IRONMAN Lake Placid! Race recap with Jill Bartholomew and Thomas Skelton

Jill Bartholomew (00:00)
Hi, welcome again to another episode of the Be Fierce and Try podcast. I'm Jill Bartholomew, your host, and I'm here again with Thomas Skelton of Merge Multisport. And we are going to talk to you today about

Uh, Lake Placid, uh, that Ironman was just about a week ago. Uh, I was there as an athlete. Uh, Thomas was there both as a coach and a spectator. Uh, now Thomas, I think you had actually originally been signed up for the race, right? You were planning to compete and ended up not being able to. And I thought maybe that was a good place to start. Cause like we were talking about it before and it happens to all of us.

Thomas Skelton (00:44)
Yeah, for sure. mean, we were there last year to support and, you know, it's just, it's such a special place. And I was like, I just, have to do this race, not for anything, not trying to find any spot or do anything, you know, qualification wise. was like, it's just an iconic place to race. And I was like, I got to do it. And so we signed up like last year, I think at the breakfast, you know, the day after the race, right. We're sitting there with some buddies eating and, ⁓ sign up for the race.

Jill Bartholomew (01:07)
Well, I mean, at the breakfast is when they're dangling the discount carrot. It's so hard. I mean, I did the same thing last year. like, and I'm like from Saratoga. like, you know, I speed skated growing up. So I'm like, you know, that iconic finish on the oval for me is a lot like going home and like, yeah, wait, you're going to give me a discount to come and raise this again. Yeah, of course. Cause we've all still like kind of, kind of.

Thomas Skelton (01:10)
You can't pass that up, What?

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Jill Bartholomew (01:34)
hung over from the race at that point.

Thomas Skelton (01:36)
Yeah, but unfortunately, just had some Plantar Fasciatis that flared up in New Zealand after Worlds last year and it's just kind of been up and down and up and down and I'm finally committing to work on it and work through it.

You but yeah, you just, can't, you can't, you know, you can kind of fake a half, right? Ish. But you just, can't fake a full, you can't, you know, trying to take on that distance, especially on a really challenging and hilly course like Placid. It's just, it's not the right thing to do to yourself, right? And I'm not going to walk a marathon. So.

Jill Bartholomew (01:53)
Mm-hmm.

Yes, that

run at Lake Placid is no joke.

Thomas Skelton (02:11)
What?

It's legit. It's a real, I mean, this is what makes, and not to change topics, but maybe it's a segue way, but like, you know, this is one of things that makes Lake Placid so special is that it's not a, you you have to be a well-rounded athlete, right? Like you have to, you know, understand your gearing and be able to climb well and descend well and corner and be able to manage your nutrition on that rolling terrain. And, you know, maybe you have thoughts about what your run and walk, you know, strategy may be, but that may need to change up.

Jill Bartholomew (02:25)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Skelton (02:41)
because the course is hilly and there's gonna be rain. And it's a real true test of yourself as an athlete, not just your fitness. And I think that's definitely what makes the course so epic.

Jill Bartholomew (02:42)
Yes.

Yeah. And kudos to you for, for taking care of yourself. I have on multiple occasions, including currently, I've been on the injured list and refuse to admit it. So I'm now on like month 18 of a hamstring injury that is potentially going to have surgery after worlds because at this point it's just not healing.

Thomas Skelton (03:04)
Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (03:14)
Um,

but that is a fantastic segue. So race day, uh, the energy in the village was really high. felt, and that's one of things I love about Lake Placid. I was reading this morning, uh, some of the Facebook posts, even like a week later of people who have done this one and other ones. And it's like, I don't know what it is about Lake Placid. Everybody's excited. Everybody wants to be there. Everyone's got like that nervous energy in the air and.

Thomas Skelton (03:21)
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Jill Bartholomew (03:42)
It shows, right? Like we've all done other races where like it's a little bit more low key. And I just, I don't know if it's the race organizers, if it's because we're all like a little bit, you know, too high of an elevation or what, but like it just always like that swim start is something else. You were out on the beach. It's a little bit cool. it sure looks like it was gonna just open up while we were standing there.

And then the cannon goes off.

Thomas Skelton (04:11)
Yeah.

You know, one thing they had last year, which was unbelievably cool, was they had a helicopter fly over the lake, you know, during the Star Spangled Banner. And so like, you know, this year I'm like, yeah, it was, I got a really cool video of it. And so I'm sitting there, know, pre-race, I'm looking for it. And I'm like, no, helicopter. Okay. Okay. But it's still like, that definitely added to the epicness of it. And I don't know if it's...

Jill Bartholomew (04:22)
forgot about that.

Thomas Skelton (04:35)
because the course is what it is, because there's a really strong pro field that's there as well, or what, but it really is just, know, the pre-race morning of an Ironman is always special, right? But that one is just, yeah, it's just something extra, like there's some real icing on that cake.

Jill Bartholomew (04:51)
Yeah. And this year I was, so we get like the VIP thing for the family. cause this is the one race that my whole family, like my husband goes to most of them, but, this is the one race where like the kids are there and you know, there is nothing like a 12 hour race for the kids. And by the time the race starts, they've already been up for what? Three hours. that, that morning was no different. It started with.

Mom, why are we up so early? The race doesn't start until seven 30. Why are you, why are you in transition at four? Someday, someday you'll know. But, yeah, I raised this year with foundation and it was interesting because, ⁓ they had to start with the Nirvana folks. So we were like the first age groupers in the water.

Thomas Skelton (05:15)
Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (05:34)
⁓ we're like 30 seconds behind the female pros and like 30 seconds in front of the, you know, fast age group swimmers. And it was, it, it was different because like when the cannon, this one sec, the third cannon goes off, like, wow, that's us. And I got something that I'd never gotten before a picture of us going in the water. I'm like, I've never gotten a picture.

from an Ironman event of me getting in the water. Usually it's like getting out with that, my God, we're done. Look on my face.

Thomas Skelton (06:07)
Climbing

out looking like a wet rat, right? A little bit of...

Jill Bartholomew (06:12)
Yeah, they had us all at the start line with our finger on the watch, you know, waiting for them to tell us, hey, it's time to get in. There was none of that beep, beep, beep, beep going on, which was kind of weird actually, you know, so used to that beep, beep, beep, beep. And then the volunteers being like, go. And this time they're like, was like, boom, get in the water. So that was different. And it was interesting because, you know,

Thomas Skelton (06:16)
Nice.

Jill Bartholomew (06:37)
I'm a reasonably OK swimmer. I think I did like 114 this time around, which was a little bit slower than I was expecting, but not terrible. And that first wave of the age groupers around, the fourth buoy is when they found me. And you just get swum over. But still, how long did it take them to get all the swimmers out? It felt really fast this year.

Thomas Skelton (07:01)
It wasn't, I don't remember it being too bad. I really don't know. mean, pretty much once, once it started, I kind of went and headed off to go get some coffee and some breakfast and try and get a little bit of work done while I had a window there because, know, there's not much to see and, ⁓ you know, basically just, you know, people swimming in a circle in the lake. And so I just kind of tried to take advantage of that window. So I don't know exactly. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (07:22)
Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Two circles actually.

