Dave's Virtual World

NYC weekend

I wanted to do THIS entry Saturday night before the Marathon but got busy and tired so I’ll write it today (Wednesday) and do my “official” Marathon Memoir tomorrow. I am actually working 2 days this week (brutal) and was busy yesterday (swam , Krav Maga class, dog to and from groomer, unpacked , did laundry, etc. etc. ).

Here are my flight photos, I was the only one on plane wearing mask but I don’t want to catch a cold or Covid.

There was too much glare to get a good shot of Central Park but I saw this one on line last week.

Flight was smooth. Car pickup was a little confusing. There is a new Terminal being built and access to Terminal 5 (JetBlue) affected so I had gotten an email saying to meet car on the roof of the Terminal 7 parking garage (via sky Train) but when almost at the train, the driver called and said he was outside Terminal 5. I guess most limo/car services ignore the rules…. New Yawkers!

The drive into Greenwich Village was less than hour (which is the best one can expect unless midnight, I had even considered using Blade helicopter service but baggage limit 25lbs).

Construction will add 2 more terminals and more parking at JFK. New Terminal 6 will be connected to JetBlue’s current Terminal 5. Maybe they will finally add a premier lounge!

Amazingly my hotel room was ready at 11am! This was great because I had planned to have to leave suitcase there and find lunch and a park to relax in (I had a backpack so didn’t think I could easily do a museum). Instead I relaxed and had coffee and listened to my audiobook for an hour while unpacking.

The Hyatt Union Square has become my choice as only a 10 minute walk to Alex’s apartment

I also was supposed to do an easy 5 mile run and was glad to do it earlier in the day.

I ran around Union Square and then up to 34th street to see where the Ferry dock for Sunday was located.

I told myself before heading out on the run DON’T take any photos of places and things u have seen and photographed many times already in the 4 years Alex has been living in the city and I have been running downtown. But… I had never seen a Seaplane in East River before or the cool giant statue outside the Children’s Hospital.

After the relaxing run, it was a little chilly as in 50s and breezy, I sat in Union Square and searched for a good Ramen place on Yelp.

Dinner in my room with a view of the nice True North bldg at corner of 4th and 13th.

I did some binge watching of Lupin on my iPad. It is a French series about a Master Thief trying to get revenge for a long ago crime his father was falsely jailed for.

I was confused as it said 3 “parts” so I assumed 3 episodes but I guess the translation is off as actually 3 Seasons.. I enjoyed the first season a lot but don’t see how they are going to drag it out much longer without changing up the paradigm.

A solid night of sleep and then another easy 5 mile run. It was cool and crisp Friday morning, I wore gloves but still just shorts and a tech shirt. All the people hustling their kids to school and day care were bundled in winter clothes and all the dogs wearing sweaters.

Didn’t go all the way across to Brooklyn like I usually do …

There were so many tourists on the bridge even at 8am, clearly many Marathon runners with their families. It was a beautiful sunrise over Brooklyn illuminating downtown.

On the way to the bridge I saw a long line of people on the sidewalk, I assumed all waiting to get into work at the federal bldg and security delays. It wasn’t until I ran past the NY Supreme Court bldg and saw all the press that I realized it was all for the Trump trial.

After some Nespresso and an apple for breakfast, Alex came by and we grabbed a cab 🚕 to the race expo (details in next post).

I had arranged to stop by and visit my Uncles at their apartment on upper east side at 2pm (they were heading to Boca for the winter on Saturday). I had thought I would visit the New York Historical society after the expo and then walk across Central Park. But there was a lot to see at the expo and as Alex’s first marathon they didn’t want to miss anything, and then the taxi from the Javits center to the Upper West Side took FOREVER! It was already past 1 when I got there and I thought about calling and pushing back visit but I didn’t want to rush through the museum and also was already a little tired and didn’t want to drag out the day too much.

So I just talk a wonderfully leisurely walk through the park. It was a perfect fall day; Clear crisp air and blue skies and colorful trees.

The Apple Watch was great using the Apple Maps app for directions along the windy paths.

Flags and painted blue line on road marked the Whole Marathon course.

After passing Cleopatra’s needle and the Hamilton statue, walking along the actual marathon course, I took a detour to visit my Uncle’s bench.

As I cut around the North side of the Met I saw the playground that I remember my mom taking me and my sister whenever we visited the Met or Guggenheim as kids. It has a cool “pyramid” like structure that u can climb through and up ladder out the top.

I grabbed a Knish from a cart in front of the Met as a carb lunch!

And …. The WordPress app is getting sluggish…. Bleh! Will see if I can squeeze in rest of non-race stuff but if gets too slow I’ll split into 2 posts.

