On June 15th, 2011 registration opened for the first ever Ironman Mont Tremblant. Ryan Blake, Ross Fenton, Matt Doucette, Dean Beaudry, Mike Sprayson, Doug Austin, and Scott McEdwards signed up and committed themselves to a year of training their mind, body, and spirit as they attempted the Ironman distance.
Fastforward to August 19th, 2012 in the Mont Tremblant village where 2000+ like-minded athletes got themselves ready for a day of pain filled with nerves, adrenaline, excitement, and questions. 6 Baydogs made the start line, and many more came over to cheer. I spent the few minutes before the race chatting with Ross and Doug to erase my mind, as I like to do before these types of 'what's going to happen to me?' type of races. The canon was loaded with a dud, but the F-18 from Bagotville soared above letting us know that all of our hardwork would pay off, and it was time to go prove it.
Swim: my biggest fear was the first 500m because it was a mass start. I put myself middle back and just walked into the water. This worked out in the sense that I didn't get beaten up or swam on, but I'd like to apologize to the people that I beat up and swam on. I guess I should have been more in the middle with people my speed, although I'd rather do the beating than get beaten, so it was a win for me. I wasn't sure if we had to keep the buoys on our right, and since there were boats clogging the left of the buoys, I just stayed in the middle and swam straight to the first turning buoy. I did this on the way back in. I had swimmers on both sides of me the whole time, and no kayak told me to move over, so it couldn't have been that bad. Time -
1:20:01 (my pool time for 3800m is 1:18 and change, so it wasn't too far off and my garmin read 4.4km, same as another guy's watch in the changing tent)
Transition: The tent is about 700+m from the water, so it was a bit of a jog. I quickly got my bag and threw on my shoes and helmet, then quickly exited. Still, it was about 6:00 (mostly due to the long run).
Bike: the course is BEAUTIFUL! Freshly paved roads, nice rolling terrain, some decent climbs to break up the packs, and a tough/technical section from 70km to 80km. And, it's fully catered! Unfortunately I had a full bladder that I couldn't empty while swimming, so at the 30km aid station, I stood in line for the port-a-potty. This killed the momentum and speed I had gained, and I spent the next 30km trying to get my average pace back up, but unfortunately the bladder filled again and I had to stop at the 80km aid station. In total, I lost about 6 minutes standing in line/peeing. On the second loop I decided to skip the special needs station because there was nothing I really needed and I didn't want to lose more time (wish I had...needed those salt tablets...more on that later). I rode the second loop continuous despite my bladder filling up again, and becoming nauseous (cue the salt tabs) prohibiting me from taking full advantage of the nutrition I had planned. I started sucking back a lot of water to flush out my stomach pains, thus making me have to pee more. I rode mostly big gear on the front, but for the sake of saving my legs to run, I took it easy up the 70 - 80km hilly section. The descents were amazing (max speed 74km/h!), and I rolled into transition with a respectable
5:54 despite losing 6:00 in pee breaks, and never really leaving my comfort zone/putting in a hard effort on the bike (yup, backdoor bragging right there!)
