Melanie Price's Lake Ontario Crossing and other adventures: Being fine with my 1st DNF

Ironman Lake Placid ~ July 27, 2014 ~

The training:

I struggled with my focus to train for this race; it started with a nagging leg injury, continued with a cold winter, a niece in NICU for months, busy-ness at work and coaching, etc. I let the excuses distract me and for that I have no excuse, except a feeling that I needed the downtime and wanted to focus on some other things going on with life...

When the swim coaching season was over (mid-June) I was starting to get 'into' the training (with my regular smiley face) but it was pretty close to being too late for an end of July Ironman. Bill figured it was a hopeless cause and decided to not start the race and with Bill being out of the game plan made it all a bit less fun for me too.

Despite this, I still felt it was possible to finish a 3.8k swim, 180k bike and a 42.2k run; I knew it wouldn't be pretty and I knew I would suffer extensively, but in some ways I think I wanted the punishment and wanted to try. (I was there, so why not)

The race:

It seemed like lots to do race morning. I had to decide if I would wear a wetsuit or not, and with the warmer air temp then the prior few days I decided not to wear it, which meant a change in what I would wear for the swim -> a swimsuit instead of my tri-shorts and bra-top under a wetsuit; and I almost made the mistake of putting my bike shorts and bra top (which I wouldn't need now until after the swim) in my bike Mid-way bag instead of my bike transition bag. Thankfully Stacey noticed and I got it correctly sorted and I didn't have to start the ride in my swimsuit (old-school). We had to drop the 2 midway bags in different locations and then get sorted into our starting swim spots. Port-a-potty line was insane!

The swim:

Stacey and I seeded ourselves at the back of the 1 hour to 1 hour 10 min section. I was the only person we saw without a wetsuit. The water temp was probably around 70 and I just don't like wearing a wetsuit at that temp nor for that long. It was fun being different too. Although Mirror Lake is as much like a pool as you can get; flat and with a "lane-line" to follow, it was rough with 2500 other people trying to get on the line; probably the most jostling that I've ever encountered. Coming back on the 2nd lap, the sky darkened and I felt it was raining. I didn't learn until later that many people didn't get to finish their 2nd lap as they were evacuated from the water due to thunder and lightning (causing some confusion with the final results but I think WTC handled it well & more importantly, safely)

The bike:

No stripper for me as I was already naked (sorry just some OW humor that never gets old) but I got changed in the change tent, put on arm warmers and my bike shorts (thanking Stacey again for helping me have them actually in my bag to put on); I grabbed the bike as claps of thunder rumbled and the rain came down heavy. Right out of transition there is a little downhill switch-back, the road was slick and I just went slowly and from the very start of the ride I kept thinking about the first long descent on the bike course and how I was nervous about doing it if it was raining. I thought about my only ever spill on my road bike which also happened in the rain back in 2008 but it wasn't even on a downhill. Christine, Stacey and I did ride the descent a few days prior, but with the downpour, the lightning, along with my near-sighted-ness, fogged-up glasses, feeling cold from being wet to the bone and the wind, I decided if it hadn't stopped by the time I was at the top, I would drop out and play it safe. And that is what I did, when I was at the top of the long descent I pulled over, looked down and turned around and caught a ride back into town, handed in my timing chip and headed back to the house. In one piece!

DNF:

I never knew I could be so fine with not finishing a race I had started. But I am happy with my decision, happy to know that I know my limits and won't more than "necessarily" put myself in harms way, I was happy to get back to the accommodations so Cadence could stop being worried about me (as I knew she would be). Happy to have a warm tea followed by a cold beer before 10 in the morning. Cadence had made a sign about the beer being at the finish; I just took a detour to get to the beer sooner - I think beer probably tastes better at 10 am then midnight anyways!

cheer squad

Christine is going to Kona

I was also happy to go cheer on the other triathletes and from our group to see Christine win her age group and qualify for Kona, and Ben, Jason, Jay and Stacey finish strong and safely!

Happy being an Ironfan!

The rest of the vacation:

With a great spacious beautiful house filled with 10 kids and 11 adults, close to the race check-in, start/finish and the quaint little town of Lake Placid, there was plenty to do even when it poured rain the day after the race too. We played badminton, foosball , did puzzles, hit the hot-tub, watched some waterskiing on the lake one day, had a hair-braiding session, and so on...

We got lots of peaceful morning swims in at Mirror Lake.

We took the gondola up Whiteface mountain and did a bit of hike (It was nice to be able to hike since I didn't kill my body in the race).

Olympic ski jumping centre

would you ski down this?

We went to the Olympic ski-jumping centre and watched a training session and took the ski-lift and elevator to the top of the ski-jump; incredibly what they do! And I was scared to go down a hill on my bike - I could never go down that ski jump on some skis!

A brave jumper

Fresh lemonade in the snow

It was a really good time being with family & friends for the week and really what else matters? Enjoy your life! And appreciate how lucky you are! There is a saying about making lemonade ~ well someone in Lake Placid made it for us and we drank it in the snow.