Monday, September 10, 2007

Learning to swim in a sea of chaos

This weekend I was able to escape the craziness with kids to live the life of non-kidness.
What a nice change.
I went down to Madison to volunteer with the Iron Crew for Ironman Wisconsin. Otherwise known as the Cheddar shredder. My sister had some pics on it on her blog. It will also air on TV on FSN network on October 15th at 7pm.

I can't possibly begin to describe how my fun, it truly was. Our shift began at 8:30am and lasted until 12:30pm. I was so filled with the adrenaline that I couldn't believe it was done. It went so quick!

My sister and I both worked at the food both. It was part of a long line of refreshments meant for the athletes. Water, Gatorade, bananas, oranges, power bars, and gu. There was MANY athletes from different countries as well. It was fun trying to understand some of them as quick as they rode by pointing and repeating what they needed.

I gave bananas. My sister was oranges. She began handing out bananas and oranges after while because a lot of the athletes wanted bananas. Probably to avoid the cramping that was inevitable after excising as hard as they do for at least 10 hours straight. I was the first person of our food station, immediately after the water group. Lots of athletes wanted water. It was scary to see them get so close, and so fast. I would say less than 10 athletes actually slowed down. Many times I had to keep my eyes on the water guy in front of my because you have to run with the athlete. Yah! Try doing that backwards! They are going DOWN HILL and about 2o miles per hour, some up to 30! Not easy! (I know this because they had a police radar trailer set up monitoring speed, so you could see it as they went down hill)

I also had to watch for flying bottles of water that were slipped out of the hands of athletes as they tried to grab some water. Some not realizing they twisted open would throw the unopened bottles back at us. Yes, a little Scary, but so FUN! We also, had to make sure the road was kept clean from debris. We didn't need any bikes plowing in to us or the crowd across from us.

The athletes went by us twice. On mile 55 and 95. Some kept going past on the first round, but as they came around again that was when it got tricky. Some said thanks to us for working that day, some cursed they way they were given their water/food. Some would be delighted with the options and say 'Ohh, BANANAS!', some would say 'GEL, GEL, GEL' in a heavy accent. (Meaning the high energy Hammer Gel or GU packs that we had.)

I saw one guy take a nasty dive in the water part. Luckily, he was the only one, even though others ran into him, they didn't fall. On girl also fell, but she got back on, too!
Two athletes had to replace tires, one had to replace 2 tires, his spare had a hole! One guy needed some screws tightened.

After some pizza, my sister and I headed out to cheer on some athletes. It was interesting to see the people that cheered people on too.

Many people had T-shirts custom made for this event. (or maybe many events, I am sure)

One groups said...
'See Mike Swim
See Mike Bike.
See Mike Run.

Another said "The beatings continue until the morale improves". The had some kids with them and they were all decked out in pirate bandannas.

The groups cheering on the Mexican Ironmen were by far the most colorful and excited. I don't know if it is the Spanish language, but it always sounded so encouraging. One woman had a mega phone and would yell anytime she saw one of the over 300 Mexican team members. They also had many instruments to help make noise. That was a nice idea. My hands hurt so bad by the time we left at just before 3pm.

I had almost forgotten about the Packers that were playing during that time, until one of the female athletes asked us what the score was.

I had gotten a nice T-shirt and sunburned face to remind me of this adventure. It was definitely not the last time for this!

1 comment:

Sara said...

I'm so sunburned that someone asked if I was angry.

No, just sunburned.

I really liked your post. It rocked.

But no mention of tequila!