|
October 14,
2007:
Monday
- It's a Wrap -
Race Day
I wish I’d written this final entry closer to
the event but it just wasn’t possible.
Unfortunately when Pete and I first booked our
passage we thought it a clever idea to leave the
night of the race. I’m not sure what we were
thinking, something about the airport being
quiet, but it’s a decision I would come to
regret. Of course I had to leave before the
race ended and that was bad enough but getting
to the Kona airport on Ironman race day turned
out to be a bit of an adventure. I finally
ended up finding a born again gypsy cab driver
who took the opportunity during the extended
drive to tell me all about the threat of the one
world government. Of course, worse than that, I
missed the opportunity to celebrate Sam’s great
day with her and Cliff. Oh well, next year
we’ll be celebrating her win!!
Not sure I have the spit to go over the race.
Most of you will have followed the race on IM
Live (when it wasn’t off line) and would have
seen more of it than I did.
I stuck mostly to the run course along Alii
drive. Ran into Paul Regensburg on his bike as
well so we pedalled up and down, got sunburned
and cheered everyone on – course by the time the
racers came by us, many of the top dogs had
called it a day.
Maybe there’d been just too much bad blood this
year and the gods were angry. I don’t know, but
over one hundred people DNFd and many of them
were pros.
The highlights of the day were seeing Laurent
Jalabert run by – probably the most famous
athlete in the race, and hardly anyone
recognized him. I sure did. Saw him finish as
well – 45 seconds behind Kate Major!
And speaking of Kate Major, I was giving her a
nice little cheer out on Alii and suddenly from
out behind her popped Sam! It was the first
we’d seen that Sam had put herself in a tie for
second. She smiled and gave me a little wave.
I was really happy to see that because it meant
she was feeling okay.
The day got tough out there for her but she got
tougher. She certainly lived up to the hype.
As I mentioned before I had to jet early but I
was happy that her and Cliff made it back to the
house as I was leaving and I was able to say
bye. Sam was listing a little to one side but
she smiling from ear to ear, even though she’d
spent five hours in the med tent!! Those IVs
take awhile sometimes!
Another thrill on the day was seeing Tim DeBoom
up there with the big boys again. He’s a classy
guy who brings dignity to this sport.
Well, I’ve been awake for almost forty hours.
So this blog probably makes no sense at all. |
