Day One:
Ironman Wisconsin takes place in Madison. In case you have never been to Madison, it is a city that rarely shuts off at night. The University of Wisconsin draws those seeking an education to the city and with that comes a culture of energy, street musicians, artists and memorable characters.
The city and the surrounding areas are perfect for an Ironman event. Madison is situated between two lakes (Lake Monona and Lake Mendota) on an isthmus, thus making it easy to conduct all three portions of the triathlon.
On friday evening I attended the Welcome dinner ( a.k.a. “The carb-load dinner”) at the Monona Terrace. It was an amazingly large event that featured attendees in the following categories: Oldest male (72), Oldest female (65), Youngest male (18), Youngest female (20) and the most weight lost while training for an Ironman event (80 lbs.). Mexico is in large attendance with 350 participants, with one of them making this event the 50th Ironman that they have participated in.
Overall the evening was a fantastic meeting place for all involved. More stories of determination, triumph and motivation were shared during the event, thus raising the aura of the room to a level that could motivate the triathlon neophyte to continue pursuing the Ironman dream.
As an added treat, I also had the opportunity to meet Ironman legend Paula Newby-Fraiser. She had some interesting stories to share and was very encouraging about the media coverage that Wigwam is conducting during this event.
Comments