I had a nice visit for an hour with my Uncles (I forgot to take a photo of them!). Stephen has totally recovered from his case of acquired hemophilia that had him on home hospice and wheelchair bound in the late spring/early summer. I was amazed to see him as physically vigorous and mentally sharp as he had been before the illness. For 87 I would say he and Richard are well above average.

I grabbed the Lexington Ave subway on their block and an Express got me to Union Square in less than 20 minutes for $2.75 rather than a 45 minute expensive cab or Uber ride.

Standing room only at 3:30 pm. It looked like every seat was taken up by a nanny or housekeeper who was off at 3pm and headed back to Brooklyn.

I did takeout again near Union Square. Saw some interesting bldgs

Japanese and more Lupin binge streaming.

Another solid night of sleep but no run on day before race per my plan.

I did an easy 30 minutes on bike in the gym and another 30 minutes of Yoga.

Alex had initially said we would run separately so after my half-Ironman on Labor Day I trained to be able to do a solid sub 4-hour Marathon (but not a PR like my 3:42 in London in 2021). I did all the long runs on the weekends (usually doing a mile or 2 extra) at slow pace but did not do all the other runs.

I went up to the Upper East side by an uncrowded Saturday morning subway to have brunch with my nephew.

Then I dropped off a post-race bag with sweatshirts and a phone charger for Alex and I in Central Park.

The park was very crowded. So much to enjoy!

None of those mega tall condos existed just 10 years ago

I was close to the finish line as I got to the western edge so got a few photos.

And then I got to the NY Historical Society, just one day late 🙂

I have been trying every time I visit NYC to go to one thing I haven’t done before. Last time it was the Morgan Library which was amazing. It is incredible that even having grown up on Long Island and visiting NY dozens of times in the last 40 years since there is still an endless supply of museums, parks and attractions I haven’t been to. Of course there are a ton of people who have lived their whole lives in the area and haven’t been to many as well!

https://www.nyhistory.org/

I heard they removed the Teddy Roosevelt statue outside the Museum of Natural History (how will kids understand “night at the museum” now?) but Abe is still acceptable to almost everyone ….

Lots of Native American stuff , it is the Historical Society of the state, not just the city.

Overwhelming collection of Tiffany lamps, glass, silver over 2 story dedicated display space.

A large gallery had displays about the crafts, industry and history of NYC.

There was an exhibit about the Presidency.

When the New Waldorf-Astoria Hotel opens soon, the clock will return there.

I bought some hand made items from the annual women’s sale.

Great museum. The Tiffany lamps alone are worth a visit!!! I grabbed a cab back to Union Square as no direct subway route.

There is a farmers market in Union Square a few days per week , Saturdays is huge. In addition to usual farm stuff they had fish, distilled liquors, specialty baked goods, and on and on.

There was a nice pro-Ukraine rally going on and I listened for a while and cheered. It is so ANNOYING that so many Republicans are trying to abandon Ukraine to Putin !

Protected: 9 is fine.

Protected: Continuing to catch up…

Protected: I blog, ergo sum.. ?

CassadagaMan 2023

September 2nd I left the house at 5am for the hour drive south to Cassadaga, NY (site of the Lily Dale Spiritualist Assembly).

https://www.lilydaleassembly.org/

It was still dark when I parked at 6am, but the sun rose beautifully over the lake as I collected my registration packet and set up my transition area.

The transition area was on a basketball court just 100 yards from the lake. This was actually my ONLY triathlon this year. I had done a swim-run race in June and a 10km swim in July but I had to skip my sprint triathlon in August as had to attend a funeral that day.

I had done MUCH less biking this year than in past few summers (due to traveling so much and training for the 10KM swim) and knew I would have to take it easy on the bike and just have a good time. I had won my age group (1/4) in 6:07 two years ago, had to cancel when I had Covid last year, and felt I would be happy with 6:30 this year.

After 30 years of competing in triathlons though it is easy and non-stressful to quickly set up my gear.

I had plenty of time to chat with the half dozen other Buffalo Triathlon Club members racing and also some people I met who were in from Ohio or PA. I did a practice swim in the lake for a few minutes to make sure my wetsuit and goggles felt good and then the race director (Mark Wilson) gave the race announcements.

Below is a 2 minute FB video from Mark Wilson!

https://fb.watch/mUcv3dgYnD/?mibextid=hubsqH

I got in the water on time but was totally out of position (I wanted to be at front of group) when the swim started abruptly. I lost a few minutes swimming through a clump of slower swimmers before I got in an open area and had a good view of first buoy. After that the swim was fine. The 4th leg of the rectangle is directly into the sun but I had walked around lake in the morning to site out some big trees as a guide until could see the last buoy and line of rope at end.

