Finally, we will be wrapping up the Lake Placid 2024 Camping/Volunteering trip. I keep hearing on the news that there are less than 100 days until the election. That makes me think about the fact that I am doing Ironman Florida a few days before the election. So I have less than 100 days of training to go. When I swam a few days ago I saw this graffiti at the lake.
So, although my ankle IS broken, my spirit is not. I am confident that in a month I will be able to do the Cassdagaman Half-Ironman race. I have a sprint triathlon in 9 days and will only swim and bike that one and slowly walk the 3-mile run portion. A week after that I get a repeat x-ray on my ankle, hopefully, it will look better and I’ll learn when I can start running on the soft rubberized HS soccer fields.
Yesterday I planned to do a 100-mile bike ride. It was very hot but the winds were light and I took a fairly flat route (similar to the Florida course). I did the first few hours faster than I expected and decided that I would do a full six hours even though that would be more than 100 miles.
I biked Northwest to Old Fort Niagara and then East along Lake Ontario past Olcott.
My last water stop to refill my bottles was at the Pendleton Town Park. It did FEEL like 93 and the splash pad looked sooooo refreshing. This was around mile 92 and I had my last gel. I dug through my backpack hoping to find a leftover bit of nutrition but NOTHING. I did fill my water bottles. It would be 10 miles to home from there but as I felt strong and knew I couldn’t run off the bike I decided to go for a full 112 miles (Ironman Distance). I had taken in 2100 calories of bars/gels/fluids and felt strong still. A friend had mentioned aqua jogging when he had an injury and I thought that would be a good idea to try at my next pool swim.
While finishing my ride I realized that I could aqua-jog right off the bike as my neighbor is always telling me to use his pool whenever I want. (so much better to have a neighbor with a pool, than to deal with one myself). So as soon as I was done biking and walking the dog I did 30 minutes of aqua-jogging.
I was hoping to do a long swim today but the weather did not cooperate. I just managed to get FIFA walked before the rains came.
I took advantage of the rainy day to pay bills, do some chores and errands, and watch some Olympics with Fifa.
Monday, July 22nd. After being at Ironman ALL day Sunday and not getting to sleep until 11 pm I could have slept longer but my alarm woke me at 6 am as I wanted to get a short bike ride in before heading to the Awards Ceremony. I only biked for an hour at a casual pace. I headed west towards Saranac Lake and took a new rail to trail paved path that wound into Saranac Lake and then I did an out and back north of Saranac Lake on 86.
I biked very close to a family of four deer dining on a tasty bush, they just slowly walked a few feet away when I got close to them.
The awards ceremony and World Championship Spots allotments (Kona for Men, Nice for Women, opposite of last year) were at the Horse Grounds.
They showed the Ironman Race video while we ate. It is always so inspirational.
They didn’t show this pro-race wrapup video that I saw this week, it is cool AND has the clip of the winning woman crashing her bike (just like ME).
The top 10 men and women pros were announced. Winners are on the left in the photos.
Danielle and Trevor both gave short speeches. They both were very articulate, she especially. They both thanked the volunteers and commented on the difficulty of the course. For both of them, it was their first Ironman win.
Danielle discussed her over-handlebars crash when she went too fast around a well-marked “danger, slow turn” descent at mile 86. She said that her back hurt a little but not badly and her bike was ok except for bent handlebars. She said that on the run she kept thinking about how “mistakes and obstacles” are always opportunities to learn and improve. It made ME feel much better and less self-pitying about MY “sprained ankle” the previous week when I took a downhill turn too quickly and ended up on a steep grassy descent.
Trevor talked about how he only committed to this race a few weeks earlier and only a week before did he find a family (via the LP IM Facebook page) that hosted him for the race.
I will be very excited to see them compete at the Ironman World Championships in the fall. Ironman has great free broadcasts on YouTube or other platforms for all the pro races.
I stayed to watch the “rolldown” of World Championship spots. Each Ironman Race worldwide has a few dozen spots to offer to the top finishers in each age group. For Kona, Hawaii the 3 or 4 per age group get snapped up very quickly. For Nice, France though last year the men did not have much interest in going. It was the same for the women this year and after each group, there were a few untaken and finally, there was an offer “Is there any finisher who wants to go to Nice?” and ….. several spots were not taken. This makes me optimistic that as long as I finish in Florida in November I might get a spot to Nice, France for the 2025 World Championships. I would take this as I won’t ever qualify for Kona unless I am still racing at 75.
My friend Sharon from Buffalo was THIRD in her age group! She qualified for Kona and raced there last year but turned down a Nice spot. I made her hold the flag for a picture for our club’s FB page.
After the morning activities wrapped up, I drove back into town (very easy to find a parking spot as many people had left town already). I went for a relaxing swim in the mostly empty lake. There were a few swimmers, some kayaks, and SUPs.
I swam most of the lake but couldn’t find the gator… Oh, he is in Lake Placid, not Mirror Lake.
After a quick outfit change in the van, I walked over to The Cottage for a perfect lunch with a view.
I took a relaxing afternoon nap and then went to the Volunteer “Banquet” back at the fairgrounds. They showed the race video again and also a volunteer video.
There were awards for the best volunteer areas and long-time volunteers. Evan and Cindy were honored for their 14 years of service. They had a lot of raffle prizes and I didn’t have my number picked but at the end, they asked if any volunteers had done an Ironman and around 20 of us stood and were called up and given prizes. I got a water bottle and a flag!
After 6 sunny perfect days, it started raining as I drove back to my campground. It thoughtfully paused for a while while I loaded my bike back onto the van and got ready for bed. There was some heavy rain overnight. I slept downstairs so it was not an issue.
In the morning it was drizzling, and I slept late as I would be skipping a last bike ride. I got some coffee by this scenic spot and drove the 6 hours back to Buffalo. I went through some brief heavy showers but mostly just drizzle and it cleared before I got home.
I saw some nice Buffalo Butterflies on Fifa’s walk. Then I iced and elevated my ankle and Fifa snuggled.
And as always, please like, comment, share, or subscribe…. even a “meh” is appreciated.
i like the butterfly photos