Steelhead: Post Race

It's been two months since the race and reading my last post, I noticed that I never really finished the story.

After I finished the race, there was this exhilarating feeling of completion. All things considered, my legs felt relatively good. I was able to walk through the finish area and looked for something to drink. I grabbed a water bottle and a race official came up to me, put the elusive medal around my neck, and said something. It was somewhat funny, as I’m sure she said something, but for the life of me, I couldn’t hear her. I was in my own zone and I just said to her that I felt fine. A few steps further and there was the photographer taking finishing photos of the racers. I raised my arms and posed.

I looked at the gathered crowd looking for familiar faces. There in the midst of people was the smiling face of my wife. She looked relieved and I walked to her. She asked how I felt… I told her a little sore, but I would be fine. She asked of my friend and I told her what had happened on the course. She asked if I wanted to sit, and I just told her I’m going to wait until my friend crossed the line to make sure he finished.

I gathered myself at one side of the finish chute looking for him… a few minutes later I saw him running the last few hundred yards. I told to look up and look strong.

He smiled and finished the race as good as possible.

I didn’t see him for about 45 minutes as I walked down to the lake and sat on the beach letting the waves roll onto my legs. It felt great. The water was cool and the waves provided a gentle massage.

Our wives walked up and said that they could not find my friend. I told them that he might have been in the medical tent depending how he felt. They went off to look for him.

My kids were now playing in the surf and asked if I wanted to look for rocks with them. I asked them if I could sit here instead and they were kind enough and said that it was ok. I asked them about their day and each proceeded to interrupt each other about what had happened to them.

My wife came back and said that they still couldn’t find him so I finally got up and went looking for him. As I was walking up to the medical tent, I saw him walking towards me. He said that after the race he wanted to get more Gatorade and wasn’t able to find any so he went looking. I asked and he confirmed that he was sore all over. I told him that I was impressed that he finished the race considering how he looked a few hours ago. His face had lost much of its redness and his mind was clear. We all walked a little and eventually sat down to for some lunch.

One of the main sponsors was Pizza Hut a fast food restaurant so the quality was fast food level. The extra time after the race increased my appetite and I ate well.

During lunch the finals ceremony took place. One thing of note was that as we were finishing our lunches some guy came to our tables too ask if we were finished and cleared some of the plates off. During the ceremony I found out that it was the CEO of Whirlpool (the sponsor of the race). I was very impressed that someone of that stature was that down to home that he was still volunteering and was bussing tables.

The CEO handed out the prize to the first place female and male. I think it was side-by-side refrigerators. There were also lesser prizes for age group winners.

Eventually we got up and went to get the gear that was still sitting in the transition area. There was Christine still where I left her. I gathered and bagged all of my gear and headed for the exit. I guess it is good to have a few extra pairs of hands that the girls provided as they carried the wetsuit and my cycling bag.

We got to our car and loaded it up. There was not enough space for all of the gear and people so we decide to ride our bikes the few miles to my friend’s car. During the short ride, my legs felt great but the bike leg had taken a tool on my backside.

I bid my friends a safe journey home and we headed north to spend the next few days seeing the sights of western Michigan. The rest of the week found us doing a lot of walking around the city of Holland and playing at Michigan’s Adventure.

The week went not as expected, but it was clearly a learning experience. I will be back next year to take on the Steelhead again.