Um, I do love that this one, like, like the first time I did like Placid, you know, the swim 1.2 miles and then a hundred feet across the beach and then 1.2 miles. And the first time I did like Placid, like the lead up, was like, Oh my God, how am going to do that? Cause I, you know, that, that transition from swim to transition run is always tough.

going from like horizontal for 30 minutes to, we're running on our feet again. But I actually really like it because you got a water table.

That to me is huge. And the cable, let's talk about the cable for a second. Yep.

Thomas Skelton (08:04)
Okay, I've got some very, very passionate

thoughts about the cable, but why don't you, yeah, talk about the cable.

Jill Bartholomew (08:09)
Yeah.

Yeah. I have a like, love hate relationship with the cable is like one it's hard to find, especially like, like this week, cause it's just like, know, I know what inner lore is, but it's just a thin, like, I don't know, maybe quarter inch steel cable. That's there to hold up the little basketball size buoys that Mark the swim course. I don't know if it's a

Thomas Skelton (08:16)
Yes.

Jill Bartholomew (08:34)
be around or what, but every time I've been there, it's up. And, you know, if you find it, it's like this, it's like finding a thread in the darkness because yes, you can kind, you can see a distance in that lake. It's very clean. It's very clear. but like, there's no sunlight cause it's like seven in the morning or six 58 or whenever it was.

Thomas Skelton (08:54)
Yeah, it's

I feel like over the years I've heard so I'd heard so many people talk about the cable and you can follow the cable and so you're obviously didn't race last year but definitely you know swim with some buddies a couple times racing and so on this year too. You can't you can't go there and pass up an opportunity to swim in that lake because it is it is just such a great lake right? But we got it. Yeah, we get in and you see the you kind of get up to it you see the cable and you're like

Jill Bartholomew (09:00)
the cable.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

It's perfect. It's like, it's so gorgeous.

Thomas Skelton (09:21)
That's disappointing. Everybody talks, it's like, it's the cable. pull cable and follow the cable. I'm like, not that I'm envisioning the black line of a pool, but I'm envisioning something somewhat substantial. I don't know. I don't really know exactly what I was thinking. But then you see it you're like, it's literally just like a wire cable, like a quarter inch cable that unless you're within an arm's length of it, you probably don't really see it.

Jill Bartholomew (09:24)
I know!

had the same thought last year when I saw the the cable for the first time. And if you look at my swim from last year, it's like you can tell where I went from sighting to, I found the cable. Because then it's like straight, straight, straight, repeat. And it's like this year.

I actually struggled a little bit more to find it than last year because there was some wind and some chopping. was actually, especially on the second loop, the lake was actually fairly choppy. mean, as far as Mirror Lake gets, because Mirror Lake doesn't get all that choppy. I mean, it's small, let's face it, right? But I ran into three boogies.

Thomas Skelton (10:20)
Yeah, you know, and it's it definitely was, think, a slower swim this year for sure, just to put that out, like looking at the times in general. Right. But yeah, just just a couple of minutes on average, right. Depending on I think probably slower swimmers probably lost more time and obviously faster swimmers didn't lose quite as much. That's a standard thing.

Jill Bartholomew (10:26)
It didn't seem that way.

Thank

Yeah, I feel like this

year I heard more about people getting pulled from the swim, where last year I don't remember hearing as much about people not making the swim cut off.

Thomas Skelton (10:47)
Yeah, I don't know for sure. I know I two friends who were doing kayak support and they definitely had a couple people that were hanging on them for a little bit trying to sort out their life's decisions.

Jill Bartholomew (10:57)
Yeah, and

I know one person who actually got pulled out by a kayak. like, like it did happen. And I was wondering, like, you know, last year was a big year. It was an anniversary year. Like, did that attract a more experienced crowd than maybe like an average year does, but you wouldn't think it would be a huge difference.

Thomas Skelton (11:02)
Yeah. It happens.

Yeah, I think the numbers were down a little bit, but I want to say it was maybe, I was looking at it was maybe like 200 participants, not finishers, but starters. think the register.

Jill Bartholomew (11:26)
Yeah,

Scott had mentioned, we bumped into Scott in the VIP area, which is always fun. And you do it enough times and he remembers your name. I'm like, oh, that's cool. Yeah, it says like just under 3,000 total people like that. Still a huge raise.

Thomas Skelton (11:44)
Yeah, I think I want to say it was like 1900 finished or something like that. And don't know how many people actually started. I think it was like 22 or 300 that maybe started. I don't know. I was trying to look at some of the stuff on one of the groups, but yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (11:56)
Yeah,

I think when I looked at it, and it may not, the data may not have all been in, but it seemed like there was about 600 people maybe that didn't finish, which sounds high.

Thomas Skelton (12:05)
Hey, Sorry, this

is totally random, but I just remembered I'm sorry, I'm gonna totally segue us. Not intentionally. you, the kid that was in the VIP tent for like 12 hours or whatever it was, did you read about that?

Jill Bartholomew (12:21)
I did. That was so shocking. I'm like, who decides that they're not going to, well, they're going to bring their kid to this event. They're not going to get a babysitter and then goes in races.

Thomas Skelton (12:23)
So.

So I think there may have been more to that and I have not, saw something that there was that maybe it was that parent was gonna be on a podcast that's coming out at some point this week about it and like all the details aren't there, I don't know. But I just had this, I don't know if you saw like one of the memes going around with like the kid vibe and then like a club and there's like, oh, there's so many, yeah. I want your kids, I figured.

Jill Bartholomew (12:33)
I'm sure there was.

Oh, there's, there's all sorts of stuff going around now, but, but

like my initial reaction was no, it was not my kids. Um, but thank you for asking. Um, yeah, my initial reaction was like, Holy crap. Like, what, what, like what makes you do that? And, and, but then like the other side of me was like, yeah, yeah, I kind of get it.

Thomas Skelton (13:13)
Just hang out here. Here's food, here's bathrooms. Just... Yeah. I don't know.

Jill Bartholomew (13:14)
Yeah, especially at that age. Some kids that age are not that

immature, but at the end of day, they're still kids.

Thomas Skelton (13:23)
Who knows? Who knows? Sorry, sorry, I... Yep.

Jill Bartholomew (13:25)
Yeah. All right. So we did the swim. ⁓

You had a bunch of athletes there, right? You only had one?

Thomas Skelton (13:31)
I only had one athlete racing,

but I had a bunch of friends racing and supporting too. yeah, it was great. First timer. So that's always awesome. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (13:36)
to how they do.

It's ⁓ such

a great first time race, it's also such an intimidating. It was my first race too. it was my first full when I did my first full. And it's like, the lead up is so intimidating because everything on the internet is like, my God, Lake Placid, It's so hard.

Thomas Skelton (13:45)
Yep.

Yeah.

