Lake Placid Weekend Recap

Saturday - 7 a.m. flight out of BWI to Albany. From Albany it was a 2 hour drive to Lake Placid.

Spent the afternoon checking out the Ironman expo and strolling around town. For anyone who isn't familiar with an Ironman triathlon it's a grueling 2.4 mile swim, 128 mile bike, and 26.2 run. It's not for the pansies among us. After the expo, we picked up Al so that we could drive the bike course and check into our "kamping kottage". The cottage was surprisingly cute, clean, and had a great view.

Had dinner with Al and her pals before heading back to the cottage to meet up with Nina and Mary - our roomies for the weekend. After figuring out our gameplan for the next day, it was off to bed.

Sunday - Headed out for the Ironman at 5:30 a.m. The pros started their swim at 6:45 while the rest of the age groupers started at 7:00. The site of 2200 athletes in the water was something else. Rain started immediately after the swim start and it continued to POUR the rest of the day (3 inches of rain that day). Despite the crappy weather, both Al and Timra did great. Al was even smiling when we saw her finishing up her 128 bike ride. She ended up finishing in just over 16 hours. SIXTEEN HOURS!! That's a long a$$ time to be doing anything much less swimming, biking, and running in the rain without a real meal or rest. Al-mazing. Congratulations Al on a great race!

Monday - Steve and Mary woke up early to head back into town to meet up with the rest of the tri-addicts so that they could register for the 2009 Lake Placid Ironman. You have to register in-person the day after this particular race to get a spot. It looks like everyone we knew was able to get their slot for next year's race despite the long line.