Hillary Biscay

27 July 10: Ironman Lake Placid

Posted on 27. Jul, 2010 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 9 Comments

Sunday was not the most fun day for the GCM or me. Spectating when my other half is racing is always a nerve-wracking experience, but it becomes excruciating when I have to watch him struggling out there for hours on end. Last year here in Lake Placid, the GCM had everything his own way, from start to finish. This year, beginning with a sub-par swim, he had to work for every mile of the race. It was one of those days.

I did get a smile almost every time I saw him, though . . . See above for the best bike shot I could get–he was still moving too quickly, and this was on a climb!

The race pretty much looked like this for the first 118 miles . . . Eventual winner Ben Hoffman gets all the credit for racing a very smart race and following the GCM around for this long.

My Champion ended up third after Petr V flew through the marathon and passed him at the very end of the run. Certainly we both hoped for another title here in Placid this year and never expected this to be an “off” day, but I suppose there aren’t many people who can have an off day and still end up on the podium!

Having BFF Amanda there to spectate with me was the highlight of my day. Thanks to her, I even enjoyed a few laughs during the marathon. In spite of the cold, we delivered on our promise to Maiki to provide bikini-clad cheerleaders . . . “CAT” is one of the GCM’s other nicknames, in case you were wondering.

“WHERE IS HE?!?!?” This is pretty much how my day went . . . Amanda and I did get plenty of thanks from age group guys while we were waiting to cheer for the GCM. Glad we could help!

The GCM isn’t one to make excuses, but since I know everyone is wondering, “What happened?!” I can give you my personal opinion. We have all had days at the races when we “just don’t have it”–you know, that good, hard-earned race-feeling that results from proper preparation and taper. Sometimes the absence of this energy or power results from too much training, or too little training, too much rest, or too little rest. In the GCM’s case, his preparation was exceptional. He trained consistently well in Kona, never got sick, and was far more fit than he was in Lanzarote in May. We made the mistake, however, of traveling from Kona to Lake Placid overnight on Monday, arriving just five days ahead of the race. In my opinion, traveling east into a time zone with six hours time change with such a short time to adapt is too much to ask of our bodies. I know that mine still wasn’t right by Sunday and I had spent two of the previous four nights lying awake all night. We won’t make a mistake like this again; we wanted to stay in Hawaii as long as possible, and I made the mistake of thinking that the GCM is superhuman and could win this race even if the travel wasn’t right-on.

The beauty of ironman racing is that there are so many pieces to this crazy puzzle. I truly believe that we have to make each mistake that can be made in order to–hopefully–avoid falling into that particular trap in the future. Lake Placid was only the GCM’s 11th ironman; it was a valuable learning experience for Team GCM and I am sure there are many more lessons in our future. I am also sure that you will be seeing him back on the top step of the podium very soon.

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