Leading
up to race
In July of 2015, with some urging from friends I decided
to enter Ironman Lake Placid. I know
what you are thinking, didn’t I say “I would never do another Ironman race”
after I finished the last one. I may
have said that, but then when all my other friends were signing up without me I
got caught up in the “missing out on fun” delusion.
Lucky for me, in November I changed jobs and was able to
quit traveling every week, so I had time to start my training. For the first time in my Ironman history, I
was not injured, so I had big plans for this race. With coaching from my good friend Bill “the
Godfather” Peterson, I began my training journey to race day.
All my training was done with friends, some old and some
new, most of us were on the same journey to Lake Placid ,
some were just out there having fun. We
had good training days and bad training days, and none of us were in sync. Do you know what the good thing about not
being in sync was? There was always someone ready to talk me off the ledge when
I was having a bad day and I in return would do the same for them, when they
had a bad day. It’s interesting how
close you become to friends when you spend hours and hours suffering
together. Everything that happens becomes
a big joke and free game for hours and hours of ridicule. Just remember, what happens during the
workout becomes common knowledge and you will never live it down. Everyone ends up with multiple nicknames, too
many to list and many of the stories of how they came to be would be a blog
post in itself.
The Crewe |
So my training moved along, I stayed on plan with help of
a “crewe” of training partners who talked me off the ledge too many times. Overall though, this was the best Ironman
training I have ever done and I was looking forward to a good race.
Just another training day |
Oh, but then nothing ever goes as planned. My daughter informed me that she was
pregnant, and guess what day she was due on? Yep, that’s right, she was due on
race day! I began freaking out, devising
plans for everyday of the week up through race day. There would be a 3 day window that would make
me miss the race, I hoped that she would have the baby early, but it was
doubtful since this was her first baby.
Race day was approaching fast, with just 10 days until I
would be standing on the starting line.
Finally a little good luck, I found out that Jade would be induced the
day before I had planned to head to Lake Placid . I quickly went into mom mode, making
arrangements to leave a day later and stay with Jade and the baby an extra day
and make sure she would have help while I was gone. Everything went as planned with the birth of
my first granddaughter, Emersyn Ray, she showed up pink and healthy with a full
head of hair. Both momma and baby were
doing great.
Seeing the Guys off on Tuesday morning |
Jade and Emersyn |
My daughter China drove me to the airport early Wednesday
morning and just before I got out of the car, she showed me multiple videos
from my family telling me good luck, one in particular, from my niece
Shayna, brought me to tears. Those
videos made my day, I can’t thank everyone enough for sending them.
I caught a flight to Buffalo
and was picked up by my friend John at the airport and finished the drive to Lake Placid with him.
When I got to Lake Placid another video
came in, and you won’t believe who it was from, wait for it… Swiftwick. The company that makes my favorite socks,
sent me a video of them saying good luck, it was such a great surprise. China had contacted them and asked
them to wish me luck and they did, that just goes to show what a great company
it is, I can’t believe they took time to make the video and send it.
Race
Week
In Lake Placid I was
staying at Devlin’s Olympic Motor Inn, it’s a great little motel, right on the
run course, I would be passing it 4 times during the race. I had many friends staying there as well. We
would spend the 4 days leading up to the race, training, eating and sitting
outside our rooms, which encompassed the entire wing of the motel, talking
every night. It was like an ongoing
party.
The ongoing party at Devlins |
There was one thing that plagued me though, since Emersyn
arrived both Jade and China
were not with me, China
stayed home to help Jade with the baby.
So in turn, I had no family there to help with all the support tasks,
and also to lean on when the nerves hit.
I was lucky though to have such great friends with me. I have to give a big shout out to the Germer
family for stepping up and taking care of all the support tasks for me. They
grabbed my clothes at the start of the race, and picked up my bike and bags
during the race.
My Ironman Support Family |
The 4 days leading up to the race, we swam, we ran, we
biked, we ate and we had ice cream every night.
Those days we spent swimming in Mirror Lake
were refreshing and calming, just being in the lake, gave me piece of
mind.
Our first practice swim in Mirror Lake |
Well, except for the first swim, I finished the swim, and
was standing on the dock, when Mike “Wildman” Hovatter came swimming up. As he was bobbing in the water he yelled, I
need some help. We all thought he was
joking with us, then his head slid under the water and bobbed back to the top,
all of a sudden we all yelled “are you joking?”, and he said, “NO!” and slipped
under the water again. Jeff jumped into
the water, grabbed him and dragged him to shore. He had gotten a cramp as soon as he stopped
swimming and couldn’t kick. The
experience was scary and funny at the same time. We were all just standing there thinking he
was joking and the poor guy was drowning.
