IMAZ: From Behind The Table

I volunteered for a run aid station at Ironman Arizona. After participating in scores and scores of events it was about time I gave back and in doing so learned a good many lessons that will help me in November.

I arrived to help set up the run station at 1100 and all was set just in time for Michael Lavato the enventual winner to blaze through at what looked to be a full sprint. Then a sprinkling of Pro's. I was really excited to see Tim Deboom, of course he didn't stop to sign pictures.

I took an hour to go to the transition area to see Nytro and Rainbow and support IronBenny as he came through T2. Good times.

It became a stready stream at the aid station from that point onto about 8 pm. I had set up the Vaseline stand with a clever little box that got lots of laughs and many thanks from those that chaffed like crazy in the dry heat.

Okay enough summation. I'm not getting anywhere.

I realized that 17 hours is a long time. Long enough to finish an Ironman. Really folks, I am telling you that if you put in your training and have the heart, it is yours. I watched good people, no different that you or I, in many cases in worse condition that you or I, determined to cross that line and fulfill their destiny.

The run course was three loops. My station was only two miles from the finish line on the third lap. With the ability to witness my close friends on the course three seperate times I was able to tap into a tremendous amount of mental energy that is just as important as my nutritional plan to finish Florida. When each one came through I would walk or run with them for a 1/3 of a mile and listen to them vent, cry and dream. There were some very personal conversations that occured in such a short period of time that can only occur when an athlete has tapped the only strength left in their body, The Heart. I thank each of you for giving me the opportunity to see your souls laid bare. I gave each of them what encouragement I felt they needed at the time and counted the minutes until I saw them again or hear that they had crossed that line and heard Mike Reilly say those magical words.

An Ironman is really two seperate events, not one race, not three disciplines. Its a swim and bike followed by a marathon. Whether you plan to run it or walk it be ready for it. Really the one person that had the best atittude on the run course was Big John who's race plan was to walk it with 17 minute miles. That was his plan going in and he stuck to it and he did it. Win by an inch or mile, his only goal was to beat midnight, which he did by 20 minutes.

I witnessed men and woman in a daze, completely bonked. I performed risk assessments on many of them as they walked through the aid station and they were completely out of reality. Some unable to apply a thin sheen of vaseline to their lips without using the deliberateness akin to moving a radioactive isotope. Would that be me? Would that be someone I know in Florida?

Last year I watched the beginning of IMAZ. I felt the super-charged electricity in the air, I heard the cannon boom and the watched the swim start; destiny heading due east into the rising sun. My heart was touched.

This year I watched the last Ironman cross the finish line four minutes before the cut off. This year I watched hundreds of people struggle like never before and succeed.

This year I learned what the face of ironman looks like. And it pleases me.

30 weeks is not soon enough.