Ironman St. George

The Ironman came to St. George this weekend and it was so awesome. They had the Fun Run on Friday night and then we woke the kids up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and met up with my parents and aunt and uncle to drive out to Sand Hollow Reservoir to see the swimming competition. We had to park at the fairgrounds and then take a shuttle bus to the lake. When we got there it was about 20-30 minutes to start time so we walked around and found the best position to watch the start. It was cold and I'm sure the water was freezing. It was amazing to hear stories about the competitors.

Here we are:


The age grouper group:


The professionals started their ironman at 6:50 a.m. They had to swim out to the starting point, tread water until the gun went off and then swim as fast as they could. It was cool to see them start. They followed a woman paddling on a surf board so they knew where to go. Then all the age groupers started. It was one mass of people. They started at 7 a.m. The ironman competition has a time limit for each event. If they got out of the water after the time limit, they were disqualified. They had 2 hours and 20 minutes to swim 2.4 miles in freezing water. After they were off, we walked around and looked at the bikes ready to go (this was Bryan's favorite part), walked around to see the transition point, then found a good spot to watch them come out of the water.

When the first pro came out it was so cool. He ran up the ramp, sat on the carpet, people ran up to pull his wet suit off him, grabbed his bag of clothes, changed, got on his bike and began the long 112 mile bike ride. They shut off access to the reservoir so once you are there watching you have to stay the entire time. So we watched thousands, literally, of competitors come out, change and bike off. We saw some who had to be carried out of the water, we saw some who barely made it and it was amazing.

Bikes before the swim:


Bikes after the swim:


We were there after everyone else left to go to the shuttle buses while the last 2 competitors swam to the shore and we were there when they told them they were disqualified because they were 2 minutes too late. It was inspiring to watch. These men had done an amazing feat and should be proud but it was sad that they couldn't keep going and it was sad that there weren't more people there to cheer them on when they came out.

We then got on a shuttle bus back to our car, drove home in time to watch them ride by our house on one of the two loops. It was cool to see them go by. Ethan and Courtney made encouraging signs to put on the wall.

Biking with the Ironmen:


Then we got on our bikes and rode next to the athletes to Unity Park. We didn't quite make it all the way on our bikes because Courtney was startled by a dog (surprise, surprise) and ran into Bryan's back tire, which then popped and we had to walk our bikes the rest of the day. But it worked out and we had fun at the park where the city had a Fitness Festival set up. Bryan rode my bike back home to get the van and we all went home so Courtney could take a nap.

Ethan and I then went to the finish line in downtown St. George to watch the bike to run transfer and to see the winner cross the finish line. It was really cool and Ethan had a lot of fun watching them.

Here's Ethan at the bike to run transition:


Here's Ethan at the finish line: