Ironman Lake Placid Recap #1

I have been absent from Blogging for the last month because something had to give! Being a Busy mommy of 2, work demands and of course training for one of the biggest races was super time consuming.

I am back to document the journey to Ironman!

We arrived the Thursday night before the race. I wanted plenty of time to Get to the venue, scope it out and feel the energy from this small town. If you have never been to Lake Placid, NY, it is worth a trip.  Between the beautiful views of mountains, ample water and swimming, Hiking and biking, there is plenty to do there!

It was when I saw the Ironman Village that I got super excited to be there and enjoy the experience. Nothing gets you going than seeing those flags and arches in the Ironman village announcing that Ironman is in town!

 

Seeing all the people in town going to the village and all the excitement surrounding this area was infectious!

 

We then went to our cabin to get checked in. The cabin was a minimum of 5 night stay, but we figured we would stay for a week since my mother offered to watch the kids! We were in for an awakening when we saw this cabin. In no way would I say go cheap in Lake Placid unless you really do not care! The cabin was nestled by Mt Vanhovenberg and it was not what I pictured it/expected it to be. We made light of the situation as it was supposed to sleep 4. How, I do not know! It was tiny and our bags, bikes and us barely fit into this cabin! It was dusty and full of cob webs. I was ready to leave and go get a hotel near the venue, but I knew the rates would be higher, so we sucked it up and tried to deal with what we had. We knew we wouldn't be in the cabin for long. Or so we hoped.

No TV. The mister was mad he couldn't watch Tour De France

He likes his bike better than me..LOL!

The pictures here look very deceiving. It really wasn't all it was cracked up to be for the money we paid. No refunds either, of course!

We got to the cabin pretty late, so we decided to grab some groceries at the Local Price Chopper and then head back to the cabin and eat. I have some pretty serious intolerance's to food, so I have to be careful even with traveling! When we got to Price Chopper, I had to chuckle! No bananas and No Avocados!!! You knew athletes were in town! Ha ha!

The next day, We decided to make our way to the Athlete village and get checked in. Needless to say we had to walk through all the vendors and I did end up buying some new Newton Gravity 3s! Yes, I have a weakness for running shoes! We also decided to take a Dip in Mirror Lake. I was surprised at how warm it was! 70Degrees! The swim was uneventful and I was feeling confident going into Sundays swim. That sealed the deal. I knew I could Swim it and be fine!

We then watched the Opening Ceremony/band for a bit and met my training partner for Dinner at the Pub.  If you haven't eaten there while in Lake Placid, You should! Its a great atmosphere and good food!

We then went home to get my bags ready for the drop off the next day. This is no easy task to decide what you should put in each bag. Thankfully I had it all bagged away prior to our travel, so all I did was transfer it all to the bags. Made it so much easier than to think about it when I was there!

Saturday- We road the run course for a quick ride to get the legs moving, then I racked Norris, looked around the transition site as to the ins and outs, put my bike and run bags on the rack and was out of there! I didn't want to think about it and wanted to just relax and focus on hydration.
We went back to the cabin, took a nap and then decided to enjoy the town for a bit. We got into town and there were many Fire trucks heading into town! We looked up and saw smoke coming from Main street! We watched the Fire Fighters try to put this fire out for at least a hour. We decided to walk around Mirror lake to get a view of it and then head home. Nothing like watching a fire. Devastation and pure heroism all in one. Very moving.

Sunday- The day I have been training for since November was Finally here! All I worked for and all I sacrificed to get to that starting line was finally coming to fruitation on this day! I said goodbye to My honey and off I went to gather my thoughts, get body marked, Drop off my Special needs bag and get my nutrition together for the bike and run. A friend of ours is apart of Ironman and it was great he was there assisting me and calming me down before the start. I met up with my training partner in transition and we headed to the swim together. It was going to be a great day!!!!