The day has come and gone.
But it came with a lot of laughs, emotion, pain and accomplishment which will most likely never be replaced with anything.
There was just enough room in the Silver Panther (kelly's van) for two of us. But with some quick thinking, we realized that Sean, of teamseandawnkelly, would appreciate a seat rather than riding on top of the panther - although that would be quite interesting. We may have gotten a little lost/turned around looking for the airport and ended up at a dead end militia boarding station with the actual airport just across the barbed wire fence and instead of jumping the fence with the panther, we took the path most travel by - the actual road. But before we made it to the airport, we sat in the middle of the road watching the passers by at MATC and got a little sidetracked by a girl wearing the wrong shoes with the right dress. Hahaha. We then came back into real life and continued the drive.
With Sean in tow, we made it to the "athlete check-in" and signed our lives away and had to get weighed, again. I actually cheered to the volunteer at my station and I am pretty certain he thought I was a crazy person.
The Doubletree Hotel was our next stop and while kelly and I had a ridiculous number of bags and suitcases (kelly's is affectionately called "the coffin") Sean came with a backpack and a helmet (to protect his head during turbulent plane rides). Our stay in the hotel room was short lived as we had to attend the Welcome Dinner and down several glasses of water and soggy noodles and watch an Ironman featured video to get us pumped up. We were pumped up and ready for bed.
Saturday morning came with the meeting of George from Florida and FREE breakfast for 5. The rain stopped us from our "good idea" morning splash in the lake but it DIDN'T stop us from our traditional trip to Urban Outfitters for scarves. There is always time for scarf shopping - even the day before IRONMAN. We had another task that day - drop off our over-organized gear bags and bikes to the Monona Terrace. What a great feeling to get rid of the spandex, bikes, gu, perpetuem and other silly Ironman necessities. We enjoyed a late lunch with the Jansen and Kiffe clan then came nap time while we watched the Dukes of Hazard AND Kendra (go kendra!). After hours of laying and the development of bed sores, kelly and I paper/rock/scissored to see if we would attend the Ironman Kick-Off celebration. I lost. We attended adorning our pink teamdawnkelly shirts. A surprise visit from a couple favorites and it was getting late and bedtime was calling.
teamseandawnkelly was sent to bed with the proper bedtime story and we all awoke at 4 a.m. adhering to doctors orders of eating 3 hours before the swim start. We arrived at race site with BIG gallons of water and the search for a tire pump began. While the sun continued to rise, the Monona Terrace filled with people and the 6:30 mandatory "athlete to the start" time was approaching quickly. And although the swim area started with a broken goggle strap, it ended with the national anthem, many photos and an emotional send-off.
With a perfectly set plan in place, kelly and I unfortunately did not meet up for the 112 mile bike ride but I am confident and certain that we both heard each others comments, f-bombs, b*tching and tears. I was still mad that I got kicked in the face during the swim and I could feel the bruise forming and we were both mad that it was a hot and windy day. The loss of a cell phone and the falling of a chain didn't stop teamdawnkelly from triumphantly finishing that 112 mile bike ride. (THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH TO ALL OF THE TEAMDAWNKELLY FANS ON THE BIKE COURSE!!!) With just 16 miles back to the Monona Terrace and a tailwind the travel back "home" never felt better. And I have also never calculated more minutes/times/pedal strokes in my entire life. The clock was ticking and time was working against teamdawnkelly.
With the Monona Terrace in sight I dreaded climbing up that helix on my bike but all of the horrible bike thoughts left my brain when I heard the news that Kelly was right behind me and just came out of the Alliance Center. I thanked the biking/ironman gods at that very moment.
In the time of packing for the run on Saturday, I was undecided on my outfit and packed 5 different running shirts to wear BUT instead of choosing any of them, I stuck with the Tri Fox jersey and completed it with purple shorts, bright pink shoes and a hot pink bandana tied around my knee Punky Brewster style. I looked pretty awesome. And if we all know me by now, we know that I am the worlds SLOWEST transitioner (is that a word?) and my speed made a complete 180 when I saw another yellow TriFox jersey come around the corner. "OMG! Kelly Jansen!!!" There she was. Thank God. I think I was just finishing tying my last shoe and she was already set to go and we exiting the Monona Terrace on a mission to complete 26.2 miles and put this Ironman in the books.
More family and friends greeted us with smiles and as we set off on our journey, I turned to kelly to kick it off on the right foot. "I feel like a million f*cking dollars right now." There weren't a lot of words exchanged during the marathon. There were a lot of looks, a lot of beeps and a lot of understanding of what we were both going through. We visited porta-potties. We ate chips/pretzels and grapes and thirsted for more and more water and chicken broth. During these several visits to aid stations kelly and I did the math over and over and we ran our 7 minutes and walked our 3 minutes and made it to the 13.1 point at 8:32 p.m. leaving us 3.5 hours to finish another 13.1 miles. This marathon was in the bag - sort of.
My million dollar feeling was out the door and thankfully for kelly's quick steps we power walked and shuffle jogged those last 13.1 miles like it was nobody's business. And we were affectionately known as the hot chick power walkers. Huh, we'll take that. Again the smiles and cheers from family and friends carried us through those last several miles along with the ever-entertaining aid stations.
Mile 22. Mile 23. Mile 24.
Two miles to go. "I wish we only had 1 mile to go." I could no longer run/shuffle jog. Walking was our favorite form of movement at that time and being only 11:15 p.m. we had plenty of time to walk our Ironman asses to that elusive finishline. It was dark. It was late. And there was the Capital. Over and over again we heard "just two more right turns then a left into the finishline." We heard the music. We heard the cheers and we had just .5 miles to go.
Although our marathon was filled with a lot of silence, teamdawnkelly was on the same page. And this is when kelly looked to me and said "It's time to smile now." We made the first right turn. One more block. We made the second right turn and the smiles were no longer forced. And this is the feeling that will forever be indescribable and unforgettable. There were people. Thousands of people. There were lights. Hundreds of bright lights. These people and teamdawnkelly fans were not going to let us finish without the proper greeting. Again, Kelly turned to me and said "Should we run?" And we did. We ran our Ironman asses down that finish chute and it was so loud. It was amazing. Kelly was giving high fives and I threw my arms up in the air.
If we could have, we would have sat in that finishline chute for an eternity. We were Ironmen at that very moment. And we will be Ironmen from every moment on.
teamdawnkelly trained for a 17 hour Ironman finish and that is what we got. We got the best part of the day and the best part of our "fans" standing in those bleachers. We were star quarterbacks coming onto the field and no one will ever take that away from us.
From teamdawnkelly: thank you to our friends, family and strangers who spent countless hours listening, learning, traveling, cheering, searching and worrying. Thank you for seeing us to the end because we would never have made it without you.
From Team Dawn to Team Kelly: I couldn't have asked for a better training partner and Ironman finisher than you. I would have not made it without you and I would not have wanted to cross that finishline with another person. You are an amazing mother. You are an amazing friend. You are an amazing person. Here's to a never-ending bond and to many more trips to Madison to buy scarves...
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