Ironman USA Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 19)

I guess Aaron is sleeping in this mornig?!

Got BT!  Got Fred! 

Can't believe it raining again this year.

~Mike

Can anyone recommend a hotel or place of lodging that let's you have dogs? 

I just booked the Northwoods.  They take dogs, $35 extra per pet. 

I thought for sure the host hotel would be booked up already, but nope - plenty of rooms.  It just goes to show that the economy is that bad. 

If you're willing to stay in places like Wilmington and Jay you can find some nice places pretty cheap.  It wasn't that bad to travel to the race site, and it keeps you away from all of the hype.

I stayed at the Wilderness Inn cabins in Wilmington, right on the bike course.  It has its pluses and minuses, but I was fine with it.  Parking in Lake Placid is not ideal but it's not disgusting.  My girlfriend was able to get around where she wanted, but there are waits and roadblocks.  On race morning, she dropped me off right at the oval, then found a spot not far from the swim.  It's much easier to find spots before the swim than later in the day.  Later in the evening, she parked near the train station, which was a walk I did not enjoy after my 13 hour race.  And I did not want to come back and watch the midnight finishers for sure.  We did have some trouble trying to drive back to Wilmington from that side of town, but once we were told how to get around the town to the back end by a cop, we were fine.

It would've definitely been nice to have a place right in LP for us.  I regretted it when the race was over because I was exhausted and I just wanted to leave.  But it worked out.

So, that was this year.  Last year, I volunteered and spectated, and stayed at a campground towards Saranac Lake.  So I got a lot of experience with parking that week.  I found it much easier to come from that direction for race day parking, than this year's Wilmington.  There are about 4 parking areas that Ironman suggests we use for race day parking (with shuttles), and they are all on that side of town, with easy back roads to get to them.  The one I am most familiar with, is a dirt parking lot just 1/2 mile down the street from the oval.  It was super easy to get in and out of during the day.  I never used the shuttle because the walk was easy enough.  I can post a link to the dirt parking lot if you are interested.

It's certainly a tradeoff in convenience and price.

Ok it was easy enough to look up the place where I found parking to be wonderful as a spectator (as a participant, have your family drop you off then park here).

Ironman Lake Placid Dirt Parking Lot

A .4 mile walk to the oval.  You can get in and out on Wesvalley Road, completely bypassing all race activities.

For parking during the week for the swim, and for race day parking before the swim, you can get closer right here:

Lake Placid Swim Start Parking

I also rode my bike to Lake Placid from Wilmington one day during the week, for the Gatorade swim.  12 mile training ride, worked out well.

Obviously this is one man's experience and is does not include all your options.

FYI, the local newspaper photographers took thousands of pix.  Go to cu.adirondackdailyenterprise.com to see!

I think I remember them about every 10 miles.  It wasn't exactly 10 though, I remember seeing numbers like 11, 61, etc.  Could be 10, starting at 11.

So does anyone know where we can get a 50-week weather forecast, hmmm?