose of Perpetum, cliff shot – total 840 calories
Swim – lots of water
Bike – 2 bottles of 2x dose of Perpetum, 16 Powerbar gel Blasts, 6 cliff blocks, 2 Advil, 6 Endrolytes, regular water – total 2000 calories
Run – 4 Powerbar gel Blasts, 2 Advil, 4 Endrolytes, 8 oz Gatorade, 20-30 oz of cola, lots of water - not many calories (maybe 400) but at this point my stomach was done….

The Story

Pre-race – Nothing too crazy, got out of bed around 4:30 and was a bit scared.. Dragged my ass down to transition, checked my bike set up, pumped up tires and added a few things to my transition bags. Went back to my hotel room and laid there for another 45 minutes nervous as hell. Left the hotel room with my family around 6:15 to walk to swim start. It started to sprinkle.

Swim – (goal of 1:05) actually one of the easier IM swims I’ve had. I didn’t take too much of a beating. I tired to stay clear of anyone who couldn’t swim a straight line. Came out of the water on target at just under 65 minutes. The torrential rain began on the first loop of the race and didn’t stop all day. I came out of the water in 434 place overall and 72 in my age group.

Bike – (goal of 5:25) It went well out of town with the 4 small climbs and the screaming fast decent into Keene. Nothing to exciting except I got to pass all the really good swims.
I knew what my pacing should be throughout the course as the terrain varies quiet a bit. I knew I was ahead of schedule most of the way. The last 12 miles of the bike loop is a steady uphill back into town. At the 45 mile mark, my current pace was going to get me under 2:30 for the first loop which was way too fast so instead of hammering into town I throttled back a bit and saved it for the run. The second lap was fairly uneventful. I past a bunch of first lap heroes, stayed on pace and got my calories in. My bike time was about 7 minutes faster than plan but I felt good coming off the bike. The second lap was about 11 minutes slower than the first. Even the pros went about 8-10 minutes slower on their second lap. Some people try to say that the winds picked up coming in town on loop two. I just think we all take lap one too fast and pay for it later. It’s very hard to even split this bike course… off the bike I was 47th overall and 6th in my age group. (of course, I had no idea where I stood in the race at this point except that passing bikes coming back into town became few and far between which meant the race was in front of me or behind me…)

Run – (my goal was 3:20. I wanted to get a qualifying time for Boston here) It started off well. The first 2-3 miles are really the key for me and will determine the rest of my day. I’ve really worked on staying mentally positive during this time because as soon as I start feeling bad for myself, it goes down hill fast. Mile 1 was 6:44 (oops). So maybe I was feeling pretty good. I was knocking out the miles at around 7:05-7:25/mile. I was feeling good coming back into town to finish off the first half-marathon. I past a guy in my age group near the half way point. He caught back up to me. He pointed out a runner about 75 yards in front of us and told me that he was leading our age group. My only response was does that mean we’re 2nd and 3rd? (Umm…yeah dummy) Inside, I’m thinking “Holy Crap, where the hell is everyone else? I’m not supposed to be this far up”. So I got a little excited but tried not to pick up my pace to much as I knew there was another half marathon to go. I ended up passing the number #1 guy around mile 14. He said I’ve got this wrapped up as long as I can hold steady. I’m thinking to myself, I don’t really need to win this; I just want top 10 so I can get my Kona slot. (Also, I looked at my watch half way through the run and knew all I needed was a 1:55 half marathon run in order to break the 10 hour barrier which was my #1 goal for this race)

I held my lead from mile 14 to about mile 20 when things started to slow done a bit. During that time, the eventual women’s winner cruised by me with ease and onto a 2:59 marathon split. Incidentally, she was the only pro that had an even split on the bike course. Coincidence?

At around the 20 mile mark, I really had to pee so I stepped into a porto-potty to take care of that.. and holy smokes it was painful… I’ll leave out the details but it involved a lot of chaffing… During the time I was holding back the tears, the #2 guy in my age group went past me and I never saw him again..

Heading back into town I treated myself to walking through aid stations and up the hills as my legs were done. I was trying to minimize the amount of slowing down I was doing but it hurt. From mile 20 on I was recalculating how slow I could afford to go and still break 10 hours. It hovered around 10 minutes which was almost comfortable. I made it to the last turn around with about a mile or so to go to the finish without anyone passing me. But the I saw 3 guys in my age group heading out to the turn around and were all within a few minutes of me. That got me moving quickly again. I kind of wanted to enjoy the final mile, the crowds, the rain, the moment. But I didn’t want to give up any spots at that point. So I ran….fast. One guy past me coming onto the oval….but we was 33 so it just didn’t matter.

The finish was awesome. It was pouring rain. The puddles were massive at the finish line on the speed skating oval. I finished and instantly found Karen and Kevin. We couldn’t stop jumping and screaming as we knew I had met my goal of sub-10 for the day and was pretty sure that I had finally earned my ticket to Kona after 8 years of trying. My only goal in Kona will be to cross that finish line before the mid-night cutoff. I will then be able to check this goal off my “to do” list and move on to other things in my life.

And finally, I would like to thank all those who help get me to the starting line. My family has put up with my training and racing schedule for a long time. It’s now time for me to give more back to them. A special thanks to my youngest who made the trip to Lake Placid and believing in me. A huge thanks to my girl friend Karen, who also believed in me more than I believed in myself at times. She regularly had to help me out mentally during the rough times this season. To all my training partners; Reid, Danny, Craig, Dave, Shawn, my Wednesday night track group. My drinking buddies. I’m so looking forward to catching up on those beers calories I’ve missed the last few months. Thanks to Dave Orton for harassing me about my goal of 10:02. He kept saying stop being a pussy and go sub-10. A special thanks to Danny Brienza for kicking my ass during a training camp in March. He helped me make it quiet clear that I was out of shape and needed to get my butt moving. To Craig Ellis for pushing me during every mile of TdS. Also for Reid Kiser, for dragging me out on many of the longer workouts that I didn’t really want to do and then kicking my butt and making me work harder than I wanted once he got me out there. Also, a thanks to Dr. Daniel Hockstra, my full time ART guy, part time chiropractor, nutritionist, and shrink. Without the work he did on my legs, I would not have stayed as healthy as I did.