Ironman Sherpa 3 - The Run and Post-race

This is the third of three blogs about my Sherpa experience with my husband during his first Ironman. If you haven't already, you might want to read the first two blogs.

Ironman 1 - Pre-race and Swim
Ironman 2 - The Bike

The Run:
We went back to GG and Anna to re-group. The girls wanted to go back to the condo and GG and I wanted to watch the run, so we let the girls go with the promise that they would text us once they were safely locked in the condo. That in and of itself is a huge milestone – to be able to let the girls go off on their own.

GG and I walked to the beach and snaked around transition to the run course. We knew Tim was long gone and it is a 2 lap course, each lap being 13.1 miles. So we stationed ourselves just before the half-way turn. We had our backpack with water, Gatorade, my phone and a change of shoes for me. I switched to my tennis shoes, just in case Tim wanted me to run with him for a few hundred yards. We were cheering on all of the runners and another fan taught us that you can read their first names if they have their race belt positioned just so. We were shouting “Go, Jim” and “You can do it, Jenny”. The athletes really responded to those cheers. We waited and waited. We were constantly refreshing my phone to see when he was crossing each 2 mile marker. He started strong and then slowed down a bit so we were anxious to see him – not so anxious that it didn’t seem like he would finish, but we were looking forward to having a visual.

While we were standing there, I started to feel woozy. And that made me feel like a huge wimp because here are these athletes pushing themselves to the limit and I am woozy because I am standing in the sun after taking a nap and sitting at the pool. So I downed an entire bottle of Gatorade and I ate the last breakfast bar that we had.

We finally saw him. He looked so good! I ran with him to the Special Needs bag station and he said he wanted me to run with him after he made the turn. I told GG I was going to run with him and I thought about grabbing my phone, but figured we were only going a few hundred yards, maybe a ½ mile, so I would be right back. (Note to self – when that small, soft voice tells you to grab your phone, do it.) I figured the race marshals would only let me run on the course for a few minutes, then I would have to leave him on his own.

We started running. I told him the funny story about my blackberry and the time changing. I told him about the funny Facebook posts. I figured just me talking would take his mind off of the race. When we got about ½ mile from the turn-around, the course got very neighborhood-y. Turns out no one was going to tell me that I had to leave him alone. So we kept running. Actually, we were doing a combination of running and walking so that Tim could maintain his energy. Once we had gone about 2 miles, I started to realize that we needed to let someone know what was going on. We agreed that most volunteers would have a cell phone so we would just call Anna in the condo. Problem is that Anna’s cell phone is relatively new and neither of us knew her number, we just had it programmed into our phones. That wasn’t going to work so we continue to brainstorm. We stopped at the next aid station and Tim ran on while I borrowed a phone. I called my mother in St. Louis because I have her number memorized. Thank heavens she answered the phone. With Election Day on the following Tuesday, everyone was getting barraged with calls so the fact that she answered a call from an unfamiliar number is a minor miracle. I asked her to call Anna on her cell phone and relay a message. We had no way to get in touch with GG as she was on the run course with my phone, which she would never know how to answer. We told the girls to stay at the condo and wait for GG until 6:00. If GG wasn’t back at 6:00, they needed to head down to the bleachers and wait for Tim and I to come to the finish line. With that settled, I raced to catch up with Tim. Once I caught up, we ran and walked and fell into a great rhythm. We talked and walked and ran and joked and time just flew by. When we passed the 18 mile marker, I realized that I should probably head back. Tim was going to turn-around at 19.5 so I got him to about a mile from the turn-around and I gave him a kiss and started to head back. We were well into the Panama Beach neighborhoods so my only choice was to run the race route. There was no way to short-cut it because I would certainly get lost.

As soon as I started running by myself, the reality of our situation started to sink in. I was 5 miles from the transition area and finish line. It was 5:08 on my watch. I run 10 minute miles. If I ran all 5 miles at my usual pace, I would reach my babies at 6:00. I now cannot believe that I told my 11 year old and 10 year old to leave the safety of the condo and walk into a crowd of thousands of people and wait for us to return. What if GG didn’t go back to the room? What if the girls got lost or scared? What if, what if, what if? It is worthwhile to note that the longest I have ever run in my life is just under 6 miles. Now, after already walking/running 5 miles, I had to run without stopping for 5 straight miles to make sure I got to the girls in time. This is when the parenting instincts kick in because there was NO way I was stopping or slowing down. While I was running, and passing Ironman athletes left and right, the crowd started cheering me on. At first, I felt horribly guilty because I wasn’t an Ironman. I hadn’t done activities that these amazing athletes had done. But then I got over the guilt. Because I was doing something I had never done before – running 5 miles at a rapid clip – so I accepted their support and cheer and used it as additional fuel.

