Lake Placid 2011

Janda and I headed up to Lake Placid this past weekend to have our first mini-vacation of the summer, which of course doubled as triathlon spectating. Janda had a couple of athletes racing, so on Saturday morning, we took off on a 5.5 hour roadtrip.

We headed north to New Hampshire and then west into Vermont. Once we got into Vermont, we were on country highways more so than true highways. That, of course, means that the ride is a little slower and you can enjoy the scenery. The drive is beautiful, right through a national forest, where we stopped for a little lunch picnic.

Janda at our picnic spot

Not too far past our picnic spot, we came to the ferry that would bring us to New York. For some time now, there has been a new bridge under construction, so there is a free ferry to get people across Lake Champlain to New York. We have never had much of a wait and it's actually a fun break during the very long trip. The bridge is almost done, so if we ever come to Lake Placid again, we won't get the free ferry ride.

The view from the car window heading towards the ferry

Just like France- hay bales everywhere

The bridge is almost done

After the ferry, there was only about 2 hours to go, and then before we knew it we could see the Olympic ski jumps. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with the family of one of Janda's athletes, who happen to live in Lake Placid, which is always 100 times better than a hotel. We arrived mid afternoon, Janda had time to get in a mountain bike ride and then we had an really great dinner with everybody. I learned a new way to prepare fish on grill that we'll have to try out next time we get some fresh fish. Of course, we all had an early wake up call to go see/do Ironman, so it was off to bed shortly after dinner.

The next morning Janda and I rode our bikes down to the start to see everybody off. This year's race was a little complicated due to the high water temperature, so we didn't know exactly what to expect coming out of the swim. Adam came out just about right where Janda thought he would, but Kat had a huge issue in the swim- due to some manhandling done by an aggressive competitor. As always with Ironman- things don't go exactly according to plan.

The start

Janda and I headed out onto the bike course to see what would happen next. We managed to see both athletes go by on their way to the second loop. Luckily both Adam and Kat looked awesome as they flew by us on the bike. All we could do now was to wait! We grabbed some lunch from town and headed out onto the run course. We found a nice, shady spot about 3 miles in and settled down to wait. We arrived about a half an hour before the race leader came through, so we had time to snap a few pictures of the ski jumps and have our picnic

Where the Olympic flame was

Ski jumps

Our picnic spot on the course

As we were watching the pros come trickling by, we met the brother of the owner of the property where we were. He was a cool guy and while we waited we helped him do a little brush removal. It was the least we could do since he was being so nice about us picnic-ing on his front lawn. We met his older brother a few minutes later and watched the race with them for a while. Then they went back to the house to get out of the sun.

As we were waiting the brothers came back over to us and dangled a medal in front of me. I took it and looked at it in disbelief. I showed it to Janda who also couldn't believe what he saw. At first, before I saw it up close, I thought that it was a finisher's medal. Then when I saw it I thought that it was a fake medal, but it was pretty heavy for its size. It was an Olympic gold medal in rowing from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics! The guy said to Janda, "Here, hold onto this for a while and show it to your athletes for inspiration." So that's was Janda did. Pretty cool!

A real Olympic gold medal

After we saw Adam and Kat go by, we headed back to the finish line, which was quite a ride given all the road closures. We finally got there about 2 minutes before Adam finished. Then we linked up with two of Janda's athletes who were spectating and waited with them. Kat came through not too long thereafter, in a PR time no less!

Ironman days are long days, so we hit the sack not too long after the finish and got up early-ish the next morning to head home. Even though it's the same amount of time, the ride home always seems long! We got home around 3 and had the rest of the afternoon and evening to relax after the long weekend.

Gloucester Fisherman Triathlon

Despite a rainy start to the day (just long enough to get everyone and everything wet!) the Gloucester Fisherman Triathlon was a huge success this past weekend. Everyone had a great time and a lot of money was raised for the GHS athletics via the GFAA.

Waiting for the swim start


Swimmers heading to Pavilion Beach


Ethan Brown on the bike


Karen Smyers on the bike


Former World Champion Karen Smyers after her win


Crowds at the finish line


Spectators watching the runners head out for loop 2


Janda giving a speech


The women's podium


The men's podium

Gloucester Tri Interview

Clearwater 2009

The sandcastle logo

Second weekend in November, must be time for our annual trip to Florida for the 70.3 World Championships. For the past four years this race has been our last dose of summer before the holiday season and winter arrive. Like last year, Janda ended his season early, so he and I really had a chance to enjoy Florida without the usual race stress. Although there was other stress! As were were heading down Route 1 Janda realized that he had forgotten his wallet and license in the car. Our car was parked at Crystal's parents' house in Beverly, so that made it even more challenging! Luckily we had both just gotten new passports, so my mom ran over and got his and then Lisa's boyfriend brought it to the airport. Of course it was rush hour and traffic was starting to get backed up, so we got the passport just in time. We made it through and onto the plane and a few short hours later we were on Clearwater Beach, checking into our hotel.

