Full Ironman #12 - Ironman Lake Tahoe 9-22-13
Mike and I signed up for this race (my 12 th Ironman) back in June of 2012, because it was a no-brainer. Let’s see…an Ironman in one of the most beautiful places in the world that we can get to in our car? – we’re there. The 7000ft of climbing on the bike sounded a bit daunting, but we’ve completed two century rides (albeit slowly) at higher altitudes: Heartbreak Century in the Grapevine and Angeles Crest Century in the San Gabriel Mountains. Neither one of us had ever swum or run at altitude, so that would be the big question mark. Although it never worked out to train at Tahoe, we did squeeze in an altitude training camp for our 20 th wedding anniversary at Big Bear Lake in So. Cal. On Saturday, we climbed over Onyx Pass (1000 feet higher than Brockway Pass in Tahoe) without issue. Swimming, on the other hand, is not an easily accomplished task at Big Bear. I was determined to swim, and the result was comical. Due to heavy weed growth around the perimeter of Big Bear in ...