Farewell to Lake Placid

I did this post once before but the wi-fi signal was so weak that when I 'hit' publish, I lost the whole thing. The signal that I now have isn't so hot so here's hoping.
We left Lake Placid August 1st and enjoyed it so much that we have made a six week reservation for 2014. So here are a few pictures.

 

There are four venues in Lake Placid for preparing young girls and boys for the Olympics. One is a school where atheletes from all over the country live and study full time while spending just about all non-school time perfecting their skill. The second is the ski jumping venue which was highlighted in an earlier post. The third venue features bob sledding and cross country skiing. The fourth is figure skating. Kids come from everywhere for summer training and every Saturday evening they put on a figure skating show. The kids range in age from 4 to 20+. Most are excellent skaters. Actual Olympians, national finalists and pros perform during intermission and also for the finale. My I-phone does not take good pictures of fast moving skaters but these two were national figure skaing dancing contenders. They were amazing. Incidently, this skating rink was the actual rink used for the 1932 Winter Olympics. The rink used for the 1980 Olympics is in an attached building. That is the rink where the Americans tokk the gold from the heavily favored Soviets; the "Do you believe in miracles" rink.

 

The world famouis Saratoga Race Track is a 1 1/2 hour drive from Lake Placid. This horse and jockey just entered the winners circle. We didn't bet on that one either.

For the past 13 years, Lake Placid has hosted an Ironman competition. The Ironman is probably the gutsiest competition in today's world. The race starts at 6:20AM with a 2.4 mile swim in Mirror Lake. As the swimmers emerge from the lake, they run to a nearby field, remove their swim gear, don biking wear, find their bikes and then bike 112 miles through Adirondack hilly roads. At the end of the bike ride another dress change prepares them for a full 26.2 mile marathon run. The winner finished just before 3:30PM. About a third of these Ironmen are women. The finish line shuts down at midnight. If you don't finish by midnight, you are not an Ironman. 2700 men and women finished!  The top finishers are eligible to race in the world competition which will take place later in the year in Kona, Hawaii. Last year, four of the top 10 world finishers came from lake Placid. The picture is taken on a part of the bike course right next to our RV site. We spent most of the day cheering the bikers on.

 

This is Mirror Lake in downtown Lake Placid. It's beautiful. When we run out of things to do, we grab a couple of seats on the shoreline, bask in the sun and play with Sadie and our I-phones. The bandstand where the Sinfonettia plays Wednesday nights is just behind this location. In fact, the backs of our seats are touching the bandstand. See ya all next year!