Staff Report
Meadville Tribune
July 21, 2010 7:00 a.m. —
Meadville resident Kristoph Kocan will compete in the Ford Ironman Triathlon in Lake Placid, N.Y. this weekend.
Kocan, who is one of the of the co-cordinators of the Dam Tri at Colonel Crawford Park off the shores of Woodcock Creek Lake, will get an up-close and personal view of a little history at the event on Sunday. Much of the course covers grounds used during the 1980 Winter Olympics, best known for the United States’ “Miracle on Ice” hockey victory over the former USSR.
The race begins with a with a 2.4-mile swim on Mirror Lake, and that is the easy part. From the swim, athletes will head to the transition point just across the street from the Olympic Center, which is where the “Miracle on Ice” took place.
The next stage of the race is a grueling 112-mile bike ride that takes athletes past two more Olympic sites — the Whiteface Mountains and Olympic Ski Jump facility. The stage will also test athletes as it features changes in elevation ranging from just over 450 feet to almost 2,200 feet — twice — during the two laps of the course.
The final stage is a 26.2 mile run, which begins back at the same transition stage near the Olympic Center.
