039: Chris Charres journey to the Ironman Lake Placid finish

I met Chris Charres at a training camp for Ironman Lake Placid for 2015 and we have stayed in touch over the years. I wanted to share his story to the finish line of Ironman Lake Placid because it's a good one that I think many people can identify with in their own journeys.

Chris' Ironman journey actually started in 2010 when he and his then girlfriend broke up with him.

He started with a 5k and stepped up from there to a marathon.

Chris is active with a triathlon group called the Shoreline Sharks where he got a start with his first triathlon. Like many people the swim was Chris' challenge and he says he doggie paddled his first triathlon swim.

His first half-iron was Rev3 Quassy in 2014 which has a reputation as a very tough bike course. In 2014 he also volunteered at Ironman Lake Placid to see the race in action and volunteer for the next year.  2014 was the year where there was lightening caused an evacuation of the swim course which is an interesting story.

Chris and I met in Lake Placid at a training camp with PRS Fit with Jeff and SherriAnne.  Jeffrey Kline was on episode 6 of the Mile after Mile podcast.

We were together at Ironman Lake Placid in 2015 and he tells the story of his swim and learning that he was the last swimmer in the water in Ironman Lake Placid 2015.  This is about 20 minutes into the interview if you want to jump to that.

We talk about how he decided to go ahead and try for Ironman Lake Placid 2016. Shout out to Chris' sister for being amazing!

We talk about people who helped him and what his mantras were for the year of training. Shout out to Clayton Tibbets for all his help.

We talk about the amazing medal at the Little Rock Marathon and the Rev 3 Quassy weekend which is a Olympic Saturday and 70.3 on Sunday.

We talk about having the professionals at races and how that changes the feel on race morning.

Shout out to Tom our friend from training camp who was there volunteering for Ironman Lake Placid 2016.

We talk about how excited he was to make the cutoff for the swim in Ironman Lake Placid 2016 that he ran  straight through the wetsuit strippers and didn't even see them.

Chris shares his tip for bike nutrition. Potato chips!

We chat about the run and then finally the finish. Chris shares his emotions and finish line mantra: "right turn off Mirror Drive, left turn on the Oval!"