But, you know, like talking to one of my friends who coaches, one of his athletes, we were riding and she was kind of frustrated because people kept asking her like, why are doing like Placid as your first race? And she was like, is this, do we not do this because it's hard, right? Like we don't do this because it's supposed to be easy. We do it because it's supposed to be hard, right? So I don't know. think it's, you know, you do that as your first, so then everything else is probably going to be a PR.

Jill Bartholomew (14:14)
Yeah.

You know, you would think it doesn't always work that way. I'm like, at this point, I feel like I'm sometimes like getting negative PRs.

Thomas Skelton (14:27)
That's not good. That's not what we want.

Jill Bartholomew (14:28)
It's

like, like I PR'd in worse. But now it's like Texas this year I did after like a long string of injuries and rehab and I was totally untrained for Texas, but still at the end of the day, you're like, my God, it's an easier course and I did worse.

Thomas Skelton (14:31)
That's nice.

the phone for me.

Jill Bartholomew (14:44)
But all your friends and athletes made it out of the water.

Thomas Skelton (14:47)
Yeah, I write it. Everybody did great. Absolutely. Everybody that was there supporting us whole had a really great day.

Jill Bartholomew (14:52)
Yeah. I saw you on the run course, but we're not there yet. So, so the bike, I love this bike course. I really do. I don't love the change that they made to it last year with the little covered bridge. I'm like, and I think, you know, transition is great, right? You got to run. It's a long run to from the, the water to transition.

Thomas Skelton (14:57)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (15:15)
You know, you come out, there's the wetsuit strippers, which are very efficient. And, you know, this year I somehow ended up in the sand. So like my whole back, the entire race was covered in sand. was great. you know, getting down in aero bars and I have like the carbon cups and, know, getting down. Well, you have the same ones, right? The, the, similar, similar ones.

Thomas Skelton (15:35)
for like

for like for like a couple days.

Jill Bartholomew (15:40)
Okay. Well, I'm changing

mine out too. So we'll talk about that later. But yeah, anyways, so like, you know, they're like, I have the like carbon fiber U-shaped cups, you know, and that sand like against my arm, the whole race is like, ⁓ it's...

Thomas Skelton (15:44)
We'll talk about that later.

It

didn't get rinsed off and then like downpour or something.

Jill Bartholomew (16:03)
I think it might have eventually, but you're in there and no. I think the climb out of town is underrated. When we talk about how difficult Lake Placid is, I actually think that the hardest part of Lake Placid is the climb to the top of the- ⁓

Thomas Skelton (16:07)
⁓ yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (16:24)
keen descent.

Thomas Skelton (16:25)
Do you think that's physical or mental?

Jill Bartholomew (16:27)
No, maybe both. It's long. It's not, mean, it's what, Keen Descent is what, right around like 10, 11 miles from the start. Van Hovenberg is at like the six and a half, seven mark. And it's just like, you kind of start going downhill and you're like, weee. And then you're just on the climb out and the initial climb out of town is not bad.

Thomas Skelton (16:28)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (16:54)
But then once you get past the little downhill by the ski slopes, that's when it starts. it's it's pretty, the next like four or five miles is like pretty straight up.

Thomas Skelton (17:05)
And it's not, you know, I mean, I've written the course a couple of times, so, you know, I always feel like it's not, it's not steep. It's just, it keeps going. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (17:12)
long. Yes. And then,

you know, it's one of those where like, you there's like the false summit. Like, you're like, we're almost there. And then shit. No, we're not. And that happens, like three or four times. But anyways, now they made a change to the aid station. So like last year, they had just repaved the biathlon circuit.

Thomas Skelton (17:24)
Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (17:36)
down at Mt. Van Hovenberg. And that was kind of neat riding on the biathlon circuit. And they had the A station set up like right on it. But I remember last year in the back of my head being like, don't fall because you could see like the oil beaded up still on the pavement that was less than one day old, because they had just paved it the day before. ⁓ But yeah, no, like, you know, got up to Keen, I love Keen Descent. It's so much fun.

Thomas Skelton (17:55)
Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

Jill Bartholomew (18:03)
And I think if

you talk to 10 people, get 10 different reactions to it.

Thomas Skelton (18:07)
Yeah, I think that's probably fair.

Jill Bartholomew (18:08)
Now you've written it many times, right?

Thomas Skelton (18:10)
Yeah.

Yep. It's fun. It's a good one. We did get a like mile and a half speed wobble when we were riding the course on Saturday. I really don't know why. I my front tire, it was on my road bike too, which was super weird. And it was only at like 45 miles an hour. But, you know, think tires and 45, which is not fast going down that thing, but.

Jill Bartholomew (18:24)
Yeah.

How fast? 45? Yeah.

Thomas Skelton (18:32)
I know, I got new tires and some sealant, think it's probably some dried sealant and I don't know, whatever. You sometimes a speed wall will start and you just kind of, you got to ride them out and be patient.

Jill Bartholomew (18:43)
Yeah.

Yeah. I was someone, I don't know, I was talking to a bunch of people who are just super nervous about Keen. was their first time. And, you know, the internet lore is like, don't go fast. You're going to fall. And, you know, I'm doing like 60 down in aero the whole way. And I was, I changed my chain ring before Lake Placid. I changed it down one.

Thomas Skelton (18:56)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (19:06)
And going down Keen, was kind of regretting it because I was spinning at like 130 just to get anything to the ground. but then you've got the climb back into Lake Placid, which is where like, ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. I remember this climb. It's unfun, especially the second loop. It's very unfun, second loop. But no, I remember talking to a number of folks who were just super nervous going down it and like Lake Placid, the bike's not that

technical like you need bike handling skills, but it's not like Most of European races where you actually need bike handling skills. It's like, you your goal there is to stay upright Because I at the bottom of the hill if you miss the turn the very worst thing that happens is you keep going straight You know, there it there's no like there's nothing you're gonna run into

Thomas Skelton (19:50)
The thing I always look at is like for certain athletes, right? Like if you're not comfortable descending, because a lot of people don't have options like that, maybe where they train to be able to work on. But if you hammer it versus if you kind of take it conservatively, like maybe it's two, three minutes, right? The difference in your time. And so if that's four to six minutes over the course of the whole bike, like certainly better to finish that bike in one piece, right? But it is also fun to rip down that.

Jill Bartholomew (19:57)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah,

I think in talking to like first timers, my response became like, you go the speed that you're comfortable at. know, whatever speed you're comfortable at is in fact the right speed. For the same reason, you know, it's like you come down a slope and then you have that, it feels like forever, but it's only what, like two and a half miles that section along the river.

Thomas Skelton (20:25)
Yeah, for sure.

Mike, where it comes down a little bit and flattens out a little bit and goes down again for the steeper.

Jill Bartholomew (20:40)
Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of flat

and kind of straight. And you've got the river off to your right. You're in like that little valley. that's actually with riding the disc, that's my least favorite part of the course. Like it's super scenic, but it's the windiest. And then, you know, then you, you have the proper descent with, you know, the re they give us the extra lane, you know, which is, you know, that the, the extra lane usually going the opposite direction.

Thomas Skelton (20:44)
couple of little...

