Ironman Lake Placid 2008

Lake Placid Ironman.
We went straight from RI to NY. Tear down one day, drive one day to Lake Placid NY, then a real day off to do laundry and lay around. Then on Wed it's time to set up again.

Lake Placid is home of the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympics. The locals here do something called the 46er's where they climb all the peaks that are over 4600 ft elevation. A lot like the 14er's of Colorado. I think it's a little tougher in Co though.
Here are some 46's in the distance.

The ski jumps high above the trees.

The weather here is something like Co in the sense that it's chilly in the mornings and hot during the day. It's very green.

On set up day Lawrence, Keith and I took our lunch break out at the bobsled track. They put wheels on the sleds in the summer time and run them on the same track they use in the winter time that is covered by ice. It was expensive but worth it! How many times in your life do you get to ride on an Olympic bobsled course? We were all slightly sore the next day from getting jarred around in the sled.





It rains some days more than others. This morning was a pretty good storm. But at least it didn't sneak up on us as Keith points out.




Les after a rain battle.

We are at an older hotel run by what sounds like germans. Very heavy accents.

There is no internet unless we go over by the woods to sneak it from the neighboring Econo Lodge

or go out to breakfast with our computers.
Bill at breakfast.

Keith goofing off after work. Doing a no handed track stand. That means he is balancing sitting still there. He's been working on teaching me track stands.






Dennis, our service writer for this trip. He did last week's half, remember?





Some one found an old picture of Lawrence and came up with this.

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Here are some friends/customers from the Harrisonburg area. The Whitmans. Bill is doing his thrid Ironman this weekend


This is Les' long time friend Diane. She hung out with us a few minutes one night.

How many mechanics does it take to true a disc wheel?



So race day finally rolled around on Sunday. It started raining just about the time we quit pumping tires in transition as the last of the racers were getting to the lake to swim. It never stopped the rest of the day. We all got wet...the athletes, the mechanics, the drivers the volunteers. There was just no getting away from it. The rain causes more flats because stuff sticks to the tires when it picked up from the road and works it's way though the tire until it pops the tube. We all changed a lot of tires but Lawrence might have broken a record on his 14 miles section of the course at approx 52. On top of all those flats, he was on a section of the race that uses 4 wheelers to patrol because it is so narrow up in there, so he was out in the rain all day! Good thing someone had a rain jacket to lend him.

I had a warm truck to hang in between repairs luckily.


When we got back to the expo we found a pretty big mess. This was the way for the ambulance to get in and out. The pictue of my feet is what we had inside the tent as well.




Other downtime goofiness:




Then finally the end! The trucks are loaded and ready to head back to North Carolina.

Providence, RI 1/2 Ironman

Providence 1/2 Ironman.
This week we are here is Rhode Island. There is a lot of concrete and freeways. Downtown is cool. Out by the airport where we are staying it's a little more run down. Sidewalks are hard to run on with uneven pavement, holes, cracks, and left over sand and gravel from snow season.

RI is a big labor union state. So we were required to use union guys to unload the truck. They really just drove our stuff to the elevator and then to the ball room where we were to set up on th 4th floor.


Being that this is a new and small race there is a smaller tight knit crew. Most evenings all or part of the crew (us and other expo workers) go to dinner.
The first night it was us, Mike and Angie from Zorrel Clothing, and the crew from Timex. That would be Tammy, Devin, Tristen. Also, Scott the guy from Fuelbelt guy was there. Oh, and I almost forgot about Ashley and Amber from WTC. (Our hook ups to the goodies). We ate at Trinity Brewery. A very old place downtown with music downstairs. Good beer but no air conditioning.

Today at the expo we were busier than we were at the race first year race but not overwhelmed. Lawrence spent his lunch break and $20 here.

Then dinner time rolled around again. This time we went to Murphy's Deli and Bar.
Just down the street from Trinity and across the street from the convention center.
Our whole gang went as well as some from last night...

Ashley from WTC

and Angie who works for Mike...

plus Katie from Saris.

