Bicycle Music   
 Ride Stats
Distance: 11.13 miles Route: Madison Time: 00:00:00
Avg Speed: 6.14 mph Max Speed: 0.00 mph Avg HR: 0 bpm
Max HR: 0 bpm Calories Burned: 0 Weight: 185
Altitude Gain: 0 ft Terrain: Off: Hills Bike: Cannondale Super V 1.000  XC Susp SS
Club: Secular Cycleism
Weather Conditions: Sunny.
Ride Description: Sue volunteered for the Ironman. I rode around watching, and helped a little when Sue needed a break.
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 Ironman.
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Sue volunteered to help out at the "2009 Ford Ironman Wisconsin". The triathlon in Madison. I went along, riding my bike around, checking things out, and taking some pictures.
Then I helped out a little.

This is such an amazing accomplishment, it's hard to imagine.
We were there for the final 26.2 mile marathon run part of the race day. We were seeing these people AFTER they already swam 2.4 miles and cycled 112 miles on a hot sunny day!

This event brings pain and suffering to new levels. The ambulance hauled away 3 runners and several more dropped out at our feed station.
After seeing what it does to most of the participants, Sue said she'd never want to try it.
She asked if I'd like to try it. I just laughed and said "Hey, I can't swim. The race would end pretty quick for me!" But, dieing in the 5 minutes of the race would save me from 15 plus hours of torturous pain and suffering.
Heck, I've only done one century, and it took me almost 8 hours to do that.
I can't run, so even if I walked the marathon at 3 mph it would take another 8.7 hours.
Anyway, I would never make the cut-off because there's no way I could "run" down State Street without stopping to eat at one (or more) of the many wonderful ethnic restaurants.

At the finish line it was usually a different story. (No pictures yet, my camera batteries died. I'll try to get some from Sue's camera later.) The joy and sense of accomplishment by the runners at the finish line lit up the street almost as bright as the lights on the Capitol building in the background. Others were in zombie survival mode and fell into the arms of the "catchers" after the finish line.

One of the pictures is a little girl playing beautiful classical music on her violin by the side of the running path. She was a big hit with the runners.

Anther impressive sight was the "gauntlet of signs". There must have been thousands of signs with messages of encouragement for the athletes.

I had a great time.



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