Ironman South Africa

On April 22, the South African Iron Man competition happened literally on our doorstep.  To finish an Ironman, you must first swim 2.5 miles, then bike 110 miles, and when you are done with that, you run a marathon!  Oh, and there were wind gusts up to 40 mph that day.  Can you imagine biking and running in that?

The race viewed from our balcony

The bikers and runners both had to pass our building three times.  Entrants started swimming at 7:00 AM, and some were still coming by with 11K to go at 10:00 at night.  To be certified as a finisher, you had to make it by midnight.  At that point, you would have been moving for 17 hours straight.  Jim wrote on Facebook that he was exhausted just watching!

The fastest man completed it in eight and a half hours, the fastest woman in a little over nine.  I was amazed at anyone who finished – the youngest was 18 years of age, the oldest 84!     

This is Shelley's IronGirl medallion

The whole weekend was fun and festive, with cheerleaders, music, and the general public out on the streets cheering them on.  And, it was a full weekend: On Saturday, over 1100 kids entered IronKidz.  An IronGirl 10k run was held on Friday.  Three friends of ours ran in that one – Shelley (from Peter and Shelley),  Aya – our wonderful potter, and Reney, an administrator from our House service site.   

South African Flag

Go, Rainbow Team!

Our students got into the festivities by having a “flag party.”  Every flat had to dress in one of the colors of the South African flag – so there was a red team, a white team, etc.  They organized the whole thing – but didn’t include Jim and me!   We decided to crash as the “rainbow team.”  Here we are with Shannon and Sarah, two of Team Yellow.