And Miles To Go…

And Miles To Go… was Originally Posted on October 16, 2005 by lavarock

And Miles To Go Before I sleep!

Woke up this morning and watched some of the Internet feed of the Ironman Competition which runs today in Kona. Although I wanted to go up and watch and cheer on the athletes, my destiny lay towards the South. While competitors swam, biked and ran along the West side of the Island, I headed South past South Point (the Southern-most point in the US) and on to a town just outside of the National Park called Volcano.

I met with the designer of the new Kona Coffee Council website and went over the details with him. We also enjoyed a cup of my Pele’s Passion coffee, which I took with me.

After the meeting I continued counterclockwise (East and North) to Hilo where I did some shopping/ I missed the Office Max sale by 1 day (it starts Sunday). It looks like there are some good deals. Perhaps I’ll order them over the Internet and have them delivered.

I received a dinner invitation in Kona and that meant I needed to take a shorter route than I took to get to Hilo. I wanted to head across Saddle Road which crosses the middle of the island, but it was very cloudy up there and getting dark fast. Saddle Road is so bad that rental car companies will not let you take their cars on it and although it is not a really bad drive, clouds and inclement weather can cause real havoc along the route. I would not want to get stuck up there because in most places there is nowhere to pull off the road. The shoulders are sharp lava rocks!

I opted for the Northern Route, which continues counterclockwise and through Waimea. As I left Hilo there were 3 guys hitchhiking. I picked them up and two sat in the back on the truck bed with their bicycle. The other guy sat up front. The talk was interesting and kept me awake.

As we rounded Waimea we had to keep to the upper road as the lower one was still closed because there were still Ironman athletes on the course. I dropped the guys off by Longs Drugs and continued down to dinner. I was surprised to find a birthday cake also (Sunday is my birthday).

During dinner we listened to the Internet feed of the race and I saw a few runners come by our location and heard clapping and cheering outside.

After heading home I again brought up the feed and watched from 10pm on. At 11:46pm there were still 9 runners left on the course and I think they will all make it in before the Midnight cutoff.

I was not able to cheer them on in person but I certainly did so in spirit. Unless you watch these men and women struggle to compete, you really can’t understand some of the sacrifices they have made. Most know that they will not win a prize or even finish in the top half, yet they compete anyway. Some have personal reasons, some have public reasons for competing. Some are in great shape as they cross the finish line and others look as though they may have to crawl across. In a recent race, one man did crawl.

As I watched the last of the race I saw that besides friends of the racers there continued to be local volunteers and visitors to cheer on the racers. Everyone racer gets cheers and congratulations and is reminded that they too are Ironmen to finish the race.

As I watched, an 80-year-old man crossed the line and not long after, a man named John finished. John has full-blown ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). These men had been racing almost 17 hours and I can tell you, I would never have been able to compete let alone finish.

My hat is off to each person who competed and even to those few who had to bow out for whatever the reason.

Until next year!

P.S. I still have a couple of bags of coffee left on the discount caode IRONMAN. Order quickly before the thrill of the race wears off and the reality that I’m giving everyone a discount hits home That discount is 15% off anything ordered! Just enter the coupon code IRONMAN at checkout time over at ItsKona.Com!