It is insane to think that Ironman Lake Placid is over. I think that reading this will probably take longer than the whole race itself (just a heads up!) I figured the best way to handle such an event would be to break it up into a couple different parts.
After a couple days of craziness (IE work, cupcake order, packing, last minute race shopping, lack of sleep due to excitement), Kevin and I took the trip up to Lake Placid on Thursday morning to get their early.
Packed and ready to go!
I wanted to get there with plenty of time, and to have a couple days to just “bum around” before the masses of athletes went up. Packet pick-up was composed of signing my life away with waivers, getting weighed (that was a first at a race!) and getting my race number, chip, and cap. We also took a look around to see where “The Miracle on Ice” occured.
The Olympic Oval!
Site of the Miracle on Ice
We walked around the town for a bit before attending an athlete meeting and then headed to Saranac Lake to our lodging for the next couple of days. We stayed in (what used to be) a bed and breakfast that was nice. There was a refrigerator in our room and a coffee maker, so we could prepare breakfast and lunch (which ended up being PB&J sandwiches). It was about 20 minutes from Lake Placid and about 1/3 the price of what I would have had to spend to stay in Lake Placid itself.
For dinner, we headed to this neat small local restaurant called Eat and Meet (thank you, Yelp, for helping us). If you are there, you should check this place out. It has outdoor seating that is actually on a little hill so you can sit on the balcony and look down on the street. There was a little fire pit with a fire, and it is also an old mini-golf course! There was some rain as we ate outside, but the ambiance was awesome. I think we fell asleep by 7:45pm– let me tell you, I cannot remember the last time I was so exhausted.
Friday morning we went back into Lake Placid so I could take a quick swim in Mirror Lake. Ofcourse when we left Saranac Lake I realized I forgot a vital piece of swim equipment: my goggles. So we wasted a bit of time in town before the Athlete Village opened so I could purchase a pair of goggles. I mean, you can never have enough goggles anyway.
Mirror Lake is gorgeous. Compared to what I am used to (which is, swimming in a murky pond) I felt in heaven. It is crisp and feels “fresh.” Over the past couple days I had been concerned that I would overheat in my long-sleeved wetsuit (pre-race jitters probably contributed to it). After much back and forth with whether or not to try a sleeveless wetsuit that a friend of mine had lent, I decided to just go with what I know and use the full-sleeve wetsuit. There were other people who were doing the full loop of the swim, but I kept mine short (about 20 minutes) since I knew I would be swimming enough in a couple of days!
After the swim, Kevin and I headed to a little race info session presented by Endurance Nation. I really wanted to go, since I had never ridden the bike course before, and figured I could use all the help I could get with this race being my first Ironman. It was very informative, and gave Kevin a chance to take a snooze. We even got a free training DVD and some gummy chews.
Kevin picked up just a few extras while I went to the restroom. Haha
In the afternoon, we headed back to Saranac Lake and took a leisure ride around the area, which was gorgeous. The air in the Adirondacks is crisp and the weather was beautiful. No humidity whatsoever. Perfect.
The views were amazing
After the ride I packed all my bags and prepared my bike. They give you five bags: one for AM clothes, one for the bike portion, a bike special needs bag, one for the run portion, and a run special needs bag. I’m pretty sure all IM athletes are just as anal as I and packed/unpacked/repacked all their gear at least two or three times before actually placing everything in the appropriate bags!
My packing list:
Morning Of bag:
- tri-top,
- tri-shorts,
- flip flops,
- long pants,
- sweat shirt,
- body glide,
- wetsuit,
- goggles (x2),
- swim cap,
- timing chip
Bike:
- Helmet,
- gloves,
- long fingered gloves,
- arm warmers,
- bike shorts,
- jersey,
- spare tube/ co2 cartridges (three on the bike),
- socks,
- bike shoes,
- sun glasses,
- sun tan lotion,
- chap stick,
- wet wipes,
- towel
- sunsleeves (which were horrible! cheap does NOT mean better)
Bike special needs:
- rain jacket
- wet wipes
- contact solution
- contacts
- chamois cream
- luna bar
- 2x cliff bars
- extra tube
- extra CO2 cartridges
- advil
Run bag:
- running shorts
- compression calf sleeves
- socks
- running shoes
- visor
- race number
- fuel belt (with tums/salt tabs/ chap stick)
- nutrition waffle
Run Special needs:
- contact solution
- nutrition waffle
- arm warmers
- long sleeve t-shirt
- wetwipes
- gloves
- advil
Nutrition:
- cliff bars (goal: eat one per hour on the bike; I cut them into six pieces so they are easier to eat)
- energy waffles
- bio-charge
- Salt tabs
- O2 Gold
Once that was done, we took a little trip down to Schroon Lake to visit my parents at their campsite and have dinner as well as go through race day arrangements.
Saturday
Saturday morning, we awoke early and headed back to Lake Placid for a hearty breakfast and took a nice walk around Mirror Lake. Then it was time to drop off my bags and bike. Since the weather forecast showed rain overnight, I left out the clothes that I wanted to stay dry overnight. Let me tell you, there are some pretty cleve people who came up with ways to keep their bags dry if it rains (hints for a future IM race?!?) I checked in my bike (and they even take pictures of every bike!) and we headed back out of town. I kind of wanted to get away from all the craziness/ excitement and just relax outside of town.
Perfect day.
Loading up!
I ordered a “side pancake” and this is what I got. To put it in perspective, that is a pint glass of water in the back. It was HUGE. And yes, I ate it all.
My love helping apply my number
Bike is racked! Thanks to the wonderful volunteer who took my photo.
We visited a local Hudson Valley-er (and also triathlete!)at their campsite for a little while for a beverage (well, I had gatorade) and then headed to an early dinner. By early, I mean 4:45pm early. There, we met up with another fellow ex- Hudson Valley-er/ mountain biker/road rider/duathlete/ my soul sister Jen C) for some pre-race de-briefing. It was important that I had my pre-race veggie burger and french fries–a pre-race tradition that is vital! Low and behold, I found out this restaurant did NOT serve french fries (whatttttttt???????). Jen, I love her, spoke up and asked why they do not serve french fries if they serve chips. The waitress was great and offered home fries instead, and Jen and I had some of those instead of french fries. We chatted about everything and then headed back to our lodging early so I could relax and, yet again, go over all the things I would need in the am.
Veggie burger with….home fries
Love this guy
My soul sister 🙂 Traveled all the way up from FL to be here with me! And yes that is a brownie which I just HAD to have.
….To Be Continued
A Rendezvous with Sneakers 