Jeffery Seifer's Ironman Lake Placid 2024 Race Report

I was super nervous going into this race - I know I’ve put in the training time and followed an excellent training plan, but being my first full ironman, I really didn’t know how I’d respond to a full day effort.

I had been told that a full IM is more than twice as hard than a half, and to expect it to take 2x my half time + 2 hrs. My most recent 1/2 was at White Mountain, a hilly course and good for comparison purposes - that took me about 6 hours, so I figured 14 hours was a good guesstimate.

We arrived on Thursday, checked in (super smooth process), and then I did a quick course recon. I wanted to see the Keene descent prior to the race, so I rode out to Keene and had Karen pick me up at the bottom of the hill. It was windy and plenty of traffic - it wasn’t a great ride for me, but at least I got to see it first hand. On Friday I went for a short swim in Mirror Lake - it was so nice! I decided to use my full sleeve wetsuit for the race instead of my sleeveless. Water was a bit warm, but the cooling temps meant the water would cool over the next few days and be comfortable with sleeves.

Friday night we got together with Tanya Marshall (and her daughter Angela, Mindy Henry Bolton and Sam Talbot for a nice dinner (Thanks!). Saturday was for race briefing and staging bike and gear bags, then relaxing. I was so hyped up I could barely sleep Saturday night, but managed to get a few hours before getting up early.

Weather on Sunday was forecast to be a bit of light rain really early, then sunny and comfortable with high around 72. Nearly perfect weather. Forecast was spot on. Yay!

Sunday bright and early: ate a good breakfast (Protein drink, Bagel, peanut butter, honey, banana). I then walked my last minute items over to transition - we were staying 2 block away, so it made it REALLY convenient! After I had my personal needs bags in place and last minute bottle fill ups done, I went back to my hotel, and got dressed. I ended up leaving for the start at 6:15, a few minutes later than I wanted, but had plenty of time - EVERYONE around the race is so helpful and nice - someone helped get my wetsuit zipped up and then it was time to drop off my morning bag, someone grabbed that for me and took care of it. I then fought my way through and got to the 1:30 swim time group and then waited.

I had worked really hard on a race plan with the help of Coach Will Kirousis from Tri-hard. Goal for my race was to start super easy, use the swim as a warm up, and get my body ready to work.

Got in the water and felt fine at first, but soon felt it hard to breathe and my chest felt tight - I was wondering if my new Varlo kit was too tight under my wetsuit. I have a history of panicking a bit when I first get in the water, and within a couple of hundred yards, all was good. I got into a good rhythm and swam easy (so I thought). Lap 1 was completed about 5 minutes faster than I expected. I thought it was from the whirlpool effect of the lake and some drafting. Looking at my HR data, I went out too hard. Lap 2 I did settle down and swam it in 45 minutes (heart rate data confirmed).

Swim: 1:25

I was just under where I expected, so was quite happy with that.

Wetsuit peelers were awesome, I took my time getting up to T1. Grabbed my bike stuff, went to the tent, drank a bottle of scratch, ate a honey stinger waffle, put on sunscreen, glasses, helmet, shoes. Got to my bike, ate an uncrustable, got to the mount line, got on the bike

T1: 12 minutes, about what I expected.

Started the Garmin, eventually remembered to load the course map on to the garmin (it shows the climbs that way) and I was off on arguably my favorite part of any Tri. Goal for first lap of bike was to take it easy and conserve energy for lap 2, plus follow my nutrition plan (3 bottles of tailwinds, Gels, etc) about 85 g of carbs per hour. I also wanted to survive the Keene descent LOL. After Keene descent I was pleasantly surprised by how fast the road was to Jay. I was at about 20 mph avg 1/2 way into the bike. After riding the new Jay loop, and going through the hills back to Placid, that dropped to 18 or so, but was very happy with that lap. I was figuring I’d be around 17. I met my goals with nutrition for lap 1. Arrived at 1/2 way personal needs station with 3 empty bottles. Refilled using a thermos I made up (kept the drink super cold) - thanks Jon Whitney for the suggestion. Ate an uncrustable. Started lap 2. Think nascar pit stop, really smooth and easy.

