Wisconsin Ironman

No, I didn’t do it.

Believe it or not, I went to watch a few REGBRAI friends take part in the event on Sunday. Yep, they like to let their hair down and have a few “energy drinks” (for an entire week) but also focus on a bigger goal.

I don’t know why I insistent on driving 4.5 hours to Madison, WI to watch a triathlon. I’m pretty sure everyone there was thinking the same thing. I’ve been in a funk the past couple of weeks, not wanting to work out or believe it or not wanting to be on the bike. I guess watching 2100+ people push their bodies to an extreme for an average of 13 hours—I wanted to get inspirited. Did it work? Yes. Now I just have to figure out what I want to do.

I’ve seen this event on TV—you hear the stories and are moved by one’s drive to be there but to feel the energy was amazing!

I’ve heard the start was a spectacular scene—and it was! It was a perfect day. The racers couldn’t have asked for better weather conditions. At 7am, the temperature was in the upper 50’s the water temp was in the low 70’s. The sun was just coming up over the water creating a pink hue in the clear blue sky. A sea of bobbing heads spanned the designated area of the lake. The gun shot off and all 2100+ amatures started the swim in a mass start, the music started blasting “Beautiful Day” by U2, the crowed was roaring… The energy was amazing! You knew these people spent about a year training for this one day and were now embarking on an adventure of a lifetime. I heard about half of the racers it was their first Ironman.

I thought watching the pros would be fun, but seeing the every day guy (or girl) was a 100% better. They were there for the heart of the event, the pros—although as amazing as they are—as one girl said while we waited, it was like chearing for someone who drove to work everyday.

We waiting for over an hour for Matt, our first person, to come out of the water. He looked good. Smile was still on his face while he ran up the helix to the transition area. Next was Jenny—what a rock star! Then Bob. We were able to find a perfect spot only a few feet from his bike. All eight of us were yelling “the bike is all yours!”. With a few shout outs for “where’s the stereo?”. Bob caries the 50 lbs stereo on his bike during REGBRAI. Instead he had a 2008 Trek Equinox TTX 9.5—sweet bike!

After the swim five of us jumped on our bikes and road out to the course (about 12 miles). It was no 112 miles that the racers were doing, but the way we bitched you would have thought differently. We all had backpacks that were full of clothes and items handed to us at the last minute from the races. 10 of the 12 miles were up hill in a headwind. We persevered and made it to the part of the course that would start their second loop. The pros were already going through this section. Calculating were we were and how fast our friends were probably going we thought we had about 30 minutes before Matt would come by—to our surprise he was 15 minutes early! He must have been averaging about 21/22 miles per hour—amazing! Jenny followed 30 minutes later and Bob 40 minutes after Jenny.

It was funny. You stand there for an hour to see someone for 10 seconds to yell at the top of your lungs. Once they pass—you wait again. With all that time to wait…we had to do something to entertain ourselves so we made video blogs on why it was so hard to be a spectator. Some of the topics included: Solving Math problems—Figuring out variable times and speeds of each rider and what time they would cross the area we were in. How much time we have to run over to the bar for a drink and how many drinks. The aches and pains our body was going through standing around caused our feet to hurt. Figuring out where we should go to find the racers. Etc.

The best video blog was called the “cowbell finger” or CBF. We couldn’t have planned it better—while Jared was pretending he was hurt ringing a cowbell an ambulance pulled up. The medics saw Jared, got out of the van, put on their gloves and proceeded to walk over to us. We couldn’t believe this was happening!—Can you imagine us doing a parity bitching about how hard is to cheer the racers on when out of no were medics came by trying to attend to us two feet away from racers that were probably at mile marker 100 on the bike course with 12 miles left and a full marathon in front of them? I kept the tape rolling—this was good footage!

Jared told the medics that he was fine and that it was just a little cowbell finger and that he would be ok. The medics didn’t think it was all that funny and went back to their van. We finished up our video entry with a more bitching and fell on the ground laughing at what just happened. Two days later, I’m still laughing about the situation—we couldn’t have planed it better.

After seeing our friends pass the last time on the bike course looking like it was just another bike ride and another video entry on the way back and dinner we found the rest of our cheer squad. We should have spread out but we thought they were closer so we stood there for over an hour. While waiting we were left with only time to add another entry to our video blog. Mike put his backpack down in the middle of the sidewalk, laid face first into his bag like he was giving his last ounce of cheer he had in him, mumbling “we’ve got to keep cheering” while trying to ring the cowbell. The best part was the sign we put on him that read “Pain is only temporary. You will always be an Ironman.” It was so funny, other spectators waiting for their loved ones came over and were snapping photos of him.

Matt finally came by, he was walking but started to run when he heard us yelling his name. I ran around the corner to give him one more cheer and to tell him he was almost done only 1 mile left. I started laughing when he gave me the stink-eye. You could tell he had nothing left.

Jenny came by two minutes later looking like she was ready to take on more. Bob came by with side pains. We knew he was only ½ way done with the run. We spread out with walkie talkies and cell phones in hand so when he made the turn we were ready to show him our support.

Jared and I rode up to the finish line and found Matt at the food tent back to his upbeat self. Knowing him, he made a beeline to the tent. He came in at about 11 ½ hours—exactly when I predicted he would finish. We found Jenny a few hours later ready for a drink and to go dancing—she got 2nd in her category and qualified for Kona next year! We made our way to the other side of the course to cheer on Bob then back to the finish line. Watching the people finish was amazing! Seeing them on the course in pain then knowing it was almost over and somehow found the energy to run across the line looking like it was just a day in the park, some with kids, was awesome!

Bob came across looking great until he crossed the line and had to sit down. We all hung around while he got food and was able to recover a bit.

We didn’t get back to the hotel until 10pm. Jenny wanted to go out and celebrate her entry into Kona so we rode around and found this little bar—the only place open on a Sunday night. We closed the place down after several pitchers of beer then hung out in the lobby of the hotel until 4am with a few more drinks.

I got about 2 hours of sleep before I had to get up and drive 4 1/5 hours back to the cities in order to make it to work by noon.

I haven’t talked to the three racers yet, but I figure they are physically sore but mentally feel like they are on top of the world.