Luke, You Are an IRONMAN!

This weekend I headed over to Grand Coulee for a friend's IRONMAN.  Remember how I cheered his 70.3 Half Ironman and got all inspired?  Well multiply that by... well... 2.  Holy 140.6 inspiration. 

In case you weren't aware, Grand Coulee is in the middle of NOWHERE.

It was a 4+ hour drive into the desert and isolation of Eastern Washington - land of no cell phone service and no internet.  Grand Coulee is also the home to one impressive dam.  And one UNimpressive laser show straight out of the 80's. 

 Damn that's an awesome dam.  I'm clever. 

In case you didn't know, an Ironman involves 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and a full marathon (26.2 miles) of running.  Thus that's how you add up to the 140.6 number.  Another way to say this is INSANITY.  Can you seriously imagine completing this?  I can't.

The idea of working out for THIRTEEN HOURS (and Luke is way more amazing and fast than I am) is just baffling.  Imagining running a full freaking marathon AFTER you have biked for over 100 miles is just plain crazy talk.  Remember that time when I thought it was ridiculously difficult to run THREE miles after biking just 12?

Luke is my new hero for sure. 

So the day involved a lot of hustling around the course.  Once again, we dominated our cheering duties with rockin' sparkle skirts and capes.

Cheering from sunrise:

To sunset (and beyond):

Once again we were able to cheer Luke on during the swim:

During the bike:

AND during the run:

  We literally were running from place to place to see him as many times as possible:

He ROCKED it.
And thanks to the race I think I have solidly decided: 1) I want to run another marathon.  Like NOW.  I desperately want my hamstring to get better so this is possible.  2) I DON'T want to run a marathon as part of an Ironamn.  Like EVER.  and 3) I would like to challenge myself by doing a Half Ironman.  Maybe next summer. 

And finally - we remain AWESOME cheerers.  We definitely deserved some sort of award.  Especially on a course and place as isolated and desolate as Grand Coulee. 

Ever thought of doing an Ironman?  What's holding you back?  Just the plain craziness of it?  :-)