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It has worked out perfectly somehow that I am finally writing about my day at Ironman Lake Placid 2024 WHILE watching last night’s broadcast of the Olympic Women’s and Men’s Triathlon races. The Men’s race was delayed a day as the Seine had high levels of E. Coli after heavy rains. As the race was at 8 am in Paris it was broadcast at 2 am today. I recorded the races with my DVR and after working all day I am now settled with Fifa on the couch (Icing my broken ankle) and drinking some cold brew coffee. The swim was interesting as it was two laps in the Seine with a strong current helping or hurting depending on direction. The bike has had many crashes as the streets (some have cobblestones) are wet from rain that fell overnight before the race, many of the crashes were on painted areas of roads which are extra slippery when wet.
For anyone who does NOT understand Triathlons:
The Olympic Triathlon Distance is a 0.9-mile swim, a 25-mile bike, and a 6-mile run. In the Olympics or Pro Olympic Distance races, DRAFTING on bikes is LEGAL. (Never in non-pro races as too dangerous).
An Ironman Triathlon is a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike, and a 26.2-mile run. DRAFTING is NOT LEGAL, even for Pros.
If you want to know more about Triathlons give me a call…. 😉
Sunday, July 21: RACE DAY in Lake Placid. I set my alarm for 4:30 and drove into town to get a good parking spot in one of the official race day lots that had an all-day shuttle service to the Olympic Skating Building next to the Transition Area. It was still dark when I got there so I ate my breakfast and checked my emails and the weather on my computer.
The athletes and their families were eager to get up into town but as the race wouldn’t start until 6:25 I didn’t see a need to grab a shuttle bus until almost 6:00. The weather forecast was perfect, a high of only 72 (and it was NOT humid), light winds and NO rain. For the last few years it has hit 80 for the race and been humid and it often rains for part of it, last year just for an hour but it got some of the slower people on the end of their bike section.
I was very glad I checked my email as…. I had entered a lottery to get a charity spot for the 2025 Tokyo Marathon and… YEAH!
My charity donation was to Peace Winds which is a dog welfare charity. They work to ensure NO healthy dogs are euthanized. They also train shelter dogs to become disaster relief dogs and Peace Winds also does disaster relief worldwide.
Tokyo will be my 6th Abbott World Marathon Major so I will get a special T-shirt! (and medal) for having done NY, Boston, Chicago, Berlin, London, and Tokyo. I have always wanted to visit Japan since reaching James Clavell’s Shogun in my teens.
The marathon is in March and my kid Alex is excited to join me on the trip (We’ll have to stay for 2 weeks to make the long flights worthwhile).
It was only a 10-minute shuttle bus ride and they ran continuously every 15-minutes from 4:30am to 1:00am.
If you get a drafting or littering penalty on the bike course you have to serve penalty time in the tent (and the paramilitary guys make sure you DO).
These are the bike “special needs” bags (the run ones are in a different spot). Racers have the option of leaving stuff in these to collect at halfway thru the bike or run courses.
The olympic flame is burning in the foreground of the photo. Finishers run a half loop of the skating oval and pass the flame and then the spectator stands before the finish line. 2500 bikes racked and ready!
I snagged a great spot to watch the swim start. It actually drizzled briefly but then stopped before the swim ended. It stayed overcast for several hours which kept it cool for longer.
The professional men and then 5 minutes later the women dive off the dock but the age groupers shuffle through the arch. It takes over 30-minutes for everyone to get in the water.
My friend Tom was in the first Kayak (with the yellow paddle).
The pro men and women started their second laps before the last age groupers had entered the water. To avoid having to swim through the crowd the pros were allowed to swim inside the buoys as long as at the turns they went around the outside. The video below shows the first men pros finishing the swim while the age groupers get out and then back in the lake to do their second lap.
2 more videos showing the fast age groupers done with swim but many still just starting their second loop.
They had great music throughout, including…Miley!
I was tracking 10 athletes from Buffalo, including the one pro in our Tri Club. Several of the women left way at the end on the swim and I cheered them. The ironman tracker app was great (it gets better every year), I would get an alert as they left water and crossed the timing mat with their ankle chip and then 2 minutes later they ran by me.
While the last swimmers were finishing I walked up to the corner between the Church and Post Office to see the first pro men come by (having already biked 56-miles).
After the sharp turn by the Church it is downhill a block and then uphill between the Skating Oval and the Olympic Center (the special needs bags are on the right at the top of the hill), then the bikers head out for a second loop.
I was working my way to the Volunteer Center in the High School that overlooks the Oval when I saw this cute 3-legged dog. I asked if his name was Tripod or Lucky? Actually he was named Barry! He had just been adopted 2 weeks ago. He was rescued in Ukraine and transported to the US. His name SHOULD be LUCKY!
