Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Spectating IMAZ 2011

Dave and I went to Arizona this past weekend to volunteer for Ironman Arizona and watch my niece, Molly and our friends Linda, Jeff, Catherine and Don race. What an amazing weekend!

We met some blog friends, Ironmoms 2012, Kate, Kim, Annette and Melinda (TriGranny) for breakfast. I've had a super, secret plan all year to sign up for IMAZ 2012 if my body held up to training this year. I think mostly I needed all year to convince myself I wanted to commit to the training! So far so good :) It was great meeting these ladies and I'm looking forward to taking this year to get ready for our big race together.
Kim, me, Kate, Melinda and Annette

After breakfast we headed to Tempe Beach Park to volunteer. Our assignment was to register this years athletes for next years race if they were interested. The best perk of this job was getting to practice! I officially registered myself :)


Later we met our friends, Kris and Paul for some tailgating before the ASU/UofA football game. They are old friends from San Jose and we attended church together at St. Timothy's. It was great meeting up with them!

Sunday morning we headed over to the race early so we could watch the swim start.

The safety crew is out on the water ready for the swim.

These are the pro's starting their swim. The guy on the stand up board led the lead racers for the whole 2.4 miles. He deserves more then his volunteer t-shirt!

Age groupers getting ready for the swim start. 

Some athletes took advantage of the ledge on the side of the lake to wait for the swim start. One of the rules was that you couldn't 'walk' your swim so when the cannon blew they had to jump off.

The mosh pit. 

Bags ready for the athletes.

Bikes in transition. 

Jeff spotting a friendly face after the swim.

I think Linda spotted the same person.

Molly coming out strong after the swim.

Molly heading out on the first of three bike loops.

Jeff coming in off the bike.

Linda looks happy to be getting off the bike :)

Catherine still looking strong after 112 miles!

These guys were part of the run course entertainment. They were having a great time cheering the runners on. 

This guy biked and ran all in blue. 

Catherine running strong.

Jeff on his way to a STRONG finish.

Linda kept that smile on her face while racing hard.

Batman came to the party.

Linda rocking it at the finish!

Molly coming in strong with a BIG PR!

Over the weekend, a lot of people told me that I've caught the Ironman fever. Watching this race I felt like I caught it, then I'd see someone really struggling and that fever broke! Then I'd see athletes running down the finish chute, high fiving and just living the moment and the fever came back. I think that will be typical of getting ready for this race but I have a whole year and I know I can get it done.

I think adding training for an Ironman will certainly keep me busy and I'm looking forward to!





3 comments:

  1. Its so funny...I was looking for IM related blogs and stumbled yours.I just registered for IMAZ next year too. Good luck in your journey. I'm thinking it's going to be a blast

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  2. I think so too! Have you done an IM before? Do you have a blog?

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  3. this is going to fun! Thanks for sharing your blog!

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