Ironman, St George

Yesterday they had the Ironman race in St. George, Utah. What is an Ironman? It's a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run. Back to back to back. Done by one person...in one day...
Who is crazy enough to do this??
A lot of people. Including my sister.

After a 12-hour night shift, Dennis and I rode the spectator bus to Sand Hollow reservoir where the race began.


We got there as soon as the cannon sounded to start the race at 7 AM.
This is what 2,000 people is 59 degree water looks like...


Freaking cold. A few people got hypothermia and had be pulled from the race. Some people couldn't even make it half way and had to be pulled out of the water.
ESPN had a helicopter there.


The first people were done in under an hour!! I didn't expect to see Marge for another hour at least, so I had a lot of free time to take a lot of pictures of a lot of IronMen. Yum..

But it seems like a real Ironman wouldn't be afraid of a little nipple chaffing...

Marge only took a little over an hour and a half to complete her swim! Way faster than we thought.

Can you see her?


She did a little dance


ANd then went over to change into her biking clothes. She was so numb and cold she could barely talk. Her fingers were frozen into the same position she swam in and she could barely pull her pants up and she was starving!
This is her struggling to get her gloves on her frozen hands..


We snapped a quick photo..


And off to the bike!!!!!



Meanwhile, dennis and I had to wait for the spectator bus to pick us up. I had been awake for more than 24 hours but I was soo excited I couldn't sleep. We had to wait a long time for the buses...


A lot of people had to wait a long time for the buses...


By the time we got back into town, Marge was a few hours into her bike ride. We were tracking her pace online and she was cruisin'. The plan was to just see her at the next transition so I could take a nap, but we were too excited. We wanted to find her!
So Dennis calculated her rate and looked at the map and tried to guess where she would be...
And it worked!!
Holla!!!

We found her on 3 different spots! It was awesome. It was such a beautiful day, too.


We went back into town and I got my Ironman gear on.


The Ironman has cut-off times for each section of the race. If you don't finish in a certain time, they pull you off the course. Marge had to be off her bike by 5:30 pm. With her average speed, we knew she would be cutting it close. We went downtown so see the bikers finish and to see them start their marathon.

Marge finished 8 minutes after the cut-off. They told her she couldn't run the marathon.


The worst part is running is marge's strong suit. She has run tons of marathons and could have finished long before midnight, which was the cutoff for the entire race. But because she wasn't off her bike in time, her day was over. She was even feeling pretty good and was all geared up for the run.


She finished a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride. She did AWESOME!!!!



She is my IronSister