We had the opportunity to go to several Ironman Events.....I was in heaven! I suffered from a serious case of "race envy" pretty much the entire time we were there. I get jealous when other people are participating in awesome race events and I'm not. It is a real disease.
We were watching the finishers from a second story restaurant when we spotted these guys wearing their 'first year finisher' shirts. We bought them a drink and they let us hold the actual first year finisher's trophy. They were funny guys :)
The sacred trophy.....
Not only did this guy still have the thing....he carries it everywhere! Hopefully someday people will be walking around with first year Ragnar medals and people will ask to take pictures with it :)
I love the reflection in our glasses in this picture....we stopped to sit by the beach while visiting the expo since we weren't really in the market for $5,000 bikes...
Celebrating Hawaiin style....that is with frizzy hair.
M dot made entirely of fresh flowers....
Next time we are standing in front of this baby It will be because One of us finished the Ironman World Championship Race....in our dreams.
We got up super early on race day so that we could watch the swim start...Dan and Jami were excellent examples of how to walk down hill quickly at 5 a.m. ;)
Not that you can really tell what this picture is but this is the transition area...there were thousands of the most amazing and expensive tri bikes I have ever seen....it was quite the sight to behold!
Looking at Kailua-Kona from the Pier...at approximately 5:15 a.m.....
A blurry picture of Tan and I on the Pier....
Sun rising over Kona prior to the race start.
Another picture of my Baby Love and I on the Pier...
All of these people on long boards came around the Pier...it was pretty cool. I'm not exactly sure what their role in the whole event was, but I was jealous that they were on long boards and I wasn't.
Age groupers start. I was in shock that they start out treading water. In the ocean. For 15-20 minutes before the cannon goes off. I would drown from that alone, no less swimming 2.2 miles afterwards. I'm still kind of in shock.
If you have ever seen "The Cove" and remember the scenes where they are clubbing the dolphins in the cove...all the splashing and flailing. That's what the swim start felt like. Without the blood and high pitched squealing that is. There were arms flying everywhere! I was sure people were going to die.
We stuck around to watch most of the athletes take off on their bikes. It was already scorching by this time and I was feeling really bad for them as they began their 100 mile trek.... they didn't seem too discouraged though.
Skip ahead to the finish line...
We found some awesome seats on the bleachers right in front of the actual finish line... literally like 20 feet away.
We watched as the first pro athletes came through. It was a close race for the men. Chris McCormack won with finishing time somewhere around 8:12.
Mirinda Carfrae came out and won women's with a time just under 9 hours. She happens to be 5'2''ish....which means if she can beat out all those long-legged runners.....I can too! Okay, probably not, but I thought it was pretty cool.
It was a once in a lifetime experience. I enjoyed every single moment of it and was pretty amazed at the size of this production and all the details that go into it. Maybe because my everyday life is consumed by race planning talk...but I truly was in awe of it. Call me crazy but I'd still MUCH rather being participating in the even than putting it on.
1 comment:
I cannot relate to the fact that you would rather be participating in the race than putting it together. =) But that's what I love about you.
Why did you not discuss the crazy stalker in your blury pier picture?
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