Half Way

We drove down to the half way mark of the marathon where the runners have a stop to get a "special needs" bag that can contain anything they think they might want or need after 12+ hours of exercising. It had just gotten dark as Michelle arrive and they gave the runners glow sticks to be seen in the dark. At this point, she is facing more than three more hours of the marathon.

Almost everyone (near Michelle's pace, we didn't get to see the "winners" who turn in marathon times better than regular people can do in stand-alones) walks because that's all they can hack. Their brains aren't working from hours of nutritional deficiencies. They can't think straight, they just know they have to keep walking in a straight direction until they can't any more. And Ironman has strict rules about no "outside interferance" so even though you desperately want to help, you can't run along side to chat with your friend, motivate, pace them, keep them going. All I could do was watch and cheer even though I desperately wanted to jump in and pace her for the whole damn marathon if I had to.

I knew she might be pissed off at this point in the race (annoyance/anger is a perfectly normal response) so I only wanted to take one flash photograph of her and not get in her way. I said, "Just one for your fans back home!" and I kept my promise, so this is it:


But the cheering crew was still going "strong":