In the taper weeks leading up to Ironman Mont Tremblant, I was definitely still worried about it, and wondering if I had done enough training. Can you ever really do enough training for an Ironman? I knew before Whistler I had been disciplined enough to strictly cut back on the weekend excursions, follow the weekly ramp up, and had some great friends battling out the bike rides with me every weekend! This year however, my training had felt more fragmented, and scattered. In addition, my nerves had gotten a bit rattled at St. Croix in May, and my slower then expected finish. Still I had some great training days this summer, and fun times at Seven hills of Kirkland, TN Whistler training camp, and STP (Seattle to Portland, 204miles bike ride)! Days I got my butt kicked, and still smiled at the end. Good memories to look back on during race day.

Guido had picked Ironman Mont Tremblant because his team, and some of our friends had talked about what a great race it was. We signed up a day too late, and missed general signup, and got two IM Foundation slots. Oh, well we were committed that’s for sure! It was interesting to hear about the IM Foundations involvements in Mont Tremblant, they have pledged money for a new swimming center in the area.

We flew out overnight Wednesday, and landed in Montreal bright and early 7am. A quick stop for McDondalds and some groceries, a short 90 min drive, and we arrived in idyllic Mont Tremblant. The town is beautiful and completely crazy about Ironman!  We went and wandered around the city, and rode the Cabriolet (ie. tiny gondola!) that went through town down to Athlete village and Check-in.  Because we were Foundation Athletes, and AWA (All World Atheletes) we got nice low bib number, I was #226, and Guido was #288!  After napping on couches in the lobby for a few hours before they let us check in, we started to get down to the business of the weekend. The next few days were a blur of short swims, bikes and runs, taking the Cabriolet up and down the town, apple sauce, and resting and relaxing. Oh, and worrying about the weather! The week leading up to the race was cold with torrential rain thrown in! I had so many layers packed in my transitions bags, thankfully all I would need was toe warmers and arm sleeves. Thus far, two Ironman, and two races with toe warmers 🙂

Race day morning dawned dark and early 4am. But a good sign, we could see the stars! So no rain (right now!), and the roads were dry for once! Bike check was quick, and then over to swim start. There was a wave start, so Guido went off in the second wave, and I was the 6th out of 7 total waves. I saw Guido go, and fireworks shot off! I muddled through a brief warmup since the water was a bit cold. But quickly my wave was up, and lined up along the beach all in our red caps. I started second row along the left, but as I found out not far enough to the left! I got swam over, stuck behind people, and run into for the first 300 meters, and had no where to escape too. So I just kept swimming. Things got more clear after that, though I still never felt settled for first straight section. Since the swim is a straight out and back, there was plenty of time to sight and swim around folks. The sun even came out from behind the clouds for a couple of minutes, and gave some positive encouragement to us out in the water! Finally the turn around! Everyone was swimming straighter after that, and finally I could see the end.

A short barefoot run on concrete to transition, and then arm sleeves, shoes, gloves, helmet, and glasses I was ready to go! #226 was right in the first row, closest to the bike out, so I was on my bike before I knew it.

I hadn’t seen most of the bike course before race day, so the first part of the ride was just getting settled, and ready for the long day. It’s a two loop course, with essentially two out and back sections, so I was watching for when I would see the pros and Guido flying back towards town. Sure enough! Sooner then I was expecting, the first of the pros and fairly quickly behind came Guido! It was great to see him having a great day thus far 🙂

The bike course was great, with a few rolling hills on a newly paved highway, lots of room for cyclists and faster people to pass. The only annoying section is the last 20km of each loop which I had ridden 20 minutes of during training, and had not been excited about that part. Still not as bad as Callahagn.