Yeah, for sure.

Jill Bartholomew (21:06)
Uh, but there's a, there's a rumble strip you have to ride over. And like the, the first loop I was, you know, in the right lane, the second leap, the right lane was like super crowded, but there was nobody in the left lane. And so I just like, I'm like, all right, well, we're going to cross the median. We're going to cross the rumble strips at 52 miles an hour and see how that feels. And it turns out the faster you go over them, the less you feel.

Thomas Skelton (21:26)
Yep, absolutely. Definitely. mean, it's kind of one of those things where if you can, yeah, you can hit it with some speed, but if you try and go slow over them, it's going to feel real bad, especially if you're hitting your bolts actively.

Jill Bartholomew (21:34)
Right. And yeah.

And it was like, don't write on it. It's like, cross them. Like just, get it done. ⁓ now, now I've learned that the, but that section, you know, then you kind of go out towards J and is it in J where you hit the covered bridge? It's like right around the, it's like the far point on the course.

Thomas Skelton (21:38)
Yep. Yep.

It's like j or upper

j, somewhere right around in there. And then they have like it's like a speed restricted, like no passing going through there for a little bit, for a minute, isn't it? On that path.

Jill Bartholomew (22:01)
Yeah, going, you remember last year, I think one or two of the pros got ejected from their bike when they hit the covered bridge. I didn't hear about that happening to anyone this year, but it's a heck of a bump getting onto the bridge.

Thomas Skelton (22:13)
I didn't see anything. Yeah,

it's a little bit of a bump for sure. It is kind of neat, know, but, and you know, obviously riding it not on race day, the opportunity to like stop and peek out the side after the bridge too and take some pictures. It's super beautiful. But race day, you're probably a little more focused on the bridge and the other cycles around it.

Jill Bartholomew (22:18)
when you're done.

different.

yeah.

Well, and it's at the bottom on

race days at the bottom of a hill. So like you've got some speed that you need to brush off. And for me, you asked about the rain. for me, excuse me on both loops, I hit the worst of the rain down at that end of the course. Like I said to someone, like on a scale of zero to 10, if zero is like today, not a cloud in the sky, it's beautiful. And 10 is like.

Thomas Skelton (22:47)
Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (22:56)
the worst part of a category six hurricane, we were like a seven.

Thomas Skelton (23:02)
Yeah,

it got pretty heavy out there in some parts for a little bit.

Jill Bartholomew (23:05)
Yeah. And

I heard some people like felt like it was raining pretty hard most of the time. I don't know what their finish times were like for me. Like I was just hitting it for like maybe 10 miles at that kind of far end of the course. And it was like kind of drizzly the rest of the time. I saw a lot of fog out there too, but I got the wing dream helmet and I don't know if you've

played around with that one. I think we might've been talking about it up there. And it's an interesting helmet. So like my first time down Keen when I was doing like a practice run down, it was like floating off my head. It was acting like a sail. And I got that fixed. Turned out it wasn't cranked down enough. Like there's some extra adjustability in the back. Yeah, like.

Thomas Skelton (23:42)
Yes.

inside the helmet where you can kind of turn your head

a little more.

Jill Bartholomew (23:51)
Yeah, it's not just the dial to make it tighter. Like you can move that whole assembly. so, you know, the Rudy folks helped me adjust it a little bit better.

Thomas Skelton (23:59)
Yep, I asked that same and Mike was like, yeah, you can just adjust this piece.

Jill Bartholomew (24:02)
Yeah, I was like, Oh,

I, cause you pull on that. Like it looks like it should adjust, but you pull on it and you're afraid you're going to break it. Um, so it didn't happen to me on the second time, but you know, the visor it's so big under there. It's, know, pouring rain on the outside and it's pouring rain on the inside. And it's cause you know, the, the, the wing has the vent that you can close, right? So you avoid the rain on the inside. Uh, this doesn't have that and it's all foggy.

because apparently I'm a hothead or something, but it was like all foggy on the inside. And I'm sitting there like with my thumb, like I'm trying to wipe the inside clean and it's not helping. And I'm sitting there going down hills with my thumb, like holding my helmet up so I can see like on peak under the visor and maybe not fly off the road. So I thought that was fascinating.

Thomas Skelton (24:51)
Yeah, thought about, so, you I had the previous one also and they had a clear, like a clear lens for it. I don't know if it's on overcast or potentially rainy days, but I've definitely thought about like some anti-fog or Rain-X or like Rain-X on the outside or baby shampoo. Like I use baby shampoo for anti-fog and goggles.

Jill Bartholomew (24:54)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You know,

I never even thought about it. Cause with the wing, I never had this problem. And someone on the course I was talking to afterwards, they're like, yeah, I took my, my any fog from my, my swim goggles and put it on the inside. I'm like, that's genius. I'm like, that's genius. I wish I had thought of that before the race, not after it, but, but yeah, but guess what's now on the inside of that place.

Thomas Skelton (25:22)
Makes so much sense, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I like some baby shampoo, but.

Jill Bartholomew (25:34)
And if yes, yes, but you're right. That's, you know, going back to the cover bridge, that, little section is not that long. It's like, I don't know, maybe a half mile afterwards. It's like no passing, but it's so frustrating too, especially on the second loop when you've got like, you know, maybe some slower people hitting it for the first time and the faster people hitting on the second time. And it's like, please move. Like, please pedal. And like I was stuck.

behind like three people in a row who are not pedaling. I'm like, please pedal. Please. You're on a bike.

Thomas Skelton (26:05)
It's definitely tough. think that was a... It's just anytime there's sections on a course, especially a multi-loop course, right, where there's no passing, that can get frustrating for slower and faster people, right? No doubt.

Jill Bartholomew (26:12)
Yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, because

slower people are like, the person behind me wants to pass me. But no, mean, a lot of courses have like small sections like that. know, Niece had that. Trying to think, did Texas have that? Happy Valley had that as well. I think they got rid of that section on Happy Valley.

Thomas Skelton (26:34)
Yeah, Virginia Blue Ridge had one pretty early on on the bike and there's a lot of other courses.

Jill Bartholomew (26:40)
Yeah. Yeah. But they're relatively short. Although

happy Valley. When I was, I was going to raise it this year and ended up not. And, know, last year, the most frustrating thing there was the speed limit and they got rid of that this year. I'm like, great. Now you can go zooming down, down the mountain where last year they were, you know, if you did that, you got DQ'd. anyways, so. Yeah. The, the bike, we get back to town and it fine. And for me, like when you pass river road on the way back in.

Thomas Skelton (27:04)
Yep.

little outside.

Jill Bartholomew (27:06)
But I think for me on the run by the time I make it to that point, I'm just like, thank God.

Thomas Skelton (27:10)
Hey, let's talk about that,

that portion of the bike course too, once you get past river road. Cause I think it's good. Cause I think, you know, they've got the, whatever they call them, the three bears out there. Right. Like, and I personally like I've written it off. don't think they're big Hills at all climbing back into town. Right. But, but the thing that I think is sneaky, that catches up on you, you know, you get past the three little like steady climbs, right back up, you get to that wrong course where that intersects, but then you have to take that right hand turn.

