Oz Ironman

Just back from Port after a wonderful weekend and a very pleasant amble back down the coast (I think we ate our way back to Sydney - eating sensibly starts again tonight ). We've never seen an Ironman before, so everything had a touch of magic and a load of emotion. We saw Rohan's excitement before the start, Hairyleg's disappointment on the sidelines, Auntie's steely determination through the run and Miners' calm acceptance of a less-than-hoped-for day.

The crowd's self imposed silence during the 'a capella' National Anthem sent shivers down my spine. I think that if everyone's nerves were already on edge before then, that just tipped it over. I liked Hamburglar's description of the piranah-like start. One of these day's someone's going to act like a sheep dog and do the entire swim leg running across everyone else's backs .

We scored expert commentary from QueenB and Tux while watching T1, then retired to breakfast with some of the CR crew. After suitably stuffing ourselves at a local cafe, we camped right at the turn into the bike entry and heard Miners being called through on the start of his third lap but we were too far away to cheer. It was a top spectating position. As well as being in the shade, the run leg passed right by us too. Thus we got to cheer all the CRs we could recognise (a sad absence of yellow and blue out there today folks, with the notable exceptions of Rohan and Frank) both coming in off the bike and out to the run.

One disadvantage of knowing so many people out there was that they inconsiderately spaced themselves out around the course so that there was always someone 'just ten minutes' away from coming past, so we didn't get to lunch till after 3pm. This spectating at IM is a hard gig! Some of you competitors should try it some time.

From then until late, tiger angel, Tux and I hung out on the waterfront at the 20/41k mark. Strange just how tired people look at the 224km point in a race - some staggering, some walking, some just trying to 'pick it up' for the last k and others moving smoothly like they were just on their Sunday long run. I loved seeing the smiles on the competitors' faces as they came through the groups of cheerers - I hope we managed to lift a few spirits!

We only saw Rohan and Auntie afterwards, but if they were anything to go by, then there was an absolute load of elation in town. Very happy campers indeed! Congratulations to all you CRs, you made it one helluva weekend.