I don't lie in the title of this post! My mom, sister Samantha, and I went out to Arizona to be superfans for Amanda and make sure she had everything she could possibly need to have the best first Ironman ever!
And I'll let her elaborate more in her race-recap post, which I am sure she will write once she has rested and eaten ten pies, but here's a spoiler alert--she AWESOME! She managed her nutrition, pace, and all the logistics beautifully, and her only error that I could tell, was not listening to me when I told her to body glide the back of her neck, lest her wetsuit chafe her. She didn't, and got a huge chafe, and then when the saintly volunteers went to smother her with sunscreen pre-bike, yikes, did it sting like a mofo!
But back to spectating. It was indeed bittersweet, and I definitely teared up at the start, watching everyone bobbing in the water as the sun rose, waiting for the gun to go off. But I'm making great progress with my knee and rehab (walking, swimming, biking on the trainer,), and though I won't be given the go-ahead to run until the new year, life is creeping back to normal, and I've already set my sights on Ironman Louisville, 8/24/14.
The morning was chilly and Sam, my mom and I did not envy Amanda having to brave the water, but we got to watch the mass swim start from the bridge over Tempe Town Lake and it was thrilling! Before we knew it, the pro's were already out of the water, and watching them zoom off on their bikes at speeds I can't even master at the bottom of a huge hill (never mind control my bike or even think about sustaining it for 112 miles), was amazing. (And then they run a sub three hour marathon...&$#*&~>+?!)
I loved cheering and hooting and hollering at every person I could (bonus points if they were wearing a shirt/color/jersey that I could make a personalized statement about), and would go absolutely apeshit everytime we saw Amanda, which was quite often, as IMAZ has a lot of loops, both in the bike and run, so we could cut across certain spots and catch her regularly.
My hands are all cut up from ringing cowbells at people, and I only wish I could have chased my sister every time I saw her on the run. Luckily, there was a tent full of tipsy cheer-ers who handled that task well enough! The three of us were out there from 5:30am, when we dropped Amanda off at transition, through the start at 7am, to her incredible finish at 8:46pm, a blistering 13 hours and 46 minutes, well under Amanda's anticipated time of 14 hours, and then the ensuing pack-up and stuffing her with food & water.
The finish chute is beyond amazing--the reactions of the athletes as they finish ranges from ecstatic high-fiving and fist-pumping to determination to sprint that last bit to tears to hobbling and wincing--and I was lapping it up, teary eyed and yelling my brains out.
I loved that 60+ year old women with gray hair and cellulite on the backs of their legs were schooling young, fitness-ad looking guys who looked like they got lost in a spandex factory. I loved that Amanda was very likely the only person out of 2,700 participants who rode on a 48-inch size XXS bike frame (that had to be specially ordered) and her teeny legs owned people who had legs three times as long come the run. And then the additional irony that for all her years of bitching about swimming, it was her strongest portion relative to the field by far! There were guys that zoomed down the stretch with the flag of the Philippines on their backs for the typhoon, and the awe-inspiring amputees.
Yet for all the inspiration and "Eye of the Tiger" refrains I kept playing in my head, it's still all blood-and-guts and explosive diarrhea and sweat-in-blisters. THERE ARE NO HEART TALKS IN THE IRONMAN (amirite to those who know this inane term?!) and I could not think of a better way to spend 18+ hours than watching every sort of person, from pros that defy ideas of what the human body is capable of, to the workhorse who crossed the finish line at midnight, just kill it!
And I'll let her elaborate more in her race-recap post, which I am sure she will write once she has rested and eaten ten pies, but here's a spoiler alert--she AWESOME! She managed her nutrition, pace, and all the logistics beautifully, and her only error that I could tell, was not listening to me when I told her to body glide the back of her neck, lest her wetsuit chafe her. She didn't, and got a huge chafe, and then when the saintly volunteers went to smother her with sunscreen pre-bike, yikes, did it sting like a mofo!
But back to spectating. It was indeed bittersweet, and I definitely teared up at the start, watching everyone bobbing in the water as the sun rose, waiting for the gun to go off. But I'm making great progress with my knee and rehab (walking, swimming, biking on the trainer,), and though I won't be given the go-ahead to run until the new year, life is creeping back to normal, and I've already set my sights on Ironman Louisville, 8/24/14.
The morning was chilly and Sam, my mom and I did not envy Amanda having to brave the water, but we got to watch the mass swim start from the bridge over Tempe Town Lake and it was thrilling! Before we knew it, the pro's were already out of the water, and watching them zoom off on their bikes at speeds I can't even master at the bottom of a huge hill (never mind control my bike or even think about sustaining it for 112 miles), was amazing. (And then they run a sub three hour marathon...&$#*&~>+?!)
I loved cheering and hooting and hollering at every person I could (bonus points if they were wearing a shirt/color/jersey that I could make a personalized statement about), and would go absolutely apeshit everytime we saw Amanda, which was quite often, as IMAZ has a lot of loops, both in the bike and run, so we could cut across certain spots and catch her regularly.
My hands are all cut up from ringing cowbells at people, and I only wish I could have chased my sister every time I saw her on the run. Luckily, there was a tent full of tipsy cheer-ers who handled that task well enough! The three of us were out there from 5:30am, when we dropped Amanda off at transition, through the start at 7am, to her incredible finish at 8:46pm, a blistering 13 hours and 46 minutes, well under Amanda's anticipated time of 14 hours, and then the ensuing pack-up and stuffing her with food & water.
The finish chute is beyond amazing--the reactions of the athletes as they finish ranges from ecstatic high-fiving and fist-pumping to determination to sprint that last bit to tears to hobbling and wincing--and I was lapping it up, teary eyed and yelling my brains out.
I loved that 60+ year old women with gray hair and cellulite on the backs of their legs were schooling young, fitness-ad looking guys who looked like they got lost in a spandex factory. I loved that Amanda was very likely the only person out of 2,700 participants who rode on a 48-inch size XXS bike frame (that had to be specially ordered) and her teeny legs owned people who had legs three times as long come the run. And then the additional irony that for all her years of bitching about swimming, it was her strongest portion relative to the field by far! There were guys that zoomed down the stretch with the flag of the Philippines on their backs for the typhoon, and the awe-inspiring amputees.
Yet for all the inspiration and "Eye of the Tiger" refrains I kept playing in my head, it's still all blood-and-guts and explosive diarrhea and sweat-in-blisters. THERE ARE NO HEART TALKS IN THE IRONMAN (amirite to those who know this inane term?!) and I could not think of a better way to spend 18+ hours than watching every sort of person, from pros that defy ideas of what the human body is capable of, to the workhorse who crossed the finish line at midnight, just kill it!
