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We had an awesome time in Lake Placid. The area was SUPERB!

We broke the trip to Lake Placid in 2 segments starting Wednesday evening, to minimize the trip related fatigue to a minimum and allow us to take care of race registration on the Thursday while it would still be quiet.

According to Google, the shortest drive was through Canada using mostly the 401. But we know this route too well from driving to Quebec and it’s boring! So we decided to go through the US, crossing the border near Buffalo and going through Rochester (where we slept) and Syracuse before heading North East in the Adirondack Park. This was a good decision and after entering the park, the drive was just very cool.

This plan made us arrive in Lake Placid early in the afternoon on Thursday. The town has a rich sport related history and you could REALLY feel it. The town was home to the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics.

The people over there were the nicest ever. During our whole stay, we felt welcome everywhere. So many locals wished me luck before the race, I could not count them. In every store, they had the Ironman Lake Placid poster up. They REALLY had what I would call the “Ironman Spirit”. It’s quite something because you have to realize that the Ironman week end takes over the whole area. It would be understandable that some locals would be bothered (and make you feel it) by all the lost tourists blocking circulation, all the bikes on the road making getting around difficult, etc. But everywhere I only saw a positive attitude. I can’t say I’ve seen this at every race I’ve been. It’s really in a class apart.

The town is beautiful, and actually bigger than I was expecting. Countless shops, restaurants, etc. Lots of charm. We also ate very well in this area, which surprised us. I had asked for some pointers from people I know that have done this race in the past and they gave us many helpful tips and restaurants recommendations that we put to use during our stay. Thanks so much! You know who you are… So in short, in case you missed my point, we L-O-V-E-D the place hehe! The atmosphere was unreal.

Back to our daily activities, shortly after arriving in town we parked downtown and headed to race registration. Nothing special here, felt like a lot of 70.3 registration processes. We were glad we could get it done early, as we had virtually no wait at all. I would imagine it was quite busier on the Friday. The Ironman store was also quiet. I tried to not buy too much, knowing that the interesting stuff (labeled “FINISHER” would come out after the race). They had that big M-DOT t-shirt with the names of all participants (including mine!) Also, you do not want to jinx yourself, being my first Ironman attempt.

Back to town, me and Corinne enjoyed a nice meal outside with view on Mirror Lake at the Dancing Bears.

Friday morning, I had a bit of training to do: a swim on the course, a short 30’ bike followed by a short run. Just trying to keep the legs fresh. The swim course is permanently marked on Mirror Lake. It a super nice place to swim and the water is almost always very calm as it is protected by the surrounding trees. Corinne took the occasion to do a small brick workout too! Our hotel was surrounded by hills though, so I think she thought it was a bit tough for a first training session in months.

My parents joined us that afternoon to complete my support crew After another supper on the terrace at Dancing Bears, we headed to the Ironman Athlete Briefing. Sounded like a lot of other race briefings, but I am glad we went. We learned that the water temperature was borderline for wetsuits and that the call would happen on race morning (*gulp*) – That race has never been a non-wetsuit race and nobody expected this to happen. The temperatures were supposed to cool down quite a bit overnight, so nobody got excited yet.

The race director also warned us greatly about the conditions of the road especially in the critical area of the high speed descents to Keene. He was really apologetic and reading between the lines, it sounded quite scary…. I heard several murmurs in the crowd following that bit. Turns out that would not be a problem since once part of the road would be closed to cars on race day, there was plenty of space to find a line with a good surface (for me anyway).

After splitting ways with my parents staying quite a bit outside of town, we got back to the hotel and I started the “dance” of running around in the hotel room trying to get everything organized to the equipment check in planned for Saturday. Ironman requires you to put everything in color coded bags for your transitions and you must check them in 1 day before the race. I had stuff everywhere in the room, 2-3 check lists prepared in the weeks and days leading to the race, etc. I think next time I need to pack my luggage already with the transitions bags prepared to make things smother on-site hehe!

Dennis gave me the trick of double-bagging everything in case it rained overnight (bags are staying outside and they do not close well). That would prove to be a GREAT advice.

Saturday morning, a quick 10’ swim on the course, then a SUPER breakfast at Chair 6 with my parents. Yummy! Then I proceeded with the Bike and Equipment check in to get this out of the way quickly.

