One year after my Ironman, I traveled back to Madison to cheer on a few friends. I stayed with my friend Lore, who was a part of my team last year and did not finish late year's race because of many obstacles preventing her from making the bike cut off time. Lore trained very differently and diligently this year. She lost 68 pounds since last year. I woke up at 4 am with her and helped her to the race start. I met up with 5 of my other team mates and cheered loudly ALL DAY LONG. We found a spot on the side of one of the biggest hills on the bike course and spent most of the day running up and down the hill hollering through a megaphone at the athletes (with beers in hand!) Lore made the bike cut off by more than a half hour. We cheered her into the night with her run. She fell at mile 21, dislocating her shoulder. She walked the rest of the race and celebrated her IRONMAN status. Afterwards, she went to the medical tent, was sent to the hospital, where she still is one week later with Rhabdomyolosis (kidney/liver problems due to muscle break down), a broken foot and a torn rotator cuff.
Watching the event and cheering I had mixed emotions. I was wonderful to give support to people who had given it to me. It was exhausting. It was inspirational. It was frightening. I'm not sure if I'll do another Ironman, nor am I sure I would have done my first one had I ever been a spectator of a race like that before doing it. But I'm grateful for how training for it changed my life and for the accomplishment. And who knows, maybe you'll see me back in 2012.