After dinner half of us went to the mall next door for TCBY ice cream and the rest went to the Union Station Bar for another beer. Mike had been looking for a wheat beer and Lawrence helped him find one.

Then back at the hotel Lawrence accepted the dare to strip down and run the halls in his new "Mankini" underwear. Luckily, the 20 or so already squealing 12 yr old soccer girls downstairs didin't get to see him!

On Saturday I was elected to go out to T1 (swim to bike transition area) to set up for the day. The athletes have a certain time they have to put their bikes into the transition area and then they can't touch it again until the morning of the race. Now, I'm not sure but I think I get elected to go to transition because it is less busy than back at the expo on those days---but sometimes I wonder. This one was not too bad. I had help. The local shop also had a guy wrenching there. We were slammed for just a short time and steady the rest of the time. The beach transition was a nice area.


So from this point on times kind of get blurry. We got up on Sat and worked all day as I just told you ablove and then when I got back to the expo they were loading the truck. after loading the truck we were to take a load of stuff down to the capital for a finish line set up. By the time the truck got loaded there was a parade going on downtown! So we decided to go get some food. It was just past 11pm. Everything out by the hotel was closed except the Wendy's drive thru.

We tried to order without a car. No dice. Not allowed in RI. Lawrence ended up getting in someone's car, they drove back around through the drive thru and ordered for all of us. Argh!
The next day I noticed this pizza vending machine in the lobby. It had mac and cheese and some others kids food in it. I've never seen one of these before!

Ok this was Sat night. Race day is Sunday folks! Race days are early days for us. We are to be out there when transition opens at 4:15 am. The hotel was an hour away. We still hadn't gotten to the capital to unload the finish line stuff either! So after about and 1 /12 hr lunch/dinner breack we headed back to town to unload the finishline stuff, then the hr down to the beach to transition. The three mechanics and Brian our extra transition pump guy to spend our last 1 1/2 hrs before race day in the truck trying to catch a nap. The only one I know that slept any for sure was Les. He was snoring in about a two seconds after stopping the truck.

Then race day began. Pumping tires at 4:15 in the morning for 1650 athletes.

I have to admit that this one was easier than others we've done. It's a new race so word hasn't really gotten around that we are going to be out there with pumps so a lot of them bring their own. It's a rare thing at most races for each of us not to have a line of 10 people waiting for air. Here are Lawrence and Brian double teaming a guy.

These are some things we saw at the beginning of the race.
The swim.

This is a friend of the nurse, Kirsten, that is taking care of my Dad in FL. She's a pro.

Lena, the owner's wife is our wet suit repair person. Here she is making an emergency wet suit zipper repair. This guy came back after the race and thanked all of us for saving his race.


Dennis, one of our Insideout workers.

This guy took 37 mins to switch from his swim stuff to his bike stuff. Most people take 2-3 mins. Pros can do it in about 10-20 secs.

When we were leaving the race strting area Les noticed this strange moss between sections of pavement. He said it felt reeeel good and someone should make foot beds out of the stuff!

The good thing about this race is that we don't have to go out on the road to do support. The bad part is that it is only a 1/2 so they get done early. We took a two hour break after the start of the race and then headed to the finish line to pack bikes for people when they finish.
Speaking of finishing...here are some of the people I saw coming across the line.

This is one of the first timers. His son ran with him the last 50yds.

The medic ran the last 1/2 mile with this guy pep talking him the whole way.
This woman has Cerebral Palsy. She had tried many times before but could never make the time cut offs. I worked on her bike the day before. This was her first finish.

This was the last person to finish. She was going stong and came in at 9hrs and 30mins. By the time she came in most people had left. So the workers in the area all come up to the fence to cheer for the last 30 or so athletes as the tricle in.

Tjese people are the ones that inspire me!

When it was all said and done and the truck was sealed up after loading, we went to dinner. Cid took us to The Cheese Cake Factory.
Mike and Les

Lena and Cid Left...Brian,Angie and Lawrence right. Nice place and good food.

Next week? Lake Placid , NY.