As seen above, there was not many bags when I went because I went early. But here is a panoramic picture of the transition area at the end of the day. This is how 2500 bikes looks like haha! Click on it to open a 2400 pixels wide version in a new window. (you  may have to click once more on the image in the new window to see it in full resolution, then use the sliders to pan)

We then started to drive the bike course. The idea was to see what I was in for. I think my mother got a bit impressed: she did not necessarily realized how long a 90 km loop really is hehe! After 15-20 km, she was asking if we were coming up on their hotel yet, which was at the end of the loop right before climbing back to town (70 km into the loop) hehe! The descents to Keene were impressive: long winding slopes with curves in some hairy sections. In Keene, we stopped for lunch. My pulled pork sandwich wa great and the pecan pie very tasty!!!

We kept driving the course up till Whiteface Mountain where we stopped again. We took the cable car to the top for a fantastic view of the area including Lake Placid. Very cool!

Here are 2 panoramic pictures view from the top. Again, click on it to open a 2400 pixel wide version in a new window. Too bad the first one does not make justice to the view: it is a bit squished from the stiching process (the wood fence you see on both ends is actually the same straigth fence…). (you may have to click once more on the image in the new window to see it in full resolution, then use the sliders to pan)

We were back into Lake Placid at the end of the afternoon. The bike course was impressive, but I had a good idea before from riding it on the computrainer in the winter with “Real Course Video” so I was not too scared by the drive.

The challenge was now to find activities to pass time nicely without putting additional stress on my legs, being just hours away from my big race. Can’t go wrong with Ice Cream! Haha! The we reserved 2 small electric boats to navigate on Mirror Lake. We had quite a bit of fun there. My parents got stock on a rock getting too close to shore, so we made quite a bit of fun of them. It was nice to see the swim course from the end.

Quite a relaxing time on the calm lake. But then things got sketchy when our battery pretty much ran out of juice hehe! The return to shore was PAINFULLY slow and we had to hand-paddle a bit to not go over our rental time allocation haha!

Following the adventure, we hit one of the local “Ironman Pasta Buffet” before going back to the hotel for the final race preparation and trying (yes, I said ‘trying’) to sleep before the big dance…

Race Report to follow soon!!!! More than 100 pictures and larger versions in the album below.

Lake Placid 2011

Our friends Tracy & Craig asked if we could take pictures of baby Cadence as she gets through our first year. Perfect opportunity to take the dust off our camera and lighting equipment (not much used since my focus has been on triathlon). So every couple of months, we do a short photo session. Amazing how fast she grows!

It’s been a small challenge to work with a not-always-cooperating baby and 2 dogs looking for attention and always getting in the way at the wrong time haha! But some pictures are coming out pretty good for home pictures.  Tracy and Craig take care of preparing all the props and backgrounds; we deal with lighting and photos.

Cadence at 1 month…

… at 3 months…

… at 6 months …

… at 9 months …

Larger pictures available in the album here.

I’ll break down the Clearwater FL trip in 3 articles. This is the first part.

We arrived in Clearwater with our friends Craig, Tracy and Baby Turner about one week before race day. Despite our attempts at travelling light, between baby stuff and all my racing equipment, it was clear upon landing that the rental car size I had originally reserved would not cut it. So up to the counter we went to upgrade. I was offered a minivan, but I hate minivans and big SUV’s were too expensive. So we settled for a Crown Victoria. That thing has a trunk big enough to hold a few dead bodies and more hehe! Still, we had to keep some luggage with us in the car. Good thing I did not have my bike with me since I used the TriBikeTransport service.

We hit a snag when we got in Clearwater: the keys to the Condo we rented for the week were not where they were supposed to, and the agency is closed on the Sunday. After trying to reach them without success, we wandered around for a couple of hours, starting to wonder where we would camp if we could not reach anybody. Even the emergency number we had did not work. After digging deeper in the paperwork, we found a backup to the emergency backup number (?!?) so we finally managed to reach somebody that would get us the keys we needed.

Things were not looking too good on that first day. Temperature was really cold and the wind was blowing like crazy. The stroller was going away on its own because of the wind! It felt as cold as it was when we left home. Fortunately, things would get better in the following days!

The condo we had was just awesome: view on the water channel behind from the balcony, huge amount of space, nicely furnished with everything we needed to cook meals, wash clothes, etc. Perfect setup! Moreover, it was only a 5-10 minutes walk to downtown Clearwater Beach and Pier60, central point for the upcoming race. Here is a view at night we had from our huge balcony. In the distance, we see the bridge (causeway) that I would have to cross so many times during the race.

Cadence (Baby Turner) quickly got comfortable in the Condo

In our first days, temperature got nicer, in the low 80’s, sunny everyday. In our first couple of days, we walked around and did a beach day. All the beach shower posts in the area had a turtle on it. The sand on the beach was deep white, the finest sand I have ever seen, groomed every morning. It felt really fluffy when walking on it right after being groomed.