Mike giving us a tip before our swim |
The Three Amigo's back again |
One of the furry friends |
We checked in for the race, picked up our swag, shopped
at the ironman store, checked out the expo, got active release therapy at the
expo, oh, and I can’t forget getting cornered by the guy selling electrical
therapy units. He was quite a
salesman. I was sitting there trying it
out, and Russ was right next to me, he thought we were married and was going to
give us a good deal, but then he found out we were just friends, the deal
wasn’t as good then. Then John comes
over and sits down in the chair on the other side of me and he hooks him up
too. After a few minutes he decides since
we are all friends he can give us a really good deal. I felt like I was in an infomercial, if I
bought right now, I could get two for the low price of only 500 dollars and he
would throw in some “bonus accessories” too. I finally said that sounds great,
I don’t have my credit card with me so I would have to come back, yep, you got
it, I never went back.
Checking in |
When it came to eating, we had lots of excitement during
the week. We ate at the Pickled Pig, the
food took 90 minutes to get and then it was awful. Three of us ordered shrimp tacos, and when
they came out there were 5 shrimp split between 9 tacos. The fries were hard as rocks and potato skins
awful. Good thing we had Sketchy with
us, he told the manager we didn’t want to pay for it and guess what?... we got
it for free! The next meal of the day
was also eventful, we got to the restaurant and while standing waiting for our
table they gave it away, right in front of us, so we went across the street to
eat. They sat us outside right on Mirror
Lake , it was
beautiful. We all had our 25 dollar
vouchers for our Ironman dinner so we decided to order steaks. We got our food
and noticed Sketchy wasn’t eating, he said his steak was tough, everyone else’s
was good. When the waitress came,
Wildman told her Sketchy’s steak was not good, she was very apologetic, but
Sketchy said it was fine, he would eat it.
At the end of the meal the waitress gave Sketchy his for free. Of course, now the joke is, Sketchy never
pays for a meal, he gets them all for free.
The shrimpless shrimp tacos |
Dinner on Lake |
I have to stop right here and make the statement that Carolan was on what we call Scottish time all week, that means, if we say 7:00 am, she shows up at 7:03. The funny part is, Jeff would say 7:00, Carolan would roll up at 7:00, but we would have left at 6:55. She would call us names that I probably shouldn’t type. You have to understand Jeff was on a mission, no fun and games. Someone said, “Jeff can do anything”, then someone else said “except relax”. I am leaving out the names to protect the innocent. On the flip side of this, we also had people not taking this race serious at all, in fact, they had not taken anything serious for the last 7 months, I’m not going to say any names, but you know who you are Sketchy.
There was also a little excitement on Friday while
sitting outside the ice rink. Some
little kids started throwing ice balls at Sketchy and Wildman, don’t worry,
they defended themselves using only words and the little boys started looking
through the cracks in the sign at them. I thought I was going to have to save
Sketchy and Wildman, I think those little boys could have taken them.
The snow/ice that was being thrown at Wildman and Sketchy |
Friday night brought the welcome meeting and it was also
Jenna Germer’s, (my number one fan), birthday.
So we did a little celebrating at dinner and gave Jenna gifts that only
the Crewe would pick out. Jenna got a good
laugh out of the gifts, one of which was slang term flash cards. They brought many laughs for the rest of the
week and they even prompted a few new terms to be created. Such as, Gufurting: Farting after eating GU.
Jenna opening her Slang Flashcards |
The night was fun filled while sitting in the grass
waiting for the welcome meeting to start, the rain started, Sketchy and I ran
for cover, finding a picnic table to climb under, while Wildman ran into the
Johnny on the spot, of course, Jeff rolled up in the blanket we were sitting
on. You know what’s coming, yes Godfather walked up as the rain was ending and
saw us on the ground under the table, and we will never live that down. Wildman
however told us how the Johnny was the best smelling port a john he had ever
been in, yes we did, we all went in it to check out the smell and it smelled
just like Tricks cereal.
Waiting for meeting to start before the rain came |
Out of the rain |
Once again we were waiting for the meeting to start and
Russ saw Mike Reilly walk up behind us, I jumped at the chance to get a picture
with him. He was very gracious and even
chatted with me about other Ironman races I have done.