Our hotel, right on the beach

The next day we met up with some athletes and did a little shake-out jog, as well as checking out transition, getting registered, etc... The clouds cleared up between 9 and 10, but the Gulf of Mexico was pretty choppy. Ultimately the decision was made to move the swim to the intercoastal waterway and to scrap the waves in favor of a time trial start.

Choppy water from Hurricane Ida

After Janda took care of his athletes (and their bikes), we headed out for a walk. The past three years there has been a lot of construction and a lot of it is getting finished, so it was interesting to see the changes. Janda assembled most of the group for a team dinner of sorts at a local restaurant. It was pretty cool b/c we got to meet 5 of his athletes for the first time ever! 3 from CA, 1 from VA and 1 from FLA. Of course, everyone was super nice and we had a great time at dinner. Then the athletes headed off to nervously prepare for the morning and we headed back to the hotel to watch a movie.

Hanging out, hiding out food from the aggressive seagulls

No transition by the pier this year

At about 6 the next morning we headed down to the transition where we managed to see most of Team Janda. Everyone looked NERVOUS, but ready to go. Finally the race started and we settled into spectating with the wives of the two guys from VA. The swim was crazy. We only saw the run out, but there was just a constant stream of people. Come to find out later that due to the time trial start the entire race got off a half an hour early. After we saw everyone go by, we walked around the transition area and then headed to breakfast. Not the usual place, but boy did we have a filling breakfast. I didn't eat again til dinner! After we wolfed our food down, we headed back to the course to see the bike. We just missed the pro men's peloton, oops, I mean race leaders, pull back into transition. We did catch them on the run out and they were hauling!

We settled in to the usual area to watch the bikes come in and then the runners go by. It was hard to see everyone on the bike. Since everyone took off in about 35 minutes, everyone was even more bunched up than usual, at least that's how it seemed to me. We saw 2 of Janda's guys go by pulling pack of 20-30 riders. One guy had another racer glued to his wheel! It was disappointing. It didn't seem to us spectators on the stretch back to transition that they were even attempting to not draft. The group next to us was videoing the groups and yelling out "Cheaters!" as they sped by. It wasn't pretty.

Tour de Clearwater

Then we crossed the road to cheer on the runners. I love 2 loop courses b/c you have way better opportunities to see your racer(s) and this one is no exception. We saw most everybody 3 times, although a couple people snuck by us when we weren't looking. After we saw the last couple of people go out on the 2nd loop we headed back to the finish line. It was hard to catch up with people after the race- it seemed more crowded than ever, but we did see Crystal and talk to a couple other guys on the phone. We knew that Crystal was 4th in her age-group and 8th amateur overall at the time of her finish, so it was time to wait! We headed back to the hotel and used the computer to figure out how everyone did, etc... The good news was that, as far as Janda knew, everyone PR'd (that's 8 people!) and the great news was that Crystal held her podium finish and was actually the 20th woman overall.

Here's the runners I managed to get pictures of:

Allegra

Dave

Crystal

Joel

At the beach in November!

We went to the beach after finding everyone's splits and talking to everyone. The water was "only" 69 degrees, but it felt awfully warm to me. Those Floridians are spoiled with water temperature. That was probably our high for the summer! We went for a quick swim and then got ready for the banquet. That was the same old-same old, but it wasn't bad. We had dinner, Crystal got her award and then we met up with a few of the other guys and their wives at Shepard's. It was crazy, there was live music, lots of dancing and tons of athletes. We hung out for a while and then went home early b/c we had to leave at 5 the next morning.

Janda and Crystal at the banquet

We, of course, had one last glitch. When we were ready to hit the road the next morning our rental car wouldn't start. After 25 minutes on the phone, a tow truck was on the way and we were waiting out front for a cab. We made it on the plane just in time again! Luckily though, we did make it and we were home mid-afternoon, ready to get back to reality!

Congratulations to everyone who raced and especially on those new PR's.

