Spectating IMKS

We interrupt this regularly scheduled post of the Hatfield and McCoy Marathon Race Report to bring you the Spectating Ironman Kansas Program.

First, a little backtracking to Saturday morning.
Up and at 'em at 3 am.
Run marathon.
Shower, eat and then on the road.
Thirteen hours in the car, roadtrippin back.
Arrive home at 2:30 am Sunday morning.
We sneak in the house as to not wake Nikemom and McRib who are staying at our house.
Doug and I sleep on our couch til 4:30 am when Nikemom and McRib are IMKS bound.
We head upstairs for 3 hours to catch some shut eye and then roll outta bed to go cheer on Nikemom.

We park and hitch a ride on the short bus to the start.
This was Molly's first school bus ride.
As we settle in close to the bike to run transition, the leaders have already come in from the bike and are on their run.
There is so much going on.
Bikes coming in, runners headed down the same road as the bikes...in both directions as well as spectators lining the road.
Too much going on that there ended up being 3 bad wrecks in the time we were there.
One biker flipping over his handlebars so he didn't hit another biker dismounting.
One spectator crossing the road, turning back to talk to someone as a bike comes up on her and creams her.
One where a runner was in the bike lane and a bike hit him.
One too close mishap where an 8 year old boy crossed the road and ended up running right into the back tire of a biker.
Two out of these 4 bikers didn't make it to the run and were carried off on stretchers.
It was horrible. I very easily could have had a heart attack.
They have to get that under control.

As people are coming and going, we try to spot Nikemom to see if she had come in on the bike. We see someone walking their bike in and think it's her. It was. The poor girl broke her chain! I'll leave the rest of the details for you to read on her blog. We find McRib shortly after and hang with him to cheer Stephanie on.

We spot her heading out for the run and she seems to be in great spirits despite having to walk her bike in. Once on the run, she ran down everyone on the last leg of the race. She was strong and finished like a champion at a time I would die for! And this is after the girl had walked in her bike for close to 45 minutes. Congrats Stephanie, you are amazing!

We also cheered on several other friends racing: Jen and Gordon, Trish, April and Jen. Great job guys!

Just two more short months and I'll be out there!