Me and Mike Reilly |
Saturday quickly came and it was time to fill our
transition and special needs bags, and check our bikes in. Filling my bags, I checked, double checked
and triple checked the bags, then I took photos of the contents, so that when I
started freaking out later I could look at the pictures to make sure everything
was there.
Before checking our bikes in, we went to the pre-race
meeting which was on the oval next to the finish line. It was pretty hot and sitting there in the
sun on those metal bleachers I started to get over heated and feeling sick. Of
course we were in the top row, so I had to walk through the crowd down the
bleachers and then down the oval to get to some open air, while everyone stared
at me. I bet they would have clapped if I had puked right there. After standing in the shade for the rest of
the meeting, I started to feel a little better, but then the mental freak-out
started to hit. I doubted I could do it,
I mean, I was just sitting in the heat and I was getting sick, how the heck was
I going to finish this race.
Bike Bag |
Run Bag |
Racking Bike |
Ready to Race |
Bike Transition and finish line |
I was having a panic attack in my head, but trying to be
calm in front of everyone, I didn’t want anyone to know how freaked out I was
getting. Everyone was invited to a
brunch that afternoon at a house some of the team was renting, and all I could
think was “don’t get there and start crying because you are freaked out!” In my head I felt like a poser, I was at the race with 19 friends who are all
incredibly talented and it always seems that no matter how hard I work, I am
always running in the their shadows. I
kept telling myself, that I have my own goals and not to worry about anyone but
myself. Once you start freaking out,
it’s really hard to reason with yourself.
My brain is my worst enemy, I needed to quit thinking about it and just
do it. I mean where could I go to race that was more beautiful than this.
I made it through brunch without a tear, the food was
great, I have to give a big shout out to Andrea and Chrissy for putting the
work in to make it a great afternoon with food and friends.
White Face Mountain |
Mirror Lake |
Brunch at the team house |
It also helped that I was getting photos from home of
Emersyn, Ella and Bruno, so I knew all was well at home. China and Jade texted
me and assured me I would be fine, that they believed in me. My Crewe of
friends were also great, reassuring me that I had done all the right training
and this was just the cherry on the top.
Emmy and Bruno |
Ella protecting Emmy |
Emmy Sleeping |
The Crewe hanging out |
It was Saturday night and was time to put on our race
numbers. This year many of us had rub on tattoos, called tri tats rather than a
black Sharpe. You had to apply them by
taking off the clear plastic cover, putting them on your arm and wetting it
with a wash cloth. So you couldn’t really do your own, you had to have a tattoo
artist. Well, I’m not sure what to say
about my tattoo artist other than I had to fire her. Let’s just say that she
will never live her mad tattoo skills down.
Fired Tattoo Artist |
My Tattoo |
We had so many good luck notes on social media, we could
hardly keep up with them, everyone was glued to their phones reading them. Well except me, I was glued to my phone
looking at baby pictures.
Well wishes before the race |
Peace Out Gram! |
The
Race
Sunday came with an early wake up and a walk to
transition to check on our bikes. We put
air in our tires, filled our bike bags with food, dropped our special needs
bags and headed back to our rooms. Of course we spent a lot of time in the
bathroom for the next hour then headed to the starting line.
Walking to the Swim Start |
At the lake we pulled on our wetsuits and headed into the
water, the water was warmer than the air and covered with a dense fog. We could not see the buoys from the beach.
Ready to hit the water |
The Pro’s took off and we watched as they came across the
beach for the second lap. That’s when
Jeff, Carolan and a few of the other fast people took off. The rest of us
filtered into the crowd at our estimated swim times. Ray, Kyle, Mike and I were all together. I
don’t think you can call any of us fast swimmers. We inched our way down to the
water and headed out into the fog. I thought I was swimming to the outside, but
I must have been way outside, because after about 10 minutes of swimming I see
a paddle from a kayak motioning me in another direction, I was way off course
in the fog. I got myself back on track, but there were so many people in the
water that it was like a feeding frenzy.
It looked like someone threw food in the water and a million fish were
fighting for it, and it felt like we were swimming in the spin cycle of a
washing machine. I have never in my life
swam in those conditions. I can’t tell
you how many times I was hit, kicked and pushed.
The good news was I didn’t really get swam over, so I started in the correct wave for my speed. I made it through the first lap, but near the end was being passed by the swimmers that started in front of me and were already finishing their second lap. My time was about where I wanted it, and I had thoughts of actually being on track. Of course the second lap didn’t go as planned, I seemed to get pushed even more and ended up swimming four minutes slower than my first lap. My overall time though was still much faster than any other Ironman race I had done, so I came out feeling pretty good. Although, the next day I looked at my Garmin and I had swam 2.67 miles. You would think that 2.4 would be far enough, but no, I had to swim more.