I swam straight lines for the 1.2 miles in 34 minutes.

Helpful rope for last few hundred yards into sunrise

A perfectly Sandy beach for entry and exit is a treat compared to many races.

I had a smooth transition to bicycling, I wasn’t in a huge rush and took an extra minute to get the bike computer going and turn on pedal power meter.

I had planned to try to keep my HR under 140 on flat sections (can’t keep it low on uphills) as for my longer flatter training rides I had been zone 2 training with HR < 135 and I figured that would be a pace that would leave me strong for the run.

The last 2 times I did this race (2020,1021) I had been at peak Ironman Training volume (AZ was cancelled in 2020 so I trained for it 2 years in a row). That included doing several 100+ mile rides and doing 2 loops of the CassadagaMan course a few times (versus just one practice loop this year and my longest ride being a flat 60 miles).

I felt comfortable on the bike out of the water but noticed that my HR was 163 after the sprint from lake and transition stress. Even while biking easily at 17-18 mph my HR only came down into the 150s for quite a while. It was only after the first hill up and down that on the flat northward section my HR slipped down to 140 where I kept it on the flats for the rest of the race.

3:48 for the 56 miles (with 3600 feet of climbing).

I felt good after the first loop. I drank 2 bottles of HEED on each loop and some gels so total of about 100oz water and 1300 calories. On the second loop I could tell it was getting hot out as on the steepest hill at mile 15/43 when I slowed down to 5 mph the heat hit me and I noticed huge beads of sweat on my shoulder.

And as ALWAYS on the second loop the wind from the south had picked up and the 5 miles of gradual hills up the highway were a challenge.

Hill example 🙂 I maxed out at 50mph on one of the Downhills.

I am always SO happy to get off bike without having crashed , had a flat, etc.

At mile 40 I saw someone walking his bike in socks and stopped to see if I could help. It was a friend I swim with and he had gotten 3 flats, I offered him a tube but he had very deep rimmed wheels and even my long valves would not have worked. He had a damaged valve extender and actually got help from the SAG vehicle and finished the ride (luckily he was just doing the aquabike because the hour delay would have been REALLY bad if he had to also run).

Again I was in no huge rush at transition and took a salt tablet, had some fluids and … wasted a minute with my watch as it failed to switch from bike to run mode as it had frozen for some reason (I think maybe because my phone was in the transition area and it tried to connect to it while doing too many other things).

My legs and feet felt great as I headed out on the run course. It was sunny and 78 but there was a breeze. On the shaded parts of the run it felt ok but on the big hills with the sun shining down it felt really hot.

The first few miles are flat and then some big downhills with small uphills and then big uphills….

My legs felt great for the first 7 miles. I alternated drinking Heed and water at aid stations and had a few gels as well with caffeine and some Tylenol and salt tabs at mile 8. At the 3 spots ice was available I dumped a cup down the front of my shirt and let it cool my core as it melted.

I passed a few walkers and some slow runners as I was maintaining a steady 10 min mile pace on the flats. After a big downhill and immediate uphill around mile 8 my quads started to complain and the heat slowed me down. After mile 10 I had a cramp in my left hamstring that went away after I walked a few steps and massaged it a little. After that I was more careful with my pace until the last (finally) flat 1.5 miles. I did my usual hard sprint for the last few blocks until my right hamstring said “NO” and I was able to ease back my pace and finished without it cramping. I walked a few blocks past the finish line drinking a COLD bottle of water and letting the legs calm down.

Staged finish photo … 😉 after some water …

Very happy with my results even if over 6:30.

This was possibly the slowest half-Ironman distance race I have done but still finished 1st (of 2) in my age group and 17/33 overall.

I liked this photo so Much I asked my talented photographer child to edit out the other guy…..

They always have delicious post race food and unlimited craft beer but I just went with a Diet Coke this year.

Gorgeous medal and I love the sticker with the hill profiles and as it says “if it doesn’t challenge you, is it even worth it ?!”

Tonia and Mark Wilson! I have never used a coach but I am going to have Mark coach me next year so I can do my best possible at Ironman Florida as I age up to 60-64 group for possibly my last Ironman race. I have done the mountains (Lake Placid) and the desert (Arizona) so I also wanted to do one with an ocean swim.

So of course I signed up for next year at the special discount price! $199 versus the at least $360 for any “branded” Ironman 70.3 race. They added a shorter distance for next year also as the race is soooo hard most people don’t repeat and field has dropped from 112 in 2021 to only 33 masochists this year.

Thanks to Mark Garguilo who was my Sherpa and photographer as well as a race volunteer (he is sidelined by an injury this season but will be back next year when he ages up to the 70-74 age group!).

