Finally, I was able to make some time to write this race report. I must admit that, last week, I preferred to play with my daughter, rather than sitting in front of my computer. Please forgive me if the report is crisp and short: Next week I am leaving for my training camp in Font Remeu (France) and hence I want to maximize my 'family time'.
After a pleasant week with my mother as coach and a refreshing 'home stay' in the house of Anne Lynch (see picture), Lake Placid race day had arrived. I really was eager to participate in a full Ironman. After my leg injury and the long recovery from it, I felt ready for it and I was going to give it my best.  In all my enthusiasm, I had forgotten one important thing: after an injury, it takes time to reach your previous performance level!

After a moderate swim, I was, as usually, condemned to a long pursuit of the people in front of me. I felt good and decided to hammer away on my bike immediately. MY seven minutes delay on Tom Evans, got reduced to less than 2 minutes after the first lap on the bike. But then I started feeling tired and faded away. As the bike leg continued, I lost more and more time again, even though I gave it everything that was left in me. I reached the transition zone in second position, but more than 11 minutes behind Evans.
To my own surprise, I started quite well in the first lap of the running. I soon got company from Victor Zemtchev, who started about 40 seconds behind me in third position. For a long time we stayed together an jointly reduced the advance of Evans to some 4 minutes. But just before the start of the second lap, it went wrong again: I felt less strong and had to let Victor go. Actually, I was kind of glad that number 4 was far enough behind me, so that I did not have to worry about finishing third.  This was really the best I could do and I must admit that I felt quite disappointed at the finish line. I had started the race with a bigger ambition! Later, back home, I reviewed my race with my trainer, Pieter Timmermans. He told me that he had not really focused my training on Lake Placid, but rather on the Half Ironman in Antwerp, 3 weeks earlier. If everything went fine with my injured leg in Antwerp, then I would go to Lake Placid  in order to have one full Ironman behind my teeth before going to Hawaii.  This explained my perfect performance in the first bike and run legs, followed by very week second laps. In all my enthusiasm to finally do my first full Ironman of the year, I had just forgotten about this. So, in the end, I am happy with my place on the podium.

Right now, Ironman Placid feels like far away in my memory. With my head, I am already in Hawaii. I am glad that I finally can start with my specific preparation for the world championship and that this can happen without restrictions or leftovers from my injury. As I said in the beginning of this report, next week I am going to Font Remeu for 3 weeks and then I will drive to Monaco to participate in the Ironman Monaco 70.3 race.

The road to Kona is open!

Rutger