At this point, my stomach was feeling pretty full, but under control. At the risk of being too detailed here, I have UC/Crohns and have been having a VERY difficult time keeping it under control. Unfortunately, at about mile 65, just before the descent, I knew I had to stop. That gave me a little motivation to go a bit faster and I hit my top speed for the race of 41 mph. Not stupid fast, but good enough. I found a porta potty at mile 70, I thought that would be all I needed for the lap. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I stopped 2 more times. Garmin showed it cost me 17 minutes total. Bummer. My legs felt so good, but my stomach felt so bad. Such is life. I still finished all my planned nutrition, knowing there’s no way I would survive the run without it. I just had to deal with the distress.

Officially bike was 6:34. Garmin had 6:17 moving time.

Other bike notes: The course is gorgeous!!! I kept reminding myself to take it in, enjoy the views and appreciate where I was. One of the nicest places to ride, hands down.

Got into T2, threw on new socks (toe socks, which take time but really worth it for long runs), sneakers, sunscreen, hat, handheld water bottle. Unfortunately- it was pre-filled and about 95 degrees from sitting in the sun. Not drinkable! Dumped it and filled it at the first aid station.

T2: 10 minutes.

Started running and immediately had to stop for another pit stop. Yikes. So, my first miles were super slow, 21 min, then 13. All part of the pit stop.

Managed to run for awhile and consume some Skratch, mortal hydration (not a fan), Maurten gels. I forget exactly where I had to stop, but stopped 2 more times for pit stops.

My run plan called for me to run 7 min, walk 1 min. In addition, I was walking the steep sections. This worked REALLY well for me. I felt strong the whole run. If only my stomach felt better!

I actually ran the 2nd lap faster than my first lap and finished feeling great.

Run time 4:54. Garmin was 4:37 moving time

Run notes: The run went by so much faster than I thought it would. Just so many amazing fans screaming, partying, cheering you on. It made it feel like a 10k.

Official time: 13:16:19

I took the time coming into the Oval and around the Oval to have some fun and enjoy the moment (Thanks Katie Burns Whitney).

Truly one of my best race experiences of my life - and yes, I’ve already signed up for next year! Oh, and Missy Seifer is signed up too!!!!

Post race, got cleaned up, kept moving, massaged my legs a bit, then went back to cheer Tanya Marshall on and stayed to watch the last people finish. It was so amazing and one of the best parts of the day! Thanks to all who suggested doing this!

One other race note: I raced in a brand new tri suit that I had never worn from Varlo - it turned out to be super comfortable, but the best part was all the people that yelled to me while wearing the kit - it was a little boost of energy every time someone yelled "YAY VARLO!" LOL... it's the little things. Sort of like a Jeep wave.

Slept like crap that night, so hyped up from everything. Looking forward to getting a good night’s rest tonight - oh, and taking some time off this week from any sort of training!

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Dave Tyler, Will Kirousis and 26 others

Peter Swinarski Ironman New Zealand Race Report

IM New Zealand Wrap Up!!

The Set up

Never thought I would do a Full; I’m 63!! My oldest daughter (Ava) attends University in New Zealand – also met a nice Kiwi (Chris), rugby player – so they were there on race day; Mar 1 race day means training during a New England winter. (Was Not easy - and Yes, I was advised of such!!); I used Zwift as many of you know but also used Rouvy to train on the actual course.

Lastly, and Not to be forgotten, I have a Great group of friends, both TriFury and not, who helped me learn and train as best I could for this Beast. I know I would not have gotten as far as I did without you all !!

Total travel time is about 21-22hrs. I’ve visited there enough and normally would book a round-trip from Boston to Auckland via New Zealand Air (BEST Service yet!!); United Airlines handles the U.S. part.

However, my last trip turned into a Planes, Trains & Automobiles kind of adventure so this time I took an extra day of travel to ensure I could get my hands on my bike.

I flew to San Fran (via Jet Blue) on Saturday, got my bike/bags, stayed the night then flew out to on Sunday night. Landed in Auckland 5:55am Tue; so many time zones you totally lose Monday; got my bags, then hopped a small prop plane down to Taupo (50min).

I booked a motel along the lake shore which was also the Run course and a close enough walk to the athlete village, so it was convenient.

