Not much going on...
Posted by Amber , Thursday, October 16, 2008 Thursday, October 16, 2008
I didn't know if I had enough to say about this subject to write an entire post, but since I don't have much else to talk about, I figured I would.
The Ironman Triathlon was in Kona this past weekend. It was pretty crazy during the week leading up to it because we had all kinds of advertising signs everywhere... mainly Ford and Gatorade banners up and down the streets where the athlete's would be running/biking. We also had WAY more people in town! The traffic was unbelievable! We had so many competitors training all week long as well, so there were cyclists everywhere! It was interesting to watch them training, and we knew it was going to be a crazy day in Kona the day of the competition.
We woke up to the sound of a helicopter, and were scared to even think about leaving our condo. We got online to see what part of the competition they were in. The first few swimmers had completed their swim at that point and were beginning their bike journey. It was pretty cool to watch a big group of people get out of the ocean, run to find their bikes, hydrate a bit, and head on their way.
The Triathlon starts with a swim just over 2 miles, then they begin a 112 mile bike ride, and the finish the race with a 26 mile run! The best can complete it in just under 9 hours!
We knew that the athlete's would be running along Alii Drive, so they were going to run right in front of our condo. I walked down in the afternoon the catch a glimpse of the athlete's running by and it was pretty crazy. At that point, they were still near the beginning on their run if they were heading South and almost finished if they were heading North. The majority of runners were still running south when I went to watch.
One man caught me off guard... he was almost to the water section (where volunteers hand out water as they are running) and he stopped and started dry heaving! I think he would have barfed everywhere if there was food in his stomach. But I just watched in awe. I felt sick just thinking about how exhausted he must have felt at that moment... and to think about how much he still had left to go made me feel even worse! A few seconds later, he got it under control and began again while people in the sidelines cheered him on. It was so sticking HOT outside. I wasn't even moving... just standing there sweating. I couldn't imagine how dehydrated and hot they must be!
I started to think... why in the world would anyone put themselves through so much physical pain?! I know it is about achieving a goal of some kind, and doing something huge, but geez... this is obviously not good for the body at all! I was glad I got to see it, but more than anything I just felt bad for the people... they looked miserable. I guess at that point they might look that way. I didn't see their faces near the finish line, I bet they didn't look so bad then! :) 