The good news was I didn’t really get swam over, so I started in the correct wave for my speed. I made it through the first lap, but near the end was being passed by the swimmers that started in front of me and were already finishing their second lap. My time was about where I wanted it, and I had thoughts of actually being on track. Of course the second lap didn’t go as planned, I seemed to get pushed even more and ended up swimming four minutes slower than my first lap. My overall time though was still much faster than any other Ironman race I had done, so I came out feeling pretty good. Although, the next day I looked at my Garmin and I had swam 2.67 miles. You would think that 2.4 would be far enough, but no, I had to swim more.
An now it starts |
One fact I need to mention, Jeff Germer killed the swim
and won the award for First Out Of The Water. It was an awesome swim.
The weather forecast for the day was a high of 80 with
low winds. So I was ready for a good
bike day. I headed into the transition, where there were so many people in the
tent that I was having problems getting help.
Finally a girl ran over and got me water and she grabbed my stuff so I
could head out. Just outside the tent I stopped for sunscreen and pulled up my
shirt for her to get my lower back. I’m noting this because you will find out
later how important that is. I ran to the bike racks and a volunteer was
waiting with my bike ready to go, I grabbed it and ran to the bike mount line
and took off down the steep hill while hearing voices cheering for me. It was my Ironman family, the Germers, their
cheers put a smile on my face.
Coming out on the bike |
Soon I was climbing and climbing, it still felt cool, but
there was definitely a strong wind, the weather forecast was not on point. I
was still feeling good and riding a good pace. I hit the down hill and was going
over 40 mph. My bike started shaking
because a cross wind was grabbing at my wheel, I got a little concerned and
decided to ride my brakes the rest of the way down. Next was the 14 mile out
and back section, which is nice because I saw a lot of friends in that
section. Greeting everyone was great,
the smiles I got from Godfather, and the rest of the crewe all helped my mental
state. There is something about
suffering with friends that makes it a little easier. I got through the first 38 miles and made the
turn out of Keene to start 18 miles of climbing. I know this is gross to those
of you who are not triathletes, but I pee’d on my bike and was happy about it,
because it meant that I was still somewhat hydrated.
It really warmed up after that though and I was starting
to feel the effects. I kept taking
enduralytes and salt, eating and drinking, but I could feel a fatigue coming on
in my legs. I knew the feeling, I always
get it when I get dehydrated, I was doing everything I could to drink and eat.
I was pulling bbq Fritos out of my bike bag, because they always help when I need
salt, but I dropped them, I almost cried, but I bucked and kept telling myself
it was not the end of the world and to keep riding.
The lack of salt was wearing on me and no matter how hard
I tried, I was not able to pee again for the rest of the ride. I made it
through the Cherries and up the Bears to the cheers of Zilla families, I could
pick everyone out because we had made green shirts for everyone supporting, so
it gave me something to look for in the crowd.
I made the corner where Jenna and Kirsten were taking photos and headed
to the oval to start my second lap. The
second lap was slower, not by a lot, but I was working hard, too hard most
likely. At 90 miles my quads started cramping up and I could not stand, so I
just geared down and kept spinning. By the time I hit the 18 mile climb on that
second loop, I was starting to doubt my ability to finish the race. I was
starting to plan my pity party.
I once again made it to the top of Papa Bear and there
were still Zillas there cheering me on, I really needed it too, the families
and just random people out there cheering for me gave me such a boost, I don’t
know if I could do this without them.
Top of Pappa Bear |
I rolled into transition and stepped off the bike, but
when I did, my entire left leg cramped up, I just caught myself from falling
and some volunteers ran over. I told
them to leave me alone, it was just a cramp.
I worked it out and then gave them my bike and headed to transition.
Transition was not as crowded as the previous transition and
I got my own volunteer, she helped me with everything and got me out the door
pretty quickly, I stopped once again to get sun screen and as I was standing
there John came running out of the men’s tent. I headed out to the run, just a
minute in front of him, but he quickly caught me. I was thinking we could run together for a
while, but it was getting ugly for me and I couldn’t keep up with him.
