For those who may be interested in following along on August 29th while I put myself through this crazy thing called an Ironman, there are a number of options to use.
The first (and probably least reliable) would be to use the athlete tracker on www.ironman.com. On race day, just go to the website and you will see a link on the site for following along. Remember, I’m #208. Eric and my parents tried to use this resource during my recent half ironman, and quickly realized it was awful. They actually never posted any updates on where I was, or that I had even started!
So, the more reliable real-time way of tracking me involves a little purchase I made today. Because anything could happen on the 29th, I really wanted a reliable way for Eric and my parents to track me so they can see where I am and somewhat predict when they would see me next. Enter www.trackmyathlete.com.
For a nominal fee, I rented a little gps device that I will have on me all day long. On race day, just go to the website and click on “Track Athlete” (as you can see below).
I believe it will then give you an option of events and names listed underneath said events. Just do your best to find me (because I honestly have no idea how my name will be listed). Then you can see me on a map (or at least a little blue arrow that represents me) as well as my current speed. The closer I am to downtown Louisville, the better!
The final option to follow along (and what I think is the most exciting option), is the live feed that will be posted on www.ironman.com. After all the elite athletes finish up, they throw up a live feed of the finish line where you can supposedly hear names being announced and watch people cross over the finish line. I’ve never watched a live feed on the website, but I’ve watched tv broadcasts of Ironman races and I always get a little teary eyed watching people cross the finish line. So, if you want to try to catch me crossing the finish line and hearing them announce, “Jessica Fuhrman, you are an Ironman!”, then try to watch the live feed between 10 p.m. and midnight eastern time. Yes, I realize that is late, so I won’t blame you if you’d rather be sleeping, and yes, I realize that is a huge time frame, but anything could happen that day. In fact, you may want to give yourself a little buffer before 10 just in case I have an awesome day.
If you really want to catch me cross the finish line, then it would behoove you to check up on the trackmyathlete site just to see where I am at. Maybe at 9:30 p.m. check the site and if it appears that I am making my way north towards downtown, then that means I’m probably on my way towards the finish line (or I’m just finishing my first loop on the marathon course, and if that’s the case then I’m in BIG trouble time-wise!). It’s possible that I could be running south at that point away from downtown as well, but that’s ok too because I still have 2.5 hours to get to the finish.
Or, if this is all just too confusing or not worth you time, just send some positive thoughts my way on race day. I’ll need all the positive thoughts I can get!
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