From left to right, that is me, Whiteface Mountain, and my friend Beth Wolfgram. I took this picture while Beth was out for a bike ride, but there is more to it than that. I was volunteering as staff for the 2022 IRONMAN Lake Placid, while Beth, as you might have guessed by the number on her helmet, was a competitor.

I was on the side of the road with my ambulance crew, offering assistance to a down biker, when Beth was riding by. As a good citizen she was checking out this scene on the side of the road, recognized me (even though that was a brand new shirt, and she had never seen me wearing it before) and called out “Hey Jed!” and stopped her bike. I came over, we chatted for a moment, we had a selfie and a high-five, and then Beth jumped back on her bike and finished.

I think I need to be clear about what that means.

Beth started the race with a 2.4 mile swim. If you went to a regulation NCAA competition pool that would be 169 laps, but you would have to drop the water temperature down to 68 degrees (a significantly lower temp than average for the race) to match the conditions on Mirror Lake when Beth hit the water a little after 6:30 in the morning. Here’s what that looks like, it is a giant U-shaped swim course shared with 2273 competitors:

After the 2.4 mile swim, Beth got out of the water, and climbed on her bike. The ride was 112 miles long, but also, it is in Lake Placid. This means twice exceeding a 10% grade climb (think Eastman Hill) and spending over 16 total miles in climb over 3% grade.

It was somewhere along that bike ride that Beth was checking to see if that stranger was ok, recognizing me, and stopping to say hi.

After completing the 112 mile bike ride, Beth got off her bike, changed shoes, and proceeded to run a marathon. That is not using “marathon” as a figure of speech, I mean that she then ran 26.2 miles on much of that same ridiculously hilly loop.

140.6 total miles.

I am not easily impressed. I was in NBA and ABA locker rooms since I was 3, my very first job was at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs when I was 10, and I have had a life surrounded by top athletes, and I have had the privilege of witnessing peak performance in countless sports. These athletes are amazing. The idea that I work with a person who can do all this, and still retain the humanity to check on a down rider, recognize a co-worker, and stop and share a moment in the middle of competition is something that absolutely blows my mind. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I am humbled and in awe of what you did this weekend Beth.