I don't know how to say thank you

It's hard to believe this all started with a simple question; "Is there anyone that needs a guide?"  I'm amazed at what happened from there and wrapped up at 9:47 pm September 9th 2012.  All from one question.

Here was my September 9th 2012:

Race morning started out much like any other Sunday this year, Michael came over before the sun rose.  A work friend, Andy, had offered to drive Michael and I down town and pick up Rod at his daughter's house then shuttle us to the terrace to drop our special needs bags off and see us to the water.  We left my house about 4:30, picked up Rod about 4:45.  We found a parking spot off the Capitol Square and walked our bags to the drop boxes.  We then went to the terrace to make final adjustments to our bikes in transition.  Andy managed his way in to transition by stating that he was there helping the blind athlete, which was the truth.  Our tandem was the length of the terrace away, on the complete opposite side of the parking lot that's used to house the bikes.  Michael was somewhere near the middle.  When we arrived at the bike I turned on and hung the GPS tracking unit and race belt on my seat.  Andy looked it up online and it was working, we were in Lake Monona according to the online map.  A fellow competitor let me use her pump to make sure our tires were ready to go.  After that I helped hold her bike as she pumped hers, noting that she always deflates her wheels first so she knows they are pumped all the way.  There wasn't much left to do accept wait.  We went and waited in line at the bathroom; first time I've been to any event where the men's bathroom line exceeded the women's.  After that pit stop the four of us found some floor space and relaxed.  About 6:15 we started to gear up, putting our timing chips around our ankles, applying the body gluide around the neck and tossing our morning clothes in the morning clothes bags.  We and most of the other competitors began exiting the terrace and walking down to the water.  Andy was giving us a pep talk all the way down the helix.  By the time we got to the bag drop for our morning clothes, it was almost ten minutes to 7.  The athletes were slowly moving to the water as the national anthem was sung and the pro's started their swim.  There were competitors looking at Rod and I with slight surprise and amazement.  A few patted Rod on the back and gave him their appreciation and some encouraging words.  We finally entered the water with a couple minutes to spare.

When the cannon fired we were only 10 feet from shore on the far right hand side.  We hesitated for a few seconds to make sure the athletes in front of us started their swim.  My plan was to swim on the outside right of the crowd.  Rod was on my left, as the swim course was all left hand turns, and I could act as the 'bumper' for him to bounce off of when it was time for a 90 degree turns.  The sun was rising right over Rod so I had a hard time keeping an eye on him even though he was only a few feet away.  Each time I took a breath to my left side I was given an eye full of sun above the water, and a big sun spot below the water.  A couple times I got too far in front of Rod causing his right hand stroke to get caught up in the bungee.  No major problem just an annoyance for him.  I didn't find it to be the easiest course to site on as I had a hard time seeing the nearest buoy and how it lined up with the next one.  The plan to stay on the outside worked well and we had minimal traffic to deal with.  On the long back stretch, over a mile long, we did manage to catch some swimmers.  One in particular was zigging and zagging in front of us making it hard for me to decide where to move Rod.  I ended up having to grab the bungee and pull it in order to avoid Rod getting a possible foot in the face.  Another time I had to break normal stroke and my calf cramped up.  I must have gotten distracted by trying to rid the cramp because Rod stopped swimming and asked if everything was alright?  I told him I was fine and working out the cramp.  We continued.  The rest of the back stretch was filled with gasoline tasting water, from the boats and jet skis, and loose swim caps which scared the crap out of me.  Two times I saw a neon green cap floating and I had to turn and look to make sure there wasn't a body attached.  On our final turn back towards the terrace there was a volunteer in a kayak who was a little closer to the swim crowd that I had expected.  After Rod and I made the turn I noticed a swimmer out to my right; he ended up hitting the kayak.  Not sure if he hit his head or hand, but I popped my head out of the water to hear an apology from the kayaker.  We continued to shore as the voice of Ironman got louder and I could hear cheers.  When we entered the water there were very large rocks on the lake bottom and Rod had asked that I let him swim in to shore as far as he could to avoid walking on the rocks upon our exit.  I stopped swimming and walked a little to get a feel for how deep the water was, then pulled up on Rod's wetsuit to let him know we arrived at shore.  I wasn't prepared for what was next:

What you hear in the video was what we heard as we went through the parking lot to the helix and up the helix.  Andy had found his way to us and walked up the helix making sure we were doing ok.  We walked, took our time and accepted the greetings from the cheering crowd.

 The cheering continued as we entered the terrace for transition 1.  We grabbed our bags from the T1 room then entered the changing room.  We were greeted by volunteers that escorted us to seats, put Rod's socks and cycling shoes on, bagged up our wetsuits and brought us water.  Off to the bike.

We grabbed our steed and walked to the bike out line.

