Ironman Eve

 

The night before Christmas, the thrill of which you remember as a child, is as nothing to the excitement of the penultimate day on the calendar of the endurance triathlete, the Ironman. Bike check-in is this afternoon and is a normally a lengthy procedure, since each athlete is photographed with his or her bike so the chance is any dishonest character trading up, is narrowed as far as is possible. On the day when the competitors would prefer to be resting, there is a usually a huge queue to stand in, but this year the process was amazingly swift, with a team of volunteers with sun brollies shepherding each competitor to their own allocated position in the vast transition area. They have been efficiently filtered in to rack their bike and deposit the bags holding everything they will need for first the bike section and then for the run. Both Steve’s rack position and the spot that his bags were hung were easy to remember places thankfully.  

By this time all bodies should be hair free and chests and legs as smooth as a baby’s bot-bot. The young athlete that Steve first coached, for Sprint, then Olympic and then Ironman distance events many years ago, had a motto from school days that was, ‘Look the part, feel the part and be the part.’ Looking around the crowded scene on check in day one cannot miss that there are a lot of people living by that rule. A fortune spent on kit and millions of pounds worth of bikes racked up ready to go. 

I very often feel that this day is an even bigger trial for the athletes family and support crew and race day tomorrow has often been claimed to be as hard for a worried supporter dashing to various parts of the course, back and forth like a headless chicken waiting to shout, ‘You’re looking good, keep going’ (Only one more lap of 56 miles on the bike course or another half marathon on the run). It is sheer mental torture standing on the side lines in your own personal varicose vein growing farm. The tension is alarming, sheer heart attack stuff. 

Today was blazing hot for friends stand around in, but thunderstorms are forecast overnight and a couple for tomorrow. Our little group of Steve and I and our good friend Anthony who has come with us for support, have our fingers crossed that the weather is not totally awful, yet, as of this moment the sun has disappeared completely and there is heavy cloud and distant rumbles coming in along the lake.