|
Thursday
My wife and I left Toronto in the morning for the 6-7 hour drive to Lake Placid. Perhaps ominous of bad things to come, I got a speeding ticket on the 401 Highway about an hour from the Canada/US border. I was doing 136 in a 100kph zone. Ouch. But due to my "pleasant demeanor", the cop cut it down to 129kph. This was big. At 136kph my speeding was considered "aggressive driving" with a $240 fine and a loss of 2 points. 129kph got me a $143 fine and no points. Thanks Mr. OPP.
As soon as we arrived in Lake Placid, we checked into our hotel - The Holiday Inn Lake Placid - and then proceeded to meet the other members of Team Gordo doing Ironman USA (Wyanne Chase, Kevin Barry, and Jay Weinshenker - with friends and family) for dinner at The Charcoal Pit. Everybody seemed relaxed which was odd considering this was Jay and Kevin's first IM. I ordered a fish dish which was pretty good (but also a tad pricey). It was also cool to find out that Kevin and his wife are expecting near the same time my wife and I are in January, 2003. It's a small world ...
Friday
Friday was my designated registration and bike course recon day with Wy and her friend Alynn. In the morning I swam one lap of the swim course in around 40min taking it nice and smooth. Registration is very well organized (much like everything else) by the IM-USA crew. The only blip on the radar was when one of the volunteers had to go through my registration info. She quickly noted "you're one of those people I have to have a chat with". It all had to do with my registered occupation of "alien abductee". Although she ribbed me about it, and we traded some witty comments, I couldn't make out the entire time whether she was truly annoyed or not.
The reconnaissance of the bike course with Wy and Alynn was alot of fun. We were laughing the whole way. Wy kept on saying "this doesn't seem that bad" - I told her to just wait. I had thought the same thing 2 years ago and my eyes were opened on the second climb back into Lake Placid.
Saturday
The schedule for Saturday was to (a) do my 10min/20min/10min ritualistic pre-race day triathlon; (b) check my bike; and (c) relax. My buddy (and aspiring ironman triathlete - Ironman USA 2003 - go big D!) David Windrim accompanied me on my mini-triathlon and it was great to have the company. We took it really easy and it was good to just get the blood flowing. After showering, I took my bike to get checked and to go to the athlete's meeting. It was at that time I noticed that I didn't bring my extra spare tubular. Checking the expo, the cheapest tubular tire they had was US$80! I told them I'd take my chance with a flat.
I checked my bike without incident, listened to Charlie Crawford's usual instructions at the athletes meeting and then went back to my hotel to have an early dinner and relax. I got to bed fairly early and fell asleep quickly. Am I too relaxed? Am I not taking this seriously enough?
|
