This weekend was pretty special. I attended my first ironman as a volunteer. Had a fantastic time with great and very special friends. My roommate, 2 girls from the triclub and I signed up as wetsuit peelers, and 4 close friends were competing in the race, and 3 other tri club friends came down to spectate as well!
I went down Saturday to go the "volley" meeting and learn how to wetsuit peel, very hard skill :P Met our leader John who was so nice, and the other peelers.... hehehe.
 |
| Simon Whitfield and his Olympic Medals |
After our meeting I took advantage of being at ironman and toured and village, ran into Simon Whitfield, he let me wear his olympic medals and get a picture with him...
that was pretty special. Then I ran one loop of the whistler course (21km) to see what the athletes were in for. What a treat, it was just a spectacular course, although I don't know how much you take in after an insane swim and bike.....
 |
| me heading out on the run course |
We all stayed at one of the triclubbers condos in the village, had a group dinner, lots of laughs and lots of fun.
 |
| run course view |
 |
| T1 at 6:00am |
The next morning my ironmen were up at 4am and the peelers weren't far behind at 5am. Out the door at 5:30 and we biked up to the race start. Being a wetsuit peeler was truly the best job ever. I was let into T1 so I got to see all the bikes, hang out with my friends getting ready and first row seats for the terrifying (treading water.... yikes) swim start.
 |
| T1 with my Ironfriends, pre-race pep talk |
As for the actual job I had a blast, nothing quite like an athlete soaking wet running up to you yelling "I need a stripper" at which point I replied with "lay down on the ground".... seriously so fun, and most of the athletes were so gracious.... our volunteer wrangler thanked us about 100 times. My triclub peeler ladies and I stayed to help with clean up and moving of the wet bags before heading out onto the bike course.
 |
| wetsuit peelers! |
Holly and I set up shop and managed to see Winstorm and Chris coming out of olympic village, we then moved up towards the end of the bike course and caught the first place athletes and waiting to see Brendan, Winston and Chris pass and head back into T2. I lost my voice from cheering, so many athletes gave thumbs up and peace signs when you cheered for them, that made it extra awesome.
The rest of the day for me was spent at T2 watching transition and the start of the run and then watching wurtele take the win in a time of 8:39 and looking strong. Just an amazing and fun day. I hope to volunteer there again next year!
 |
| cheering on the bike course |
 |
| Ironman winner |
Now for my big news..... I got home super inspired, my legs are feelings amazing after a horrible post race season slump.... I signed up for ironman. I have my confirmation. I'm doing it. 306 sleeps away from Ironman Couere D'Alene in Idaho. Winston and James, two awesome friends, have signed up as well, and a few others are strongly considering it. My life as I know it ends now. I have very specific goals for this race, but for now I'm keeping those goals to myself. After everything that's happened in my life in the "recent" past I am willing to sacrifice a lot for this specific goal. I am very excited though and very motivated to share my journey which will likely start with the Victoria Marathon..... stay tuned.
 |
| beautiful view of the swim course |
No comments:
Post a Comment