2015 Ironman Canada spectator report: guest post by Kristen

Posted by Rachel, on behalf of Kristen

Let me start off this post by saying: I am not an Ironman. I did run 2.2 miles yesterday morning, but I probably walked 1.8 miles of it, and an elderly couple out for a morning stroll passed me at one point.

Training:

Cheering for an Ironman is tough work. There were many workouts leading up - lots of loud talking to build my vocal chords, and (of course) the wine consumption. 

Leading up to the race: 

Two days prior I decided to go on a hunt for the perfect rain coat due to the passing showers that were forecasted all weekend. After checking out 7-9 stores, I decide on a sea-foam green Columbia coat, mostly because it's Rachel's favorite and I knew there was a good chance the coat would be passed onto her at the end of the weekend. Due to a parade of small children dressed as animals playing kazoos the cashier, Rachel and myself were distracted and there was a credit card mishap which caused my card to be ran twice. 45 minutes later I was the proud owner of a new rain coat. I'm still not sure how many times I paid for it, I will update when the pending charges on my card clear. I then went on the hunt for a scarf because it was in the low 50's (and 40's on race day), and coming from 110 degree heat I was not prepared. Every store I went into looked at me like I was crazy and they kept saying 'it's summer, we don't keep scarves in stock.' Freeking Canada. (J/K I got some Tim Horton's before we left and I love Canada again.)

The next day I saw 2 baby black bears, so it was an awesome day. 

RACE DAY:

Alarm goes off around 5:30am. I insist that we snooze. After the second alarm we wake up and make coffee. We then take off on the approximately 2 mile walk to the lake for the swim. It is cloudy and humid but overall was a nice walk. We arrive at the lake and it begins to rain, hard. Petey declares that his $10 coat from the mission is not waterproof. I turn out to have it best thanks to my sea-foam green jacket (aka 'Team Chen' jacket since she evidently has a lot of sea-foam green sports gear). 

Swim:

Solid start. I took a video of everyone starting (literally, everyone). I knew the water was supposed to be 20+ degrees warmer than the air so wasn't too worried about everyone though saw people stop at the first batch of surf boards to get help, and many people pulling out. I had a lot of faith in our crew though so watched intently as everyone swam two laps around the course, but decided to save my vocal chords since I knew they couldn't hear me anyways. We decided to walk over to the transition point to try and spot our group, and waited there until we heard the announcer say 'Rachel heading over to the changing station!' and all began yelling. We watched people running out of the changing tents to their bikes and kept wondering 'what is taking so long?' Eventually, Rachel emerged and went into the port a potties, at which point I yelled 'YOURE SUPPOSED TO PEE IN THE WATER'. But I guess I support being clean, so we continued to cheer as she went on. We spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to decide if every tall skinny guy was Matt or not, and eventually found the real Matt  and cheered loudly for him. Then we got angry about the rain and missed Travers somehow :-( Then Paige noticed Chen coming out of the tent so we started to cheer loudly for her trot over to the port-a-potties. Afterwards she came over to say hi and chat, and eventually decided she should go find her bike. We then started to look for Katie and I spotted the strawberry lemonade gatorade she was getting ready the night before (by far the best sporting beverage option) and we moved towards her bike to cheer her on. She came out of the changing tent with a huge smile and took off. 

T1: We went back to the house and immediately cranked the heat up and changed into dry clothes. We had some coffee, took some naps and also had hot chocolate. Overall it took a little longer than we anticipated, but I don't have any regrets on this one. 

Bike: 

We found a really great spot where the bikers would pass us on the road and then loop under a bridge so we could cheer twice for everyone. Due to how long we took on the transition we missed Matt and Travers, but were able to spot and cheer for everyone else. The family next to us would search the racers' numbers after the first pass and cheer by name as the bikers passed under the bridge, which I thought was really nice of them. Everyone got a personal cheering squad. 

There was a very scary moment in this leg for me. A bee flew into my shirt, and being allergic to bee stings I was a little freaked out. But luckily it was swatted out and killed without any major incident (for me, sucks for the bee). 

My hands began to get cut up from ringing the cowbell, but I decided to be strong and power through it, and continue my cheer-cowbell-clap combo. 

T2: We went to a nearby pub and grabbed some burgers and drinks for dinner. I urged most of the others to order a second round as my first order was a glass and a half of wine (they have larges in Canada!). They complied. 

Run:

We found a spot a little before the finish line where there weren't too many people. I walked further up the street to make sure that there were good groups cheering further up - there was - so I returned to our team for some finish-line cheering. We gave out high fives to anyone who would take them (sorry Chen, Rachel, Travers... we were high five-ing everyone, not just you guys) and trying to read names and cheer as loudly as we could for everyone. 

The best sign of the day was spotted right across from us near the finish line and read "JUST REMEMBER YOU PAID FOR THIS." I had decided earlier in the day it would be inappropriate to yell 'You're all crazy!' so appreciated the sign speaking my mind for me, while I continued to yell motivational cliches such as 'almost there!' and 'good job!' to everyone coming in.  

Post Race:

Petey developed a pretty bad cough, and I got stuck in the back of the car with him when en route to Seattle. I nicknamed him 'Snotty Mc. Snot Snot' which he found amusing, even though I was not happy that I was not allowed to open a window for the bulk of the trip. Two days later he texted asking if I turned into Miss. Snotty Mc. Snot Snot, which I did not. Thankfully I am back in the warm dry desert air and feeling fine. 

Overall - I can poke fun at the whole experience, and we kept up a great sense of humor about the whole thing, however every time we got caught in the rain or started to complain about turning blue in the cold we immediately stopped and remembered we did not have it that bad. There were so many people - men and women of different age groups, physical build and background who finished this absolutely insane adventure and the best we could do is try to read their names correctly (super sorry to the Anthony that I yelled 'GO ANDREW' to. There was no one else around so I couldn't even play it off like I was cheering for some other guy nearby). I am not and will never be an Ironman, but I do respect everyone who signed up for it!