With one mile left, I decided that I needed to get off the course because I didn’t want to get ‘tunneled’ into the finish because that would be super-awkward. So I veered off and ran through spectators and on sidewalks. I got to the finish area right at 6:00. I ran through the crowds towards the bleachers and the condo and I ran right into GG and the girls. Thank God. What a tremendous relief! Turns out GG waited for me until about 5:15 and then she wanted to leave a note in case I came back. Bless her heart, she tracked down paper, a pencil and tape to leave me a note. When she got back to the condo to get the girls, Anna failed to mention that I had called and that we had a plan. GG had no way of knowing where Tim was and when he would finish, but she just figured they needed to head towards the finish line at about 6:00. Thankfully, it all worked out.

The sun was now setting and the reality of what I had just done is starting to sink in. I ran without stretching and without good nutrition. I am freezing, achy and covered in sweat. Luckily Anna had a sweatshirt on and she wasn’t cold so I was able to borrow that from her. They didn’t bring my phone down from the condo, but they brought Tim’s. I am a blackberry fan (as previously mentioned) so figuring out how to use Tim’s smartphone to check his progress took some doing.

The four of us found a stop along the fence line for the final 200 yards of the race. I am watching Tim’s splits and he is actually started to speed up. He had dropped to 13 minute miles when we were running/walking and during the final 6 miles, he had picked up the pace to 9 minute miles. I couldn’t imagine what was going on, but he was cooking. We didn’t take signs to the finish so Tim would have no way to really see us. When we saw him coming, the girls and I started screaming and waving our arms. Tim made eye contact with me and we were so proud. As soon as he passed, I raced to the finish line to catch him. When his name was called “Tim Runyan from Waukee, Iowa – You are an Ironman”, I screamed and hooted and hollered. After he got his medal, I could talk to him through the fencing. Turns out he didn’t see us in the final chute. He heard me holler when his name was called but he didn’t remember seeing us. After we were able to reach him, he told us what happened on the run. After I left, he ended up next to another first time Ironman contender, a girl named Erica. She actually had a watch so they started running together to support each other. After doing some mental calculations, Erica realized that if they could keep a 9 minute pace, they could finish in less than 12 hours. They set their mind to it, and low and behold, they came across the finish line at 11:51. Tim had never had a goal of sub-12 hours and he was over the moon!

After we got Tim situated, he wanted to get some food, but unlike the Half-Ironman in Kansas, the food was only for the athletes. At this point, I was fairly miserable, so I headed back to the condo with the girls. I took at shower which felt soooo good and I knew I needed to eat something. Unfortunately, all we had in the condo was – you guessed it – the last 1/3 of the Pasta Carraba’s. I was so sick of eating that same meal but beggars can’t be choosers. Tim came back and he showered too and put on his compression tights and found his spot on the couch. GG and I went back down to transition to get his bike and his transition bags. It was so well organized, it took no time at all and we were back to the condo with all of his stuff. We had talked about going down to cheer on the midnight finishers, but honestly, we just didn’t have it in us. I think the entire condo was sound asleep at 10:00.

The next morning, when I woke up, Tim was gone. I knew that the “Finishers” merchandise went on sale at 7:00 a.m. and we expected there to be quite a long line so I figured that is where Tim went. He returned to the condo with a shirt, hat, jacket and I am sure much more. His finisher jacket is quite something. Turns out, Tim woke up at 4:00 in the morning and went to Waffle House for breakfast. Just like Carraba’s the night before the race, the 4 a.m. crowd at Waffle House was a curious mix of late-night partiers and Ironman athletes.

We decided to go to the beach to enjoy the Florida perks and while we were there, Tim fell fast asleep in the sand. I took the girls up to the heated pool and an hour later, Tim came up and said “Ironman is hungry.” This became his new mantra for the day – referring to himself in the 3rd person as “Ironman.” We all went and dressed and headed to the outdoor mall in Panama City. We couldn’t decide where to have lunch so we settled on Dick’s Last Resort. I thought Tim knew the way that Dick’s worked but turns out, he had no idea, so the insulting and cussing and basic un-kid-friendliness was news to him. We handled it okay and Tim continued to say things like “Ironman wants a sandwich” to which Natalie replied “Honey badger don’t care what Ironman wants.” It was so funny. She used the phrase in the perfect context and she absolutely dead-panned it. Classic.