I had made a planning error as you'll notice we have no fluids on the bike.  I thought there was bottled drinks available as we were exiting transition.  So we had 13 miles before we filled up.  The 13 or 14 miles to Verona from the terrace went by quickly.  We were steaming along passing bikers the whole time.  Our speed was met with mixed reviews as 50% percent of the comments were "you guys are awesome!!" and 50% were "Hey that's cheating, you can't have a tandem!!"  We were moving along so nicely I told Rod that I wasn't used to actually passing people on the bike portion of a triathlon as I'm usually the one getting passed.  Once we arrived at the first water stop I managed to grab a bottle of water and hand it back to him, then after grabbing a bottle of Ironman Perform Sports Drink I realized I wasn't going to be able to get us all that we needed.  So we pulled to the side and filled up.  A quick stop.  We continued pushing ahead, flying by people on the flats and downhills.  Our ride to Mt. Horeb was going along fine.  We needed to stop to get rid of some empty bottles and hit the bathroom, so Mt. Horeb High School was the place.  Another quick stop and off and running again.  After leaving Mt. Horeb the course starts it's rolling hill portion on Witte Road just north west of town.  As we were approaching Witte the lead Pro passed us, then another, then as we were turning on to Witte another.  Immediately after turning on Witte there's a steep downhill.  As we got passed by the pro we were starting to descend down that hill.  I got us in gear and we pushed on down like always.  The pro was riding down the middle of the road passing the slower traffic on his right.  We had our momentum going and I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass us by, so I took us way on the left hand side of the road and we went right by the pro.  As we were passing him I glanced at over, he glanced at me and had this confused look on his face like "what the $#%???".  The next uphill started and he powered on by followed by the remaining lead pack.  Rod and I took our place back on the right hand side of the road and I then told Rod that we had accomplished something I've never done and never expected I would ever do, pass a pro.  We chuckled and continued along.  Not too long after that we were coming up on the best cheering section any athlete could have.  Family and friends of mine, Michael, and another members of the "Chafe now brag forever" team, set up shop outside of Cross Plains and stayed the duration of the ride, both loops to support us.

It was something to look forward to, but we moved by in such a blur that I hardly could pick any one person out as I had to quickly navigate the tandem through a 90 degree turn at the intersection.  I'm not sure if my heroics of passing a pro caught a photographers attention, but a professional photographer snapped a couple picture of Rod and I on our way to the hills heading south away from Cross Plains.

I had heard stories from past Ironman Wisconsin competitors about the crowd support on the hills.  There are three major climbs within 4 miles of each other between Cross Plains and Verona.  Each had it's share of people with funny signs, people running along next to you up the hill cheering you on.  On Timber Lane we were given the royal hill treatment - three guys with drums.  As soon as they saw us they yelled "TANDEM" ran down right next to us and proceeded to beat their drums in sync, and ran up the hill along our sides as if their beat carried us to the top.  Mid Town offered more of the same and more familiar faces.  Heading to Verona was now a breeze with a nice long down hill followed by mostly flat, mostly smooth road in to town.  The crowd heading through Verona was great, as expected.  We looped around town and stopped at our special needs bags.  Rod and I had only packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  We ate, then continued on.  The ride continued smoothly as planned but the wind had picked up and our chain problems began.  Outside of Mt. Horeb the chain came off for the first time.  Another stop for fluids and a bathroom break at the Mt. Horeb High School and we continued on.  On or way towards Cross Plains we had two more stops for the chain dropping mid way up hills.  Garfoot Road was a great reprieve and another chance to get going over 40 miles per hour.  Garfoot also meant another pass by our support crew. 

As we approached Cross Plains we realized that we both needed another bottle of water.  We didn't want to stop so we decided to roll through the station and see what would happen.  As we approached the water station we both tossed out an empty water bottle.  Rod suggested that he stick his hand out and try and grab a bottle.  As I approached a volunteer I pointed at him, the signal for I'm coming to you, I reached out and he handed me a bottle with his left hand as he was running along next to us.  As I took his bottle I said "you have another one for him?" as Rod had his hand extended.  Then in one perfectly timed turn of the shoulders the volunteer reached around with the bottle in his right hand, placing it in Rod's hand.  A double bottle hand-off perfectly executed!  The first of the three hills had thinned out as spectators must have started to move downtown.  As we started to climb Timber the chain broke.  We were going so slow that we just tipped over as we couldn't get un-clipped fast enough.  After picking ourselves up I started working on chain.  I had prepared for this as breaking chains is something Rod and I do.  As I removed the broken chain link the Trek Van rolled up.  The tech came over, grabbed my spare chain parts and we were back up and running in only a few minutes.  We bypassed stopping in Verona and headed back towards the terrace.  As we made the turn left off the loop we started up the first hill, and the chain popped off.  A mile up the road we stopped for one final water break 13 miles from the terrace.  This was also the first time that I ate something that wasn't a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a GU.  That banana was incredible, I think Rod and I ate three each.  In the last 13 miles the chain came off one more time.  It almost seemed appropriate that as we started the climb of the helix at the terrace that the chain fell off one last time.  Our entrance in to T2 was as ungraceful as you can imagine; Rod and I pushing the tandem up the spiral.  There were cheers from the roof and some friendly faces waiting for us but by that time we were ready to part ways with our ride.


Run to the finish yet to come as this thank you continues!!!