Jill Bartholomew (27:19)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, they're not. They're long.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Thomas Skelton (27:39)
And I think that hill is probably on the bike course. It's short. It's not terribly steep, but it's just, it's not something that's really top of mind for people, right? Yeah. You're kind like, I got to the top of these and you made that right hand turn. it's like, I got another one. Come on guys. Is that one more little one? ⁓

Jill Bartholomew (27:47)
It's demoralizing.

Yes, yes. Because you think you're done, you're like, I

made it to the top. And then you're like, shit, I'm not done. I have another hill. It is sneaky. it's, remember we did the, you know, it's one of the leads with the TriDot shake out run. And, you know, we kind of ran them up.

Thomas Skelton (28:01)
Yeah, exactly. Sneaky.

Jill Bartholomew (28:16)
the run course there and then we made the left and told them we're like, okay, well now we're on the bike course is like towards the end of the bike course. And the person who is next to me is like, does the hills not end? I thought the top of the three bears was the hills. And they're like, well, they do end eventually. Yeah, yeah, once you cross the finish line. But no, you're right. You you get up that, but then, know, once you cross that, then it's downhill or flat.

Thomas Skelton (28:33)
once you cross the finish line.

Jill Bartholomew (28:42)
until you get in town. And then you've got that right turn by the beach that just goes up like one block. But at that point on the second loop, you're like...

Another hill? Are you serious? But then you come zooming into transition and it's fine. So you are on the run course. ⁓ I do love the bite catchers. And I was on a call the other night for Kona and they're not going to have bite catchers. I'm like, really? That sucks. Yeah, I'm like, that sucks. And they said, well, you know,

Thomas Skelton (28:58)
Yeah, for sure. Definitely. Yes.

That's such a special thing at big races.

Jill Bartholomew (29:18)
with the number of people that are there, it's hard. But it's smaller than Lake Placid It's nice. It's a nice staff. It reduces your transition time. But yeah.

Thomas Skelton (29:25)
It is really cool. You feel special too, right? As an athlete,

I think getting to be at a race where there are bike catchers, it's pretty dope.

Jill Bartholomew (29:32)
Yeah.

Yeah. I think I want to say all the IMs I've done have had bike catchers. Actually, did they have them at Nice? I'm not sure they had them at Nice either. Maybe, maybe not. anyways, now they had to have had them. Anyways. Yeah. That run course is something else. ⁓ you know, I saw you, at least I think I saw you in a tent on the side of the road, face down at like a chiropractor or something.

Thomas Skelton (29:41)
And on that. Yeah.

Yes.

Yes.

Jill Bartholomew (29:56)
I yelled

your name, but I don't think you heard me. I'm like, you're relaxing over there.

Thomas Skelton (30:01)
Yeah. So we stayed there

last year. And they've got like a Airbnb kind of rental below their building and yeah, made a good relationship. And so stayed there again this year and we're staying there again next year. But yeah, he kind of did some work on my foot a little bit. And then he was kind of those of us who were out there cheering. He was kind of looking at everybody over, but it's a great, like it's a great spot right there to support. think I got like a two hour trainer ride just sitting there on my trainer by the road in the rain, yelling at people.

Jill Bartholomew (30:08)
Yeah.

Yeah, I saw your posts

on social media. I was like, leave it to Thomas to get an adjustment and then get on the trainer and sit there like mocking all the people running by.

Thomas Skelton (30:29)
Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Hey, I also

had some good music pumping too. I had a big speaker out there and yeah, I was trying to keep some tunes going, yell at people, cheer and get some good vibes out there. So it was fun, double-dipping, right? Like support and training too.

Jill Bartholomew (30:43)
So.

Yeah.

I tell you by the time it, so we didn't talk about it. So, you know, personally, I did worse this year than I did last year. by, was expecting to do about 45 minutes faster and I was like 30 minutes slower. So that, that was really disappointing. And, know, my swim was faster. My transition times were faster, but, and my first two hours on the bike were faster, but, I bonked hard around.

two, two and a half hours in. And I was around like mile 45 when I'm like, oh my God, this sucks. And I'd never had that in a race so hard. I mean, we've all bunked, right? I'm sure you have. And it's certainly not the first time I have, but I'm like, so early and I'm like, oh man. So nutrition, going back.

Thomas Skelton (31:29)
Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (31:39)
revisiting nutrition, you and I had a very long talk on this, just not enough carbs in the system. And the next like 40 miles were like torture. My legs were on fire, everything was burning and eventually like pulled over at an aid station and like grabbed like a crazy lady, of the like Maurten Solids got yelled at as a volunteer for being too far on the road.

And by too far on the road, mean like I was on the road. Like my feet were not on grass. And I guess they wanted people who were stopped to be on the grass. Like I'd never seen or heard that, but I'm all right, all right, all right. I'm like, I'm just like scarfing this thing down. It was enough. Yeah.

Thomas Skelton (32:21)
I just get some calories. Let me like just let

me dude and you can yell at me all you want.

Jill Bartholomew (32:26)
Well, it is funny because, you know, within minutes of getting that in me, it's like, you can feel it. It's like, oh, I have my power back. And that was the aid station at the top of the first of the three bears, I guess. It's like mile 85 or something like that. And like the rest of it, I kind of recovered, but Dan, um, that run was kind of.

because my legs were trashed on the bike. Because once you get in that, there's no sugars in your body, no glucose left. You're burning whatever you got. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. that run, the first 5K were all right. Not fantastic, but it was like a 20 minute 5K. And you were what, like mile two or something?

Thomas Skelton (33:03)
muscle.

Wish.

Jill Bartholomew (33:18)
Yeah, that's why I like when I saw you, I'm like, I'm like.

Like, man, weren't you supposed to be out here too?

Thomas Skelton (33:22)
I

would have rather been out there suffering with everyone, that's for sure.

Jill Bartholomew (33:27)
Yeah. and like my first, like, so 5k was okay. And like, you know, cause you get to the top, like you were kind of at the top of the hill before you get to like, not quite. She got the fire station, I think is like kind of at the top. And yeah. And then, you know, you have the ski jumps, ski jumps are super scenic. Although that first sleep is pouring still on the run. And then you get out on river run and.

Thomas Skelton (33:40)
Yeah, a little ways down.

Jill Bartholomew (33:52)
The next person who tells me that Riverrun is flat should go run it some more.

Thomas Skelton (33:56)
Yeah, it's, I think people look at it and they think of it like, oh, it's flat and compared to like the rest of the run course. like, I think it's important that people go into like Placid know that like that's not, it's not flat. There's really no, I don't think there's many flat parts of that run course. You're pretty much for the most part, either running up or down.

Jill Bartholomew (34:02)
Okay.

