Game Day! Germany day 4

This day was so exiting! Dad was finally doing his first and real IRONMAN. For those who aren't familiar with what an Ironman is then I can tell you it's a triathlon where you swim 3.8 km, bike 180.2  km and run 42.2 km. 

That morning I was supposed to wake up at 4.45 AM, but of course my alarm on my phone decided to live its on life this particular day. So I almost ended up sleeping in, but fortunately I didn't. I was right there on time in our Hotel lobby at 5.30 am. Too early for you? ;) Dad's start was at 7.00 AM so we had to be there before that. The event had organized busses for the contestants that took them to the lake, which was about 20 km outside of Frankfurt city. We were able to hop on one of the last ones (we meaning me and my stepmom, my brothers would never be caught alive awake at those kind of hours) and a lovely swedish woman noticed that we were speaking swedish so we started talking. Her husband was there for the IRONMAN and it was his second and she and my stepmom bonded over being married to a person obsessed over bikes and that kind of stuff. Me? I just concentrated on keeping my eyes open. Finally we arrived by the lake and at this point I was getting really nervous...

The Lake

Daddy (!) before his 3.8 km swim

I would so not want to be there, too crowded! I took this
Photo just before they began.

The so very cheerful daughter right before the start a.k.a. me

At 6.45 AM the professionals, or the proofies as they called them, began their journey and 15 minutes later it was Dad's turn. After the start I realized that I had to find a perfect spot to take photos from, so I fought myself through the crowd and got to the front line right by the fence.

Over an hour later my Dad came up running that hill and I wouldn't have noticed if my stepmother wouldn't have started shouting "Magnus!". And this was just seconds after the rain had started. After he passed us, we ran to the bike station and got a glimpse of him on the bike as he took off. By now the rain was pouring down and this is the worst weather to go out biking, wind and rain... 

Then we left for the busses again, but this time they were super full and there was no seats left for us so we had to stand there soaking wet. And to top it all off, my stepmom's phone stopped working, because it had gotten too much water into it. Finally we arrived at the hotel and after a quick change into dry clothes we headed down for a tired but really good tasting breakfast. After that I just crashed into bed and got a few hours of rest.

Daddy's out of the water with a GREAT time!

After my powernap, we headed down to the river for the last part; the marathon. We didn't follow the bike part because we wouldn't have been able to see much of it anyway. But we still followed his progress online and we noticed that his times weren't updating. This worried me. Alot. I thought he had lost his chip or something and I was afraid that when he'd finish the whole thing they would tell him "sorry, no chip, no nothing".

But in the end there wasn't any problems, thank god. But I was waiting there for him and when I finally  saw him running there I was super proud of him! I shouted "Eitunnu missään!" which is finnish for basically this is going great you don't feel a thing. Can't really translate it :D By now the weather was really nice warm and sunny, but still windy.

"The red carpet is for you"

The marathon by Main had four laps
Each one about 10 km long.

This was my secret project!
I painted the Teams name on some sheets.
Some people even took photos of it.
Haha, I guess it was worth the hard work

Lap after lap, Dad was getting more tired as he rounded us. He was really hurting now. And immediately when he passed us the last time we headed to the goal. First my brothers and I were on the grandstand with shitty places and I was like "nonono, this is not how I roll." I always need the best spot and my brother was all like "you won't get a better place." But stubborn as I was I made my way, once again, to the fence and later my brothers joined me too. So finally when Dad came running on that red carpet we were there all his kids cheering him on the last meters. And after 12 h 37 min and 4 sec he did reach the goal. It was amazing really was. And I was officially Miss Daughter-of-an-Ironman!
.

Dad minutes after he crossed the finish line.

Afterwards we were so hungry we bought
a german specialty and it was really good!

Frankfurt am Main @ night

When the day was finally over I took a picture of the view from our room, pretty amazing right? This was the day I had been waiting for and it was also partially the reason why I bought my camera last summer, so I good photo my Dad when he accomplished this. It was just a great way of ending the Day. And then? I just fell asleep before I even had the chance to blink.