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We headed south and before we knew it we were back to reasonable temperatures. When we got to Phoenix it was 27 degrees. We stayed with our friends, Beth and Bill and their two twins Liam and Anya. Beth and Bill were participating in their first Ironman competition.
The triathlon is an endurance test involving swimming, cycling and running. It started in the 1970s and was first introduced into the Olympics in Sydney 2000. The Ironman competition started in Hawaii and is an extreme triathlon - 2.4 miles swim; 112 miles bike; and 26.2 mile run (the equivalent of a marathon).
Beth and Bill had been training for 6 months but Beth had not run marathon distance. The competition was going to be her first and coming on top of the swimming and cycling. An Ironman is not for the faint hearted!
The day before the competition we went with them to Tempe Lake where the race was taking place and they handed in their bikes and kit bags. We checked out some of the course and got permission from one of the restaurant owners to park on their car park for the night. We needed to be there by 6am the following morning so we could meet up with Beth and Bill and take photos and videos. We were worried that we wouldn't find a parking spot for Winnie seeing as there are 3000 participants and will be thousands of spectators.
The record for an Ironman is around 8 hours for the professionals but Beth and Bill will need 12 to 15 hours - gruelling! They've already spent 20 to 25 hours per week training for 6 months which amounts to a great deal of dedication.
We drove over to Tempe the evening before and parked in our spot - the restaurant owner wanted us to block one of the car park entrances so that he only had to have security on the other entrance to make sure the car park was only used by patrons.
We walked over to where all the bikes were being kept overnight - and tried to work out how many tens of thousands of dollars worth of bikes were there!!
We got up at 5am the next morning and met Beth and Bill at 6am. Bill seemed relaxed but Beth needed a last minute toilet stop and then there was a bit of a rush to get her into her wetsuit!
The professionals started first, men at 6-45 and women at 6-50am. The big group of everyone else started at 7am. This meant that Beth and Bill were waiting in the water at least 15 minutes and the water was really cold. We took lots of photos and videos but had no way of knowing where they were in the masses. It was sheer luck that we managed to get them in the photos!
Beth and Bill would be swimming for 1 hour 15 to 20 minutes but there is a cut-off time for various stages of the race. Anyone who doesn't make the cut-off time is disqualified. The cut-off time for the swim was 2 hours 20 minutes, several didn't make it and one woman missed it by only a few seconds. That was really tough.
We dashed over to the place where the competitors pick up their bags and managed to get Beth on video but we missed Bill. We went to various places on the bike route but didn't see them because, as we found out later, we were looking for the wrong coloured helmets! The ones we'd seen in the car the previous day weren't the ones they would be wearing for the race! We weren't really a professional photo team and realised too late that we weren't prepared!
We darted around trying to calculate where they would be at any given time and didn't get our act together until the run. By that time we had worked out where to get info on the various routes and also found out that they have electronic tagging at various points so we managed to find out what time they had passed certain points.
For the run, we worked out when Beth and Bill would pass certain points by calculating their times based on their average speeds. This way, we managed to find them so we could take photos and cheer them on at the same time. We have no idea how many miles we covered but it certainly wasn't anywhere close to the competitors, and yet we were exhausted too!
After at least 1 hours swim and 6 hours cycling, some competitors found it difficult to walk after getting off their bikes. One man told one of the course helpers that he could have his bike because he didn't want it anymore! Then he struggled off to get changed for a marathon!
We went over to one of the aid stations where Liam and Anya were volunteering and met up with them and Beth's sister and niece who had flown in to support them. Once we'd cheered Beth and Bill on, we took the other family members back to Winnie for a drink and snack.
Afterwards we went back to find Beth and Bill at various points and watched for both of them as they ran across the finishing line. Bill finished at 7-55pm (12 hours 55 minutes) and Beth finished at 9-40pm (14 hours 40 minutes). Beth would've finished a lot earlier but she was having a great time and stopped to talk to us and others along the route.
Beth and Bill's Ironman in Phoenix.
We didn't get back to their house until after 10pm and it was hours before we finally got to bed. It had been an exhausting day but we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and vowed that we would never do an Ironman! We were unbelievably proud of Beth and Bill - such a tremendous achievement.
We stayed for Thanksgiving which included 2 pecan pies, 2 pumpkin pies and 1 apple pie - for 6 people!!! Don't worry, there were savoury dishes aswell. It was wonderful food and we were all stuffed like turkeys!
Baking pies for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving.
It is a tradition for Ironmen to get an M-dot tattoo and we took photos and videos of this painful experience. We're not really the type for tattoos and definitely not after seeing Beth and Bill get theirs! It's hard to say which is more painful - the Ironman itself or the tattoo. At least the latter is over in 20 to 30 minutes!
Bill and Beth getting their Ironman tattoos.
We always have a great time with Beth and Bill and so we wrenched ourselves away to continue south to Mexico. Our last stop was to visit Willis and Isabel in Tucson. Helen met Willis in Nairobi in August during her Africa trip. Isabel was visiting parents in Germany with their 2 year old son Yuri at the time so Kirsten only knew Willis from the photos and neither of us had met Isabel.
We stayed for two nights. Isabel is a very good cook so we got a real treat. There was also time to play with Yuri in the local park where Helen entertained everyone by trying to jump off a moving swing and falling flat on her back in the sand! It must be over 40 years since she's been on a swing!
