Me and Lana ready (at 4am) to do some bodymarking. Stamps, check. Ink, check. Athletes? Coming!
This was Dad's and my stamping station. It was a popular one for the media crew because of Dad's great idea to stamp above the numbers so we knew what we were picking up.
Athlete #567. Super easy to remember! And Mom got a circle around her numbers so everyone would know she was a big-islander.
Not Mom's bike (Bree's, maybe?), but it pretty sharp and looks fast!
Swim start—pretty sure this is the pros warming up. Lana and I had a great spot on the pier to watch pretty much the entire swim.
Mom's the one on the middle with the pink cap. She was surprised we actually got a picture of her (there were about 1,799 other athletes), but I knew about when she'd be coming in, what she was wearing, and what her stroke looks like, so we knew her when we saw her.
Mom slowly made her way into the transition area, which was right behind where Lana and I had watched the swim from.
And there she goes, looking for her bike and ready to hit the road!
Lana enjoying some Scandinavian Shave Ice. We had to have a treat while Mom was out biking.
Macca won; we had a much better view of him at the finish line than we had of Mom, but we did get to watch Mom finish.
This might be Mirinda? She won the women's race.
And another treat. Spectating is grueling work! This was Lana's meal, and it was the perfect box for her.
Every time we saw Mom, including here around mile 10 of the 26.2, she was smiling.
Grandma Rita, Grandpa Bob, Allison, and Aunt Robin were at an aid station for part of the day, and they cheered Mom on all day.
Grandpa Bob, doing his job of handing out water to the runners.
When you got to this spot, you were almost done. The Ford sign was lit with neon lights, but you can't really tell that in this picture.
We knew Mom wouldn't have a daylight finish, so I brought glow sticks with me. We made this the chemical compile for Belladium.
Waiting for Mom to come in. We'd played a few games of Bananagrams, but then we lost daylight and chillaxed. :-)
Just after Mom finished. We didn't have the best camera spots, so I think everyone missed getting a picture of her actually crossing the finish line.
Bobbi Acheson, you are an Ironman!
I stayed up and watched on ironmanlive.com the final finishers come across the line. I had thought about staying down at the finish line, but by the time Mom was ready, everyone was exhausted and the finishers were straggling in, so it was much easier to watch on the computer and get a few things done at the same time.
Overall, it was a great day. I loved the whole environment and experience, and I'd like to be back there as a competitor in the not-too-distant future!
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