I mean, to put in perspective, you know, I ran the San Francisco marathon a few years ago and you know, I love the San Francisco marathon. It's super scenic, but unsurprisingly San Francisco Hills. The marathon at Lake Placid, the total elevation on it is not that different from the San Francisco marathon. It's sneaky because instead of like staring at a big mountain that you're about to run up, like in San Francisco,

You know, you got like 30 feet here, 20 feet there, 50 feet there, but it adds up. It adds up.

Thomas Skelton (34:47)
Absolutely.

Yep. Especially, especially the little, the little hill coming back up to Main Street or like the Main Street in town. Yeah, it's

Jill Bartholomew (34:54)
the little hill, but the like

quarter or third mile hill, that's like, I don't know what that incline is as a grade, but on the second loop, it might as well have been vertical.

Thomas Skelton (35:05)
Yeah, 100%. It is a surprisingly tough little, I mean, even biking up it, right? Like just close it around town, but it is a sneaky little, it's not, you look at it you're like, oh, it's a hill, it's obvious, right? And then you're running it you're like, that is, yeah, especially on the second loop. It's most famous. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (35:11)
Yep.

Yeah, especially on the second loop. Like

my, hamstring has been improving. firstly, I kind of jogged up it, which is about the most I was willing to put into it. But on the second loop, I've walked it. I'm like, I'm like my, the top of the hamstring was starting to be very annoyed. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to break myself on this hill.

Thomas Skelton (35:32)
Yeah.

It's.

It's definitely one of those hills that like if someone is planning some sort of strategic run walk, like, mean, I pretty much think like I try and walk all the all age stations are in an Ironman, right? Get in what I need and then get back to it. But that's definitely, you know, if somebody's got a run walk strategy, like that's one where it's like, I don't care what your interval is, you're going to try and stick with or anything like that's a hill where it's just like, if that's what your strategy is, like that's you just take the walk on that hill.

Jill Bartholomew (35:51)
Mm.

Yeah, and like

at most you're losing what? Three minutes maybe? And like, you know, you're not gonna run six minute miles going up that hill.

Thomas Skelton (36:16)
You're not going

to run anything close to your pace running on that hill.

Jill Bartholomew (36:19)
Yeah,

like it is a steep no joke grade. But then you get to turn right and do more hills. That climb at, you know, it's funny in training, in the training run, that climb out to the top of the golf course there, you know, one of the, you know, a couple of the guys that were on the run, they're like, this isn't that bad. You know, I heard that this part of the horse course was kind of rough.

Thomas Skelton (36:23)
Yeah, definitely.

Yes.

Jill Bartholomew (36:43)
And I remember looking over to him, because we were doing like nine minute pace or something going up it. And you know, it's not that bad on its own. And I looked, I remember looking over to him like, report back when you're at mile 136.

Thomas Skelton (36:55)
Yeah. Like I'd like to know how many of them, they're like, this isn't that bad. Actually ran like some four hours. Right. Like, yeah. Right. mean, like, you know, that's the thing, like, you know, we think that's not that bad, but you know, 909 pace to the four hour marathon. Right. So like, yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (37:00)
⁓ I'm gonna guess very few if any.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, my goal in a full is a 4 to 420. I haven't done that so far this year. I'm an OK runner. Yeah, yeah, there's still time. I'm working on the run. Last year, the focus was on the swim. I got the swim doing all right. I have now three Ironmans under 115 swims, so I'm good with that.

Thomas Skelton (37:22)
for still time.

Take them. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (37:33)
I'd love 105, but I'm like, for me, is the effort worth it versus gains somewhere else? Anyways, you get to the top of that and you're like, oh, it's all downhill from here. It's like Placid. What goes down must go up. You got that run back into the, you get to the bottom of the hill and then you got to run back up into town.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It does. And I feel like I saw more people walking on the downhill than the uphill. I mean, on the second loop, there was certainly a lot of people walking in all directions. But I think like going uphill, like most people are like, you know, at worst in like walk around or a jog. Yeah, yeah. And then down, but the downhill, that's when that's when it hits. Especially if you go too hard on the uphill.

Thomas Skelton (38:34)
Hey shuffle. Yeah.

Yeah.

Things can things get things get hurt and running down hills. That's for sure.

Jill Bartholomew (38:46)
⁓ yes. yeah, I do like that section out on Mirror Lake Drive going around the lake. Like it's nice. You know, most of the way there's, there's people, the, I was, my first loop was in the rain, but, so the people were kind of in, in shelter mode, but the, the second loop, you know, towards the, about halfway through my second loop, the

the sun, you know, the tide shifted, I guess, and the sun made an appearance, the clouds disappeared for a moment. And the humidity went through the freaking roof. It went from like mid 60s to I don't know what the temperature was, but it felt like 95.

Thomas Skelton (39:23)
Yeah, I I know I went from like had a hoodie and a rain jacket on at one point then I just had a rain jacket then it was like back in a singlet then I was like now I gotta get my hoodie again and the weather there is just it can be very I guess very bipolar

Jill Bartholomew (39:32)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think we went through three and a half seasons on that ride. yeah, but the, ⁓ tell you at Lake Placid though, the longest distance you've ever run is the 300 meters down, you know, from when you enter the village around the oval to the, to the finish line. That point, you're like, I can see the finish line, but it's way over there. You can hear the announcers and.

Thomas Skelton (39:38)
Yeah. Yeah. We just never got one turn.

Jill Bartholomew (40:02)
There wasn't as many spectators there when I went through as I remember last year.

Thomas Skelton (40:06)
Really?

Jill Bartholomew (40:06)
Yeah, I don't know. Maybe everyone went away because the sun came out.

Thomas Skelton (40:10)
I

know. felt like I felt a little bad. So I mean, my foot was hurting pretty bad after standing around all day. And so did not make it down to the finish. I felt a little bad about it. maybe it was just maybe it was just my energy wasn't there to act like there were people missing. Yeah, that's.

Jill Bartholomew (40:14)
Mm-hmm.

That's right. Your energy

is the race energy. Everyone was keying off that. I don't know. I did feel bad. So when I crossed the finish line, immediately, as soon as my heart rate went down, I froze. I was so cold, I was actually shaking. what's with the... Did you see the size of the Mylar blankets they were giving out?

Thomas Skelton (40:46)
No, I did not. Were they small ones?

Jill Bartholomew (40:47)
They were like a third

of the size of a normal like post race Mylar. They were enough that you could tie it around your waist and it might almost go around your waist.

Thomas Skelton (40:58)
Well, they've done a better job with nicer quality t-shirts and backpacks. Maybe they just, what a budget for that. Not Mylar blankets.

Jill Bartholomew (41:03)
Now we know where the money went.

Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I was so cold. And, you know, they give you the T shirt and I immediately put it on hoping, and it got me warmer for like three seconds and then it got soaked through a sweat. And then I just froze. So we went back to the room and we were at the hotel up at the top of the hill. And, you know, the downside of that is you have to go back down the hill. Cause I wanted, had, I had.

Every intent in the world of going back to the finish line and watching like the late finishers. And I was just, I was so cold. just couldn't do it. It was like, you know, that whole day for whatever reason, like if the race felt so much harder this year for me than, than it did last year.

