Faces of Ironman

You know an Ironman triathlon is tough.  i know it is tough.  At least once per week you can see super slow motion video of athletes pushing through pain via reruns on the television.  Ah, the pain

After my volunteer shift at Ironman Wisconsin in 2010, i snapped a few photos.  The following images were all taken at the same place: the corner of the run course where athletes look up and see the marathon turnaround.  Since it is a double out and back course, this takes place just a couple hundred yards away from the finish line.  So close, yet so far.  Upon seeing this point where they can almost touch the finish yet still have 13.1 miles to go, reactions vary, but there is almost always emotion.

Let's take a closer look.

Each of the runners in this first set seem pretty disheartened.

 

This next group took it all in stride.  Half marathon to go?  Let's do this.

 

 These four didn't know what to think of the challenge ahead.

 

These last athletes were not happy at all.

 

What is the lesson here?  140.6 miles of racing will really, really hurt at some point. Being ready for that pain and having a plan for when it hits you may be the difference between finishing strong and crawling home.