Sketchy caught me in front of Devlins |
By the time we hit 6 miles, John was a mile in front of
me. I saw so many friends on the course,
too many to list, but Godfather was who I was looking for, I have a connection
with him on this course and I needed those sweaty hugs from him. I needed all
the sweaty hugs I got along the way, but
No hugs for Carolan, Jeff and Carl, they were on a mission and I was not
going to slow them down, it was a quick high five and we were gone. Tyler was always a welcome sight, I could see
him from a distance because of his size and he was killing it out there. Carolan was smiling so much, I’m not sure she
was even sweating, she was having such a good day. I was so happy to see everyone out there,
even Doug in all his scales.
Zilla Scales |
By mile 11, I was passing Devlin’s with all the Zilla
families cheering me on, even Mike and Kathy Wever were there, they didn’t have
a horse in the game, they just traveled up to support the club members
racing. I made it through lap one,
passed Devlin’s again and was headed out for the last time. By mile 14, I knew
it was going to get really ugly. I quickly started calculating in my head how
fast I could walk the last 12 miles.
Once again I began with the pity party, “poor pitiful me, I trained so
hard and everything went right, and I wasn’t injured, but here I was
walking”. I had to snap out of it, so I
just kept looking for friends and tried to be as upbeat as I could, I talked to
everyone as I passed them or they passed me, hoping that the conversation would
keep me going. I was feeling some really
painful chaffing on my under carriage, I’m sure it had to be from me constantly
pouring ice water down my shirt and it running down my shorts. I needed Vaseline badly. I stopped at the
medical tent at mile 17 and took a handful of Vaseline and stuck it right down
my shorts. I warned the lady that “it
was not going to be pretty” and that she might want to turn around, but she
said “honey, you have no idea what I have seen today”, what I did was nothing
new to her. Every water stop has
Port-a-Johns and boy they made me want to run, they smelled so bad, I could
hardly get past them without gagging.
On the run |
I could hear some guys talking behind me, I knew one of
them, Mark. I quickly caught on to a
conversation that I learned more about the day after the race. The piece I picked up on was that the guy
behind me had 6 months to live and he was going to live it to the fullest.
This is a truly great story. An older man named Jim was racing at Lake
Placid. Well, this guy was a former US
Navy pilot who had flown A-6 attack jets, a real Top Gun. He was
married, but had no kids. He had finished 5 Ironman races before this one. He also has brain cancer with only 6 months
to live. He said he was going to prove the doctors wrong and beat the brain
cancer. He had Chemo on the Monday
before the race and had to take 10 pills during the race. He had a great attitude and was talking to
everyone. He made a deal with my friend Mark, he would make sure Mark made it
to the end of the race under the cutoff time, and in return Mark would make
sure he took his meds on time. Well they
both made it to the finish. Once again, I had no reason for a pity party.
I was now at mile 18 and I was getting closer to both
John and Godfather, I didn’t think there was any way I would catch them, but I
was trying not to lose any ground. It
looked like a Zombie death march out there, most everyone was walking, plus
some of the temporary lighting had gone out and it was pitch black on the road,
so you could just barely make out the shadows of people. Oh, and the bugs, I ate plenty of them along
the way, also.
By mile 21, I was back into a more lighted area and I saw
Ray coming toward me, his son was walking/running with him. We yelled hellos and Ray said he was going to
make it and I assured him he would.
There is a whole other story that goes with Ray, let me see if I can
quickly tell it.
Ray signed up for the race with the rest of us and
started training with the “Crewe”. During a Thanksgiving morning run, Ray had
some chest pains, but of course, being as crazy as the rest of us, he wouldn’t
go to the hospital. Weeks later he had a
heart test and was shipped directly to the hospital for 5 bypass heart surgery. We thought his Ironman race was over. He proved us wrong and by the end of February
he was back to training, and training fast. He had 5 months till Ironman day and
he was determined to make it.
On the second lap of the run, Ray’s son jumped in to help
his dad make it to the finish line, but he didn’t have on running shoes, so
Kathy Wever took her shoes off and gave them to him to wear, everyone wanted to
see Ray finish this race. It’s hard to
express in words how incredible Ray’s journey was.
So here I was looking over at Ray, who was so determined
and once again telling myself to buck up and quit my whining. No one but me
cares if I make my goal time; this is about the journey, not the finish time.
I made it to mile 24, which is right next to our hotel
and Kirsten came running up next to me and walked with me on the hill, she
caught me up on who had finished and who was still out on the course. She was
so excited, Amy, her mom, had already finished with her fastest time ever.
