Ironman 70.3 KS - Volunteering Gratification!

To: John and Cynthia Dunham

I wanted to let you know that our family was honored to be able to help out, as impromptu water volunteers, at the Ironman on Sunday! We thought you ran a nice operation and very much enjoyed being a part of it. I also wanted to thank you for some of the spoils from the race (Gu!). Finally, I thought you might enjoy a bit of my blog/journal about the experience . . .

ON FATHER'S DAY, at our little campsite in Bloomington Park on Lake Clinton and in the middle of the Ironman Competition, our little family of 5 got up at 6 am to watch the start of the Ironman. We saw the swim exit and one of my two Ironman friends exit the transition area from the swim to ride their bikes. The two little shuttle buses out to the bike spectator area were hopelessly inundated with 100's of people in line, and they did not allow strollers, so we gave up on watching the biking and walked back to our campsite, stopping at the playground for a little bit first. While there, we soon realized that the leaders/pros would be coming through that area on their run within about an hour (with my buddies coming through awhile after that). We decided to stay at the playground and watch from there.

A CALL TO ACTION!!!
As we waited, we began to realize that the water/Gatorade/goo/ice/sponges volunteers could really use our help. Recalling with horror the Chicago Marathon heatwave (they had a water shortage leaving many of the marathoners behind me with NO WATER!), I felt an obligation to pitch in and prevent even the remote chance of anything such as that. Jen pitched in right along with me. Then the kids (ages 7 and 5) started helping. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the youngest (age 1 1/2) fell asleep or we couldn't have continued for long.

OUR ENTIRE FAMILY VOLUNTEERED FOR 5 HOURS STRAIGHT ...
Rushing around, pouring water cups, setting them on tables and on the ground, filling heavy gatorade buckets with water and carrying them across the road, handing out water to the runners, constantly bending and lifting for 5 hours straight!

DADDY'S GIRLS!!!
I was very surprised that my 7 and 5 year olds could and would work like that for hours and that my 5 year old (just as of June 6th) was even mature enough to be helpful at all. It was work but it was fun. I swear I ended up with some hip soreness that rivaled what I might have had if I had participated!
I was also very proud of my wife! First, she indulged my desire to spectate the Ironman on Father's Day (and to leave her with the kids at our campsite on Saturday morning to head into Lawrence and run the 5K) without one word of complaint ("it's your weekend!" she'd say). But I think it would've gone too far if I had said "I want the whole family to volunteer all morning at the Ironman event." Yet when it became obvious that we were needed, she sprang into action, working just as hard as I was. It was impressive. And as the hours passed, neither of us had to say anything. We both knew we were going to stay there and work our butts off, contributing our entire family as long as we were needed, whether it took 1 hour or 5!

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING CONCLUDES THE IRONMAN AND OUR CAMPING TRIP
The race ended short about 30 minutes short for about 1/3 of the field due to thunderstorms rolling in, and along with the developing storm I ran over to our campsite and packed up our tent and everything else in the rain, with the kids in the car, while Jen stayed to volunteer another hour or so until the last racer went through.

A LATE FATHER'S DAY LUNCH
We headed into Lawrence for Father's Day lunch and I couldn't help but feel like we'd just worked our butts off instead of enjoying our Father's Day Camping trip on Father's Day, instead of doing fun stuff like fishing and swimming and spectating the Ironman! Volunteering even limited my ability to cheer on my buddies, who I missed seeing on a couple occasions while busy filling and carrying water buckets across the road, pouring waters, and so forth.

TOTAL GRATIFICATION AND FAMILY PRIDE!

As the day wore on and we headed out of town to KC after our late Father's Day lunch, however, I began to realize the significance of what had occurred that morning. My entire family had pulled together and pitched in, ALL OF US WORKING VERY HARD VOLUNTEERING OUR TIME AND ENERGY, EXPECTING NOTHING IN RETURN.

Later that night, back home in Overland Park, I gathered my family and told them, "I'M SO PROUD OF EVERYONE FOR VOLUNTEERING AND WORKING SO HARD AND I THINK IT BODES WELL FOR THE FUTURE OF THIS FAMILY!!!"

Well, I expected nothing in return but I got something anyway ... When Jen met me back at our campsite, she was carrying Energy Gels! They were just going to throw them away and gave them to her knowing I could use them in my endurance training. HOW COOL IS THAT!?!

THE IRONMAN!

How was it? VERY COOL, although I have to say I would've enjoyed it much more and been able to focus on it much more if I could've sat back and watched it as I had originally intended! It was particularly cool seeing the leaders come through (e.g., Men: Terrenzo Bozzone from New Zealand [3:56:06]; Women: Samantha McGlone [4:19:03] and Joanna Lawn [4:19:32]).

My racing friends John K. and Karl S. both had decent races, finishing in about 5:20:00 and 5:35:00, putting them both in the top 300 (about 1000 finishers). What a day!

John and Cindy, thanks again for facilitating a volunteering experience that I really believe will be a formative experience for my entire family (excluding only the very littlest one, age 1 1/2   :-))

James Roswold and family (Jen, Zoe, Emily, and Ella)