IRONMAN in St. George

St. George hosted our first Ironman race yesterday (May 1, 2010). 2.4 mile swim in Sand Hallow Reservoir (58 degree water), 112 mile bike ride (Sand Hallow to Veyo Loop, loop twice)
Then run a marathon. All in a days work, right?

Tami assumed Jason would want to participate in such a show of fitness and athleticism, so I volunteered us to help. We were part of the Runner's SAG team. We were positioned at the turn around for the marathon (they did two loops so we saw folks twice)

in a Gator (large golf cart). This is the view from the Gator. We were on Red Cliffs Parkway about halfway between Pioneer Park and 1000 East.

I'm pretty sure this is the first woman coming around for the first loop. She was HAULING! The 5th place woman looked like she was pumping even faster (a much shorter girl, but her legs were chugging!)

The sign on the truck says "I think I've been here before" "de ja vu"...kinda funny, though I don't know if the runners thought so. Our job was to sit in the Gator and wait for a call to haul something, be it supplies or runners who can't continue. We did haul a load of ice across the road once. That was it for us. Good, I guess. But somewhat boring when you're there from 11:30am till 7pm. We did get to see the top 5 males and top 5 females all come across--they lapped most competitors. We also got to see a man with a prosthetic leg run past--he was within the top 50 at most, VERY INSPIRING! I wish I had gotten a pic of him, there is the true "Iron" man!

We probably saw a MAX of 500 people come around at least once and many come around twice. We finally took 1 runner in the Gator with us when Dennis came to drive us back to our truck. She had a hamstring injury. She said this is the hardest course ever! I guess a lot of competitors said this is the hardest course they have done--mix the COLD water first thing with the hills on the bike course and run, along with the wind (it was windy, and it was chilly--we had to wear jackets sitting still in the Gator) and it was tough. People did comment that the volunteers and people in general here were so nice and helpful and that the race was well organized, that is good to hear, I hope it will be enough to repeat the event in the future!

Here is Jas dropping off some sweat shirts and a blanket to Dennis and Zach (Zach was a trooper, he broke his arm the night before, but still wanted to volunteer!) as they dropped us off after our shift. He's smiling right? He must have had fun...but he has made it ABUNDANTLY clear that I won't be volunteering him for anything ever again in the future...he does not wish to be charitable just because I want him to, or because it is an athletic event...I will volunteer again for sure, if the Ironman comes this way again. Next time I want to do the bike hand off--that sounds cool (except maybe how early it is)--and my friend Sterling Cabana was in charge of those volunteers this year, so maybe he'll want some extra hands next year. I must mention that Andrea Dansie was the captain over our SAG group and she did a phenomenal job, it was organized and easy to do, we flowed seamlessly. It was just a little boring, a good thing considering that had we been busy it would have meant more competitors had to quit, but still tedious none the less. It is a pretty rare day that I am sore from sitting for too long, but that was the case this morning.

Last pic, but not least. The muscles in this guy's legs and butt were impressive, but I have to wonder if he rode 112 miles in the speedo? Many folks were running in their biker shorts--that seems very uncomfortable, but who am I to judge? Running kills me in so many ways that I can't imagine doing it for 1 mile, let alone 26.2 after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles...MORE POWER TO ALL COMPETITORS!! YOU ROCK!