We then went to see “Wretch it Ralph” at the movie theater. It was such a cute movie but when it finished, Tim was pretty sore and tired. We returned to the condo and Tim fell sound asleep. I walked to Wal-Mart and bought things to make dinner. I figured another restaurant meal wasn’t going to work for us. Despite my inability cook, I managed a decent salad, with a chicken pasta dish. Tim woke up and we enjoyed some family time.

The next day, we flew home. We had witnessed Tim accomplishing an amazing feat and in mind-boggling time and we had enjoyed a great family weekend as well. Loads of laughter, bonding and supporting each other. All in all – it was a magical experience!

Ironman Sherpa 2 - The Bike

This is the second of three blogs about my Sherpa experience with my husband during his first Ironman. Be sure to read the first part of the story.

Ironman Sherpa 1 - Pre-race and Swim.

The Bike:

I split up with GG and the girls as they headed back towards the condo to cheer Tim on as he started biking. I decided to try and see him through transition. Thousands of spectators were 5 people deep along the transition fencing so I quickly gave up that idea. I met up with GG and the girls and we waited for Tim to come by. At 8:24, he passed us and we were able to wish him well and show our support. We then went up to the condo, figuring we had about 6 hours before we would see him again.

At 9:20, I was so tired; I decided to lay down for a nap. Panama City is in the central time zone, which is very odd to me because I assumed all of Florida was in the eastern time zone. Saturday night, when Tim would be done with his race, marked the end of daylight savings time so we were going to ‘fall back’ that night and gain an hour. When I went to sleep at 9:20 a.m., I set my blackberry on the night stand. I was trying to search for Tim’s latest stats via the browser but it was taking forever to load. I fell sound asleep and it seemed like 10 seconds later I was awakened by an incoming text message that beeped on my phone. I looked at the time at it was 11:00. I couldn’t fathom that I had slept for 1.5 hours because I felt terrible. I rolled over and fell right back asleep. I woke up at 11:45 and decided I had to get up. A nap of over 2 hours should have fully refreshed me, but I still felt exhausted. I went and checked on the girls, who were glued to the Disney channel and I asked if anyone wanted lunch. They weren’t hungry so I turned on the TV in the living room. The channel guide on the TV said it was 10:55. What?!? I checked every clock in the condo and sure enough, it wasn’t even 11:00 yet. I checked my blackberry that clearly said it was approaching noon and I couldn’t be bothered to mess with it. Sometime during my nap, my blackberry had either switched to eastern time (most likely) or ended daylight savings time. Either way, it was wrong so I manually reset it. I get tons of grief for continuing to use a blackberry in the age of the iPhone and this snafu certainly wasn’t helping my cause.

I took the girls to the swimming pool (heated) and I laid out in the sun for a bit. It is a weird feeling to lay by a pool reading an Oprah magazine while you know that your spouse is busting his tail in an Ironman race. I was keeping family and friends posted on Tim’s progress via Facebook. Two of my neighbors started the funniest dialogue. One said “So my awesome neighbor Tim Runyan is completing a full blown triathlon today! In his honor I decided to get some exercise and mow the lawn. Almost finished, but had to stop so that my daughter could go to dance/gymnastics class.” I responded by reminding him to hydrate and a second very funny neighbor asked if there was a website where we could track his lawn mowing progress. The whole exchange just warmed my heart.

At 1:00, I went back inside and heated up 1/3 of my Pasta Carraba’s for lunch. The girls ate leftover pizza and I debated on what to do next. At 1:15, I was contemplating a shower when my phone beeped with an incoming text message. It was a fellow Sherpa who was back in Iowa (Bridgit) who was tracking Tim’s progress on the website. Tim had passed his final bike split and was looking really strong. He only had 17 miles to go on the bike and the website was averaging a 30 minute delay. Holy crap! Tim could come by at any minute and we couldn’t miss it! I rallied the girls and grabbed our Sherpa bag and the signs and we headed down to the street to watch him come by. This is positively the hardest part of being a Sherpa because you don’t really know when they are coming but you know darn well that you better be there. We split up, with Anna and GG close to the condo, and Natalie and I closer to transition. I told Anna to call or text me if she saw him. At about 2:00 Anna called and he was on his way. Natalie and I cheered like crazy. When he passed, he said that the second watch had died during the bike race. I asked how he felt and he gave me a thumbs up. Tim was anticipating a 6 hour bike ride for the 112 miles. Because he had no watch, he had no way to easily pace himself. He finished the bike in 5:37. Pretty incredible.