At mile 25, Kyle came running past me, he had been
chasing me since the bike and I had a feeling he would pass me. He was the dark horse of the race, no one was
sure how he would do, but we knew from training that he could kill the run and
that is exactly what he was doing.
Mile 25.5, I was almost there, Jenna came out on the road
and stayed with me until the oval, she was excited and smiling and I was so
glad she was there. I missed my family
being there and knew they were having a watch party at home, but I needed some
love. That is exactly what I got from
Jenna, I will be forever grateful to here for that.
Watch Party |
More watch party |
I hit the oval and did the best imitation of running that
I could, I was high fiving all the hands hanging over the sides of the
railings, I came across the line with my head held high. A volunteer caught me,
covered me with a space blanket, gave me water, my finisher shirt and hat and
asked me how I was. I must have looked
awful because he was really intent on getting me sat down, he even bypassed the
photo booth and headed me over to the food. John and Jeff were waiting for me
at the food, then Russ walked up, again I must have looked bad because Russ
started taking off his jacket to give to me, but just as he did my bag with my
jacket arrived and I put on a thick hoodie. My catcher brought me French fries
and pizza and kept asking if I was ok. I
was really fine, just tired, I just wonder how bad I looked.
As I was eating my fries and chatting with everyone, I
heard Mark cross the line, followed by Mike. Mark came over sat down, started
to talk to us, then said, “I need medical help” and passed out with his eyes
open. It was really scary, I thought he
was dead, I kept talking to him, trying to get him to say something. Medical came over, put him in a wheel chair
and took him to the medical tent. We moved out of the way so they could move
Mark and while I was up, I got my photo and got another with Wildman.
Then went back to the table and saw all Marks stuff, I said we should go to medical and stay with him, and find his dad. Now this is either funny or sad, but the guys said, “oh, we can just take his stuff to medical and leave it, they can figure out the rest from his bib number. We need to go get massages.” So Russ took Marks stuff and dropped it off and Wildman, John and I went to get massages. I wanted to yell, “this is wrong!”, but I was too tired to.
We made it! |
Then went back to the table and saw all Marks stuff, I said we should go to medical and stay with him, and find his dad. Now this is either funny or sad, but the guys said, “oh, we can just take his stuff to medical and leave it, they can figure out the rest from his bib number. We need to go get massages.” So Russ took Marks stuff and dropped it off and Wildman, John and I went to get massages. I wanted to yell, “this is wrong!”, but I was too tired to.
We all had our massages, but when I was finished I was so
cold that I laid down on a table and they covered me up, they kept trying to take me to medical, but I
wouldn’t go, I just needed to warm up.
While I lay there, I heard the lights shut off and the
announcement of 12 am. I kept hoping Ray made it in.
I finally got off the table and walked back to my room
wrapped in three space blankets, all the while thinking, “I never want to do
this again, my Ironman career ends here”.
I sent a quick text to my kids telling them I made it and
that I would talk to them the next day. I had a hot shower and screamed while
taking it because when the water hit my chaffed areas, it hurt so bad I could
hardly stand up. My head hit the pillow and I was dead to the world until my
alarm went off 4 hours later. I had to
get my butt down to the Ironman store so I could purchase a finishers jacket
before they were all gone.
I looked at all the Facebook posts, and watched a video
of my kids watching me finish while my 4 day old granddaughter had her foot
kicked up on the laptop, watching too. I call it the social media “aftershock”,
it brought tears to my eyes reading all the posts from friends and family.
I went to breakfast to find out that Ray had finished,
they turned out the lights as he was nearing the oval, but he ran around and
through the finish line. The medical guy
that caught him, saw his scar because his jersey was unzipped and asked him
about it. Ray told him he had a 5 bypass heart surgery 6 months ago and the guy
said, “you deserve this!” and got him his finisher medal. Ray was sure he would not be an official
finisher, but that morning we opened the paper and he was listed as the FINAL
finisher. Ray’s story is the Cinderella story of IMLP 2016.
I saw Mark at breakfast also and found out that he was
just fine, that was funny, because I was sure he had died, but at least now I
didn’t feel so bad about leaving him in medical all alone.
Ray at the finish line |
We discussed our races, the weather conditions, and all
of our injuries, and the award for the worst injury goes to Sketchy for his sun
burned tramp stamp, I’m pretty sure it’s a 2nd degree burn.
The latest in Ironman tramp stamps |
So I am now an Ironman to the 4th power, I
never saw that coming…
Will I do another Ironman???
Photo credit: Kirsten and Jenna
Photo credit: Kirsten and Jenna