Last year Nate, Chloe and Malachi got up at the crack of dawn to go watch all of the competitors jump into lake Coeur d'Alene. Ever since then, all they've talked about was how could they be a part of all the fun. This year Nate signed himself and Chloe up to be volunteers. They were put into the transition station due to Chloe being a minor. Their duties were to hand out water and Gatorade in the morning, help zip up wet suits and point the athletes in the right direction of their biking and running gear.
Everyone heading out to the mass swim start - over 2,200 athletes participated this year. Chloe was fascinated that they have scuba divers at the bottom of the lake, just in case someone gets kicked or pushed under. The fastest swim time for 2.4 miles was 41 min.
The coveted volunteer position among the women - wet suit peeler.
As they ran out of the changing tents Chloe and the other volunteers were standing by with thirst quenchers and cheers. The older girl next to Chloe had Nate laughing like an idiot (his words, not mine) - the athletes number i.d.'s also had their names on them, and this girl would call them by their name along with her encouragements. They would turn and look at her questioningly - not knowing if they should recognize her face or not, after all she knew their name and they didn't know hers.
The rows of biking gear bags
All of the bikes lined up - totaling somewhere around 4 million dollars. They had people guarding them the night before the big event. 
Mile 1 of 112 - I don't think me or my rear would make it.
Afternoon transition from biking to running. This is where they witnessed several of the athletes dropping out. This was Chloes favorite part of the afternoon - handing people their running gear bags.
One of the many finishers, they weren't around to catch the first ones. The winner was a man from Spain, he finished in 8 hrs 32 min - WOW. They had a 94% completetion rate, the last person to come in finished with 1 min 40 sec. to spare; which meant she was on the course for 18 hrs and 58 min - yucky. She fell 15 ft from the finish line. Volunteers standing by ran to her, picked her up and helped her cross the finish line.
I took this picture of them as they returned home 12 hrs after they'd left the house. There was no way I was getting up at 5:00 a.m. to get a picture.
4 comments:
Can you even imagine....dropping from exhaustion 15 feet before the finish line? It's so cool that volunteers carried her over. Sounds like a long day for Chloe and Nate...I'm impressed.
that is so crazy. Sounds like a lot of fun. I don't think I would get up that early either though.
Chloe will never forget this. What a cool experience!
What a great experience! I would love to be behind the scences for an event like this! Then eventually would love to compete. I will start slowly, first with a 10k then a half marathon then go from there. Y'all are such good parents. I love that you do so many family activities and that you expose your kids to so many different experiences!
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