We had a major sports event here in Tulsa Sunday. The North American Ironman race. A triathlon race covering over 2 miles of open water swimming in a lake starting a dark thirty in the morning, a 112 mile bike ride through the Osage Hills and finishing with a marathon distance run up and down Tulsa’s RiverParks trails. And no I didn’t participate in the race. I helped out an aid station on Sunday afternoon on the marathon course.
It seemed like most of the racers were from out of state. I was told it cost about $900 to enter the race. It’s like what!!!! Oh well. The organizers really had their act together on this. They can bring a lot of resources to bear. From my point of view as a volunteer they made it very easy to sign up and they broke the tasks down so even I could understand it.
I was in charge of Gatorade. I didn’t have a lot of takers. For one thing they had lots of aid stations so it wasn’t like they were famished when they got to us. I think another thing is that runners would rather have salty type foods or even pickle juice than Gatorade. Back in the day when I was running longer distances Gatorade didn’t sit too well with me. But hey, anybody that wanted some, I was ready! We never really got swarmed during the race. By the time the racers got to the running event, they were pretty well spaced out.
I was amazed by the racers. You have to be very dedicated to do this. You can’t really fake it to make it on a triathlon. The early front runners were running like there was no stress. When I left Sunday night at 7:30 there were still lots of runners just starting their second loop. I was thinking oh wow, are they going to make it another 13 miles or so. Out of all the people I saw I observed only a handful that were what some might call overweight. I saw a lot of people my age or older, probably the majority of them were women who looked very fit.
I was getting kind of hungry and the race organizers got pizza for the volunteers. Sign me up!!
I think the Ironman is coming back to Tulsa for two more years. I’ll be there, volunteering.
I’m linking with Our World Tuesday, come and check it out.
there used to be a similar race down in Pinellas County 10 years ago when I lived there. Looked like fun but it also screwed up the roads around my home and I couldn’t go anywhere that day due to road closures for the race.
Love the first and last photo (one of you) ~ looks like a fun time and pizza besides ~ Xo
Living moment to moment,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Now that’s a tall man!
I think I’d like to work at a Triathlon sometime, there are so many where I live.
My husband had the same color of eyes you do!
Loved the post.
Have a nice week ahead.
I believe the closes marthon is in Courd’Alene for me.
Coffee is on and stay safe
Hello,
I assume the tall man is an Iron Man too. It is great you are able to volunteer.
Have a great day!
Kudos to you for volunteering! The guys you photographed looked very fit. I can’t even imagine giving it a try.
$900? ouch. I dread to think how much that is in NZ dollars. People must sure have money.
I enjoyed these photos especially the last, and good on you for volunteering. I remember road tripping a few years back and passing through a town where this race was being held. We got one of the last rooms in town. I read up about it after the fact and found it all very interesting.
A marathon is hard enough and then a triathlon looks a killer but an Ironman! Some people just don’t know when to stop. Well done for volunteering. I’m sure the competitors were grateful to you for giving up your time.