Inspiration Destination: Port Mac

That was overall an amazing weekend. I gave some basic details of the Saturday but will go into a little more detail about the big day, as it was a BIG, LONG day.

In the morning Jared and I got up early (5AM) and got down to the transition area around 5:45, watched the pros start and then headed over to the men's tent to start helping out with whatever we could. It was a MESS. The ground I mean. We're talking mud bath, and this is BEFORE the athletes came through. I just went barefoot, I figured if it was safe enough for the athletes to all be running through barefoot then it would be safe enough for me too. It was gross but I dealt. We set up some more chairs for the athletes and boxed up about a thousand bike pumps. Then we waited.... The first few pros came through and you don't even need to help them really, a couple of the experienced volunteers helped them out but they don't need much, they are in and out SO fast. We did a lot of standing around and cheering for the first 40 or so minutes as the pros started 40 minutes before the age groupers... Then, all of a sudden it was CHAOS. We were both a little timid at first but once you get into it it's just a ton of fun. there's about 4 rows of chairs back to back and about 20 deep, and they filled FAST. Basically the men run in with their wetsuit either half off or full on still and carrying their bike equipment bag with helmet, shoes, socks, nutrition, sun glasses etc... I asked if they wanted help with their wetsuit, or if they were going good with it, I started opening up their bag and organizing their stuff for them to put on easily, then I put the wetsuit and swim cap/goggles into the bag, tie it back up and bring it the corner where we had a MASSIVE pile. Each bag is numbered with your race number and organized for you when you approach, so relatively easy to find. The whole volunteering experience was wicked, and so many of the men truly appreciate it and thank you. Many said "thanks Brian!" (nametag) or "Thanks mate!" And it's nice to feel appreciated. For once I'm on the other side of the equation, but it felt amazing also. Different but still really good.

After all the men were through we ducked out of the tent and went and watched some of the pros and age groupers come through the 60k mark on the bike. It's a 3 x 60k loop so you see them a few times on the bike. We got to see all the pro men and Chrissie Wellington (my new hero) who was only 7 minutes down to the main pack of pro men. She's an amazing athlete, no female can touch her right now. I think she's 6 for 6 in Ironmans, maybe 7 for 7. Anyways, that was awesome. We ran back down to the tent as I had to get my shoes and socks back and we saw that there was free food for the volunteers. We each had 2 veggie wraps an apple and a gatorade. Then we walked back out and met up with Julia and Lee and did some more spectating. We wandered around for a long while and eventually the pros started coming in off the bikes and we got a chance to see them transition for bike to run. Chrissie had a 12 minute lead off the bike, and running is a strength. We ran back and forth watching some come in and then some pass by on the path already 5 or so k into their run. It's again a multiple loop deal so we saw them a bunch of times. We ran around (I did and they all followed, haha) to get pictures of them as they passed by. For the couple of hours we watched the Age Groupers run by, I made a special effort to call them by name (as seen on their bib#) as this is something I truly appreciate when I race. I forgot to mention. I noticed this sign that said "Volunteer Food" from afar so we went over and there was a free barbecue for the volunteers. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but let's just say that we frequented it throughout the rest of the day and here are the final stats: Jared: 8 steak/egg sandwhiches, 3 apples, 2 waters and 2 coffees. Brian: 4 steak and egg sandwhiches, 4 apples, 6 orange quarters, 1 coffee and 5 waters. Lee: 1 steak and egg sandwhich. Julia: 4 slices of bread and a water. Of course Jared and I had to collect these for the ladies. :)

So the finish. This was AWESOME. It was SO weird because Ironman Australia was the FIRST triathlon race I ever watched on TV a few years ago and I watched it so many times that I basically know the commentary like the back of my hand. It was AMAZING to be there the whole day, and witness this finish, I got chills the whole time. It wasn't the same party type atmosphere and same BIG show as at Ironman Canada, but it was still an amazing experience. We saw the pros finish. We watched 10 men finish, then Chrissie came through. She finished in 8:57. A woman to finish in under 9 hours is CRAZY and has only happened a handful of times. Second place female was close to 30 minutes behind. It was ridiculous. We left right after Chrissie finished and did a little speech. We were on the road again at 3:30 PM and made it home by 9:30.

For a super quick, weekend trip it was beyond expectation. I'm SO glad I volunteered and had that experience. The whole weekend though was amazing. Beyond the race which was obviously my main highlight, there were tons of great things. We had a blast at the hostel on the Saturday night, just playing around in the pool room, writing on the wall. (see pictures) To see the Koalas at the Koala Hospital was cool too, they're so cute and we feel good going there versus a zoo! We also took a walk through the bush along this path and we saw HUNDREDS of bats. BIG bats, hanging from trees. It was SO creepy, but super cool.

Jeepers. That was a 2 day trip, I can't imagine what we're going to experience in a week! I'm excited!