Fun, Fun, and more FUN! I got suckered into helping out a friend as support crew for this race. Jeff Walthew was asked about 2 months ago to participate in Ironman NYC and help raise money for Multiple Myeloma. I told him if he’d accept the challenge he could count on me to Sherpa. Of course he was more interested in Addison being there, but we are a package deal so off I went as well! I worked Wednesday and Sarah, Jeff, Addison, and I (plus 3 bikes, thanks Florals!!) all piled into the Kia to start the 11-12 hour drive. I lasted about 6 hours before I passed the driving torch to Jeff. I remember waking up to crazy traffic, somewhat stressed Jeff, and Sarah trying to give directions as we entered NYC around 5:45 am. I kind of snickered…..Jeff likes to have us drive him around, but this trip he did his fair share and then some.
We ate breakfast, walked, and walked some more (I was seriously sore from all the walking), played in Central Park, and then met my dad who flew in for the race. The days were slam packed w/sight seeing, boat tours (AJ cried the ENTIRE WAY!), eating, eating, and eating. I think I made it my mission to try and find a good dessert. How else do you do this but by process of elimination, and I successfully eliminated a TON of places for dessert. The expo was pretty cool as far as expo’s go, and I have to say I’m pretty proud of myself for not buying the entire place out. I purchased one shirt, and got a free one (I’m a hagglerJ) from Yurbuds which I’d just happened to purchase a week or 2 prior to NYC. I’m not sure which I like more, but my free shirt is pretty darn cool!!!! I like my Yurbuds as well so that doesn’t hurt.
Prior to the race I had drama of my own. I (really we) had decided to park the car on the street b/c the hotel wanted to charge $65 per night just to house the suv. Now, I like the Kia, but that’s almost the price of a normal hotel room and for a Kia…..?! Can we say RIP OFF! Well, it turns out that the rip off is better than paying $200 for it being towed and $95 for the parking ticket. I literally walked the streets aimlessly searching for my car for over an hour. My dad called the tow place numerous times only to be told they didn’t have a SC plated car. I was convinced it’d been stolen, but again, a KIA! Really?! There was even a car parked where I was! Sarah and I finally decided at around 11:30PM on Friday night after a trip to Times Square to walk to the NYPD Pound to see if they had the Kia, and I can 100% say that if you want an adventure you should visit the NYPD Pound. I thought I was in the twilight zone. They had every walk of life in that place, I went from being annoyed by the older New Yorker lady who kept talking to being scared I was going to be knifed by the younger crowd that walked in cussing loudly and calling the attendants Whoopi and the former Whitney Houston. For the record, we tried to take pictures but were informed that wasn’t allowed. Oh, speaking of pictures….did I forget to mention I also broke my camera?! Then when I went to use Jeff’s camera, it ran out of battery….he didn’t bring a charger. I went to use my dad’s camera, only to realize it was broken. Needless to say, I may have been happier to see my sister’s camera then I was her!!! J/K Jamie, we love you for so many other reasons!!!
$200 later and almost 2 hours later we got back to the hotel (yes, we valet parked it this time!), only to have to wake Jeff up in an hour and then get up 2 hours later for my sister who came in for the day. AJ did his normal 6:30 am wakeup call of hitting me on the head saying, “Momma, paci go? Momma paci go?” Only to realize the D**N thing was in his mouth. Sarah and I officially were now working on two days in a row of less than 5 hours sleep. You know what though, atleast we weren’t doing an Ironman! Thanks to dad we spent the day sightseeing on the double decker bus again, the weather was much better than the previous day that we spent on the top of the bus in a torrential downpour ….for 2 hours…..with a toddler….Good thing he’s a boy, because he enjoyed EVERY minute of the rain! The next part of the day was spent trying to get Jeff’s bike from transition. IMNYC was unique in the fact that you had to take a ferry to transition so virtually no spectators got to watch the swim start or finish. Once I finagled the rest of the group’s free entry onto the ferry it was smooth sailing. The lines for the bikes were long, but the line for the ferry back was even longer so dad went ahead and got in line for the ferry ride back while we were in line to actually get the bike. The plan worked out perfectly, and I don’t know how many hours I’d been over there if they hadn’t helped me out. The sad part was we saw many people w/race numbers on picking up their bikes, and that means DNFL. I think it freaked Sarah out a little every time we saw someone who’d DNF’d, she worries about her Ironman as any first timer does.
The whole day I spent on IronTrac app I have on my phone trying to follow Jeff. This race BLEW CHUNKS for spectators, so we literally were only going to see him at the finish. As an athlete I know how much support you get from seeing your fam and friends during an Ironman, especially on a tough day, and it appeared as though he was having a tough day. The bike was hilly, but I really wasn’t prepared to see a 6:33 bike time out of him. He’s normally 5:30-6 hours at the most. I was biting my nails as he started the marathon, the times were slow but he normally gets faster as he goes so I tried to remain calm. Once we’d gotten the bike Sarah realized it looked as though he’d lost his salt tabs which are VERY important for him. He cramps pretty bad w/o them. I couldn’t figure out whether I was relieved or more stressed that he might be struggling. The run splits were all consistent and he was gaining on people in his age group so I tried to just relax and tell myself everyone must be having a tough day. Finally the IronTrac app showed me he had less than 2 miles left so we all positioned ourselves at the finish line. Crazy me stood on top of some water barrel that was holding up a tent so I could get a better view. The last 20 minutes of waiting was so stressful!!! Suddenly I see this far away image and I could tell that run form anywhere! I couldn’t even see his face and started yelling to dad and Sarah that it was him. Sure enough he looked pretty rough, but once he saw us the smile was there and I knew he was ok. He finished in 12:36:05. He literally started out 120th in the swim and got all the way to 49th in his age group by the finish! Top 30% in his age group on an extremely tough day! His first words were, you don’t want to do that race. The hills on the bike and the run were outrageous. Most people walked every hill and only ran on the downhills. The roads for the bike were pretty rough w/many people demolishing their wheels and losing their nutrition. Oh, and the swim in sewage…..lets’ just say we made Jeff shower before we all went out for dinnerJ.
The drive home the next day was just as eventful as our trip. 18 wheeler wrecked and was taking up the whole highway, which led to 2 hours of just sitting. Sarah and I actually put on our running shoes and got in a short run on the highway! Jeff was the man, he drove the ENTIRE way home. How Sarah and I were more exhausted then him I will never know, but he definitely pulled his weight that drive home. He did have a moment at one point though, he said that if Addison hadn’t been w/us he’d chased this car down pulled this guy out through the window beat him to a pulp and if he’d tried to drive off he’d hung on to his ears and pulled them off. Oh, he also said that when interviewed Sarah and I would just say the guy had an accident. He said all this very nonchalantly like it was normal….Norman Bates normal that is.
The highlights of the trip were the cupcakes from Crumb Bakery, the pics w/the naked cowboy and cowgirl, the best steak (and most expensive) I’ve ever had (El Crisco?), the days spent w/my sis sarah jeff AJ and dad, subway rides, 9/11 memorial, Rockefeller Center, boat tour, PIZZA, Times Square on the weekend at midnight, and getting lost. The whole trip had so many adventures. No matter what happened on this trip, we all just rolled w/it and I appreciate and value the people I choose to be around. Most would cringe at the thought of a 12 hr ride w/a toddler, but not my crew. I worried more than they did.
Congrats Jeff, you are a 5x Ironman and have officially passed the girl in Ironmen!
