Reflections on Watching an Iron Man

     Last weekend we drove down to Taupo to watch Rob compete in the Iron Man race. I hadn't had the joy of being in the car with four children for more than an hour before and I have to say I absolutely love car DVD players. It's just so long for them to be in the car. They got really cranky. The drive was beautiful though. It is similar to the drive to Rotorura that I did the week before. Coming into Taupo reminds me a lot of Flathead lake. It's a huge lake surrounded by mountains.
     On Friday the kids competed in the Iron Kids race. There were three distances a 750 m, 1500m, and a 2km race. Tally did the shortest. Indigo and Kaiya did the middle. Jack did the 2km. They had lots of fun with with race. They each got a t-shirt and a medal. They also got pictures with some of the professional triathletes which may have been more exciting for Rob and Tanya than for the kids. The race was very early in the morning so that the kids that go to Taupo schools could do the race then get to school. After the race we scootered down around the shore of the lake. Unfortunately I was getting sick so I didn't particularly enjoy spending time tootling about. After lunch we went back and I took a nap which helped a lot. After my nap we went down to the lake and the kids swam. I stepped into the water decided it was freezing and got out! The rest of the day was just kind of bumming around and hanging out.

After all the kids had finished
Iron Kids.

    On Saturday Tanya got up and went down with Rob to watch him start. I hung out at the apartment with the kids. When Tanya got back we made some signs for Rob then went down to watch the bike. The bike route went right in front of the apartment so it was really easy to watch. Tanya had bought the kids noise makers from the $2 shop. They were really fun. The noise makers were particularly helpful for for me being as I had completely lost my voice. After seeing Rob pass us on the bike we got some lunch and headed down to watch the run. We watched with their triathlon trainers (Boost triathlon training). The kids had lots of fun yelling at the runners and giving them high fives. They also climbed trees and scootered in the car park. It was a super long day for the kids. We took a break from cheering to get some dinner then went to the finish to see Rob finish.
     I simultaneous enjoyed and hated the day. It was fun to watch the kids being supportive and the racers. There were lots of really nice people around to chat with. I just felt ill and had no voice. It is quite difficult to cheer without a voice. I tried a few times but it ended up being more of a squeak than a cheer. Probably not the most motivational thing to hear. I hadn't realized exactly how much cheering there is. For the most part the kids and Tanya were yelling or clapping from the time we got to where we watched from to the time we left. I also hadn't realized exactly how many people go to watch an Iron Man. There was an enormous number of spectators. Many had people in the race but there were also some that seemed to just be there cause the race was in their home town and all the streets were shut down so why not.  Another surprising thing for me was the number of people that traveled internationally for the race. On their running numbers they had countries listed. There were people from Australia, UK, USA, Canada, Japan and many other places. I knew that this is one of the Iron Man Competetions that attracts a lot of international racers but I didn't realize exactly how many it actually attracted.
     For those of you who aren't familiar with an Iron Man Competition it is a 3.8km swim, 180 km bike and a 42.2km run. If you're not so savy with kilometers it's a 2.3 mi swim, 112 mi bike and a 26 mi run. I had a hard time figuring out what all the distances meant. Time wise the pro's do the race in 8-9 hours and it is super variable for age groupers but some finish close the the pros while the maximum time allowed is 18 hours. Rob finished in 12.5 hours and was very happy with it.
   Here is a link to the coverage of the Taupo Iron Man Competition.
http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/coverage/detail.aspx?race=newzealand&y=2014#axzz2v9y2ga9p