Pier60 was one of the local attraction and we went on it. Every evening, they had local artists selling their creations on the pier, but nothing really caught our eye.

During that time, I had a light training schedule to follow, about 1 hour per day with light swims and run sessions (my bike would only show up Thursday). It was nice to be there early on and see the race campus slowly getting built and seeing more and more athletes arriving and training in the area as the week progressed. The Ironman race there is a big show, being the world championship.

When Wednesday came, it was time to register and hit the expo and the Ironman store. I had plans to get a lot of t-shirts and training gear as souvenir of this experience: who knows if I can ever make it back to the Championship! I pushed to get there early, and as a result we were amongst the first visitors

One funny thing. One day in the elevator, we meet this very nice lady that reacted to Craig’s “Ironman Muskoka” shirt and started conversation. It took us a while because we did not recognize each other right off the bat, but it turned out it was Margaret, another athlete from the surroundings of Windsor, and we have the same coach! We saw each other at least once at a training day last winter. They happened to be in the condo unit right beside us. What were the chances?! Margaret is competing in the 60-64 age group. What an inspiration!

Her and her husband were super nice and they invited the whole bunch of us for their “traditional Ironman turkey dinner” which we gladly accepted on Wednesday evening. Dennis Masse, also from Team LPC was in the area to volunteer and see the race during his vacation. We had a very nice evening. Here are both of us near the Ironman Media Lounge.

The area is known for Dolphins. And we saw many of these. Triathletes swimming at the beach actually happened to have Dolphins following them. We actually had a show right at our doorstep, from our balcony, when the “little toot” tour boat came around. 2 dolphins were following them and they started playing right below us. Pretty cool!

On the Thursday, I could get my bike from TriBikeTransport so I was there at the opening, helping them setting up the tents. I got my bike, so I could do my small bike+run workout. Craig ran with me. The area was super nice for running. You could feel the place getting alive with all the other triathletes training on the strip.

In the afternoon, we went in the “John’s Pass” touristic area where there is a lot of shopping, boat rentals and boat tours. I have never seen so many Pelicans.

After going through the shops, we did a bit of sightseeing. They had one of those bridges that opens to let bigger boats go by, like in the movies

After an Ice Cream, we decided to go on a small dolphin boat tour excursion. It was nice to go out on the water and see all the properties on the side of the water.

We also saw several birds, including 2 Bald Eagles in the distance, and others including pelicans once again.

Everybody enjoyed the ride.

As for Dolphin sightings, we saw one or 2 very briefly at the beginning, but nothing else. We actually saw more action at the condo.

Funny thing: back on land at the ticket counter, they had this machine… We have the same type in Canada, usually to attempt picking up toys or similar things. But here, you were trying to grab a live lobster.

Out the boat, Corinne and Tracy tried a “Hurricane Simulator” machine. It did not look like much from the outside, but look at Corinne’s head once she got out.. hehe! Good times.

Thursday evening, we went to the Ironman banquet on the beach at sunset. It was quite nice. They had these huge lanterns on the beach, all the tables with white table cloth, food was pretty good for a buffet (I liked the Ironman airbrushed cookies). They had a parade of all the country flags: 60 countries participating at the race. We had the usual pre-race briefing at that occasion once the live band finished playing.

For the Friday, day before the race, I had to stay off my legs as much as possible if I wanted to perform on Saturday. So beach day it was!

More pictures and larger version in the album below.

Clearwater Vacation

See part II for the race report.
See part III for the last Clearwater sunset. (to come)

I did not touch my digital camera for months, but I took it out last Sunday to take maternity photos for our friends Tracy and Craig. Tracy is now 7 months pregnant, and it’s amazing to see how her tummy has grown in the last few months. Tracy herself was shocked when she looked at the pictures!

I am not gonna lie: I am much more comfortable taking pictures of landscapes, cityscapes or sports than any kind of protrait work. I am not too comfortable about directing people, and I really have no artistic feeling for this kind of work. Plus I tend to take a lot of time to setup and usually a bunch of test shots. No a good thing when you work with people. All in all, our friends were quite patient and a few pictures came out good I think. Hope they like some of them. Here are a few shots:

As usual, more in the album below!

Maternity Tracy & Craig

It’s been a while since I brought the camera to one of our (many) walks with Newton. Today was the perfect day to do so. The sun was out and it was a very nice day.

Here are a few snapshots of my 2 loves

There was some kind of dog day at the park with agility demonstrations. One of the poor pooch was tinted in pink. Quite funny actually!

Please take a few minutes to look at the other pictures in the album!

Newton at Malden Park