The 2022 Ironman Lake Placid will be held Sunday in and around the Adirondack village.
The Ironman contest pits thousands of athletes through a 2.4-mile two loop swim in Mirror Lake followed by a 112-mile double loop bike race past Whiteface Mountain into the Jay, New York area before returning to Lake Placid for a 26.2-mile marathon through the village.
Completed in a single day, the race is Sunday.
Ironman Regional Director Dave Christen says athletes come because of its long history and the unique course challenges.
“I think the Olympic spirit is still very powerful here. That’s a big factor. I think the terrain, especially on the bike course, because we’re in the mountainous region of the Adirondacks it’s just challenging. So anytime you add altitude, er elevation sorry, to any type of bike riding it certainly creates difficult scenarios. But I think it’s attainable. It’s doable but we would refer to it as an honest course. It’s not the type of course that you can fake it. You’ve got to be ready for Lake Placid.”
This will be the 23rd year that the Ironman race has been held in Lake Placid. Last fall the Lake Placid-based Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism formed a task force which issued a report assessing community attitudes towards the event. ROOST Chief Operating Officer Mary Jane Lawrence said as a result they are trying to manage the number of athletes who participate.
“The survey was to try to identify where the community felt that the pain points were for the race and then what the attributes to having the race were. One of the results of that survey was the recommendation that we put forth to Ironman to reduce the number of athletes participating. Because not only is it just the athletes. It’s the family, the fans, the coaches. There’s a lot of people that come per athlete. We’ve determined that it was outgrowing our capacity.”
The survey asked whether Ironman should remain in Lake Placid. Cristen, who was a member of the task force, feels secure about the future of Ironman in the region.
“A lot of the changes, or I guess a lot of the initiatives, that we’ve instituted are really focused around how are we communicating within the region? How are we partnering with all of the communities and not just Lake Placid? And trying to collaborate more and just make sure that we’re talking, rowing the boat in the right direction together, and talking on a regular basis in and amongst all of the constituents.”
Organizers are expecting about 2,200 athletes to participate.
Ironman Lake Placid was the first regional Ironman competitions held in the United States.
