September 7 - Olaf and I went to bed early in Madison because we were going to get up very early to wait in line for hours to get a registration spot for the Ironman. I couldn't sleep all night. It took all my power to not go down to the Terrace at 1 am and sleep there just to make sure I get in.
Sept 8 - We woke up about 5 am and we were on our way to the Terrace. (Thankfully we were staying at Lynn and Greg's house and they are only 15 minutes from downtown Madison.) Already the line had about 100 people in it when we arrived. We waited and waited only to learn that the volunteers from this years Ironman get to register first, before everyone else. Olaf left and had a hot breakfast at a local cafe while I waited some more. At that point I heard about 800 IronMan participants already registered for 2009. The athletes have priority and get to register the Saturday prior to IronMan. Keep in mind there are around 2200 spots. So now I'm thinking 1400 spots left. The line was growing and growing. About 9 am we were divided into volunteers and non-volunteers. Then it started raining on us as the volunteers had the line under the building. I calmly counted 1000 plus volunteers. I was hopeful many were just being nice and waiting in line with their friends. All the volunteers were streaming out with their 'golden ticket'. At 10:15 we finally entered the building after waiting 5 hours! The number on my paper was 1351. Yikes! I signed up and on Sept 17th the official email arrived asking for money. I paid my 525 dollars for registration into the 2009 IronMan. Woo hoo! I'm relieved to get registered but now the hard part - training and not getting injured in the process.
Sept 8 - We woke up about 5 am and we were on our way to the Terrace. (Thankfully we were staying at Lynn and Greg's house and they are only 15 minutes from downtown Madison.) Already the line had about 100 people in it when we arrived. We waited and waited only to learn that the volunteers from this years Ironman get to register first, before everyone else. Olaf left and had a hot breakfast at a local cafe while I waited some more. At that point I heard about 800 IronMan participants already registered for 2009. The athletes have priority and get to register the Saturday prior to IronMan. Keep in mind there are around 2200 spots. So now I'm thinking 1400 spots left. The line was growing and growing. About 9 am we were divided into volunteers and non-volunteers. Then it started raining on us as the volunteers had the line under the building. I calmly counted 1000 plus volunteers. I was hopeful many were just being nice and waiting in line with their friends. All the volunteers were streaming out with their 'golden ticket'. At 10:15 we finally entered the building after waiting 5 hours! The number on my paper was 1351. Yikes! I signed up and on Sept 17th the official email arrived asking for money. I paid my 525 dollars for registration into the 2009 IronMan. Woo hoo! I'm relieved to get registered but now the hard part - training and not getting injured in the process.
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