I got home just before 5pm (exactly 12 hours after leaving). After walking Fifa and unloading my car I settled in and watched the DVR’d Chelsea game (embarrassing 0-1 loss at home).

Sunday morning I spun on my bike for 20 minutes and then did 30 minutes of Yoga and my legs really felt pretty good. I did an hour of gardening and then took Fifa to Buffalo Lab Club at SUNY Buffalo.

Owen is an old friend of FIFAs.

Fifa so exhausted later
she would not get off couch for her nighttime walk!

I was exhausted too and slept well but went for a slow one hour run as it is time to start training for the NYC Marathon (I did it in 2003 and had no plans to repeat it but Alex asked me “if” I would want to run it with them, duh!!!

The moon and Jupiter were out and it was very (88%) humid.

I found this free online training plan and it had an “easy” 13 miler on Cassadaga day so I think I am on schedule.

Alex and I are starting in the 5 hour corral and they want to run alone to be in own zone with their music so I am planning to wear a costume and just run a causal 4ish hour pace (I ran 3:42 in London in 2021).

https://www.runwithtfk.org/Profile/PublicPage/99838

The above link should allow u to donate to the Children‘s charity Alex and I are running for. I donated the full $2600 amount for myself.

https://www.runwithtfk.org/Donate

*****Trigger Alert*****

Unless u are a Triathlete or someone with a morbid interest in triathlons u should stop reading now.

Please do comment, like, subscribe to my blog.

Triathlon on my mind …..

After I volunteered at Lake Placid IM in July and stayed for the World Championships slot process (with now alternating years/sites so this year 2000 women at Kona in October and 2000 men at Nice, France on Sept 10th) I have been following the IM process more. I heard that the Nice bike course is very hard and …..

There is a 1000 foot climb from mile 5 to 20, and then …. A 3500 foot climb from mile 25-35 , so over 6% for 10 miles!

As so few men wanted to accept Nice spots at Lake Placid they actually had 2 of 50 left over after offering one to ANY finisher. So if u finished in 17 hours u could go to World Championship… but if u trained your best for Placid and were that slow I don’t see how one could manage the Nice bike (although the run is totally flat at least). I want to watch the Nice broadcast to see the course and see how many age groupers actually race and finish, it will be a task to watch though as unlike Kona it is way ahead of us and will start at 1am EST. Of course the pros will be cruising up the long 6.7% hill as fast as I go on flat ground, like when watching the Tour de France.

Talking and FB chatting with people in the various triathlon groups I am in I was motivated to spend a little time on line looking at races to see how the Cassadaga 3600 ft bike and 900 ft run elevations compared.

There are only 10 North American IM races left as Mont Treblant and Utah gone now.

Only Canada and Lake Placid have elevation similar to Cassadaga per mile. And 8 races have less total bike climb than Cassadaga. And the run at Cassadaga is more per mile than any IM (by almost twice!).

But don’t be scared! Training on hills for bike and run is like anything else, just need to do smart training and not wasted junk hours.

Here is the bike loop I use at Chestnut Ridge for hill training. Running inside the park has very steep hills and water fountains.

And for a real confidence booster u can ride the Omphalius road segment, just south-east of my loop.

It is harder than any climb at CassadagaMan or Lake Placid IM

Train well my friends …..

36 hours of I ❤️ NYC

Continuing my “NY state of mind” summer travels I drove Alex back to NYC for their senior year of college as August came to an end.

We left Monday morning at 10AM and had sunny weather from Home to Syracuse but soon after turning south on the I81 we hit some heavy rain.

It cleared up by the time we crossed through the Delaware Water Gap into NJ.

The WAZE app had predicted a 6 and half hour drive but there was an accident right before we reached the Holland tunnel that added 30 minutes.

We had to stare at this giant billboard for 10 minutes, I joked with Alex that if they REALLY wanted to maximize business they should advertise LASER robot surgery … 😉 and … all orthopedic surgery is “same day”…

Once we got through the Holland Tunnel it was a quick trip through Tribeca and Soho (cobblestoned street) to Alex’s apartment.

Fine when driving but bad when on a bicycle!

We had listened to two hours of Billy Joel earlier in trip but when we approached NYC I had Alex put on some pure NYC music.

Alex and I took turns making trips up the elevator while the other person watched the car and after I parked we headed to their fav nearby Japanese restaurant.

Back at Alex’s apartment they picked Seinfeld as our entertainment.

Alex generously gave me their bedroom and slept on the fold out couch!

I went for an hour run in the morning but at a very slow pace as it was only 4 days before my half-Ironman race (I had done an easy hour bicycling before our drive down).

Here is link to the Relive movie….

