Ironman!

As all of you probably know by the flurry of posts on Facebook last Sunday, on 11/17, Chris finished his very first full Ironman.  That means he swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, then (and only then) ran a full marathon.  He's out of his damn mind.  Overall, he did very well, hitting his goal time of 13 hours with an extra 30 seconds or so to spare, and I'm really proud of him.  Here's how the day progressed - get comfy, this one will be long...

Pre-Race

The Friday before the race, Chris went to the race area in Tempe (the race was run in and around Tempe Town Lake, about 40 minutes away from our house) and checked himself into the event.*  He picked up his gear bags, snazzy backpack filled with goodies (and ads for sport-related services...and BioFreeze, of course), and his wristband, which he'd have to wear throughout the end of the race festivities.

Labeled!

On Friday night, I accompanied him to the Ironman dinner, so I ended up with my own wristband, just for the evening.

Not as fancy.

After the dinner (yes, there was pasta - lots of it), we headed home, and he set up shop in our loft area/reading room to spread out his wares and start preparing for gear check the next day.  What you can probably see in the picture below is the extensive number of bags you need for Ironman gear.  There's a bag for changing from your swim stuff to your bike stuff (blue), one for changing from your bike stuff to your run stuff (red), one for changing from whatever you wear to the race site in the morning into your swim stuff (green), and two bags for things you might need halfway through the bike and run (orange and black).  

Please note that the orange and black bags are labeled "special needs."
Oh, Ironman organizers.  You really are quite funny.

On Saturday morning (after I had my triumphant finish in the Beautiful Estrella Trail Race - check last week's blog entry for that one), I helped Chris load everything in the car and head down to the race site again, for gear check-in.

So.Much.Gear.

The line at gear check-in.
A lot like Disney World, except more expensive,
and the ride you take at the end is far less enjoyable.

Chris racking his bike...

...and humoring the paparazzi (me) in the gear bag area.

After checking his gear, we ate a pleasant lunch at Z Tejas, then headed back to the car to handle some other errands.  On the way back to the Suby, we beheld this amazing sight...

Our next Ragnar van?

Since Chris stated multiple times that this Ironman might be his only full (yes, he still feels that way), I wanted to spectate in style.  Participating in endurance events, sometimes the only thing that makes you keep going when you feel awful is the enthusiasm of the spectators, and I didn't want to let my Ironman down.  To that extent, I made posters, found some noisemakers at the Dollar Store, and wanted to find the brightest balloon I could, to make finding me nice and easy.  Voila!

Yes, the "Get Well" message was intentional.

To keep the majority of the decorations a secret until the last possible second, I made and glitter-fied the posters in our upstairs spare bedroom, sneaking them out of the house one morning before work and from work, into our friend Luis' car (Luis was Chris' coach for the race, and he was planning on being on the course).  During my subterfuge, I dropped the posters on my legs, and as normally happens with anything bearing glitter, much of it transferred onto me.  I sent this picture to my friend Erin, to demonstrate the results.

Glitter foot!

Once we were back home from buying the balloon (and chocolate chip cookies), Chris finished putting together his race nutrition, including some homemade egg muffiny things he's been using for training.  In case anyone wants to know, they're modeled on the recipes in The Feed Zone (a great book), and they include quinoa, sticky Sushi-style rice, egg, pancetta, and Swiss cheese.  He cooks the grains and the pancetta, then lumps it all together, pours in the egg and cheese, then bakes them in muffin tins.  After they're done, he takes them out of the tins and individually wraps them in wax paper for later consumption, particularly on the bike.  He also uses gels and Perpetuem (a liquid nutrition substance), but one thing we've both discovered is that when you're participating in races over 7-8 hours, you just want to chew something every now and then.  Going that long on near-food substances gets old.

Nomnomnomnomnomnom

After a nutritious dinner of homemade chicken parmesan, a mixed green salad, and baked sweet potatoes, we were off to bed. 

Race Day

Race day started early in our house, with the alarm going off at the excessively painful hour of 3:30am.  Yeesh.**  We were out the door by 4:30 and hit the traffic in Tempe around 5:15.  Here's a blurry, early morning shot from the ground outside transition.

That's some high quality photography right there.

After receiving the bike pump back from Chris and wishing him well, he headed to be marked and get into his wetsuit, while I took the bike pump back to the car and grabbed the rest of my spectator gear.  While waiting for the race to begin, I wandered up onto the Southbound Mill Avenue Bridge, to take some photos of the 3000 maniacs in transition.

