Scott completed his first half-Iron Man distance this last Sunday, which is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run (half marathon). It was on the Sandusky coast of Lake Erie and ended inside Cedar Point - "America's roller coast" and home to the steepest and fastest steel roller coaster on earth, among other things awesome.
Scott had to be there at 6:30 am, even though his wave didn't go off until 8:30, and my plan was to get me and the girls there to snap a picture of him coming out of the water somewhere around 9:30 (yeah, swimming in a great lake for an hour...fun).
This is the scene that awaited me.
You don't see any bikes in there, do you? Because I got there about 10:30 and every single person had gotten out of the water. Those are all the "halfers" wet suits laying there.
So....we did a little recon at the park entrance. The park rides don't open until noon this time of year, but Scott's entry fee included two passes (which I think are really up to $35 or $40 dollars now) and I wanted to confirm Zoe was going to be free.
Then we went back to stake out a place to see the bikers coming in. Even though the pros and full distance runners went off on the swim first, they halfers end up coming into the bike transition first.
While we waited, I could hear the park open at 11:30 when they asked for people to stand for the National Anthem. Don't get me started. I stood up and made the girls stop playing, so I was able to notice all the other people that didn't do the same. DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!!!
Okay...then we got to see Scott bike in...
And run out...
...looking strong, and even managed a wave for the girls.
Off to the park for lunch and some kiddie rides. A little bit after that, we met up with the "Seniors" (Nana and Papa Turtle) and stalked the finish line.
Rev3 was great, they had a huge jumbo tron and were announcing all the runners by name as they came in. So I was almost prepared (even though he was in a half hour earlier than expected) at the finish line to take the winning photo.
Unfortunately, my camera was still set to video because I had to record Morgan laughing on the Kiddie Demon Drop. So instead of taking a picture, I started recording a video which is mostly me fumbling the camera around and yelling "son of a bitch", before getting a shot of him walking away with his participant stash (another Kudos to Rev3 for all the cool swag).
I would upload it, but I'm an idiot and can't figure out how to make it work.
Finished in 5 hours and 15 minutes. 95 out of 800 or so. 21 out of approximately 100 in his age group.
The pro that won the full iron man, finished just over 8 hours! Just thinking about that makes me want to go to bed for a week.
Posts
Participant Correction: Swim was to take 45 minutes or less, but who's counting.
ReplyDeleteYou mean to tell me that people didn't even stand for the anthem on the very weekend that we were recognizing the anniversary of the terrible events of September 11th? That's appalling.
ReplyDeleteYou know what's not appalling? Your hilarious description of yourself trying to get the shot of Scott at the end of the race. I laughed out loud!
Congratulate Scott for me. He's an Iron Man to those of us who barely make it down the street and back without running short of breath.