It was simply amazing - these folks are truly athletes! I have greater respect for them. Somerunners bloodied from falling down who knows how, they keep on going! Amazing, folks who did not finish, yet registered to compete - out on the course to egg their teammates on. The different water/food stations, many had a theme, Hawaiian was one of them (I had to drive the through them). Oh yes, the run-through spraystations, tried to get the motorcycle away from them!
The signs of support for the runners, many chalk drawings too!
There is Nat, my cameraman in orange with his "boss". Soon we
are on the toughest part - going slow with full weight. Luckliy Nat owns
a Honda GoldWing so he knew how to be a good passenger. Next - chase down
the running leaders including the winner, Heather Fuhr of Canada, 9:31:11
The motorcycle ran great - almost went as slow as needed be- really
fast when dashing to catch up with the leaders, and drop back again. Turning
around was always a challenge for me. I went up sidewalks, over sand,
around sharp corners with Astroturf on them. - Simply amazing! If
you see any women front runners/Ironman triathlon in magazines, I likely
am in all the roadside pictures. We did have photo journalists on
the back of motorcyclists too...
Allegedly the one hour edited program will show up on ESPN2 on October 14th. If you could tape this - I'd be eternally grateful. It's the Lake Placid Ironman Triathlon. I can then edit it and add my own commentary to the mix.
Thus concludes my experience.
I'm not going to carry a cameraman on the back for free
- now if they paid me....
That's way too much work and besides, I'm in the local 509...
Ride Safe!