Lake Placid, Day 3

On Monday the plan was for race signup and to get another swim in and run the run course. Got 2/3 of that done, but also solved a BIG future issue, so I am gonna go for a 3/3 with an unfortunate 4th for the day.

Race Signup Debacle
Mandy @ Caratunk Girl got in line at 7:15 and promptly texted me to "get my ass over here" STAT. Thank you Mandy for getting there early! I am SUCH a jerk for showing up late. My bad!!!! She said people were grumpy in line. I sprinted over there with my swim stuff and smoothly buttered my way into line. We actually formed a group of 5 of us and chatted for the next 4 hours!!!! in line. It was cool as these other folks were really nice and we all shared our experiences. One guy has done the race 6 times so it was good to pepper him with Q's.

Apparently the phone lines went down and that is why the long wait, but some officials kept going up and down the line saying you volunteers all have first dibs and DONT WORRY you WILL get registered for 2011. So we all chilled and waited patiently.

We triathletes are the easiest people to talk to. REALLY!

After Mandy and I registered, Kristin @ TheLazyMarathoner walked by. I FINALLY met you Kristin! She rocked out a 13:3o the day before!!!! HOLY CRAP!!! You are a rockstar!!! You HAVE to go visit her blog and see what she dealt with last season with injury and how well she has recovered for this race. Last year @ Ironman Wisconsin, she walked, YES! walked the marathon IN A BOOT! She will repeating that race in 7 weeks injury free this time. Watch out Wisconsin! Somebody is gonna do some serious payback!

Hungry = Botched Swim
So after 4 hours of waiting, my preswim fuel was spent and I was bonking. The swim was out. No worries, I already did it and I sun burned the back of my next while spectating in the sun, so I didn't think the wetsuit rubbing on a sunburn for 35-40 mins was such a good idea.

Ran the Run Course
So I scarfed down some food, took a 2 hour nap, and got out onto the run course around about the same time I expect to hit the run course next year, which is around 3PM. I LOVE this run course. It is mostly flat, but there are a few hills in there to make it honest. Like the swim and bike courses, this run course is a 2 looper, so I did only 13.1 in 1:57:xx. This was a great endurance run. It was hot and sunny, but DRY!!! Oh my god I can't remember the last time I ran in dry weather. I have seriously run in soupy humid weather every day since, well, I can't remember!

At the turn to River road, you go right past the Olympic Ski Jump hill. WOW! The jumps are like 80 stories high!!! Those ski jumpers have some serious Kahunas for going down those things and flying way up in the air. I was getting acrophobia from the ground by just looking up to the top of those things!!! So that was pretty inspiring....

Right before mile 11 you hit the steepest and biggest hill of the course. I can only imagine how hard it must be going up that sucker not only the first time, but also the 2nd time at mile 24. Hats off to all of you Ironman finishers! You make hard look easy!

A-hole in the gas station
I finished the 13.1 and was on a total High. AND I was parched. So I found a gas station right across from the Athlete's Village, and bought 2 bottles of water. Some other attendant in there (who was NO athlete by his physic) did the elbows on the counter/probably hairy buttcrack display-lean-in with this:
Him: So (long pause)
Me: (oh god.....)
Him: Let me get something straight here
Me: Ok?
Him: How long did you wait in line this morning to register?
Me: 4 hours.
Him: So you waited in a line for 4 hours to signup for a race? to spend $600 to go out there to kill yoursel.......
Me: (cuts him off). YUP!!!!
And I walked straight out of there. I didn't give a shit about the stuff he and his neanderthal buddies probably joked about behind my back. The guilt was on them! Don't they realize this week(end) is the biggest revenue producer for that little town and for them?!?!

I was both angry about how naive this guy was, but I was also BEAMING with pride. That is right. The stupid shit that we do and the $$$ that we spend to do exactly that: Go out there and KILL ourselves for what? WHO CARES FOR WHAT!!!! There is that little (but probably BIG) unexplainable thing inside each and everyone of ourselves that makes us "tick." Signing up and doing this race is currently what makes me "tick."

House Rental
I am not going to lie to you. The $600 it costs to do this race is the cheap part of doing the race. Unless you live right in town, get ready to shell out some $$$ for accommodations and food for a week, because that is how long you will want to stay up here, especially if this is your first Ironman. I am turning this thing into a religious experience!

Like I mentioned above, this is the #1 money maker week(end) for this town. They invoke minimum night stays and jack up nightly rates. It's simple economics 101: Supply and demand! I did the math, and for the amount of people that I want to come up to watch, its waaaaaaay cheaper to rent a house for 7 nights than doing hotels close to town for 7 nights, even 4 nights! And then you have to think about the cost of food and convenience of food.

I am not gonna lie again. I am a princess when it comes to eating my diet, especially around a big "A" race. The food here in town is good, but good in terms of wanna shit your pants during a marathon? I need my basic athlete diet to avoid the above. So having a house with a kitchen solves that problem, and brings the cost down and convenience UP.

Geebus, I have been rambling! Back on point! So after the run and run-in with the a-hole, I hit up two rental agencies and reserved a nice big house right off the run and bike course within a mile of town. SCORE! Housing problem solved 364 days in advance! You don't understand the relief of that! And based on size and cost, its gonna be about $50 per person per night WITH space and beds and multiple bathrooms. BAM!

Everybody on Monday was wandering around town wearing their blue Finishers T-Shirts. And! They were doing the Ironman waddle. You could easily tell who did the race the day before by the way they walked. They couldn't bend their knees and had very short strides!

I look forward to that being me wearing the T-shirt and doing the Ironman waddle in a year's time!