Incredible Athletes

After watching the Ironman in person this past weekend I'm still trying to process what it all means on a personal level. I'm somewhat perplexed by my thoughts/views about it and what I'm doing, or trying to do, athletically. I'll post more on that later once I wrap my head around it all, but speaking strictly as a spectator though, it was frickin' awesome!

The 2 participants we were there to watch did fabulous! They both finished with nary a worry and ear to ear smiles every time we saw them on the course. I won't give you a play by play recap of the whole race (I'm sure you can get that from Kimmi and Rachel in the next day or so once they've recovered and have had time to post them), but just some thoughts from a spectator's point of view.

Our morning started out early at 5 a.m. in order to drive the 7 miles downtown, park and find the rest of our crew. We were able to see K and R and wish them good luck 1 final time. They both seemed calm and ready to go. Once we left them I headed down to the swim start with others. This start is unlike most in that it's one big mass wave start, but with the participants already in the water about 50 yards out, not starting on the beach with them running in.

Once the cannon went off at 7:00 a.m. signaling the start the calm, bluegray waters became an instant froth of seemingly chaos and flailing arms. Unless you were in the lead or purposely lagging behind I would think it'd be akin to a sock going through the heavy duty wash cycle.

There was a 2 hr 20 minute cutoff for this portion of the race meaning that if you weren't done swimming within 2:20 you were done, not allowed to continue. Watching these cutoffs get closer and closer knowing there are still racers out there is some of the most nerve-wracking minutes in this sport for a spectator. You want so bad for everyone to make it, but you know not everyone will and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. As 5 minutes became 4...and then 3...and then 2...and then 1...and then seconds, there were 2 swimmers that were about 30 yards out. By this time the announcer has the crowd fully into it cheering for these 2 to get in under the cutoff, the music blaring, everyone's screaming and cheering knowing it's going to be close. 10...9...8...the volunteers that are there to help people out of the water are standing out in the water, waist deep, waiting to get their hands on these 2...7...6...5...the first of the 2 takes his final stroke and the volunteers grab both arms and simultaneously drag him in further and stand him up, he made it! ...4...3...2...the other one does the same!! At the buzzer she finishes her swim and is allowed to continue on to the bike portion. The crowd is just in a tizzy, going wild. I'd be willing to bet these 2 got the loudest cheers of the day and their smiles told the whole story!!

On the flip side of this whole uplifting moment though, 30 seconds later the next swimmer comes in and he has to be stopped from running through the chute and told his day is done, he didn't make it under the cutoff. How much would that suck? You've trained for months and months and months and find out your Ironman dream has vanished because you were 30 seconds too slow. It's over before it gets started. This was tough to watch and I'll admit to getting a little teary-eyed. There were a few others out in the water yet who were in the same boat (no pun intended).

On to the bike portion. This part isn't quite as dramatic as watching the bike portion is harder and you only see any 1 racer for just a few blurry seconds. We took the shuttle out to the popular spectator spot on the course and waited for our 2 to come around. They had to do this loop of the route twice so we knew we'd see them both times at miles 56 and 97. Waiting for them to come through and noticing all the other bikers the majority looked fresh and energized. We were able to spot R and K in enough time to make plenty of noise and hopefully get them re-energized. Watching the riders come through the 2nd time, I was visibly able to notice a difference on quite a few faces that the physicality of everything was starting to take its toll. There were some more pained expressions, not grimacing in pain, but more like a worn down look. Not our girls though! They both came through with their cheshire cat grins and back to the transition they headed.

We jumped back on the shuttle buses to get back downtown to watch the run. We first positioned ourselves at about the 1/2 mile mark on the run so we could cheer for them right away on this final leg of the race. I'm still not sure what I think of the run route. It's an out-and-back that you have to do twice. The turn-around at the halfway point is 1 block from the finish line and every runner can see the finish line as they come to the halfway point knowing they can't yet head to the finish. I'm sure it makes the feeling that much better the 2nd time by, but what a big tease that 1st time! The layout is great for spectating though because it was easy for our group to get to multiple spots to cheer them on elsewhere after our runners passed.

For a majority of the run I watched near this 1/2 way turnaround for the 1st lappers and the finishing block for those who had done their 2 laps. Once again there was agony and ecstasy at this juncture. For those finishing and coming around that final corner, it was pure joy and belief that they were now ironmen. A few of them were crying as they headed in, a lot of them were happier than a kid at Christmas. The agony could be seen at the 1/2 way point turnaround though. There was also a cutoff for this portion of the race at 9:00 p.m. If you weren't at the 1/2 point on the run by 9, you weren't allowed to continue. A handful of people had made it to this point before 9 and had voluntarily elected to call it quits for whatever reason. As the deadline approached, those going through were warned that they were dangerously close to the cutoff and that they'd need to be cognizant of this on the 2nd half if they wanted to finish by midnight (the overall cutoff at 17 hours). The final guy I saw make it up to this point didn't make it in time. He had to be told by race officials that he was past the cutoff and wouldn't be allowed to continue. Not only would this suck for those not making it fast enough in the swim portion, but this guy had already swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 and ran 13.1. He was only 13.1 miles away from the total 140.6 he had to do, but he would have to try it again some other day!

After Rach (just under 14 hrs) and Kimmi (just over 15 hours) finished and midnight approached, I stuck around the finish line to see the last of the finishers come in. The announcers did a great job giving us updates on the remaining runners still out on the course as the minutes ticked off and got closer to midnight. At 11:53, with 7 minutes to go, he called out to the pacer/official who was with the very last person about 1/2 mile out and told them they had 7 minutes to go to get in. The person's response back was that they only needed 5! Awesome, everyone on the course was going to finish! As midnight approached that 5 minutes came and went. They were down to 2...and then 1...and then we saw them turn the last corner and head the last 1 1/2 blocks to the finish line. Once again, those who stuck around to cheer were just going wild, urging these final few to make it in under the wire. With a 17 hour cutoff, the last person to cross the line did it with 4 seconds to spare, 16:59:56!! Truly amazing! Despite having been up for the previous 19 hours I had a hard time falling asleep that night because I was so jazzed up by the whole finish line experience and atmosphere.

The next day, Dana, Kris, Becca and Sean, all TNT teammates, signed up to do this Ironman in '09. Looks like I get to go watch another one!