Man a moldering and men of iron

Before I begin, let me start with an apology to the Busse's for misspelling their name in the last posting. I started out spelling their name correctly but when I saw it, Busses, I concluded that a name pronunced like 'bus ease' simply couldn't be busses as in school busses. Wrong! Sheldon and Shirley Busse have been with us for three weeks from Punta Gorda in their own RV and will soon be on their way. They are outstanding travel companions and we will miss them.

Do you remember the song, "John Brown's body is a moldering in the grave"? Well, John Brown, the abolitionist, is a moldering right here in Lake Placid. Witness.....

 

Lake Placid has hosted an Ironman competition for several years. The Ironman is a grueling test of grit and guts. It starts at 7AM with a 2.4 mile swim in a cold Mirror Lake followed by a 112 mile mountainous bike race and concluding with a full 26.2 mile running marathon. About 2,600 men and women started the competition and 2,294 finished. The winner crossed the finish line 8 hours and 38 minutes after the start. He finished the 2.4 mile swim in 25 minutes; that is about 6 miles per hour. Unbelievable! He finished the 112 mile bike course in 4 hours and 43 minutes. You do the math. That is an average of 23 1/2 mph through a cold rain. He then completed the marathon in 2 hours and 57 minutes, an average of about 8.9 mph. The second place finisher was 13 minutes behind. The first women to finish was ninth overall and completed the course in 9 hours and 31 minutes. Truly amazing. They close the course at midnight. If you cross the line at 12:01 you are not considered a finisher. The last person to finish raced for a grueling 16 hours and 34 minutes. All finishers were heroes in our book.  

Prior to the race, a dozen or so huge tents are set up on the concrete ice skating race track where Eric Heiden won 5 gold metals in 1980. Some were transition (changing) stations for the racers and others for selling a variety of sports products. The center field held racks for storing the 2600 bicycles. See the first picture. Most of these bicycles cost between $5,000 to $10,000. They are serviced and adjusted up to the last minute as shown in the second and third picture.

 

The bicycle course is 56 miles through mountainous terrain. All bikers go around the course twice to make 112 miles. The course goes right past our RV park so the Busse's and Shattucks cheered them all on shouting encouragement and ringing cow bells. The first picture is the first biker to pass by us at 8:55AM. It was stormy, rainy and cold. This particular biker finished second overall. About 4,600 passed by us and they were often closely grouped as you can see in the last two photos.

See ya!