IM '09.

About 9 at night as we were walking to get something to eat people were sitting at Lava Java writing emails, posting blogs, updating friends and family, all as participants were still running the marathon. So this post is probably a bit late. A bunch of us volunteered for water patrol and were in town at 5 am. The athletes were already nervous, pacing, eating, and getting body marked. We paddled out into the calm before the storm and waited for the mayhem to begin.

Macca stopped by.

Macca wanted to see how I was doing. I told him just to relax and have a good race. I was worried about mechanical failures as you never know what can happen out on the Queen K!

Check out the wake!

He swam off quickly, but I think that Erica was smitten. We tried to keep the swimmers on course, but they didn't like listening. Only a few people didn't make the swim cutoff and the day was already emotionally charged right from the beginning.

 

Our view. 

After the swim we were able to go home, eat, shower, and return to the middle of it all. We sat in the heat for a while and waited for the pros to come by. It looked to be a good race with most of the major players coming in around the same time.

Chris Lieto coming in first.

Then we saw everyone take off running. After about 10 miles, they come back to the same place. It was great to watch the race unfold.

Andreas leading Craig up Palani.

Faris in his typical outfit.

CW.

Chrissie is the absolute queen of this sport. Not only is she an amazing athlete, but on of the friendliest women I have ever met. Always with a smile on her face. She gritted her teeth at the bottom of this hill, but all the way to the top people were going crazy screaming her name and cheering for her. She feeds off the energy and smiles all day long. She is fantastic.

Andy Potts.

I was impressed with Jon Flanagan and Andy Potts in the water. They blew everyone away. Next year, Marky V will have a huge gap on all of them.

You want impressive? Try coming close to setting a new record. Do it by being a woman beating all of the men. That is impressive to me. Here is Erica cheering on some FAST athletes!

Still enthusiastic!

We went to the press conference to hear what the pros had to say about the day. Everyone showed up but Macca while we were there. They all agreed that it was hot! We went and cheered in all of the athletes until the midnight cutoff arrived. Chrissie was there to congratulate the participants. She has great sportsmanship. We went home to crash. This morning, I feel like I raced. My body feels beat up. I am exhausted. This watching stuff is hard!

Almost there.

Thinking that we would be in Yosemite for a week, I started growing a beard that might help me fit in. Something scraggly, but not dirty. I did a dirty beard in the past.

Me with Rutger Beke with my dirty beard.

Now I am not in Yosemite, but I still have the beginning of my beard. Luckily, I still fit in here in Sonora. We were amazed (again) by the restaurant where we ate for lunch. This town has been a fantastic gastronomical gem. The people are small town people. Our waitress thought that Sonora (population 5,000) was a city. The town she grew up in has 200 people.

This is what we saw while getting lunch today.

Going for a run today, I saw lots of cigarettes, chew cans, and even spent shotgun shells. The trucks got bigger the further out of town I went, but I saw one other runner and I applauded the people that were protesting the was. That takes some guts in any small town in America. Today, the car repair place ordered us a new fuel pump. It is supposed to arrive this afternoon and they will fix it tomorrow. Then we can get camping! I am mostly excited for that because of all of the food that we bought at Costco. We have filet mignon, chips, salsa, salads, all kinds of stuff sitting in our cooler in the back of our van! At least the weather is getting better. It was over 90 for the last couple of days and has dropped down to a normal 70 degrees lately.

K-Town?

It has been a long time since I have shaved my legs. I was quite excited to do it last Saturday night. It wasn't because of a night out at the bars, rather I rode 100 miles in the Buffalo Bicycle Classic on Sunday morning. We had beautiful weather, the aid stations were the best I have ever had (tacos, almond butter and Nutella on graham crackers, sandwiches) and the ride was gorgeous. We rode from Boulder past Carter Lake, all the way to Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins. I got to wear my new Bear Naked tri outfit which was surprisingly comfortable. It it scary that I could ride the 100 miles and still feel pretty good. I took it easy and was hungry for a couple of days, but it puts the idea of doing an IM into my head.

Hodges

A few years ago, my friend Ryan was the youngest competitor at the Ironman World Championships in Kona. The following year a few of us went over to cheer everyone on. These are pictures from that year. Ryan is a student-athlete and all around good guy. He recently completed Ironman Lanzarote, here is his race report:

Lets start with the swim...It was badass. I swam smart; slow at the start, maneuvered around packs of people and then hauled ass for the last 3/4 of the swim and ended the swim with a quick time. The bike course lived up to its name as being the hardest in the world. It was extremely gusty, very cold in the mountains, then very hot at sea level, with hills adding up to about 9000 ft in elevation.
The highlight of the race began when I had 8 miles left to go on the 112 mile bike ride...I got a flat tire. What did I do? I did everything I could to fix it. Nothing I had with me on the ride did what it was suppose to do. So, I was given the choice to quit the race, or run the last 8 miles of the bike course with my bike, barefoot, on the asphalt. So, I thought what the hell, I´ll run it. I sacrificed way too much to come here. I was first in my age group when I had the flat, but my goal from that point on was to just finish the race, doing well never mattered any more from that point on.
So, the day ended well. I finished. I had a great swim, and an unforgettable bike ride. Unfortunately, I ran a total of 34 miles- 8 more than I should have. I´m just glad to call myself an Ironman once again...Praise the LORD!
Thank you everyone for the prayers and for supporting me along the way. Thinking about all of you really helped me through the run.

Great job Ryan!