I had been waiting for him for almost an hour. He strolled up from the beach after a nice long swim. Moist droplets of water falling one by one off of his golden locks, gently rolling over his chiseled muscles.
He looks up and finds me among the sea of faces. Our eyes meet. He gives me the knowing look. I don’t know his name…he doesn’t know mine. I reach out to him. My hands touching his body in all the right places. I gently glide him to a bed of grass. Beaming rays of sun shining through the tree branches. The gentle wind softly whistling a song.
He is waiting in suspense for my next move. With no warning, I……STRIP THE WETSUIT OFF HIS BODY along with my partner Tammy Barnhart!!!!!!!
Tammy and I are “Strippers” (the wetsuit peeling kind) at the 2008 Ironman Coeur D’Alene Triathlon. “He” is Tom Evans of Penticton, BC who we gracefully assist on his way to a first place finish!!!!!
Tammy and I were lucky and honored for the chance to peel the first wetsuit in this year’s race. We were jumping up and down with excitement. It was so cool and even cooler that he went on to win!
In small groups, the racers start making their way towards T1. We were hoping to spot and peel as many RTBers as we could.
The first RTBer we saw was Brad Williams but were unable to get his attention. Next up was Phil “Pill Dispenser” Spencer and we weren’t about to lose out on a chance to strip him!!! Right on his heels was Patty Swedberg. We were able to get the attention of RTBers Brian Guillen, Kristin Anderson, Heather Nugent and Cheryl Iseberg and got their suits peeled in a flash.
Uh…Pill Dispenser. If you’re over 40 and trying to read a label…you’ll understand. lol
All of the sudden there were wetsuited bodies EVERYWHERE. One, two, sometimes three deep waiting to be stripped. Thank God for Body Glide. You could sure tell who used it. Some wetsuits peeled like bananas – others peeled like oranges!!!
There was one particular athlete that we stripped and next thing I know we had about 10 extra FEMALE hands trying to weasel their way in to help him. When he got up and took off for transition, I heard someone say “Holy cow, he was cute” followed by “You girls sure took your time with him”. Poor guy! Probably lost some serious T1 time there.
We also stripped the youngest male athlete. He laughed when I asked how it felt to have 4 middle age women ripping his clothes off.
It was nice to see the RTBers come out of the water strong and ready for T1. We were a little worried about Heather – she was shivering like crazy, but she had enough wits about her to know where she was and where she needed to go next!!! We sent her off to the change tent with confidence. It was definitely the teeny-tiny women that seemed to have the glazed-over incoherent look in their eyes that needed the 90 degree warming huts.
The highlight of the morning was meeting Sister Madonna Buder – triathlon legend, in the transition area before the start of the race. Tammy and I caught up to her for a quick hug and photo op. Google her if you get the chance – FASCINATING!!
Tammy’s sister Jenny and their friend Stacy came over from Kalispell to meet up with her and volunteer for the race. Working, laughing and having fun along side these three kept me in stitches. Do any RTBers remember getting a “Go get ‘em Tiger” out of Tammy?
Another cool thing about volunteering was making the local news the next morning. They did a segment on wetsuit peeling. We didn’t have a speaking part but Tammy and I are featured several times showing off our stripping moves.
I know from personal experience how cold the lake was this year. On Friday morning, I had the privilege of joining the RTB Iron athletes for a team swim. There are pictures on the RTB blog – but which make me appear to be an Ironman contender – however to steal a quote from Craig (friend of RTB) “I’m JV hanging out with Varsity”.
This was the case for the Friday team ride too. We rode along side Lake Coeur D’Alene up to Higgins Point. What a gorgeous ride. I enjoyed every minute of it - so much so that I rode it again Saturday with fellow RTBers – Patty M., Amy and Kelvin.
It was great to see other RTB spectators in CDA that I didn’t know where going to be there. I saw RTHers Angela, Shaun and Teresa. Later on ran into RTBers Jen and Julie. Gotta thank Jen for the Cowbell tip - “everyone deserves some cowbell”!! Even late in the race when I had that glazed-over spectator look, I could still muster up some cowbell.
RTBers Kelvin and Mathlete Joe volunteered in the transition area. They were able to get a good view on how the athletes were doing after the long bike ride. It was especially helpful when we were out on the bike course as Kelvin kept us up to date with text messages as RTBers made it through T2.
There is a lot of down time to watching an Ironman event however; there is also nothing else like it. The energy rises off the ground and keeps going as the clock continues to tick.
This was my second year watching Ironman CDA. One of the benefits of volunteering was having the opportunity to get a guaranteed slot to register for the 2009 Ironman race.
Maybe my third trip to Ironman CDA will be my charm to Ironman Glory. Stay tuned.
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