This was my first Ironman brand event so I was anxious about all the pre-race logistics; I must have read/re-read the athlete guide 2 dozen times to make sure I didn’t miss anything!!

Not going to lie, I was more stressed out over that stuff than the race!!

New Zealand is VERY concerned about their country and any environmental impacts, so Biosecurity is of paramount concern for them. I could Not get in the water with my wetsuit until it was checked at Athlete check-in, which unfortunately was not until early Thursday morning.

I got in a slow run along the course (so Cool !!), and a very short ride out of the bike transition, to check out how the long, slow climb out of town would be – nothing unexpected. (Thank you Rouvy) And yes, did get in a short swim.

The Lake is crystal clear. I could see the bottom at 50ft+!! And the temp was increasing to a comfortable 69/70 as the week progressed. There is a Constant breeze out of the Southwest that could increase to 15-20knots for a while then as quickly drop to 5 knots.

Race Day: Just like any other race day. Eat early, final prep then head across the street to start.

NOTE: IM Oceana (Southern hemisphere) dropped Gatorade as their oncourse nutrition and went with Maurten Gels and Precision hydration; neither work well with my gut… I tried for months during training. So, I packed as much Skratch Labs as I could and hoped it would get me far enough before I needed the other stuff.

Race start weather was Perfect – Overcast and very light breeze, which held for most of the ride until my final 10mi when the Full sun finally came out and the historical headwinds kicked up. Kiwi Sun is Brutal !! Not a lot of Ozone down that way!

I believe IMNZ is the last Full to have a Mass Start and the whitewash did not disappoint!! Was Fun!! In a Crazy way!!

I held a pretty good sight line, unusual for me, until near the far end turn when my goggles were kicked off but only held me up for a bit.

Came out of the water Exactly when I expected to!! And felt Great!!

Transition was Smooth…. 1,800 volunteers… we never lacked for anything out on course!!

The long, slow climb out of Taupo was fine. I had to force myself to back off to let the HR come down a bit. Btw, the pavement is smoother in town…

The roads in New Zealand are ROUGH. They call it a Rough Chip Seal. Pre-race I didn’t ride out far enough to get the feel of it and in hindsight I SHOULD have. Hint Hint to anyone considering this one.

Things started going awry on the first decent which should have been Fast and Fun, but for me turned into a very stressful drop. I knew the roads were rough but… when the front wheel started bouncing around at 25+mph… all sense of calm was replaced with High levels of stress.

10mi out my front end loosened up, so stopped and tighten everything. At mile 20(?) both bottle cages came loose… no biggie but again retighten.

The Aid stations were great, drank a lot of water (I thought) etc

Given the training on Rouvy, I kind of calculated the ride to be about 6hrs-ish… I would have been mentally ok at 7… but when I got out to the turnaround at Reporoa on the 1st lap at 2hrs.. I knew this was not going to go as planned.

Toward the end of the first lap, I stopped and dropped the tires to 70 (from 80) hoping to make the 2nd lap smoother; and it was, so the decents the second time were Fun which lifted my spirits a bit, but by then the legs were running low.

The rest of the ride was survival, no other way to describe it. Every upper body muscle hurt… even those I didn’t know I had; the Stress was that bad.

Transition to the run was again smooth albeit slower. I jogged about 55% of the first of four laps of the course. I walked 80% of the 2nd lap all the while my head ready to explode no matter how much hydration/nutrition I tried to take in. Threw up three times…

By the third lap I was nearly out on my feet and really must hand it to the race crew… they were watching and checking in but never once threatened to pull me unless it was clear I was about to get hurt… “How ya feeing? Ya Ok? Ya know, if ya can make it to the far end of course by (x) time I know you can hit the cutoff”… they were cautiously very encouraging!! Can’t praise em enough!!

About 1/3 the way along the 3rd lap I just shut down and yup, nearly face planted; in the pitch dark.

I made it 100m to the next aid station and called it. And even that crew was insanely supportive!!

Regardless of missing the target, it was an AMAZING… AMAZING experience!!

Having Ava and Chris there was a huge bonus!! And they did help me go further than I thought I could.

The town, as well, rolled out the Red Carpet and held up to their storied reputation!!

Lastly, ya…. I’m already strongly considering another go at this…

I gotta Finish.