IM Mt. Tremblant Race Report
Congratulations to Keith Ho for completing the IM Mt. Tremblant 70.3. Here is his Race Report...
First thing first, if you have not already seen my earlier post, I am happy to report that I "qualified" for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee this coming September. I am still in cloud nine and still digesting what had happened yesterday. I am very excited to have that opportunity to race with world's best triathletes in less than 3 months.
The weekend in Mt. Tremblant was fantastic. The venue was beautiful (gondola and all). The volunteers were amazing. The course was beautiful and well-maintained. Weather was cool. First time doing a half that was not in the 90's!! So even before the race, I knew I had a chance to beat my target (which was to finish in 6 hours).
Morning of the race: LOTS OF PEOPLE!!! Maybe a bit too many athletes for my taste. So a few of us decided to place ourselves in the earlier (faster) swim pace group so we didn't have to swim on top of people. It turned out to be the right choice. Other than a couple bumps (hand grapping and toe touching), my swim was uneventful. My sightings were great - kudos to practices during the last few months. So I largely swam in straight line.
T1: Out of the water, so glad to have the wetsuit "strippers". I do my usual "Lays Chips" in T1. So I goofed a little and spent a bit longer (~6 mins) than most athletes. But that's my ritual and I refuse to change that. Bike: The bike route was one of the best I had ever ridden. It was all on highways. Really fast!!! I hit a max of 45mph. At around mile 30-40, I got stuck in a peloton of about 20 people. It was both annoying and a blessing. We were all doing exactly the same speed for this 10 miles. There was a couple changes in place but by and large, we were all together for a long period of time. It was annoying because I wanted to get away from this group and ride but after a few mins leading the group, a few people passed me and I got stuck again. Since we were all in aero position, that got me very nervous. If any one of us did something stupid, we will all crash and it would have been an ugly crash at 21-23 mph. It's a blessing because I was able to "draft" people while I was stuck in the middle. Even though I was not supposed to draft, it was out of my control. So I think during this 10 miles I saved a lot of power. The last 6 miles of the bike was interesting. Very technical hill climbs and down. I didn't realize until this last 6 miles that I was actually a pretty good climber. I passed a lot of people who passed my on the flats miles prior. Sure, I was out of the saddles quite a bit but I wasn't going to burn my legs off right before the run.
T2: Again, I goofed and ate some Lays Chips. Yummy!!
Run: I knew before the race that I would have a hard time on the run. My aim was to run as long as possible without walking. I was able to pick a person to run with (and talk to). A lady, a man and I were running at around 9min/mi pace for the first 8 miles or so. I felt good. But once I stopped for ice and water, my legs just went soft and from that point on, I ran for a mile or so and walk a while. Not the best strategy but I powered through it and finish. Also, once I hit mile 8, I realized that my watch showed that I was at 5 hour mark. That was a "game changer" of the day for me. Remember that my target was to beat 6 hours. With 5 more miles to go, I knew I could easily beat 6 hours. And in my head, I was thinking that I could even beat my best PR of 5 hr 45min that I had 2 years ago (when I was in better shape). So that was the thought I had for the reminder of the race. That got me to run longer before I stopped. Once I got into the village where the finish line was, I was elated!! 5 hr 35mins! I bested my PR by a cool 10 mins!!! I think I had one drop of tears in my eyes when I realized what I did.
The day gone on to become even more exciting. I placed into the 100's in my age group. I didn't expect I would be qualified for anything. But all the stars aligned for IMMT and with a lot of luck, I qualified for the last spot in my age group!!! So this was how it turned out... My age group M40-44 was a large group. They allocated 5 spots for the World Championship. They announced the top 5 finishers in my age group, no one showed up or claimed the spot (probably because they had already gotten the spot from prior IM70.3 races). They announced 5 next best finishers. Again, no one showed up. So at that point, they called the audience and asked all of us in the M40-44 group to come on stage and pick the fastest among us. There were (I think) 7 of us in the audience. One by one, the guys who announced their time, they were faster than me. The last one who announced his time, it was 5 hr 20min! He got the last spot. Damn! He beat me by 15 mins. So, they "kicked" me off stage without the coveted qualifier form. Despaired (and maybe a little embarrassed), I walked off stage. But then less than 1 min later, they announced that one more slot had been allocated to my age group. And I was next in line to get that spot. I bounced on to the stage. The MC was being funny and commented that I "REALLY" wanted to go to the championship! And I said YES!!!
If I didn't go down to the rolldown because I was cheering for my teammates, I would not have gotten the qualifier. And I bet you that a lot of people didn't show up to the award ceremony because they didn't think they would have gotten a qualifier. And I also bet you that a lot of people didn't show up for the ceremony because it was raining pretty hard during that time. I think I am one lucky guy - maybe once in a lifetime opportunity for this middle-of-the-packer triathlete.