The transition area from the bridge

Getting ready to hit the water.

Men in green, ladies in pink, and pro ladies in yellow.

The Swim

After taking the shots above, I crossed over to the Northbound side of the bridge, as that was the better side for seeing the mass swim start.  Watching everyone hop in the lake is really exciting for spectators, so I imagine more than one actual participant was thinking of throwing up, just a bit.

The pro ladies finish hopping in

The mass getting ready to go, while spectators on the bridge watch

A shot of the Southbound side of the bridge

It was at this point that the lady next to me turned to her friend and went,

"they look like lemmings."

Truer words...

Since Chris is a strong swimmer, I figured he would be somewhere near the front of the pack, as he'd want to hop off the dock and get the heck out of there before the more nervous athletes came through (if I were doing this, I'd be one of those people walking along the wall in the far left of the shot below, possibly for the entire swim.  Is that legal?).  So, when the pack started jumping in, I took a ton of shots, hoping to find him later in the pictures, once we blew them up on the computer.

The arrow points to Chris.
Well, at least we're 95% sure that's Chris.

This also has a high likelihood of being Chris.

Or someone who looks almost exactly like him.

All the swimmers getting ready to go...

...and they're off!

The sun rising over Tempe Town Lake.

Ah, I fondly remember the days when I didn't wake up until after the sun rose...

Look!  An osprey!

The first pro swimmers coming back into the transition area - in about 45 minutes.

 After the first waves of the age group athletes started coming back in to the dock, Luis (Chris' coach for Ironman and my buddy from work) and I headed to the swim to bike transition area to keep an eye out for him.  There, we saw a teenage guy wearing this shirt that I had to capture on film...

Buddy, I feel your pain.

After waiting and watching for 15-20 minutes, we saw Chris coming out of the water and up the ramp to transition into his biking gear.  Here he comes!

Uh-oh.  Where's my bag?

Phew!  Thanks, man!

Off into the changing tent.

Overall, Chris did really well on the swim.  He thought he'd probably end up taking around 1:15 to finish the 2.4 mile course, and his time was 1:11:05.  Right on target!

The Bike

After being helped out of his wetsuit by the (I'm assuming) slightly damp volunteers*** and donning his socks, bike shoes, helmet, and sunglasses, Chris headed out of the changing tent for a rub down with sunscreen (at which point he said he first noticed the chafing on the back of his neck from his wetsuit closure.  Ouch).  I don't know the biker in the middle of the picture below, but he came out right before Chris, and his helmet was a thing of beauty:

Yup.  Those are some sort of poly-blend fuzzy things on top.  So rad.

Heading from being sunscreened to the bike racks.

About to grab his bike off the rack.

The transition area was in Tempe Beach Park (next to the lake), and the bike course started with the riders heading out of the park in a roped-off zone through the cheering mobs.

Here he comes!

And there he goes!

After Chris headed out on the bike, Luis and I went back to the swim transition to keep an eye out for Katie, Luis' other athlete in the race.  While we were waiting for her, we saw the majority of the swimmers finish and transition into their bike gear.  At one point, the men's changing tent was so full, some folks just decided to plunk down on the grass and take care of business there (thankfully, this was not a transition that involved nudity, although it would have livened things up a bit).  Behold, the sheer volume of Ironman:

After we saw Katie, Luis and I hopped in his car and drove up to the corner of McDowell and the Bee Line Highway, where the bike course made a left hand turn.  Since the bike course was three loops, we knew we could catch Chris multiple times on this corner.

On the back end of Loop 1 - all smiles.

About to make the turn...

...there he goes!

Luis had to head back to Tempe for a volunteer shift working one of the aid stations on the run course, so I set up my spectator shop, so to speak, and hung out for awhile.****

My setup.  There's junk food in that bag, you can count on it.

Here Chris comes on his second loop.  Since all of the bike pictures essentially look the same after awhile, feel free to imagine this being his third loop as well:

As Chris turned the corner above on his second loop back to Tempe, spectating reinforcements arrived in the form of my friend Kristen, her mom Jacque, and her daughter Shannon.  It was lovely to see them, and Shannon seemed to have a wonderful time periodically cheering on the athletes, but more often, throwing rocks at things and sitting in the dirt.  Sadly, I do not have any pictures of them helping me cheer, because I am lame.  After seeing Chris pass on his third loop up north, we hopped in Kristen's car and these wonderful ladies drove me and all my crap back to Tempe, with a stop at a fine dining establishment for lunch.*****  After lunch, the ladies drove me to my car to dump off my chairs, then they headed out.

