LIVE from Ironman USA at Lake Placid
Saturday afternoon: The athletes meeting has just ended. It's sunny, a little cool and not too humid. Tomorrow promises more of the same, with temps expected at 50 for the swim start (BRRRRRRR), with the humidity dropping throughout the day and an expected high of 70.
Sounds too good to be true. Maybe we'll have an earthquake or something.
There are 800 first timers in the race this year, and the pre-race favorites are Simon Lessing and Heather "Queen of Placid" Fuhr.
You can follow all the action on IronmanLive and, if I get up early enough, right here on the blog for a pre and post race report.
This morning I woke up my wife before heading out to the last practice swim at Mirror Lake.
"It's 6:45" I said.
She wanted to get up early.
She sat up and shouted "WHAT?!?" and looked at me for a second until she realized that it wasn't race day yet. It's my fault actually, since last time I got up a little later than I had planned.
Yesterday my kids ran the Timex IronKids splash 'n Dash. Watching my 9-year old daughter run was amazing. She never stopped smiling and called out support for the older kids passing her by. My 6-year old son tripped during his run, picked himself up and ran even harder all the way to the finish. They had so much energy, determination and enthusiasm that I have to ask if I can borrow some of it for the race tomorrow.
Good Luck to all my fellow athletes and thanks to my family, friends and colleagues for their support these past few months.
...And if you see me out on the course, please give a little shout with something encouraging, maybe "Keep Moving You Fat Bastard" or something like that.
