Thursday, July 29, 2010

"You are an Ironman!'


For the past few days I've been thinking about how best to tell the story of Lake Placid Ironman -2010. It is hard to capture the energy of an event that is 140.6 miles - or, a trip that is longer in distance than the journey from our house in Northampton to John & Dee's home in Milton (112 miles). Unless you can witness 2000 swimmers hit the lake that early morning or watch cyclist after cyclist zoom by, it is difficult to imagine.

In a gift shop near the Olympic hockey rink where a American Cold War victory took place in 1980, hangs a t-shirt that reads, "If you have to ask why, you don't understand. Ironman, Lake Placid." I think that sentiment captures much of the Ironman community - a dedicated collection of super-athletes that train, ride, run, swim, and subject themselves to incredible mental gymnastics all to claim membership to a prestigious club. I'm certainly not a member - but I feel privileged to have witnessed Jeff, determined and focused, achieve his goal of becoming an Ironman.

I think there are two categories of people in an Ironman - those who finish and those, sadly, whose body or mind fails them on that Sunday. To witness the finish line was incredible - there was pure joy and elation beaming from those finishers - even those with bloody thighs from a bike spill or - my personal favorite - the man who ran across with his arm in a sling. Watching Jeff run through the finisher's shoot was amazing -

Below are a few more pictures from the event - Enjoy.

(I did a miserable job capturing the event, right? But, really, what is there to say? Athletes swam, biked and ran for an entire day. In summary, that was Ironman.)


Team Jeff - sans Dad who was capturing the shot- posing with the official Ironman t-shirts.

Jeff racking his bicycle the morning before race day.

Kerri-Ann marking one of the transition bags with #510.

4 comments:

  1. I think the pictures are great. He looks fantastic. Thanks for sending them. THANK YOU
    for being by his side in all of this. Keep sending more pictures.

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  2. Thanks for the pics. Glad he had such a great cheer team.

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  3. I know that such a grueling and intense event requires more mental strength than anything. It should be called "IronMind"! But alas, IronMind is not nearly as catchy! So, congrats, Jeff--you are an IronMan!

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  4. love these pics .. yay JEFF!!!! i did get an angry phone call from jeff asking why i did not wish him luck!! ahhh i blamed kerry ofcourse.. hello i need reminders !! xoxo

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