...otherwise known as IM USA in Lake Placid. The trip started off great as we had easy flights with good connections to Burlington, Vermont. Then it was A nice drive to the ferry to cross Lake Champlain and a pizza dinner in Elizabethtown, NY. We made it to our hotel around 8 pm with no issues.

Friday we registered, got our gear bags and picked up the bikes. Gotta love tribike transport - so ...

Whenever I get a package of plain M&Ms, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness of the candy as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.

Taking two candies between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That is the "loser," and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner gets to go another round.

I have ...

Wow - what a long day.

Well - there's more to my race report than just that. It'll be long so get comfortable.

First - congratulations to all the Boston runners -all with sub-4 marathons in terrible weather. Won't be hearing "too cold to run" from that group ever again.

Saturday night saw an early dinner with plans to turn out the lights at 8 pm. Well, I got a ...

The day started pretty easily. Slept in a bit or at least tried to - got up around 6:30 and fired up the espresso machine. Made a latte, saw my way to clear then went down for breakfast. For some reason I just did not want to get started on the gear bags. Finally about 10 am I laid them out on the bed and started the video. You'll see all the different ...

IMAZ Day 2 started with the most important item of the day. Setting up the espresso machine and making a latte. Once that was done I went downstairs for the free breakfast at my hotel.

I went to the Expo area to meet Glenn for a swim. The new video starts with this area showing the bike transition and swim ...

Well, the sage advice for any Ironman is not do too much stuff just prior to the race that will add additional stress. So of course, I ignore my own advice. Not that I'm close to any type of sage or other herb.

Tuesday I got up early and went for a nice swim at Fremont with Mike and Dana. I realize just how much I've been slacking off when swimming on my own. ...

For the past several years on the long Thanksgiving weekend I've had to travel to Chicago for a tradeshow on Friday. It is so much nicer to stay home and enjoy the weekend. And a long weekend it was in more ways than one.

Thanksgiving day started off with a nice Rancho run with Nicholas and Charles. the Booths caught Nicholas and me at the top of Rogue. We went up the backside ...

For the past several years on the long Thanksgiving weekend I've had to travel to Chicago for a tradeshow on Friday. It is so much nicer to stay home and enjoy the weekend. And a long weekend it was in more ways than one.

Thanksgiving day started off with a nice Rancho run with Nicholas and Charles. the Booths caught Nicholas and me at the top of Rogue. We went up the backside of ...

For the Fall Tri team I had also signed up to do the Treasure Island International distance tri. TI was one week after I did the 1/2 IM in Phoenix. I was feeling pretty full of myself when I signed up for TI.

As I woke up at 5 am on Saturday morning I was thinking to myself - I could be at home warm and snuggly next to Karen in ...

For the Fall Tri team I had also signed up to do the Treasure Island International distance tri. TI was one week after I did the 1/2 IM in Phoenix. I was feeling pretty full of myself when I signed up for TI.

As I woke up at 5 am on Saturday morning I was thinking to myself - I could be at home warm and snuggly next to Karen in my ...