Race Coverage

"Everything Went Right."

Saturday, 24 August 2019 23:10

By Paige Schulz (strava.com)

Ironman Mont-Tremblant Race Report - 10:09 total time. 3rd place amateur female. 2nd place 25-29 age group. 49 minute PR. A great race....

A million thank yous to give out. It truly takes a village to bring an athlete to the finish line, let alone start line. God. Brennenx100. Jack. Finn. My parents. My in-laws. My siblings. My friends. My triathlete friends. My bike fitter (JC Griswold at Maple Grove Cycling). Wyn Republic. ROKA. My bike. My Wahoo kickr. My legs. The list is endless.

Pre-race

A 4 AM alarm clock followed by two scrambled eggs with cheese, an English muffin with butter and jam, and two cups of coffee. We were out the door and driving towards transition at 4:47AM. I am always at ease before triathlons. Probably because the swim doesn't scare me and isn’t particularly hard mentally or physically, just something I must get through to be on my way to the marathon (which is hard mentally and physically). Truthfully the best night of sleep I got the entire 5 nights we were gone was the night before the Ironman. Imagine that.

40 minutes before the swim I ate a pb&J on another English muffin. This one was a little harder to swallow. I wasn’t too hungry and was slightly nervous.

Hold on: can’t continue without discussing my three “things I can’t control” that happened during race week. 1. I do believe I had a cold. It didn’t impact my race performance, but my snot was so thick that farmer blowing on the bike was impossible and left me covered in snot. (Triathletes are gross part 1.) 2. I got my period on Friday, two days before the race. I assure you I did a happy dance! I don’t have crazy symptoms, but get a little crampy and gassy, so really wanted those things behind me. Racing on day three of my period was perfection. (10-hour day with your period that includes an hour+ swim? No, tampons would not work. Menstrual cup, friends. The best invention ever.) 3. I never got E. Coli from Lake Nokomis. (LOL. I wasn’t actually worried about that.)