IM Wisconsin

I have been on the road for the last 2+ weeks and just arrived home. I just had the pleasure of going through a real rewarding experience that is worth writing down. I was at Ironman Wisconsin yesterday doing some work with Rev3. I only knew three people racing, Gus, Lida, and Maura. I was following all of their progress. Gus' day ended first after being sick as soon as he started the run. Then came Lida and Maura. I found Lida about a mile from the first lap turnaround and ran/walked with her until the turnaround. I saw Maura about 30min. or so later. They were both on pace to finish in 16+ hours. I was getting a little worried. I decided I would run/walk the last 7 miles with Lida. I went with her for a mile or so and she asked if I could go find Maura and make sure she made it under the cutoff. Lida assured me she was fine and would be in well under the cutoff but Maura was well behind the pace. I ran the course backwards in the pitch black dark until I found her walking and looking labored. She had about 10 miles to go. I asked her how she was feeling and she said she was cramping and felt she couldn't go any faster because she would go into spasm. I asked her if she had any salt during the run. She hadn't but had a baggie full of salt tablets so I got her nutrition plan in order, salt tabs ingested, and chicken broth to sip. After 15 minutes her cramping went away and off we started running. 3 minutes on, 1 minute walk. We did fartleks.......run to a sign, then walk to the next pole, etc. We were averaging 15:30/min miles and had to keep this pace to make it under the cutoff of 17 hours. I factored in a fudge factor of 5 minutes in case she had to use the bathroom or something. There were about a dozen people on those lonely paths and at one point as I was walking next to Maura a race official came riding up and threatened to disqualify her for outside assistance. I didn't argue and moved over to the sidewalk until she left but come on.....you have got to be kidding me. Its not like she's going for a kona slot or something. One girl had an entourage of 10 people pacing her. Some people just don't get it......they feel some need to use this power they have for one day at 11pm on Ironman night. Maura was in lots of pain but I kept telling her that all this effort wasn't worth it if she couldn't make it to the finish line under the cutoff......thankfully she agreed so my persuasion worked. She made it to the capital square and the crowd was going crazy. She had a few minutes to spare so I told her to make sure she embraced the experience and celebrated this amazing accomplishment. She finished with 6 minutes to spare.

This was an easy decision to do this. It was an incredibly rewarding experience especially since she most likely wouldn't have finished given her pace and cramping situation when I found her. It was a fun experience and to see so many people out there close to midnight cheering her on and others to finish was very nice to witness. Congrats Maura....YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!