Got to LP little after 3 on thurs and went for an easy 20 mle ride. Ran in to Parkito as we were both finishing up our non up whiteface rides at the same time. Got cleaned up and got something to eat and a beer at the Pub. Back to the Northwoods, met Dev and gang in the parking lot. Pre race meeting then down to Mr Mikes for more to eat and beers with Murphy’s Law MTL, runner and a lurker from MA whose handle I forget but drives “transition 1”.
“on site” about 5:20 and got a prime parking spot in transition. Lots of people, would guess about 50. Swim 48:23 but started my watch when I hit the water. Thought about swimming another minute but there were lot of people ready for the bike at that point.
t1 16:21 took a bit for the groups to get together. Tried to ride with the 6:30 group but after the road by the high school was closed and we all turned around to go down mainstreet I lost them. Rode the beginning back and forth between a couple of small groups, did not do hardly any drafting. Hooked up with Matt from NJ after the descent. He hung back on the out and back. Met up with Parkito and rode with he and Kevin from Ottawa back into town. As an aside the whole degrees C v F and kilometers v miles thing is confusing, 5/9 plus 32? First Loop 3:20. Second loop on my own til caught up to a group of the NC guys near Jay. Finally got to draft off of someone for a few miles and then went ahead by myself on the hill up to the out and back. Last 30 miles or so was lonely and hot. On the climb back to town got some nasty hot spots on my let foot and was ready to get off of the bike. Second loop 3:06. Total time on the bike 6:26:06, time riding 6:20:55. My computer had 111.23 miles.
t2 5:37 had to take apart the bike and put it in the car and then took my time with the sunscreen. It was stinking hot. Plan was to run easy, couple hours at the worst right? Thought I had someone to run with but he quit a couple miles out of town. Made the turn onto river road and it started to suck. Saw ML coming the other way and we were both walking, not a good sign. Dev ran by wearing bunny ears. Suffered to the turn around and was doing a walk/run/shuffle plan. The water and coke I had stashed was so warm it was useless. Just when I thought I would actually melt, brian from MA drove by and gave me ice and a cold gatorade making him my new favorite person. Walked up the hill by the ski jumps, ran slow to town and then walked the entire hill into town. Ran/walked on the out and back, sucked to run by the guys standing in the lake. Sucked even worse when the 3 high school girls ran by me. Had to run it in after that. 2:19:52. I was shocked when I looked at the time, I would have bet it was close to 3 hours, felt like 4 hours. Total time on the day 9:57. Really hope that it is not 90 degrees in July as walking a second loop would be painful.
Felt great to stand in the lake. A beer at the pub with ML was better in theory than in practice. Had 3 cokes 3 waters and chocked down the beer. Back over to the lake to see the last finishers and get our medals and stickers. Very cool. Thanks again dev for putting this all together, not sure if I am doing LP next year but the 10th anniversary epicman will be on my calendar.
Too bad about the beers, the first one I had (UBU) was too dark, the 2nd one (forget the name, it tasted kinda skunky to me actually, wasn’t really hitting the spot, so I only had a few sips :-p) was too light, and I didn’t have the stomach to attempt to find out which other one was “just right”.
(I’m guessing a 46’er or Avalanche probably woulda been a better choice than either of the others I had, oh well…)
Yeah, the whole kilos/mph and celsius/farenheit thing had me going in circles too.
“WOW - I was going 247 blazamorgles down the Keene descent!!” woulda had about the same amount of meaning to me.
Speaking of Keene, I hit a new PB 51.1 mph on that, which sans any aero gadetry is pretty speedy I think.
Agreed that a second loop of the course under those conditions would suck royal. No thanks.
Good hanging with you also, I’m buying at tupper lake. My max on the downhill was 49.4, maybe aero trumps weight once again. Funny part was that leaving town I was behind a truck and did not break 45 notwithstanding that the car is “aero”, has a dimpled quarter panel and race wheels
If you can’t hit at least 325 blazamorgles going down Keene, then you are clearly a poser.
I mentioned to Chris and you how I hated running with bottles and/or fuel belts. I did the whole run course with at least one bottle in hand, and a lot of it with a second coke bottle. I would have given those up only at gun point. (NB: I said run course and not “did the run”. I leave it to everyone else to interpret that.)
I went through five refills of rootbeer at Micky D’s with Dev and the remainder of the Canadien crew. More fluids (water) at KFC in Saratoga Springs. Yet, this morning, I am still about 3 pounds underhydrated and about 4 1/2 pounds lighter than Thursday morning.
My arms are also fried with sunburn from the bike. That’s kind of unusual for me, but I’m thinking it might have something to do with getting major league dehydrated on the bike.
Carried a bottle myself and really wish I had cash with me as I would have bought some water, or maybe an icecream sandwich at one of the stores I walked by going back into town. I did a good job with the sunscreen and am unscathed but for a strip on my lower back.
Nice thing about “doing the run course” in 2:20 is that my legs feel much better than expected. Good thing as I have to push the stroller for the family run later.
What is this dehydration nonsense, I figure I just lost weight sonce thurday
ooooh and ice cream sandwich sounds appealing. For those that don’t know, the Stewarts Gas stops have the best ice cream in the North East…and it is cheap, unlike that over commecialized yuppiefied frozen stuff at Ben and Jerry’s. $1.50 Stewart’s ice cream is a post event staple for Epicman. It fits in the right budget range with the zero dollar entry fee, the cheap accomodations at the Jackrabbit (where we will hopefully return to for the 10th anniversary event) and the post event meal at McDonalds :-). With Gas, lodging, supplies for the River Road coke stop and food, the entire trip cost me less than $80!
Chris, it was great to meet ya. Thanks for coming up!
Guys, I am leaning towards having the Irontour in my hometown of Ottawa instead of Lake Placid. I’ve had a ton of business travel over the first 4 months of this year, and between family vacation coming up, some more business travel and racing, I am leaning towards staying close to home. I’ll publish details in the next few days, but it will be a Jun 23-24 thing with the prologue 4K swim done at your home (honesty system) before leaving for Ottawa on Jun 22.
While this will not include the Whiteface Mountain hillclimb, I guarantee that the experience and terrain will be very cool. More details shortly. The benefit is likely a hoard of local studs, posers and hangers on, all there to give you guys good company
Nice to meet you also Dev. I agree that Stewarts is the anti Ben and Jerrys/Starbucks. Always happy to support them as the family that owns them all is very generous towards the YMCA.
Dev,
since unfortunately I was not able to come to Epicman, I was hoping to discover LP bike (& run) course during June Irontour for IMLP.
Is it such a big deal to ride once the LP course (taking into consideration we have the Gats right there)?
Hey man, it was nice to meet you too (it’s actually Nick from NJ, not Matt). It was a good thing I dropped back on the first out and back, because I came close to totally blowing up on the ride back out of town (as you said might be one of the toughest parts of the course). I recovered and got through, but like many people, didn’t have enough to drink on the back half of the second loop. Despite stopping for a refill before the 2nd out and back, I was completely dry for the last 12 miles back to town – not the smartest move. I bagged the run, had a long soak in the lake and called it a day.
Sorry about that, I thought it was nmatt, makes more sense now. Good riding with you. Hopefully we can both take what we learned and put it to good use next month.