I always tell people that even if they are there to watch a family member or friend they should sign up for one volunteer shift during the weekend as then you get access to the nice indoor bathrooms at the school and free food and drinks from 5am to Midnight. I was assigned to the Run IN/OUT gate from 10-2 but even the fastest pro wouldn’t be off the bike until 11 so I was sent to monitor a bike section crossing until then. Mostly I just rang my cowbell and yelled “good job”, “looking strong”. The clouds were gone by now so it would get warmer on the second loop of the bike for the age groupers.
When I got to my Run IN/OUT spot I asked one of the Ironman employees with a radio how long until the first pro would be done with bike and he said 15 minutes so I crossed the street to get an iced coffee.
The real Ironman staff had vests, badges and radios. I recognized this guy from when I met him at Ironman 70.3 in Puerto Rico. I had heard someone call him “godfather” then but today noticed that his vest and badge literally have his name as “Godfather”. He is head of transition at the races he works at.
Coolest volunteer gig, bike escort for the top 3 men and women pro runners.
It was nice this year of the Ironman staff to tilt the gates so we had a narrower area to police (especially since it was just me and one other volunteer versus 4 last year). Whenever we saw a runner coming out we would block the pedestrians and then when clear let them through again. Here is the video of the first guy off the bike.
Matthew Marquardt was off the bike 7 minutes ahead of the next pro but ended up in second place. In addition to being one of the top Ironman athletes in the world he is a MEDICAL STUDENT at Ohio State. He has the best time management skills in the world.
I noticed the State Police Sniper and Spotter on top of the high school. We had been told they would be there.
This booth was 50 feet from my volunteer post. The scent of french fries and roasting meats was quite distracting.
Last year their was a HUGE shortage of volunteers and no one showed up to relieve me at 2 but I didn’t mind since I wanted to see the winners come in from their runs. This year I was relieved at 1:45 and relaxed in the shade until my tracker let me know the men’s leader was close. I got a nice video of Trevor finishing strong. He had passed Michael during the second lap of the run. He ran a 2:36 marathon! He was a champion college runner. It was his first Ironman win.
He shattered the LP record by 8 minutes (it WAS 10 degrees cooler than last year, Marquardt also beat last years record).
After volunteering in the hot sun for 5 hours I was ready for some rest time and took the shuttle back to my van.
I relaxed in the A/C with my ankle elevated and iced. Still thinking it was only “sprained”…. in case you didn’t see my previous post with the x-ray I got a week later.
I followed the tracker of my friends and also the Pro women. Lewis broke the women’s record by 15 minutes (even with a bike crash) and the second and third place women also beat the previous record (perfect weather). I tried to nap for a few hours in the van but really just relaxed with my eyes closed and listened to music. I was assigned to do finish line food for athletes from 7:45pm to Midnight but wanted to first grab some dinner at the Volunteer area and visit the BTC tent. But just as I got to the Oval from the shuttle bus I got an alert on my watch that one of the BTC racers was one mile from the finish. I had run into Bill the day before in the Ironman Store Tent and chatted. We had swum together a lot last year with the BTC and this was his first Ironman. When he said that he had no family with him I made sure to give him my phone number and told him to call me if he needed anything before or after the race. Since he had no family I wanted to get a good video of him and when it was a few minutes before his projected finish I started videotaping clips each time a runner came around the loop.
Bill looked fresh and strong at the end! A great time for a first time Ironman, top 25% in his age group! And he got to hear “YOU are an Ironman!” from Mike Reilly who came out of retirement for Lake Placid’s 25th Anniversary.
With my gimpy ankle it didn’t make sense to walk all the way to the BTC tent and then back just to say hi to people for 10 minutes so I went early to my finisher food area. I lucked out as they had plenty of people already handing out food (pizza, french fries, fruit, chips, etc.) and I got assigned to make sure no unauthorized people came in behind the food tent. This placed me RIGHT at the exit from the finish line area where finishers got their metals, warming blankets, shirts and had their photos taken.
Again, the tracker was great as I would get a finished alert for someone and then just had to wait at the gate for 2 or 3 minutes until they got to me. I got some nice photos and kept sharing to the BTC facebook page.
I also got to congradulate EVERY finisher as I stood at the gate. I noticed after a while that the person handing out the Athletic Brewing alcohol free beer had left and took over distribution.
By 10 pm my ankle was really sore (having walked over 30,000 steps according to my watch) and I got permission from my volunteer captain to hobble back to the shuttle bus. There was an excess of volunteers there anyway. Once I gave away all the beer there really wasn’t anything for me to do anyway.
It was a full moon. Very nice for the runners out on the course until midnight.
Good timing! I just saw the end of the Men’s triathlon (won by a brit, with a Frenchman winning bronze). The bike course was dry by the time they raced so no crashes. The woman winner was French so very exciting for the fans. No US triathletes anywhere near the top of either race.