StuyTown has amazing black squirrels as well as regular ones.

After my run I did a long stretching/core session in this amazing outdoor gym.

Have to go to my fav bagel shop! Run by a nice Asian family.

In full Dad mode I cleaned the toilet and tub and used liquid plumber to fix the slow drain.

Alex suggested we go the Guggenheim as they hadn’t been there recently.

I had not heard of either artist with exhibitions but loved both of them.

As a female artist in Venezuela it is not surprising that I had never heard of her.

I was impressed by all her work but also by the exhibits curation. It was very well done with descriptions of each of her stages over her 40 year career followed by the art and also photos of her studio and installations. The Guggenheim is so perfect for this as one slowly walks up the endless ramp without having to go in and out of galleries, backtracking as in other museums.

The other artist is contemporary….

I wish we had been there at night to see the projections on the building itself.

All of the sculpture installations had motion and video projections.

Since we were way up 5th Avenue I suggested we stop by the Conservatory Garden in Central Park as Alex had never seen it.

It is the most formal garden in Central Park. It is at 105th street across from the Museum of the City of NY.

Because it is locked at night it is very clean.

This tiny pond has fish, birds bathing in their own bath and lovely lily pads.

There were many butterflies and bees on the varied flowers.

We looked on Yelp for a nearby lunch place and chose a Tapas restaurant on Lexington in Spanish Harlem. It was closed for some reason but right next door was a tiny Peruvian place.

I had Sea Bass and a Sangria, Alex got duck and rice. It was all excellent and the service so friendly!

I was VERY excited when I ordered a taxi with the CURB app and it told me our vehicle would be a Metris (like my van Scrat). Of course I told the driver and we chatted, his is going strong at 150K miles.

He had space in the back for a wheelchair.

Back at Alex’s we relaxed and watched a movie I picked …..

It screams 1970s! It “predicted” that in 1988 Manhattan becomes a federal prison and takes place in 1997 😉

After the movie (and sober again after that huge Sangria) back to dad mode. Alex had bought a desk a while ago but never assembled….

I went out to dinner with an old friend, a medical school classmate.

I walked with James back to Grand Central and grabbed a subway back.

I slept well and the alarm woke me at 5am. Alex walked me to the parking garage and I was on the road by 6am.

WAZE was spot on this time at 6 and half hours (including gas stops). It took me up the east side and across GW bridge this time.

I was home before 1pm. Walked the dog and had a NAP!

Protected: Sunday Staycation/Close Call.

Cape Vincent: Leaving no corner of NY untouched…

Today is Sunday, July 27th. I got back from Cape Vincent yesterday afternoon and am leaving for NYC (taking Alex back for their senior year of college) early tomorrow. If I can do a blog about my 5 days up there today it will be great! I am settled in a comfy chair with a view of Lake Ontario and guarding bikes and equipment of some Buffalo Triathlon Club (BTC) members doing a casual “practice” race before their first 70.3 (half-Ironman) races coming up. I am doing the CassadagaMan half-IM next weekend but did my bike and run yesterday, so just swam and paddleboarded today.

Very peaceful. Just the sounds of crickets and waves crashing.

I journeyed up to Cape Vincent (on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River just as it exits Lake Ontario) on Tuesday to help out a relative who just had a total knee replacement but whose partner only got a few days off work afterwards.

I did a lot of traveling this summer in Scrat but only left NY for 2 races in Welland, Ontario.

WOW. IT IS NOW 4 hours later and I didn’t write much…… I chatted with each of the 5 or 6 people as they finished biking or running, and saw a cute puppy and then a coyote pup and then …. I took a photo of the last 2 people crossing the finish line (not the slowest but those who had done the most combined biking and running distances). I got home at 1:30, unloaded Scrat, walked the dog and then …. I’ll get to that later… back to Cape Vincent.

It is an easy 3 and a half hour drive from home to Cape Vincent. The Thruway had some summer construction and too many trucks but the Northway (the 81 from Syracuse to Watertown) is much less congested and pleasant.

A quick stop for some groceries in Watertown. When I lived in Albany it was only a 15 minute walk from my apartment to the “ghetto chopper”… I had to go often then as I could only carry so much in one trip 😉

Nice parking/camping spot in the front yard with a St. Lawrence River view.

I grilled Chicken and Zucchini for dinner.

The best part of visiting was that my main job (other than filling and moving ice machine/knee cooler) was taking these beauties out for exercise.

Brie was all about retrieving but Barque loved to just swim back and forth. I think he could have made the crossing to Canada 😉

My relative was a week out from the knee surgery and was already doing stairs with crutches and mobile with a Walker but still had significant pain. Keeping the knee iced and elevated was important and I was happy to do anything to help out.

