This Sunday morning, at a time when many people are still in bed, about 2,200 athletes will rush into Mirror Lake at Lake Placid to start the 10th Ironman USA Triathlon.
The event officially begins at 6:50 a.m. when the athletes start their 2.4-mile swim in Mirror Lake. When they finish the swim, the athletes will move on to a 112-mile bike race on a course that will take them into Keene, Upper Jay, Jay and Wilmington.
After their swim and bike ride, the marathon distance of 26.2 miles is the next obstacle for the competitors, and that will finish on the speed-skating track made famous by Olympic gold medalists Jack Shea and Eric Heiden.
The event has grown into one of the two largest events the village holds each year, the other being the horse show in early spring.
"I think they are neck and neck," said Jim McKenna, the president of the Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau. "On a comparison between the Ironman and (winter sport) World Cups, it's more than just that weekend. They start coming here as soon as the ice is off Mirror Lake to begin training. There's a significant impact there."
According to an economic study of the event done in 2005, the Ironman race brings about $7 million annually to the area. According to the survey, more than 60 percent of the competitors stay in area hotels or motels.
The impact doesn't stop with revenue. Ironman USA, the organization that runs the event, has also been generous with donations to the area, giving up to $400,000 since it began in 1999.
"Most of it has been geared towards youth and sports programs, primarily," McKenna said. "They've started swimming clubs and running clubs, provided uniforms and equipment for teams and spent on the arts, animal welfare, community development, libraries, etcetera."
Among the annual recipients of donations from the organization are the Keene Fire Department and a scholarship fund named for late Watertown Daily Times assistant managing editor Charles B. Decker, who died in 1991.
"It's a huge impact for a lot of these organizations," said Cali Brooks, the executive director of the Adirondack Community Trust, which helps administer the funds. "It can have a huge impact in helping these organizations receive their particular goals. Annually now we've distributed between $25,000 and $40,000 to the groups. It's a tremendous impact."
Of course all the economics of the event come from the fact that there will be a race going on Sunday, and it will feature a handful of local competitors.
One of the newcomers to the competition is Potsdam resident Shannon Desrosiers, who along with her husband, Matt, is the co-coach of the Clarkson University women's hockey team.
Desrosiers has never competed in the Ironman distance, but she did finish second in the women's division at the Tupper Lake Tinman Triathlon in late June. That event featured a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run.
"It's new to me," Desrosiers said. "I've done a lot of (half-Ironman distances). I'm a bit nervous, but it's going to be exciting. They have great fans and it's a great atmosphere with a tough course."
Desrosiers, who played women's hockey at St. Lawrence University, has run in the Boston Marathon. But the start of Sunday's race, when all 2,200 competitors enter Mirror Lake at once, will be a unique athletic experience.
"I've done (races) where half as many people started at the same time," Desrosiers said. "But there's not any way to prepare for (2,200) people climbing all over you."
The Ironman race in Lake Placid appears ready to become something that will continue for several years and is already changing the perspective some have that Lake Placid is only a winter sports town.
"Our organization doesn't call us that," said McKenna, referring to the "Winter Sports Capital" slogan often associated with the village. "Our biggest events are nonwinter. Seventy percent of our annual business is done in the warm months here."