Thomas Skelton (41:37)
Yeah.

And not enough fuel will do that to you.

Jill Bartholomew (41:49)
Yeah, yeah, that didn't help. But we're to fix that for Kona. Yeah, we're going to fix that for Kona. You know, got some new experimental stuff. So the problem, so like race nutrition, right? I feel like we're always talking about race nutrition. And like the problem for me is like usually around like mile 14 on the run, I just get like nausea. And I just, I feel like I

Thomas Skelton (41:51)
Definitely. Yeah, Definitely.

Jill Bartholomew (42:15)
I gotta just like puke. Except at that point, like all you've been eating for 10 hours is gels. There's like even if you were to puke, like there's nothing to come out. And then you end up running a half marathon feeling like you're gonna vomit. And it's like the word to me that that is sucks. Like the last half of the marathon in an Ironman when you feel like that is just like horrible.

Thomas Skelton (42:38)
Yeah, not a pleasant experience, right? I mean, I think that's a tough thing where like, you know, we think everybody thinks so much about training and the race and, you know, specific things they need to do for the race. then, you know, if nutrition goes sideways, you don't actually end up getting the opportunity to express the fitness from the work you've done. And it just ends up becoming a very, very rough back half.

Jill Bartholomew (42:58)
Yeah, it was disappointing for sure. Cause like my fitness level this year is like measurably higher than it was last year at the same time, at the same race. And you know, like, regardless of which tool I look in, they all say the same thing, right? My estimated finish times are going down, you know, especially on the bike. Like my run has actually gotten worse, but my bike has gotten significantly better. My swim has gotten better.

My swim has got more predictable, let's say. But yeah, that nutrition, you know, once it gets off. so we've been experimenting this year, trying to fix that because it doesn't show up in training. Cause no training run is 12 hours long, right? I think the longest one is like eight, right? You know, go do, you know, 112 miles on the bike and then do an hour on the run. Maybe two. You're still not hitting 12 hours.

So that hoping Kona goes better.

Thomas Skelton (43:49)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm sure I will.

Jill Bartholomew (43:52)
I, well, it's going to go how it's going to go.

Thomas Skelton (43:55)
I have

faith in you. It's gonna go. That's all that matters.

Jill Bartholomew (43:57)
it's going to be a race. So what else did you see on course? Being an athlete, being a coach, not racing, but being there is a different perspective.

Thomas Skelton (44:06)
Yeah.

mean, the thing that's so two things we did have to like where we were kind of some medical issues. There's a yeah, was. Yeah, there was a there was a I think there was a guy who's type one diabetic and I think his pump stopped working properly. I don't know if it was all the rain and so like he just crashed out like running like literally as just, you know, just.

Jill Bartholomew (44:13)
Really? I saw an unusual number on there.

Hmm. ⁓ that's hard to predict.

I bet he did.

Thomas Skelton (44:33)
tumbled and went down and we called medical and they came, checked him out. And then, you know, had another lady who was like throwing up in front of the, like on the, you know, on the side of the road. And she, you know, we tried to support her and encourage her. And then, you know, eventually the, you know, had to get medical on her. She was just totally depleted, just laying there cramping up with everything. And the thing that I definitely noticed was, and that we were talking about a lot is the lack of

Jill Bartholomew (44:41)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Skelton (44:55)
anybody carrying any sort of nutrition. I mean, whether it was someone who was on the faster side or, you know, more back of the pack finishers, there were so many people out there. And I'm a big fan of like, I try to just rely on mostly water. And so I've got, you know, cards and like my gel and salt tabs, right? That's what works for me to keep it simple. And then mostly just rely on water at the aid stations. But just the lack of...

Jill Bartholomew (45:09)
Right here.

Yes.

Thomas Skelton (45:18)
people carrying any sort of nutrition or hydration or anything with them was really, really surprising on the run. Absolutely. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (45:25)
specifically. I mean,

I'm guilty of that too. you know, they have, I mean, in an IM, the aid stations are very well stocked. You you do other races and it's a different story, but you know, the aid stations are predictable, plus or minus a little bit, and they're very well stocked. You know, so like,

You know, I train with Martin gels because that's what's on course. I use other brands as well. And I'm like on the run, if I need a gel, like I know I can get it run roughly once every mile. So I don't, I carry one gel with me, which is my like just in case Joe. And I think I started with one gel in my back pocket and finished with three.

Thomas Skelton (46:03)
Yeah, I mean, it's, and you know, I get that, but you know, if you also think about the people that like, if someone's, know, the number of people out there, you know, running, run, walking 12 to 13, 14 minute miles, right? Like if there's an aid station every mile, I mean, that's, granted, it's not a hot race, so that's not a huge issue, but you you've got 12 to 13, 14 minutes for some people between aid stations and.

Jill Bartholomew (46:07)
video.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Thomas Skelton (46:24)
I also think

sometimes, you know, if you get to that aid station and it's like, well, I've got this, you know, 30 gram gel, I got to get it down and get some water, get some ice, get some salt, whatever, and get on. Like it's an easy opportunity to kind of overload your stomach, right? At the aid station, then it gets wonky versus I am a big fan of like just kind of being able to take like a little hit of a gel, know, kind of consistently every couple minutes and more like let it sit in your mouth and kind of...

Jill Bartholomew (46:36)
first year.

Mm-hmm.

Thomas Skelton (46:47)
Absorb right versus kind of just pushing it right into your gut. So I don't know it was surprising

Jill Bartholomew (46:48)
Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, those little handheld packets that you can squeeze like several in. I had one with me at the start. You know, they fit like six gels. I had one of those with me at the start and somewhere between mile one and two, fell out of my pocket. So that, that was disappointing because I've started using it. I like them because like it's less sticky. You don't have to deal with the wrappers and it's there. Like he says there when you need it.

Thomas Skelton (47:08)
Yeah, that gets.

Jill Bartholomew (47:18)
but.

Thomas Skelton (47:18)
Absolutely. I I think that's a, like, like I use like the, like a 90 gram gel pouch. And so kind of just open it, take a couple little, little hits off that as you need, you know, and another one in special needs, right? But I think, yeah, that's at least easy to make sure you've got all of that there kind of with you for sure. Right. There's no excuses.

Jill Bartholomew (47:23)
Mm-hmm.

So yeah, I did see a lot of ambulances, both on the bike and the run. I saw one person who was like down and like appeared like they looked to be unresponsive. It was on my second loop. It was right in front of the ski slopes. There was an ambulance there. And of course, everyone was a little too curious about what was going on. It's like, if you were them, you wouldn't want everybody stopping. So.

Thomas Skelton (48:02)
shirts.

It's always tough. mean, you know, we have, hope everything's going to go well on race day, right? But like, nothing's, nothing's guaranteed. Nothing's promised, right? Like things happen.

Jill Bartholomew (48:11)
Things happen and you

know, even in training, like even if you're doing race Sims and you're doing bricks, like I don't know anybody personally who's doing like a full end to end, you know, I am race on their own. And you never know what happens. I did encounter, I don't know if, I don't remember if they had him last year. The, have you had the, the pickle juice? They had them on course.