Another job I took on was learning to use the fancy auto grinding espresso machine! I can make espresso and cafe Americanos but will need more lessons next time on macchiatos and doing the foam flowers 😉

I could have slept inside the house but the weather was perfect for camping so I popped Scrat’s top and slept upstairs.

It was a very restful night with just the sounds of crickets and the river lapping at the rocky shore.

Wednesday was forecast to have no chance of rain so I wanted to get my long bike ride done.

I was planning to just do 2.5 hours but the weather was so perfect and the roads so empty and smooth that I did an extra 45” and got in 53 miles and (happily) 1400 feet of climbing.

I made a little video as the ride was so gorgeous!

Not to be confused with Lyme, CT where the disease is named for…

After the bike I just did a one mile run and then after some stretching I did 30 minutes of leg compression.

The Normatek recovery system is billed as “portable” but there are not any airplane trips where I would have enough extra space in my luggage. It’s battery lasts a long time though and plenty of room in Scrat!

After a shower it was a relaxing afternoon in the house. I read my Kindle and watched some of the “Foundation” series on Apple TV before an early dinner and bedtime in Scrat.

I slept past 6 and got myself set for a swim.

With not much chop I did a great job sighting and swam straight lines.

Really about 3600 yards (almost 2 miles) as Garmin under-measures.

I did a slow transition to running gear and headed out…..

6 miles at moderate pace. My Legs felt heavy after the long bike ride the day before.

There was a very nice waterfront town park/boat launch with a bathroom that had showers and a WATER-FOUNTAIN! The streets that went inland had decent hills but not enough to be ready for CassadagaMan’s VERY hilly run course.

While running I saw a Kingfisher perched on a dock, a Cormorant diving for fish and a Blue Heron. While biking I had seen a Juvenile Bald Eagle and deer and chipmunks.

This area has a lot of historical markers regarding the War of 1812.

Scrat is a great mobile Triathlon training camp… and … a bring my own guest room … he has everything except a bathroom and even a heater for winter camping

Here are some photos of me taking the dogs out for exercise which I did a few times each day.

And a short movie 🙂

The dogs are professionally trained (and also continually training and trialing with owners) for hunting and come back (95% of the time) quickly when called (or 5% of the time given a radio controlled collar shock reminder).

But not good watch dogs… not a peep when I came in at midnight to use the bathroom or in morning to fill water bottles for biking.

Thursday night I went out and got Mexican food (excellent and authentic, place owned by a Hispanic veteran’s family, LOTS of veterans live up there as Fort Drum is right next to Watertown. It was just a 25 minute drive away. There is NO Place though that delivers food to rural Cape Vincent (one pizza place used to). Post-Covid I am so used to food delivery it would be hard to go back to the old days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Drum

It was going to rain overnight so I accepted the bed in the guest room. It was very comfortable and air conditioned but it felt weird to sleep without the nature sounds.

View of the lights on the Canadian wind Turbines at night, they blink light Xmas lights 🙂

It was raining when I woke up Friday morning. Forecast said it would stop by 10Am but it drizzled a while past that so I decided not to bike and just make it a rest day. The sun eventually came out after lunch and I took the dogs on a few romps and got my steps in.

Butterflies and bees were abundant on the wildflowers.

I saw a BIG raptor land in the tree next to the river in front of the house. It spooked and flew away before I got close enough for good shot, especially as the sun was behind it.

Osprey or Juvenile Bald Eagle?

If it had a fish I could tell because only the Osprey holds the fish straight versus sideways …

We were trying to decide where I would go for takeout when miraculously a friend called them to say she was bringing over dinner!

I had finished all the available “Foundation” episodes and watched the premier of “Asohka” on Disney+. I prefer how Netflix and Prime video drop the whole series at once rather than trickling them out once a week as Apple TV and Disney+ do.

It was weird walking downstairs Saturday morning and filling my water bottles and the dogs soooo quiet and asleep in their crates.

This was my last “brick” (a bike-run workout in Tri lingo) before my CassadagaMan race. Knowing the area better I headed to the area with more hills and got a decent amount of climbing in. It was nothing near CassadagaMan which is 3500 feet of climbing in 56 miles but in the past few weeks I did a flattish 4 hour ride and a hill climb of 4000 feet so I am confident I can DO CassadagaMan but curious about how slowly.

In 2020 at the inaugural CassadagaMan only 50 were allowed to race due to Covid restrictions I did 6:13 and 2021 6:07 , had Covid in 2022 🙁 I’ll be happy with 6:15 this year.

I only took one photo on bike and one on run to add to my Strava posts.

After a last walk out back with the dogs I drove home, got back around 4pm.