I headed to the "bike in" area, to watch for Chris to finish his ride.  Somehow, the tracking on the Ironman website wasn't updating properly, so while I saw a bunch of other folks finish, I never saw him.  Here's what the finishing chute looked like - feel free to imagine Chris here:

Overall, he finished the bike course (112 miles) in 6:24:33, and he was happy with that.  He kept himself in the proper heart rate zones throughout his ride, which was great in helping him recover from the swim and not wear himself out too much, since (of course), he still needed to run a full marathon to make it to the end.

The Run

After I realized I missed Chris on the bike, and he was already out on the run course, I hightailed it across the Mill Ave bridge to the north side of the lake.  In scoping out the course the week prior, I realized that sitting under the Southbound lanes of the bridge would allow me to see Chris twice on his first lap and once on his second lap, since the course doubled back on itself there.  I set up my signs and balloon and waited a bit. ******

Eventually, he came along, having stopped at the aid station just previous to my location on the course.  The run course was two laps, so this is around mile 10 of the marathon.

Nomnomnomnom

That's a mouthful

"I hear my name being called..."

"Oh, hi hon!  Let me try to choke down whatever I just ate, so I can smile at you..."

Cheers!

As mentioned above, the course doubled back on itself, so my location also allowed me to see everyone pass around mile 13.  While I was waiting for Chris to come by again, I saw this tiny lady that had been wheeled onto the course.  Although she was supporting one specific athlete, she was having an awesome time offering encouragement and high-fives to all of the runners.

As you can see, folks were lining up to get a high-five from her.

After just a bit, Chris came by, still smiling...

After this, he headed back to the south side of the lake, which took him out of my sight for about an hour and a half (while there, he was able to see our friends Sara and Meg Murphy, as well as Justin Stanley and part of his family).  During this time, our friends Chandra and Seth and their little ladies Sierra and Alex joined me on the course and provided me with much-needed company.  Like Kristen and her family, I did not get a picture of them.  Again, lame.  We all were able to see Chris again around mile 19, on his second loop of the north side of the lake.  After that, I had to wish them well and head out, as I took the opportunity to reclaim Chris' bike and gear out of the transition area, so he didn't have to do this after the race.*******

Post reclaiming the bike, I had about 45 minutes until Chris finished, so I grabbed some hot food (hooray, Island Noodles!) and a place near the top of the grandstand at the finish line.  Luis joined me about 20 minutes later, letting me know that Chris was about 20 minutes away.  During the second loop of the run, the tendons behind Chris' left knee started to bother him, so he ended up walking more of the second loop than he wanted; however, when Luis told him (around mile 23) that he could still make his goal of 13 hours, he hustled it up a bit.  At 12:58 and change, we saw Chris turn the corner and started snapping pictures:

Homestretch!

"Chris Olsen, You are an Ironman!"

After making it out of the grandstands, Luis and I headed to the side of the athlete secure area, while Chris drank some chocolate milk and had some professional pictures taken.

Delightful!

Overall, he finished the run (a full, 26.2 mile marathon) in 5:08:44, and his overall finishing time was 12:59:29 - 30 seconds to spare from his goal time!  Luis and I met up with him after he made it out of the secure zone, and we snapped a few more shots.

Chris and Luis.  Good job, athlete and coach!

Tired but happy - both of us

Thanks for reading this far!  Thanks also to everyone who helped out and supported Chris during his big day, either in person, or remotely (there were a lot of folks tracking him online, and some even saw him cross the finish line on the Ironman video feed).  I'm so proud of him!

Later!

Amy

*  This did not involve also checking oneself into a nearby, helpful mental health facility, although it probably should have been included in race registration...

** Even the dogs were like, "whaaaaaa?  Turn off the damn lights."

*** In tri parlance, these volunteers are called "wetsuit strippers."  Yes, really.  Isn't that delightful?

**** By which I mean I read Entertainment Weekly and cheered a fair amount.

***** Just kidding.  It was McDonald's.  Only the best.

****** This time, I read Runner's World.  It seemed appropriate.  Also, Entertainment Weekly is the smallest magazine in the history of the world.  I was done with that thing in an hour, tops.

******* If claiming a full-size road bike plus three bags of wet, smelly clothes and then taking them a good mile or so to the car, getting them into an elevator, taking off the bike's front wheel, and putting everything in the car - BY YOURSELF - sounds like a whole lot of fun, know that you are wrong.  Also, that you might enjoy Ironman.