Thomas Skelton (48:23)
⁓ Definitely.

Jill Bartholomew (48:33)
And I'm like, ⁓ sure, I'll try one. had, you know, like the like five-hour energy bottles. They were like those same bottles. I'm like, yeah, I'll try one. I think I got half the bottle in my mouth and spit three quarters of it.

Thomas Skelton (48:45)
No,

anything pickle flavored I am staying very, very, very hard away from. No.

Jill Bartholomew (48:50)
it's the opposite. Like give me a jar.

Give me a good solid jar of pickles and it may not last the day. But the pickle juice on its own. I know there's people who swear by it and I like intuitively like I know why it's why it works and why it's good for you. But my God, this saltiness.

Thomas Skelton (48:56)
No way, definitely not.

They used to have

that hot shot product years ago. It was kind of the rage in everywhere for like an anti-cramping product. And I think it was kind of in the same mechanism of action that the like super concentrated, I guess, pickle juice can kind of do. But those are pretty foul tasting as well, but not as bad as the...

Jill Bartholomew (49:27)
Yeah, I

saw at the expo they had like sparkling pickle juice and I'm like, I don't know if that's better or worse.

Thomas Skelton (49:35)
No way.

I'm just gonna stay away from that regardless. If you like pickles, I don't think less of you. ⁓

Jill Bartholomew (49:39)
Yeah.

I mean,

think I've seen, I don't know, I feel like we've seen everything on course and every time you feel that way, you find something new. Like last year, people were carrying around mustard packets. I'm like, I love mustard. I understand why you want to take that as an electrolyte, but damn.

Thomas Skelton (50:01)
I just think

a lot of times those things kind of turn service like opportunities to maybe make up for, you know, some, missed stuff in training, that's a, that's a different story.

Jill Bartholomew (50:07)
Yeah, yeah.

All right. So you have just a couple minutes before you have to jet. What did we miss? What did we forget about?

Thomas Skelton (50:13)
Yeah.

It's a really good question.

Jill Bartholomew (50:18)
And did you have more

fun racing it or watching it?

Thomas Skelton (50:22)
I mean, it's always tough, like it's hard.

Being at a race when you are in shape and fit and healthy and not racing is hard, but I also sometimes have a hard time racing and focusing on myself when I've got a number of athletes racing, because I'm worried about them and that's fine with me, right? I'm good with that. But being on the side of a course when I know that, I my swimming bike's fine, but like I'm not in shape to run a marathon and my foot certainly wouldn't allow that. And so I think...

Jill Bartholomew (50:30)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Thomas Skelton (50:49)
It was kind of nice because it definitely allows me to not have, I mean, was bummed to not get to race, but I wasn't staying in there like, ⁓ I should be racing right now. Right.

Jill Bartholomew (50:56)
Yeah. I

was, I was honestly a bit surprised that you didn't participate and do the swim and bike and then pull yourself.

Thomas Skelton (51:06)
thought about that, but I had a hip issue a couple of years ago after I got hit by a car when I was trying to get back. And I did that at like Chattanooga half, Virginia half. And it was kind of like, I've done that before. am supposed to, I was supposed to race Wisconsin full and I transferred down to the half.

⁓ And we're going out there, but I don't know if my foot will be ready and I don't want to do anything that compromises Spain. So that may be a race where I do swim bike and then DNF to get to be out on the race course because I do love that.

Jill Bartholomew (51:32)
Well, you'll have

that much more healing time between placid and there. these injuries are sometimes just a week or two makes a huge difference.

Thomas Skelton (51:37)
Exactly.

Yeah. And I also think, and this is sorry, not placid related, but I do think like kind of as like as coaches, right? Like we need to, we need to set the example for like what we'd want our athletes to do. And I felt like, you know, the way I handled January, February, March was already something April. I wouldn't want my athletes to do trying to push through, right? I would want them to kind of, Hey, let's back off for a bit, get this taken care of so that we can get healthy sooner. Um, so I already did, you know, what I wouldn't want my athletes to do. And so it's time to make the smart decisions.

Jill Bartholomew (51:59)
You're good.

No, no, I get that. And I've had that same thought recently as well. It's like, am I setting the right example? Am I doing exactly what I'm telling people not to do? And I think I'm good at the moment, but I've definitely not always been there.

Thomas Skelton (52:21)
It's worth it.

Yeah, we're still athletes too. That's what we love. We love athletes. Yep, exactly.

Jill Bartholomew (52:27)
Well, and we're in this sport because we're passionate about it. You know,

there's, I think that's, there's pros and cons to having a coach that races. Right? Pro is they're experienced. The con, yeah, the con is they, they might be better at telling you what to do than like setting a good example. We try, but we're still people.

Thomas Skelton (52:35)
For sure, definitely.

Yeah, and the trenches with you.

But

I have no problem telling somebody, do as I say, not as I do. But I'm gonna try and do what I want you to do. Yeah, yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (52:51)
Yeah.

You can try to do it. Yeah, you can try to do it.

All right. Well, I think there's been great conversation. I hope your foot heals quickly in time for Wisconsin. That's one of the races I'm thinking about doing maybe next year. I'm trying to figure out what 26 looks like.

Thomas Skelton (52:59)
Yeah.

It's a great one. Madison does a great job and having the half on Saturday and the full on Sunday. So you have like a big weekend of it. It's because we've got some people racing the half and a couple of people racing the full. So it's a cool place.

Jill Bartholomew (53:17)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. I

mean, I think that's a great idea. I kind of wish they did more of that. I know like logistically it's really hard, but I think it gets a lot more people engaged and like Chattanooga, almost, you know, I've had the thought I'm like, why don't they, they have the half and they have the full. I'm like, why don't they do it the same weekend? But it is, but both of them are huge races.

Thomas Skelton (53:40)
Or,

if Iron Man is watching, I have for years said, don't we do Augusta on Saturday and Chattanooga Full on Sunday, so people could either race and support on both of those. Iron Man, if you're watching.

Jill Bartholomew (53:54)
Mm-hmm.

I know from the viewer metrics that there's at least a few.

Thomas Skelton (53:58)
Yeah, I mean, there's plenty of people that I know that go race Augusta and then try and haul up to Chapman to be able to see people finish. you know, it could be, it would be really awesome. They're close enough.

Jill Bartholomew (54:03)
yeah.

Yeah, it's what a couple hour drive between them. It's not terrible. All right, well, thank you so much for joining. ⁓ This came out of us having a long chat about my poor nutrition in the race. And we're like, hey, let's do a recap together. ⁓ As always, I love when you're on, we I think have similar viewpoints, but approach it slightly differently, which I think is great.

Thomas Skelton (54:09)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I love it.

Yeah, absolutely. It was good chatting. Talk to you later.

Jill Bartholomew (54:34)
And until next time.

All right, you too.

All right. Thank you. And thank you for listening. If you liked this episode, please like, subscribe. If you're watching it on YouTube, subscribe to that channel and we're streaming everywhere.