Alex and Fifa had taken good care of each other but were to glad to have me back home 🙂

LP 2023 days 5+6

After going to sleep so late (1AM is very late for me) I would have slept way past my normal 5AM wake time if I hadn’t set my alarm for 5:30.

I wanted to collect the tents (2, as I had also brought the Love and Sprockets bike shop tent with me) and get in a long swim before the 8:30 AM awards ceremony breakfast.

Mirror Lake living up to its name at dawn. The giant IM buoys are gone but there are smaller ones marking the course still.

It was so quiet when I was loading the tents and chairs into the van. Just the sounds of birds, so different from the bustling and cheering the day before. I was the ONLY person in the lake for my first lap of the course, on the second one a few other people had showed up and when I got out there were a dozen or so swimmers and people sipping coffee on the shore. When I did Lake Placid in 2016 I came down to the lake the morning after the race for a relaxing 30 minute swim and stretched on beach.

As I discovered (and finally remembered from last years 10K, my Garmin watch undermeasures open water swims by about 10%. So really almost a 6000 yard swim. When I only swim a mile or two it doesn’t matter but on longer swims ….

I had to do a long swim because I had a 10KM swim in Welland, Canada I’m just a few weeks and had not been as good at getting in really long practice swims as I had last year. For my 10K swim on Lake George in 2022 I wore my wetsuit and did it in 3:15, the “real” marathon swimmers just wear bathing suits. My goal for this year was to not use a wetsuit but this swim (without one) I got a calf cramp at around 4500 yards and realized that at my slower non-wetsuit pace it wasn’t going to be a good idea this year… maybe next year.

I had a great 10K in Welland….

I finished 10 out of 18 males, most wore wetsuits at this race. I was allowed to stop for a drink every 2.5 KM lap but could not touch the dock (a volunteer handed me the bottle).

My pace with the wetsuit is MUCH faster.

Great article from the NYT about open water swimming. I love so much more than a pool, even when water cold or rough. I have started finding spots to swim on vacation, pond in London, England; Mecox bay in Southhampton, NY; Giardelli cove in SF.

After my swim and getting dressed in the van I drove to the Horse Show grounds where the awards would be.

There was only one small food table for the huge number of people and the line stretched for hundreds of feet, I went back to the van and got myself a bar and some water and a camp chair.

This is just the 2 minute version not the longer one with stories about people overcoming cancer, awful bike injuries, etc.

The World Championship until Covid was for the last 30 years the Kona, Hawaii Ironman in October. The 2000 best athletes from the world got spots there by finishing at top of their age groups in Other Ironman Races. It was usually mostly men as less than 20% of racers in all races were female. After Covid ( when the World Championship was held in Utah, as Hawaii had stricter Covid rules) Ironman decided to have a female race on Thursday and a male one on Saturday. This allowed for many more women to participate but logistics didn’t really work. The town of Kona was overwhelmed by even more visitors than normal and they had a problem when many people didn’t show up to volunteer on Saturday. So….. now for first time this year they are starting a system where the men and women will alternate their WC races between Kona and Nice, France. This year the women are in Kona and there were 100 spots for the 600 women finishers but only 50 spots to Nice for the 1300 men finishers. The Kona spots were all snapped up but the Nice spots were only accepted by 48 men even after they at the end offered spots to ANY male who finished the race. I will be watching the Nice race in September on TV to see the course. I am curious as to how they will get anywhere near 2000 women to sign up for it next year…. One of our Buffalo Triathlon Club women got a Kona Spot, she is in 60-64 and super tough. I got a great video and photo of her going up and accepting and getting her Lei (the Nice guys got cheesy little French flags).

Horse Grounds are the site of the opening ceremonies for the 1980 Winter Olympics.. Miracle on Ice game where USA beat Russia in Hockey

A few weeks before the race someone asked on the BTC Facebook page if anyone could bring a bike back from Placid. I had done this last year for someone also so volunteered.

I must look trustworthy because Scott (he and his wife are moving from Louisiana to Buffalo in September) entrusted me with his ? $7K triathlon bike. It is still sitting quietly in my basement 🙂

I grabbed lunch in town and then headed back to campgrounds where I took a long afternoon nap in Scrat.

I had dinner again at Tail of the Pup, going for the amazing BBQ chicken this time.

I saw this very pretty mushroom in the campground but my iNaturalist app suggested not a good dessert choice 😉

Amazing app, it identifies plants, animals, etc very accurately.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/inaturalist/id421397028

I went to bed very early and still slept later than usual ….

The morning was gorgeous and I went for a long run (should have brought a water bottle but it was cool enough that I didn’t completely wilt)

Mostly roads but some gravel and dirt trails.

