Sherpa!?!

My sweet husband has been given the name 'Super Sherpa' after being the best support crew for Katie, Todd and I (as well as some others along the way) for 3 Ironman Triathlons. I had been to one other Ironman as a spectator my self to watch my friend Chris do IMCDA in 2005, I was pregnant with Cale at the time and just watched and cheered her on.

This year my friend Katie was doing IM WI and I decided to go cheer her on. We have been racing together for about 5 years now and we know each other very well. I knew this year I might be able to help Katie's parents be Sherpa's for her in WI. Katie's Dad was having some issues with his feet, so it was going to be a goal to minimize the amount walking on race day.

Race day was a beautiful, perfect weather. We took the shuttle to the start. Katie started to get ready and realized that she had brought Heidi's wetsuit (just a few sizes to small!). My fellow supporters Ron and Heidi kicked in to high gear and got a free rental wetsuit and got her on her way. We then watched the swim. Heidi and I stationed ourselves at the swim out and Katie's parents, Ron, and Linda went to the bike out. Katie threw the rental wetsuit to us on her way by, we returned it before heading to the bike course (I just laughed knowing that Katie had thought up that plan on the swim, I probably would have done the same thing). Then back to the shuttle to the car and out to the bike course. I drove Katie's parents and Ron, Heidi and Linda took the other car. We stopped and fueled up at McDonald's and then out to the spot at ~mile 45, no walking from car to race course at this spot, good to go. We saw Katie and 2 other guys that Heidi and Ron were looking for. Then we stayed there to see them go by again ~mile 82 on the second loop. Then back in the car. I dropped Katie's folks off at the transition area and went and parked the car, no walking, good to go. I actually got a great parking spot! That would be key later on. I go to the bike in and let Katie know where to look for her parents. We all see each other, she looks great and her Mom and Dad were relieved to know she was off the bike. Now we walk (about 2 blocks) to the car and wait on Ron's car to head out to the run course (this way we could keep the key parking spot for bringing Katie home). We get the car from them and I head out to the run course (Ron and Linda took off running the course). We make it just in time to see Katie come through at mile 8, this spot was key, right by a parking lot, no walking. She is ranting about how tired she is 'burned out'! We tell her to keep it up, just forward momentum. We see her again in 2 more miles (from this spot you could see three different spots on the run course). Then we wait and cheer on the other competitors. We were watching her time, she was doing great, we start to get up to watch her come through again and realized that we had not seen the third spot where we could have seen her, it was behind (and about a block away) where we were sitting. We felt a little dumb having been sitting so close and not going over there to see her the third time on the second loop. Oh, well here she comes again. We see her this time and she looks great, we told her we were headed to the finish. Ron and Linda run her in from there, and evidently get the crowds to cheer for her all along the way! I take Mom and Dad to the finish, park the car in the garage under the transition area (I only had to go around a couple of orange cones!), no walking. We cheer her in and make her pose for some pictures. What a great day it was. I get her bike while she gets her bags and then we head to the car. As far as being a sherpa it was a great day, 3 illegal U-turns, minimal walking, lots of TX flags, great parking spots, and cheering on your best friend finish her final North American Ironman (that would be 7 completed). Priceless.