My motivation was lower before the race and during the bike than at my previous Ironman. I had lots of time to contemplate why I was out there, and why I was doing another Ironman. At the end of the day, I think that training with my teammates and friends is way more fun then racing all alone. I was struggling on the bike to figure out why I had signed up for a second one (and a third one). My mind wandered to the strategy Guido’s coach John had told him to keep in mind for the race ‘Get the best out of yourself’. That phrase just resonated with me the whole rest of the bike, and run. I was here to see what I could do, the hard part is the training, showing up on race day with all the cheering fans should be easier. Getting the best out of myself to me meant pacing smart, not giving up, pushing the wattage on the bike that I had been riding in training. Get the best out of yourself, get the best out of yourself. It was a great mantra to ride by.

It also meant fueling smart, and not getting to scared when my stomach started to cramp up again on the bike. I felt it about 2hrs into the bike, and backed of the perform, and skipped a gel. My stomach felt ok after about 30mins, which made me feel so much better! I finished the first loop, and started the second. Almost as soon as I started the second loop I saw Guido again! He was still looking strong which gave me some motivation to continue. However, a strong headwind had sprung up on the out section, which meant going was slow, and motivation was getting low too. Not too much to say about the rest of the second loop, it took a while. I had to stop at an aid station when I saw they had Vaseline, since my shorts were chaffing pretty badly on the butt seems. I did start to get excited when I headed in to the last short out and back section. I knew I was almost done! I was watching my bike time and saw I was still under 7hrs, I pushed it a bit for that last section to see if I could keep the bike under 7hrs! Since the last bit is all downhill, it was great 🙂 I finished the bike in 7:00:41!

On the the run, I was so excited to be off the bike. Running felt slow, but less painful than the bike. My heart rate was pretty steady zone 2. My watch died on me about mile three of the run. So I got to do most of the run by feel. Pacing wise that was ok, fueling wise a bit of a challenge! My fueling is one shot block ever 2 miles. Well … the course was marked in kilometers. So my Ironman brain spent a long long time converting miles to kilometers and trying to remember the kilometer sign I had last seen! I’d be looking for the sign for 6km and feeling like I had been running for forever. So finally I’d give in and take the block. Well.. Then another eternity would pass, and I’d finally see the sign for 5km. Repeat for 42km!

I just kept moving forward, I walked one or two of the early aid stations, but then tried to just jog through the rest. Walking felt better then running, but starting running again was the worst. I saw Guido about mile 6, he had almost 10k left to the finish! He looked like he was suffering, but he was pushing on strongly. I made a bit of a commotion yelling encouragement, and Guido gritted his teeth and ran on.

My hands started tingling on the end of the first lap. My fueling plan calls for a banana at the start of the run, but I never feel like eating one. But tingling hands calls for bananas, because they have potassium. So I probably ate 2 bananas over the next several aid stations. My stomach handled those like a pro. They also ran out of coke at some of the aid stations, so I tried a bit of Red Bull instead. Definitely not my favorite thing on the course! By the second lap my legs were feeling pretty fatigued, and my quads in particular felt quivery. I focused on not stopping running, since getting started felt so hard.  I started counting off the kilometers with 10km left, and was so ready to be done! I was wondering if I might get a new PR since I knew my bike time had been faster, but I had no watch to tell me my pace or time.

The final 1km is great. You run along the lake with fans cheering, up a short hill to get to special needs, and then you are at the top of town, and a short jog through the crowds is all you have before the finish. I remember high-fiving little kids, and smiling from ear to ear so excited to have number 2 finished.

Guido was waiting right outside the finisher area, and slipped back inside when he saw me 🙂 We got finisher pictures taken together me and my race kit and Guido freshly showered. Both of us smiling. We snagged some post race food, but eyed the poutine wearily.

My final time was 12:48, for a new IM PR. In addition I improved my times for all of the components of the race (well except transition times!)

Thanks Guido for introducing me to this wonderful, crazy, painful, and additive sport. 🙂 And thanks all the TNers for being such great training buddies and friends! And thanks Mark and Teresa for coaching me through number 2. Now here’s for number 3, IM AZ 2015!