Natalie and I ran down to transition but there was no way we could see him. The racers go into the east side of transition, handoff their bike to a volunteer and enter a transition room. Then they exit the west side of transition for the run start. Natalie and I couldn’t traverse the crowds quick enough to see him take off on the run.

But wait, there's more:
Ironman Sherpa 3 - The Run and Post-race

Ironman Sherpa 1 - Pre-race & Swim

This is the first of three blogs about my Sherpa experience with my husband during his first Ironman.

My husband, Tim Runyan, trained for nearly a year and finally competed in Ironman Florida on November 3, 2012. Here is my journal of how the event unfolded.
Friday, November 2, the girls (ages 10 and 11) flew from Des Moines, IA to Fort Walton Beach, FL. We only had a 45 minute lay-over in Atlanta and I was scared that we would miss our connection and that would throw a major wrench in the whole plan, but we had no trouble at all. The Aviation spirits were on our side. Once in Florida, we loaded up the family and drove 1+ hours to Panama City. Tim wanted a pasta dinner from Carraba’s so we pulled into their lot at 4:45 p.m. The place was absolutely packed. There were 20% blue hairs and 80% athletes in various stages of pre-Ironman attire which included weird tape around joints and compression socks. We got our meal and headed to the condo. Tim ate at about 5:20 while I unpacked and took Natalie to the pool. I had 1/3 of my Pasta Carraba’s (this becomes relevant later, trust me) while the girls worked on their signs and Tim packed up his race bags.

We all went to bed around 9:30 and Tim was sound asleep by 10. He woke up at 3:30 a.m. and I followed at 4:15 a.m. We got ready and walked down to the transition area. Couple of pointers if anyone is ever going to do this – being within walking distance of the race activity is HUGE. Others that were staying farther out had to park at the Wal-Mart and take a shuttle in. Our condo was so convenient and that helped us dramatically through the day. Another point – if you are within walking distance, you don’t need to get up at 3:30. We were at transition by 5:00 and Tim went to set up his bike while I delivered the 'special needs' bags for the bike and run. What an amazing feat of organization. The bags were all color-coded and organized by racer number. Tim's race number 1930, if you are interested. By 5:10, everything was set and Tim and I had nearly 2 hours to wait until the swim start. At 5:30, our oldest daughter called to say they were up. I had asked the girls and their grandmother (Tim’s mom, GG) to be at the race site by 6:15 so if they got up at 5:45, had breakfast and started walking down at 6:00, we should connect around 6:15. As it happened, they were up at 5:30 and at the race site by 5:40. So now all 5 of us could stare at each other in a half-asleep haze while thousands of athletes milled about.


At 6:30 we headed to the beach. Panama City features an ocean swim of 1.2 miles, a brief run on the beach and then a second lap of 1.2 miles. Tim is a former marine so when we saw that the surf was pretty high, that suited him fine. He had years of training to dive into waves so we knew he would be all set. We went to the western most edge of the racers because the ocean had an eastern current. We couldn’t see Tim start but we cheered loudly for all of the racers. We had 3 signs – two in obnoxious green and one in white. We had arranged with Tim in advance that he would look for the signs. If we ever do this again, I would take a flag or inflatable balloon for the swim start. It is packed with people and it is really hard to distinguish your racer from the thousands of other racers all wearing black wetsuits and green swim caps.


GG and I led the girls back to the swim start inflatable archway so we could try and see Tim in-between lap. Sure enough, we did. He saw our green signs and we were cheering like crazy for him. I expected him to jump back in the water immediately and then another spectator said ‘is that your athlete?’ and I look over and Tim is beckoning me. Apparently his GPS watch was kicked off during the swim and now sat at the bottom of the ocean. It was an expensive watch that I had bought him for his birthday but now was not the time to mourn the loss. He asked me for another watch. I was wearing a $10 Timex from Target so I couldn’t imagine that he wanted mine, but then he said no, that Natalie (our 10 year old) had one of his old watches. So we ripped it off her wrist and back in the ocean he went.


But wait, there's more

Ironman Sherpa 2 - The bike

Ironman Sherpa 3 - The run and post-race