While running (and then for drive home) I listened to Wayward Pines.

It is a thriller/sci-fi/horror book that was made into a series and I have since read the other 2 books of the trilogy. I would say 4/5 stars if your genre.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2618986/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

After a long stretching session and some breakfast and a shower I said goodbye to my excellent campsite (and at $18 a night quite the bargain).

Waze was pretty accurate. It took me a little over 5 and a half hours to drive home with one brief gas/pee/stretch break.

I sent Scott a photo from Amherst so he wouldn’t worry about his bikes long journey 🙂

Notice that I gave his bike the safer inside spot 🙂

I did like that the Ironman stickers on bike would make people on highway think I raced this year 😉

Another great vacation in Scrat!

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LP 2023: IM Race Day

As it is more than a month since the race and it was a VERY busy, long day, this post will sadly include a lot less than if I had done it in a more timely (and less rushed) manner.

I woke up very early to get a parking spot in one of the 3 official lots. They all were served by shuttle buses to the transition area.

Very high adrenaline levels on the 5:30 am shuttle!

2000 athletes (2/3 male, 1/3 female) and about $10M worth of bikes …..

The amount of energy and excitement at an Ironman is hard to describe. It is not just the racers but also their families (who understand the huge number of hours and money the athletes spent in preparation).

I got off the Shuttle Bus behind the Olympic Center by 5:30 but taking a few photos and running into some BTC racers made me hurry to get the tent in time for the pro start at 6:20.

Not only was there a perfect view of whole swim from the tent but audio of music and announcers was great.

After a decent number of swimmers were done I grabbed a large coffee and headed to a great spot to cheer on the people starting hike route with a steep downhill. I watched and cheered for an hour or so and then it was time to head to my 10-2 volunteer shift.

My volunteer assignment , holding up pedestrian traffic on sidewalk to allow runners out and in

I pet as many dogs as possible as I missed Fifa.

There was a big shortage of volunteers this year and huge lack of communication from a temporary volunteer coordinator in place of usual woman on maternity leave. It made me glad I had signed up for 3 shifts but we only had 3 people for our sidewalk group when it should have been 4 + a group leader.

The six bikers who was each assigned to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd male or female. They followed the person so that on second loop when they mixed with age groupers they could be kept track of for TV coverage, etc.

And here he is finishing the marathon in around 2:45. His total time was a little over 8 hours!

Our team was supposed to be relieved at 2pm but …. No one showed up and by then the fast age groupers were starting to finish while the slow bikers still just starting so we had to watch for runners leaving and arriving and stop people in crosswalk … luckily the volunteer coordinator did answer my desperate text and 2 more people showed up before 3pm and I left. I grabbed a shuttle bus back to grab a quick nap in Scrat.

The A/C was nice as it had been sunny and 70s standing on the street corner for 4 hours.

It did rain heavily for 20 minutes but then sunny again, wind picked up a little in the afternoon (as it always does).

I “napped” for just 90 minutes, really just rested and listened to music. Then I caught shuttle back to race area and walked to the tent. The runners were going back and forth there and I figured out when to look for a Buffalo athlete based on when they reached 10 or 23 miles.

That’s the best seat for watching the race!

When a BTC racer was not nearby I relaxed in my zero gravity chair with some beer and chips …. When it started to get dark I visited the volunteer tent and had a Subway sub and headed to my next assignment.

Sitting at a table and checking wristbands at the VIP viewing area at finish line was my easiest assignment. I drank diet cokes and was fairly lax as a doorman. Any woman or child who asked to use the VIP porta potties I let in. I also let in the female winner and her coach and a few others with good reasons. Son of a deaf athlete who wanted to be close to see Dad finish, a guy who spent 4 minutes explaining his connection to the lieutenant Governor, etc.

I was also well positioned when I got the tracker alert that a Buffalo athlete was a mile from finish to get a good photo.

It is really inspiring to be at the finish after 11pm as people who have been racing for over 16 hours are cheered by large crowds!

John Wragg, 73 years old and his 271st Ironman Race!

Iron-Crazy? This Couple Has 400 Iron-Distance Finishes Between Them

11:30 pm when I headed to the shuttle bus

It was pretty cool being on the bus with these age group legends and their wives. I was hyped on adrenal and caffeine and had a one hour nap but doubt that in 15 years I will be staying up past midnight, much less racing 140.6 miles!

It was close to 1am by the time I got back to the campground and ready for bed. So many stars without City lights.

Below chart there is link to statistics for the race. 12% of starters did not finish. That is about the norm for the last 5 years but it was 16% last year when about 5 def

https://www.endurance-data.com/en/statistics/884-ironman-lake-placid/