Transition: I did a full change and took my time doing it. I've been battling some bad ankle pain the last month, so I wanted to make sure that my legs had a chance to recover/adjust to running. I threw on the running shorts/t-shirt, compression calf sleeves, fuel belt that I didn't need but was there for emergencies, and took off. T2: 6:00
Run: I felt really good running. My ankle wasn't bothering me, and I just ran by how I was currently feeling, which was a fast temp. My approach was to walk the aid stations, and I started right away. I still had to pee, but there were line ups and I didn't want to lose more time. Luckily I saw a port-a-potty that was open with no line so I quickly sprinted into it. I guess it wasn't for the race because people were telling me to stop and exit it, and I heard them saying not to let anyone else in. Whatever. You can't put a toilet on an Ironman course and expect it to not be used. The run had some nice rolling terrain heading into a small village before it got onto the rail trail section. I LOVE running on crushed gravel. Once I got to this part my pace quickened and I was able to pass a lot of people. I was feeling really good and found myself running a few sub 5:00/km (frontdoor brag!!). As I exited the rail trail and got to the rolling terrain on pavement I started developing some knee pain from my quads. I checked my pockets for the salt tabs that I "thought" I had stashed in there, but no dice. Luckily I had some in my special needs bag. Pretzels at the aid station would have to suffice for the time being. When I got to the special needs I grabbed some more gels and my salt tabs and threw them in my pocket just as it started to rain. I finished the first loop in 1:55 (faster than my first stand alone 1/2 marathon!). A few km into the second loop the pain returned while running up a little hill, so I went to pop some salt tabs, but alas, the rain had dissolved most of them! The two I was able to ingest helped a lot, but still upset me that I hadn't planned properly for this. It would have really helped my stomach on the bike, and would have helped alleviate my knee pain on the second loop. At this point, the nausea returned. I tried chicken broth, but almost threw up. I tried a gel, but almost threw up. I tried a chew, but almost threw up. The only things that I could ingest were water, coke (that wasn't defizzled), and pretzels. Not bad I guess, but after each aid station it took about 500m for my stomach to settle. I've never done anything until I puked, but it felt like I was about to (thankfully, my perfect record still stands!). With 12km to go, I finally studied my watch closely and did the math. It looked like I was easily going to beat my goal of sub 12hr Ironman! With knee pain setting in, stomach rolling with each step, and rain starting, I decided that it would be in my best interest to start walking the 3 uphills leading back to Mt Tremblant and the finish line (I know Mary, soft). I made it up to the top of the village, with about 750m left in the race, when the skies opened up. Torrential downpour! Didn't matter though, I was about to become an Ironman! I raced down the cobblestones winding through the village. Saw Genevieve and Greg who were going crazy and gave me a big slap on the back, saw the finish line and started doing the pump up the crowd arm swing, and crossed the finish line with two big fist pumps! It was so euphoric, I don't even remember hearing Mike Reilly say "Matt Doucette. YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!". It was honestly such an amazing feeling. Any pain is absolutely erased as the medal is put over your head and you head to the food tent (which was quite the spread! beer, coke, chocolate milk, chicken soup broth, fruit, subway subs, bagels/pastries, poutine, pizza slices!). The rain was coming down really hard, but it didn't matter anymore. My day was done.
Run time - 4:09 and Finish Time - 11:35:39
Post Race: Tanya quickly found me and we headed back to the room to dry off and eat. My body was feeling remarkably good, except for some light stiffness and my knee bugging me a little. My stomach had settled after getting some real food in it. At around 10:00, we headed back out to cheer on the other finishers. Ryan, Ross, and Dean had already finished, so we were just waiting for Mike (Unfortunately, Doug couldn't finish the run due to an ankle injury, and Scott couldn't make the race to spend time with his family). We found Genevieve and Greg, and then watched the clock. We knew the time splits Mike had been running and were expecting him any minute. When the worrying became over bearing, a joyful Mike bounded around the corner, smiling ear to ear, jumping up and down, slapping hands everywhere. He gave us all a high five and sprinted down the slope, and triumphantly leapt across the finish line!
Barrie Cheering Section: a very special thank you to Genevieve Blais, Greg Cormack, Kellie McNabb, Joanne Merkley, Shawn Patton, and Jon Dow for making the trek to Tremblant and cheer us on. It was awesome sporadically seeing people from Kellie marking me in the morning, Jon walking to the swim, Joanne at the swim start, Shawn at the transition tent, and Genevieve and Greg on the cobblestones in the village. If there were more that made the trip to spectate and cheer, I apologize for not mentioning you. It was a pretty hectic weekend!
The Next Day: I was worried about how I would feel physically, but remarkably I didn't hurt at all! (backdoor brag). Tanya and I spent the day walking the village, enjoying the weather, headed up the gondola to enjoy the view and coming to terms of what I had just accomplished. I did it.
I am an Ironman!
