Slo Jo: Inspired by Ironmen

Distance: 0
Pace: N/A
Distance of Other Runners: IRONMAN DISTANCE
Inspiration Level: 10 out of 10

I know I just posted yesterday, but I wanted to give the Ironman report. Flash and I decided to go watch Coach on the marathon portion of his race.

In case you haven't been following a friend's training like I have, a quick reminder. Ironman is a triathlon consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and then a 26.2-mile marathon. The World Championship is held annually in Kona, and there's a great book on it called Iron War that I highly recommend you check out.

(Trust me. It's good.)

The Ironman in Arizona starts with a swim in Tempe Town Lake, a lake renowned for its loveliness natural features dead bodies. The bike course leaves Tempe and climbs up the Beeline Highway up to Shea and returns, and then the runners have two 13.1-mile loops around Tempe Town Lake. Fortunately, Ironman.com's Track Your Athlete feature begins to work again after a worrying pause where I think Coach dropped out, and I am able to see when he started the marathon. Then I draw a little map of the course to calculate where we can find him; the idea was to avoid just missing him and having to wait for him to run 13.1 miles before we got a chance to see him.

(I marked it with the mile times so we could calculate where to be at what time. Flash found this map hilarious. What? It is good to plan ahead.)

Flash and I decide that given the time and my mathematically precise calculations as to where Coach will be when (I didn't have a lot to do on Sunday), we should stand on the north side of the lake so we can catch Coach twice. This creates a parking nightmare. Cops are out directing traffic, and they have clearly cottoned on to our idea of parking somewhere and walking. We park in a store's lot, then notice all the "NO EVENT PARKING" signs and chicken out. We have to park next door where the store is out of business. This seems okay. We walk under the freeway overpass to get to the lake, and notice a car parked nonchalantly in the desert landscaping under the overpass. Um. Is that an acceptable spot? Why didn't I get that spot?

We finally arrive, and the marathon is in progress. We stand on the side Coach will be arriving from. Flash has brought McDonald's take-out with her but is too embarrassed to eat McDonald's in front of these athletes, so she saves it for later. There are some, but not a whole lot, of spectators on this particular spot of path, but one enthusiastic group brought noisemakers and a cowbell. We start clapping and cheering. Some runners say thank you; some are clearly in the zone.

I notice the bibs say the runners' names. I start using them. "Way to go, Amanda!" "Keep it up, Keith!" I shout out, "Good job, David!" and startle the poor guy into stopping and looking at me to see if he knows me. Hey Dave, your name is on your bib. Lots of runners are wearing bright pink and blue compression socks. I tell one woman in pink socks, "Hey, a guy up there has your same socks. You should go catch him!" She pauses for a second and then laughs. None of the runners have headphones--I figure I am breaking up boredom or at least distracting from pain for one second by talking to people.

We collect fist bumps and high fives. A guy in a superhero cape runs by. Some people are doing what I call the Slo Jo Trudge (albeit more understandably after working out for 9 hours than when I do it after 3 miles, but still), and some are really running. I don't understand these people. They get cheers anyway. "Great pace, Bill!" Flash and I note that there are a lot of cute guys out here. I should have brought cards. Maybe I could stamp my phone number on men's biceps. Their tight biceps. But I digress.

Finally, we spot him. Coach! He's wearing a black T-shirt and black shorts. He looks astounded to see us, probably given that we swore we wouldn't come. He made us promise like 100 times. But he is not the boss of me. So, with my stalker map and calculations, here we are in the right spot! He trots by and ignores Flash's proffered high five. We get the giggles after that--we're getting all these thank yous and smiles for cheering from complete strangers, but not from our purported friend! Flash renames him Grumpy. He hadn't wanted us there because it was going to put pressure on him to finish if a bunch of people were waiting at the finish line, which I understand. But popping out at the 8-mile mark is different from waiting at the finish, if you ask me.

We cross to the other side to wait for Grumpy's return and end up cheering on the same group of runners again. There's cape man, and sock girl, and man in all-pink outfit. Some look so tired, and some just look focused and driven. It is incredibly inspirational. Grumpy runs back by, and I quickly reassure him we are leaving. We get high fives this time around..

Flash and I went back to the car, where she could eat her McDonald's in secret. We both went home and finished watching the race from our laptops. Watching the finish is really cool--for every runner, the announcer says, "Joe Smith--YOU are an IRONMAN!" I stayed with it until Coach finished, victory arms in the air. Very very proud.

And very inspired! I should be able to do a marathon if these people did one after riding and swimming more than 100 miles. They put in the work--so can I. You should definitely go out and cheer if a race is in your area--it is fun and the runners do appreciate it!