Get out and support these athletes, Boulder |
Published in the Boulder Daily Camera, 8/03/2014
If you're reading this newspaper anytime on Sunday, pause for a moment and consider what 3,000 people, many of them citizens of our fair town, are doing right now.
These folks are demonstrating, beyond imagination, the strength of human will by proving themselves Ironmen.
And, today, Boulder, is your lucky day since, simply by supporting these Ironman Boulder racers, you, too, can discover amazing things about the human spirit.
A couple hundred of these folks are the lean-bodied super athletes for whom today is Race Day — the day they've been working toward during months of training that is withering for mere mortals to even contemplate.
Right now, some of the best athletes in the world are out there trying to swim, bike, and run their way to victory and, as the saying goes, there are three ways to lose an Ironman race, but only one way to win — be excellent in every event and do it today.
However, the vast majority of the people out on the course right now are not these supermen and women; they are otherwise fairly normal people who, somewhere along the way, heard a calling to become an Ironman.
Some are strong athletes who chose to aggressively take on the Ironman challenge by attempting to finish before sunset.
But, many out there have just one goal: finish before the race officially ends at midnight.
While it may seem that the super athletes work hardest today, ponder this: the top competitors are done in time for cocktails while those finishing around midnight are going all out for 17 hours.
That takes character and will-power in quantities that most of us can't fathom. And, people of Boulder, they need our help. They need support, and not just the volunteers out there making sure the racers are safe, fed, and hydrated.
They need the citizens of Boulder out on the course cheering for them and telling them that they can do it.
Every racer on the course today will spend time plumbing the depths of their soul seeking the strength and forbearance to keep moving, and every one of them will tell you that they draw energy from people cheering them on.
They need us, and not just because they have to go far. It's more than that.
The 2.4 mile swim is no pool workout. It's 3,000 swimmers over 2.4 miles in murky Boulder Reservoir, and it's a brawl. All around the reservoir, swimmers will be crowded and bumping. Some athletes will be in the water for over two hours. And the swim is the easy part.
Ironman Boulder's bike course is a beauty taking riders north along the foothills before heading east and then south. The challenge on the bike will be the last 30 miles which heads mostly west back to Boulder. This last stretch will be during the heat of the day, uphill, and probably into the wind as they are constantly haunted by the mountains that they have to get to before they can get off the bike.
Then it's time to run the marathon.
With legs of lead, they'll head out of Boulder High with only 26.2 miles to go — four Bolder Boulders and then some.
That's when they'll need our help the most and Ironman Boulder's run course is a great place to watch this race.
Starting around noon, the Boulder Creek Path will fill up with athletes and stay alive until midnight. Fellow Boulderites, every word of encouragement we offer to every athlete will make a difference.
Count on it.
The top athletes will start coming in around 3 p.m., and they're fun to watch. But, in my book, the best time to be there is later, especially just before midnight.
That's when the people who have worked so hard to live out this dream will come limping and crawling across the finish line as they are wildly cheered by the crowd, including many of the athletes that preceded them.
If you want to touch the depths of the human spirit, there will be no place finer than downtown Boulder's finish line tonight.
Supporting Ironman racers comes with a warning label, though. As every racer crosses the finish line, the announcer calls them out like this "Aiden... Laughery..., you... are... an Ironman!" After hearing a few dozen of these callouts, you'll start thinking that you, too, should be an Ironman.
Maybe so.
Today's a great day to celebrate the human spirit, so get out there, Boulder and support these extraordinary athletes!
If you're reading this newspaper anytime on Sunday, pause for a moment and consider what 3,000 people, many of them citizens of our fair town, are doing right now.
These folks are demonstrating, beyond imagination, the strength of human will by proving themselves Ironmen.
And, today, Boulder, is your lucky day since, simply by supporting these Ironman Boulder racers, you, too, can discover amazing things about the human spirit.
A couple hundred of these folks are the lean-bodied super athletes for whom today is Race Day — the day they've been working toward during months of training that is withering for mere mortals to even contemplate.
Right now, some of the best athletes in the world are out there trying to swim, bike, and run their way to victory and, as the saying goes, there are three ways to lose an Ironman race, but only one way to win — be excellent in every event and do it today.
However, the vast majority of the people out on the course right now are not these supermen and women; they are otherwise fairly normal people who, somewhere along the way, heard a calling to become an Ironman.
Some are strong athletes who chose to aggressively take on the Ironman challenge by attempting to finish before sunset.
But, many out there have just one goal: finish before the race officially ends at midnight.
While it may seem that the super athletes work hardest today, ponder this: the top competitors are done in time for cocktails while those finishing around midnight are going all out for 17 hours.
That takes character and will-power in quantities that most of us can't fathom. And, people of Boulder, they need our help. They need support, and not just the volunteers out there making sure the racers are safe, fed, and hydrated.
They need the citizens of Boulder out on the course cheering for them and telling them that they can do it.
Every racer on the course today will spend time plumbing the depths of their soul seeking the strength and forbearance to keep moving, and every one of them will tell you that they draw energy from people cheering them on.
They need us, and not just because they have to go far. It's more than that.
The 2.4 mile swim is no pool workout. It's 3,000 swimmers over 2.4 miles in murky Boulder Reservoir, and it's a brawl. All around the reservoir, swimmers will be crowded and bumping. Some athletes will be in the water for over two hours. And the swim is the easy part.
Ironman Boulder's bike course is a beauty taking riders north along the foothills before heading east and then south. The challenge on the bike will be the last 30 miles which heads mostly west back to Boulder. This last stretch will be during the heat of the day, uphill, and probably into the wind as they are constantly haunted by the mountains that they have to get to before they can get off the bike.
Then it's time to run the marathon.
With legs of lead, they'll head out of Boulder High with only 26.2 miles to go — four Bolder Boulders and then some.
That's when they'll need our help the most and Ironman Boulder's run course is a great place to watch this race.
Starting around noon, the Boulder Creek Path will fill up with athletes and stay alive until midnight. Fellow Boulderites, every word of encouragement we offer to every athlete will make a difference.
Count on it.
The top athletes will start coming in around 3 p.m., and they're fun to watch. But, in my book, the best time to be there is later, especially just before midnight.
That's when the people who have worked so hard to live out this dream will come limping and crawling across the finish line as they are wildly cheered by the crowd, including many of the athletes that preceded them.
If you want to touch the depths of the human spirit, there will be no place finer than downtown Boulder's finish line tonight.
Supporting Ironman racers comes with a warning label, though. As every racer crosses the finish line, the announcer calls them out like this "Aiden... Laughery..., you... are... an Ironman!" After hearing a few dozen of these callouts, you'll start thinking that you, too, should be an Ironman.
Maybe so.
Today's a great day to celebrate the human spirit, so get out there, Boulder and support these extraordinary athletes!
