2010 Ironman St. George

On Saturday, St. George had the privilege of hosting one of the internationally acclaimed "Ironman" competitions.

For those of you unfamiliar with what the competition is, think triathlon...on steroids. The athletes begin with a grueling 2.4 mile swim in open water. Afterwards, they jump on a bike and pedal for an astounding 112 miles. And if that weren't enough, they finish by running a marathon.

Simply amazing.

I signed up to volunteer at a run station organized by our good friends, Ben and Cathy Ford. Here's what it looked like staring down the line:

The volunteers held up various items and drinks that the runners could grab as they passed. There were sponges filled with water, Gatorade, drinking water, grapes, oranges, bananas, cookies, chips (for sodium replacement), ice, and decarbonated cola (caffeine and sugar). I helped pass out water to runners on the go, and I'm happy to say I had only one botched hand off.

Here's what it looked like as the runners approached our station:They would actually pass through our station two times, as they had a 13.1 mile loop they had to run through twice. As they passed through the first time, they were often excited and smiling. At the next pass (halfway through the marathon), many of them had definitely hit "the wall" and were focused on just putting one foot in front of the other.

There were so many types of athletes competing, both male and female. They came from all over the world; we saw jerseys from Mexico, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Brazil, and the UK, just to name a few. The majority of the competitors were in their 30's and 40's, but we saw a few younger ones, as well as a few grizzled veterans. One fellow that passed through our station was 64 years old! Perhaps the athlete who inspired me the most was a guy who competed with a prosthetic leg. There were also a few athletes who decided to mix things up a little by wearing different accessories during the race. We had two guys with cowboy hats, one with a sea captain's hat, and one with mardi gras beads and headgear. It was nice to see them having a good time, and it sure put smiles on our faces :)

It was also interesting to see how the differently the athletes acted while competing. Some were extremely focused on the race, not talking at all and just grabbing and tossing what they needed. Others asked us where we wanted the trash, and thanked us for taking the time to volunteer.

Here is a picture of the top male finisher as he passed through the station halfway through the race. He finished the course in an incredible 8 hours and 40 minutes! That is extremely fast, even by Ironman standards:

The end of the bike course was on the back side of our station, so I was also able to catch a glimpse of that segment of the competition. Some of the bikers were cycling up to 55 mph when they hit this stretch of the race:

I stayed for four hours, and wished I could have stayed all day. It was so much fun and so inspiring to see these athletes push themselves to the limits of their endurance. I am definitely volunteering again next time!