An "M-Dot" race in Muncia, Indiana was her goal, and man, once this girl sets a goal, she's serious! I can't believe how diligent she's been in her training, even with her kids' super busy summer schedules and record heat we've been having. We're so proud of her, and of course wanted to be there for the big even to cheer her on.
A half Ironman distance consists of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride, followed by a 13.1-mile (half marathon) run. While an "Ironman" race refers to the distances within the triathlon, an Ironman "M-Dot" race is a race put on by the trademarked Ironman organization, with the logo that has the dot on top of the letter M, which is meant to look like a person. "M-Dot" races are bigger, more popular races -- if you're going to do an Ironman, you want to do an M-Dot. Muncie, Indiana was one of these races, and a qualifier for the Ironman World Championship.
Joining Angie in this race was brother-in-law Josh, family friend Rich, friend Jake and new friend Lori. It's always more fun to have a group of racers to cheer on.
On Friday afternoon we received word that due to the excessive heat expected on Saturday (race day, 100-degrees) the organizers had shortened the race to a 1-mile swim, a 30-mile bike ride, and a 10k (6.2-mile) run. This is just longer than an Olympic distance. Our racers were so disappointed, especially Angie who had trained so hard for the longer distance. This was her moment!
We love race days, so regardless of the shortened distance, we set out to Indiana to cheer them on. (This was still Angie's longest race to date.) Muncie, Indiana is a small map-dot in the middle of corn country. Honestly, this is one of the roads we took to get there. Ok, so it was part of a detour, but still.
Race mornings start early. We were driving to the race site at 4:15am. Due to the heat they had also moved up the start times by 30 minutes. We got parked and the racers set off to transition to get all their gear checked and their tires pumped. Then it was a lot of waiting around (nervously) for the start.
The swim portion would be in a beautiful but not-so-refreshing 88-degree lake reservoir with a sandy beach. It was the ideal spot to watch the swimmers go off. Lori's age group set off first, followed by Rich, Angie, Jake and Josh. We stuck around to see them all exit the water (Angie's only comment upon finishing the swim: "Well, that was different!", referring to her first open water race swim), and then walked back to the finish line to watch the Pro winners already coming across the finish line. The winning time? Two hours, 20 seconds! These guys fly!
We then headed over to watch our bikers come in. Rich has to make a pit stop at the Penalty Box for taking too long to pass another biker. If you know Rich at all, you know there's a good story to go along with it! Angie comes in looking awesome! You can tell she's really feeling good, and with the flat course, she averaged over 18mph on the bike! She rocked it!
Then it was on to the run course and the finish line! We waited along the finishing chute to cheer on our racers. Everyone came in looking great, and I am so happy that none of our racers had flat tires or bike crashes, and more importantly, everyone stayed well-hydrated and nutritioned.
Congrats to all the Ironman 70.3 finishers! Since Angie doesn't feel like she earned the right to wear the 70.3 t-shirt yet, she and a few others are going to do the real half Ironman distance (but not M-Dot) next weekend in Louisville. (I told you she was dedicated!) We likely won't be able to be there to cheer her on, but we know she'll be awesome!!
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