Scott Perschke (47)
This was my 2nd IM, the first being 2 years ago in Louisville. At that event I got pretty dehydrated and took in 2 IVs afterwards. My time of 12:28 (1:15, 10:xx, 5:58, 15:xx, 4:52) wasn’t bad, but the suffering was large!
The Lake Placid bike course has about 7500 ft elevation gain compared to 5500 in Louisville, but cooler temps (and still a drivable distance) were the reason to go north.
The lead up to race time was good, though still very nervous. I ate a bowl of cereal, a banana, a granola bar, OJ and vitamins starting about 4:30. My good friend Stan had come to town and helped me set everything up. I went to transition with a bottle of HEED/perpetuem mix and pumped tires and lubed the chain, got body marks then dropped off special needs bags. At this point it was 6:00ish so I went for a short jog to wake up. I then dressed for the swim and headed over to the swim start.
The swim start was a concern of mine since Louisville is a time trial start and I’d heard bad stories about mass starts. I swam over and stood at the far edge at about 6:45 and watched the pro start. When there was only a few minutes left I saw a lot of open space up close to the line where you had to tread water and so I moved up slowly and was only about 15 ft from the line when the gun went off. It got crowded on the 1st loop but I never got kicked or punched, though some one pushed my legs down a couple times. When this happened I kicked vigorously and that seemed to discourage such further actions. 1st lap was done in 34 minutes. The second lap was less crowded but still some crowding at times. Note: You can’t stop swimming if you are in the main line!! 2nd lap took 35 minutes, for 1:09 total time (a 5 minute PR). Paces were 1:47 and 1:52 per 100 m.
T1 took about 8 minutes, and I got no real help from volunteers, just my bad luck.
The bike is my favorite leg and this course is pretty fun! The big downhill was scary the 1st lap because of the speed differentials. Some people are slowing while others are going all out. I stayed out of trouble by not getting in to the packs. The middle of the loop starts with some gentle rollers then a couple more harsh rollers. There is a long stepped climb back from Wilmington to Lake Placid. The last ¼ mile of the climb and then the 2 miles in and through town were barricaded and there were people 5-10 deep cheering us on. I was blown away by the noise and excitement this generated and found my HR 5 beats higher than target as I started lap 2! 1st lap was done in 2:51. 2nd lap it got windy on the long uphill back to Lake Placid, where I also got some significant cramps in my quads. I took a brief pause to take some endurolytes and water and was able to carry on to T2. 2nd lap time of 3:10 gave a total bike time was 6:01 including a pee stop. I was a little disappointed by the 2nd loop and overall times. I think I need some more long rides to improve this time. I haven’t had cramps like this in quite a while and thought I’d “grown out of it”.
T2 was also done without assistance from volunteers other than the one who took the bike to rack it. 4 minutes.
The run has been my least favorite leg in the past, but I’ve worked on it for the last year and it has been paying off. I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable running and have gained some speed along the way. I was able to run with another guy for about 5 miles early on then another guy for a couple more miles of the 1st loop, which took 2:03 I was able to run both of the hills back in to town on the 1st loop. At this point I was getting confident I would finish under 12 hours, but 11:30 (my dream time) was slipping away. As I started the 2nd lap I saw my wife and told her that this was the point it would start hurting. I had some cramp twinges and so ate some bananas on the 2nd run and while I might have had the physical strength to run the 2 hills, I didn’t have the mental fortitude to do so. This contributed to my slightly slower 2nd lap time of 2:13. This was the performance that I am most pleased with, a 10 minute differential between the 2 run laps!! It was also a PR by 35 minutes.
Total time 11:40, a 48 minute PR!!
As per my plan I used two 3 hour bottles of 4 scoops HEED/3 scoops Perpetuem/2 scoops Endurolyte powder on the bike along with an uncounted number of water bottles. I took water and Gatorade on the run with a couple pieces of banana and grapes for variety and added cola on the 2nd lap (the promised watermelon never appeared). Bike included about 6 endurolytes and Race caps.
Thanks go to:
God for all the gifts
my wife Annette
Grasky Endurance Coaching
The Champions Choice Massage
Performance Spine and Rehab Center Chiropractic
Whistle Stop Bike Shop
Bob Kolanko, PT, bike fit
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