Post Pumpkinman Crush

Ever since Pumpkinman, Janda and I have been in a crush of busy-ness. We have been wedding planning, working on the house and attending to many other neglected areas of our life now that tri season is over for the year.

We did manage to get in a couple of breaks from all of the planning and working, most notable my favorite fall activity: Apple picking. Other than that it has been a lot of family stuff and go-go-go 24/7.

The orchard

Picking apples

Emma did make a visit with my mom this week to see the new color of our house and she is soooo cute nowadays.

Painting the house

The front of the house, half painted/half primed.

Confused?

Looking up at my mom

A little smile

My dad taught her to scrunch her nose

In Janda's shades

For the next 17 days, it will be wedding, wedding, wedding, plus a little taking care of the house for the guests coming. Wish me luck!

Pumpkinman Triathlon

This weekend felt like summer again...

...but I instead I have to go to work tomorrow. The first couple of weeks back is a bit of a shock to the system!

At the last minute Janda decided to go to the Pumpkinman race in Maine instead of traveling all the way up to Canada. We were rewarded with beautiful weather, a great race and a post-race meal that was outrageously delicious.

Luckily Janda knows the race director (Best race director ever? She gets my vote!), so he was able to get in the race and get a homestay, which is always more comfortable than a hotel. With that in place, we headed up to Maine on Saturday afternoon in the pouring rain! Poor Crystal was trying to follow us, but I imagine it was hard with the downpours. After an unnecessary (my bad!) detour to get gas, we made it to Maine in no time.

We got our stuff settled in with the homestays and headed out to registration and to drive the course. After about 10 U-turns- street signs are very hard to see in Maine apparently- we did the loop of the bike course and headed to dinner. We went to what must be Kat's favorite restaurant, since she has her own special vinegar in the kitchen, and enjoyed a great meal and pre-race nerves with a few other athletes. Back to the homestay and sleeping by 9:30, I think that's some kind of record for us.

I was AWAKE at 4:10 this morning, ready to get up. I waited for Janda to get up since I figured he'd need all the sleep that he could get. After a quick breakfast, we headed out to Spring Hill to get set-up, etc... It was a cool, foggy and damp morning. At 6am I was regretting not bringing more clothing, and I was wearing a jacket and pants! Luckily, just like the announcer called it, the fog cleared only moments before the race began and had cleared out completely as the last waves were finishing up. It actually ended up being hot towards the end of the race.

Cold, gray, rainy day in transition

The foggy pond before the race

Swim start

Janda was hanging onto the back of the pack for loop 1 on the swim. He ran by me, dove back into the water and finished up loop 2 strong.

Running out to loop 2

I could tell that Janda was looking good on the bike and by the start of loop 2 on the bike, he had pulled into 3rd with 2nd in his sights. He was a little bit cranky when he rode by, so I knew he was having a good race!

Turning onto loop 2

Coming into transition

I headed back to transition and saw Janda pull up in 2nd, with 3rd hot on his heels. Janda had a 7 minute gap to the leader, so I knew it would be a tough day out on the run. I got a ride in a golf cart (thanks Kat!) to go see Janda and then before I knew it we were in Jeff's truck, flying around the course, cheering on all the elites- especially Janda of course! After that we headed back to transition to see the finish. Janda had a great run, cutting about four minutes into the leader (Tony DeLogne- who also won the sprint yesterday!!!) and finished in 2nd in 3:57.

On the run around mile 8

In the finish chute

After last week's mishaps, it was great to see Janda have a good experience. And to top it off, one of Janda's athletes, Crystal, won the women's race! He also had another podium finish with Dawn in the Women's 30-34 and 2 4th places: Greg in Men's 30-34 and Maris in Women's 35-39.

Enjoying the turkey dinner

After the race was by far the most amazing part of the day- Thanksgiving Dinner! There was a simply fantastic turkey dinner with all the trimmings as the post-race meal! Perhaps it was fatigue and dehydration, but it was the best turkey dinner I have ever had. One of the reasons that it's fun to stay home and race local is that we get to see everyone that we know. There are always a bunch of the athletes that Janda coaches, plus all of Janda's competitors who we have gotten to know over the years and it's great to see everyone and catch up.

Crystal on top of the podium

Janda on the podium

After the award ceremony, Janda and I packed up and headed out. On the way home we stopped at the outlets (another reason I love it when he races in Maine!) and Janda got the suit for the wedding. I can't believe that we went to Banana Republic and Janda came home with three things and I was empty handed! Next time, I guess...