Iron man!

Aloha! I had a rare opportunity yesterday to work as a catcher for the Iron man world championship that was held yesterday here in Kona. If you don't know anything about Iron man it happens every year here in Kona and people from all over the world come to compete. People from Germany, Australia, Korea, China, Japan, Denmark- to name a few I think there were 50 countries represented. The Iron man race is a triathlon made up of first a 2.4 mile swim, then a 112 mile bike ride and then they run for 26 miles! I can't believe anyone can do it and they had about 1700 participants. So I was a catcher and I physically caught the athletes as they crossed the finish line. A lot of them cross completely exhausted and they just collapse or throw up and they need people right there to catch them and escort them to medical or wherever they need to go. The exciting part of my job is I got to catch the professionals who came in first. I had a friend who hooked me up! We were first in line to catch. We weren't allowed to catch the first five people because they went straight to drug testing and media interviews but we were right there in the action. The only people closer to the winner was his girlfriend and the press. At one time he walked over by me and I reached out and patted him on his sweaty back (iron sweat) and I said good job. They wouldn't let us have cameras there at the finish line but I took a picture with my cell phone. Since I was first in line my friend and I caught number 6 to finish. It was so exciting. I was there catching from 2:30pm to 7:00pm although athletes came in all the way until midnight. I just loved it. To see all these amazing people with such determination and strength was so exciting and I am thrilled that I was right there in the middle of all of it. There is a lot of emotion in the whole race and it kind of brings a tear to your eye. One of the racers is in our ward and it was exciting to cheer him on. So the pictures are of us in the morning waiting by the water for the race to start and then the crowed and the start of the race with everyone swimming. Then we went and watched some of the bike so there is a picture of Eli and Lance watching the bikers and a picture of a handicapped racer. Then there is a picture of me at the finish line. Lance tried to get a picture but it was hard to see me. He couldn't get into where I was so it is just a picture of me standing next to the athlete after he came in. I am standing just to the left of him in the white visor his girlfriend was actually doing my job. I had just put the towel on his back and we were about to escort him through the press. Oh and there is a picture of all the press taking pictures. I thought that was neat. Anyway, it was such a fun day I had to share it with all of you. Lots of love!