I did hear Simon's sons Sid and Seb jumping around in the morning during the light part of my sleep. It brought a smile to my face thinking of two 7-year olds jumping around and yelling and screaming. I love it. My kids come to life at night, especially Reid, you can't shut him up and he's jumping around at over 200 lbs.
First thing we did after we woke up and waited, and waited, and waited for Alyssa to do her make up was register for the race. The worst part of registration was getting weighed. I usually weigh in heavy for Ironman's, around 189 lbs. Today it was 198 lbs. Holy Crap!!!!!
I'm either really gained weight from this summers beer drinking and or it's the high content of sodium I've been taking. Eating Pizza and potato chips in the truck on the way down didn't help and taking the Hammer Race Day Boost is also said to increase water weight. I feel so bloated. I have this weird pregnant lower belly looking thing. If I look in the mirror I look about 5 lbs overweight, not bad, the scale however is off the chart. Needless to say, for vanity reason's I've decided to stop taking the Race Day Boost.
We went for lunch at some cafe with fresh food, I went for the salad and the event of the lunch was the kids wearing each others glasses. Earlier while waiting for Alyssa I ate a bag of cherries, the family was laughing at all the stuff in my teeth. Later in the afternoon as Alyssa slept I put cheery stems in her hair as I ate more of them. I'm trying to eat healthy, except for the 3 bags of chips that Alice bought that are lying around the room and I can't resist eating. The only upside with the chips is the salt is higher.
After lunch we went to the liquor store and picked up some stuff for Alice and Alyssa. When we got back to the hotel I parked my truck along the fence and as I was walking up to the doors another truck pulled behind my and started honking. I thought it was some guy upset with my semi-illegal parking. I looked and kept going and the truck kept being insistent so I turned around to walk over and tell the guy that it's fine, I saw others park this way.
I pulled up to the side window and it was "Simon", he was honking to say hello. I couldn't see the driver until I pulled up to the side window. Then I started laughing. I told Simon I thought it was some guy upset with my parking. It was nice to see him and finally meet his wife Shilpa and two sons Seb and Sid. There are cute and Simon has them calling me "Uncle Bryan". I love it.
Half an hour later Simon and I went for an hour ride. Simon is still sounding sick. He said he hasn't been able to do any training in the last couple of weeks and this was his first ride in a while. He's an exceptional cyclists and even his first ride in a while was much better than my well trained ride. I felt so out of shape on the ride, the lungs felt heavy. I was so glad I was going out for a ride. I hadn't planned on it and getting some sweat going and lung expanded felt really good.
Before I went for a run Simon and I sat on our decks and chatted. Our rooms are side by side and I specially reserved the same room I had last year and reserved his to be beside mine. It's the best location with mini decks and one large deck area that you can see part of the Ironman finish. Sunday night it will be loud near our rooms as we hear the music and announcers bringing people into the finish. We also met our other neighbours beside us, it was a woman and her husband and they were enjoying a glass of wine. My kind of people. She's turning 50 years old and this will be her first. I invited them for beers after or the next day. Even though Simon and I have done 29 Ironman's between the two of us, there is no more special Ironman than your first. I was actually jealous of her.
I went for my run and ran along the lake and the backside of the bike route. People were already setting up their cheering tents along the road. At that moment I realized that IMLP is one of my favorite Ironmans. This is my 3rd year coming. The first year was to register, the second and third year is to race. The thing I love about this race is the fans, I told the same thing to Simon. There is so many people cheering all over. It's a great energy. This is America's race, it's all Red, White and Blue and they know how to cheer people on. Besides Simon and some Canadians, you won't find many non American accents her.
The one thing with IMLP is the consistency of the energy. In the past two years it's been consistent and looking at the tents being set up two days in advance I assume it will again this year. IMSG was similar in the first year and then the second year there was a fraction of the fan support. Not at IMLP, that's why this is one of my favourite races.
I'm also really glad I went on that run. My legs needed it. It took about 20 minutes until they felt oiled up. I was also surprised on my pace, it was faster than I thought and the speed that I ran last year for the entire marathon. There is something about the roads her in Lake Placid that I like. Aside from the highways being in the absolute worst shape of any roads I've ever ridden on. Lots of cracks and pot holes. During the race you definitely want to stay in the middle of the road.
We ended up having a late dinner, I had my customary Eggplant Parmigiana and it started working before I could even pay the bill at the restaurant. The hotel was just around the corner and I went back to use our own bathroom. My stomach was grumbling the entire way and it was a major download. I think I lost those 10 extra pounds. I'm starting to feel back on track. Normally I go in the morning if all is well, today I didn't and tonight I made up for two days.
The rest of the night was trying to keep Reid under control and not make too much noise with Simon and his little guys next door. Last year our neighbour in Simon's room complained about the noise and another night the hotel clerk came up to talk to us about complaints. Reid gets talking loud and jumping around and gets us all laughing. I got a headache saying "shush, shush, be quiet, shut up, shush". Then to add to it, Reid was on Facebook trying to make deals to sell his hats and was pricing them too low, only with about a $5 profit per hat. Him and I were arguing about how to price it. It just added to the energy in the room.
Thankfully I was able to get everyone to bed by 12 am, not so much for concern for the neighbours, I just wanted to catch up on my sleep from the other night. I needed to get at least a solid 8 hours of sleep and wanted to get back on track.
Mod Bike - 55:07 / 25.08 km / 27.3 km avg
Tempo / Mod Run - 29:03 / 5.76 km / 5:01 km avg
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