Philip LaVoie’s Blog

Kate and I grabbed John from NYC and headed out to make packet pickup before 5pm (this included nearly stripping my bike from the roof-rack as we went under some bridge construction [9’2″] in Riverdale). I was beat dead due to another crapass software release leading us into 3:30am Saturday morning. As expected, neither of my two travelling companions took pity and so the fun began. We drove out to the Hamptons in fine style while snacking on some of JH’s finest dietary fuel – chips, combos, smartfood, redbull and gatorade. Arriving at packet pickup around 4pm we signed in in about 10mins… J was kissing babies and shaking hands and in the middle of his political speech when he found out the TYR boys were coming to town. So a shift in the force was felt… alright… so now we were all about giving it a go, but having fun took top priority.

I can say for one that it was a blast. Low key, good times with good people, food and grub.

So for Saturday… I was supposed to wake up and knock out a 56/13 bike-run brick. This didn’t happen. I was a zombie for most of the day and we (Kate) just drove down and out.

Sunday… It was pouring as I woke up at 4am. I headed out to grab coffee at the local gas -n- sip as we are all caffeine junkies. We all slugged down the black gold and did the necessary, loaded up the car and off we went in the black of night to the race site. We caught Ian in the parking lot only a few cars away and we just set up shop. I mean when we tell ya it was just low key and easy it sooo was. It was such a no-hassle pleasure.

We were all kitted up and made our way down to the beach, sipped on some fuel drink, downed a gel, and it was time to get in. We floated for a bit… the horn blew and the swim was on. It started pouring just before the turnaround which was quite neat as I’ve never experienced rain drops plunking off the rubber of the wetsuit while submerged in a swim. The swim was awesomely uneventful and was one of my best sightings this year. I shouldered every buoy on the way out, keeping me nice and straight, and didn’t care about it for the return as any drift off to the beach would only help as that was closer to the turn to shore. I popped out at what on my watch was 32 and thought… “GEEZ! that’s a half iron swim time! Crap, guess i have to hammer the bike and run.” But what was odd was that the bike racks were still all full. hrrm. odd. It turned out to be a slow HIMish swim for all.

Swim	32:50
Swimp	166
T1	2:37
T1P	164

The bike was cool… as it was wet and dangerous a lot of people were taking it safe. I wasn’t and just hammered on. I wasn’t wearing my HRM and just backed off for a bit at the tops of climbs to lower it when I could hear my heart beating in my ears. This is where I think I felt the lack of sleep hitting the most as I was wishing for the end at around the 15mi mark. I knew I had a pretty decent average, but not much gas left in the bike tank. I also knew the run would be fine using the muscles differently. I really didn’t fuel that much on the bike. 1 gel and 1 bottle as it was wet and cool with a bit of a breeze. The average speed was 20.5mph for the 40k and it was funny to watch the battery die on the cateye as it blinked on and off, barely showing the readings (but I was thankfully almost done). I was only passed by 2-3 people and definely made up a good amount of ground out there (especially on the hills, both climbing and descending). The AG’s were drafting like I’ve never noticed before and it does require mention that people failed to realize that you are to pass on the left and move over once the pass is complete. I came into t2 with feet on the shoes, avoided some of the larger puddles with my socks and almost creamed someone fiddling with her watch.

Bike	1:09:14
Bikep	100
T2	1:32
T2P	83

I just shucked on my stuff and ran out. I knew it would be a mile or so until my legs came around and that the hill wouldn’t help but would comfort my mind in the slow speed. I was looking for john to be coming in but never did see him. I saw 1, 2 and 3 (TJ came in as I was @ 1mi – sick!) and JH must’ve been just heading out of the last side road as I was passing it, but still no sighting (he was indeed 4th overall – and 2 weeks after IMLou!). As the climb out of the beach is the first half of the race (a pretty light but gradual and long hill out) I just stayed shuffling knowing that I was reeling people in and that I’d get much faster in the 2nd half of the 10k. This is exactly what happened. I passed a lot of people here too (it did have a lot to do with being in wave 4). I wasn’t near death at this point as I knew the final show on this race is from the 4mi mark or so back into the finish and you get the blessing of the hill to launch it. I hit the 5mi mark and spyed my watch – 2:25:xx! crap! As we were driving in that morning, J said to me… “are you under 2:30? we can get you in the elite wave if you are” – and so with that, I tried to run a 5min/mi pace into transition. I think I was about 5:4x or so in doing the last 1.2 (it’s always that .2 that throws ya 😉 and left everything out there for that great hard last mile and change.

Run	44:38
Runp	72

Finals:

Clock Time	2:30:50
Overall Place	77 / 779

It was like a 15 minPR for me over last year. I was pleased… but damn! 50 seconds! ha!

Kate and John met me at the finish… Kate with a hug and a kiss and John with a tackle and a shove ;-). Afterwards the rain started again as Ian and Plamen came down. J interviewd TJ for xtri and kate and I just chatted up as I was sipping water and heed. Ian was in and PR’d awesomely over last year, then we saw Plamen too (man that guy is strong). We had to wait for transition to open up to get our stuff… loaded up the car… went back to the hotel and washed up and then the 3 of us met with Ian for some awesome post race grub and chatter.

Big thanks to Kate for everything this weekend, from the hotel and driving to well… everything… and to J thanks for coming out man always good to hang with ya – any race, where yer in it, is sure to make me move faster. Ian, Plamen… always great to see you guys. We certainly don’t do this enuff.

Now onto the Nutmeg Half taper for next sunday just off 84 in CT! A badass race put on by Mandy (J’s girfriend for those who aren’t in the know). Mandy puts on some of the best events I’ve been in this year, everyone of them feels like family. (without the baggage 😉