Ironman #2 - an adventure at the lake

It's been another busy, enjoyable weekend at the Lillypad.  Paul and I told Moss we thought it would be fun to come out and see the swim leg of the Ironman this year since we had seen quite a bit of the ride and run section last year.  He invited us to help out on one of the docks.  That included camping out at the lake on Friday evening with him and Christie and Supe which was lots of fun.  We hung out around my little camp lantern eating junk and talking.  We were up at 4 am for the volunteer meeting and to grab a bite to eat and then got boated across the lake to the dock.  We got to go down and watch the pro and amateur starts at 6:45 and 7:00 and then headed back to tend to helping get people who had to quit out of the boats and turn them over to medical personnel if need be, and remove their race chips.  This year the weather and water temp. were so great that we ended up with only 14 people between us  and our lifeguard, Lyndsey, on one dock and Moss and Christie and Derek on the other dock.  The finish line was right between the two docks so we had a ringside seat to the drama.  Some of my favorite things were the two guys who stood on surf boards paddling and leading the swimmers out of the start and the whole way.  The guards on kayaks and paddle boards (Supe was on one of those) and the search and rescue boats were all cool too.  They were all so good at their jobs.  The swimmers were truly inspiring and the coolest thing was watching all of them finish...even the last few who didn't make the time cut off.  The last guy to make it in on time (4 people didn't quite make it) was so cool with all the kayaks, surf board guys and paddle board guards pretty much in and kind of lined up in escort fashion and encouraging him to keep it up and finish in time.  Everyone who finished the swim or even trained hard and then couldn't quite get the job done for one reason or another were an inspiration. 

First pro male to make it in!  (Didn't get a shot of the first female pro to come in.)

First male amateur to make it in!

First female amateur to make it in!

Getting ready first thing in the morning.

The swim crew getting set up, Moss and Christie's dock, the amateur start and our sweet boat ride back across the lake.