Ironman Arizona

Last year in April, I finished my first (and so far only) Ironman race.  I enjoyed the race more than most people can imagine.  Some people that can imagine were out in Tempe this weekend and I was out for a while with my camera to capture some of the excitement.

There seemed to be no end to the smiles.




Even the professional athletes that are racing for money seem to be having fun. Or maybe this one was simply "hamming it up" for the camera.


Some people are more intense than others.


Many spectators wear special shirts to cheer on their friends.  They range from shirts that look professionally done to hand-made shirts that show their creative side like Team Speedy Pants.



Anyway, I had fun out there and I sure missed being in the middle of the action but was happy to be there cheering on the racers. A huge CONGRATULATIONS to all my friends that are now IRONMAN!

Photographers and Police

Last month, I was in Tempe Arizona to watch some friends race an Ironman race and try and get some good pictures. I spent some time walking around and found some good places to get pictures. One of them was a nice median where I had a good background for the racers and a nice straight approach so I could see them coming and be ready for the best shots. This was a medium sized median and I was not in any way interfering with the racers or even likely to be noticed by most of them.

After shooting for awhile, an officer about a half a block away crossed over to the median and started heading my way

At least my first run in with the law was friendly. He came up to me and said he was sorry but I had to get off the median. When I asked why, he said he didn't know why, but that was in the rules they were given. When I asked who made the rules, he said the race people. I didn't know North America Sports could make new laws. In talking with other photographers, I heard that some of the officers didn't even try the "ask nicely" approach and went straight to the "bad cop" routine.

He was decen about it and I kept shooting as I waited for traffic (bikes and cars) to clear which was nice because there were some professionals coming through right then. After he made sure I safely left the median, he turned around and headed towards the next violator.

You can probably see why we liked this area since we were able to get close to the action and still be in a safe place.

I have been an official volunteer on this particular course (2007) as well as a competitor in the previous event (April 2008) and I have both shirts to prove it. I was never told in any of the volunteer or participant meetings that there were any rules about where people could spectate from, only that crossing at designated points needed to be guarded by volunteers to look out for racers.

Interestingly, this "no median" policy was not enforced at the turn-around point in downtown Tempe and there were dozens of people standing in the median. They were however waving signs that could easily fall into the path of an oncoming biker. It seems possible that the "no median" policy was more of a policy to try to restrict the quality of pictures freelance photographers could get than to keep the racers safe. Important to remember if you are thinking about paying almost $500 for this event.

Any thoughts from anyone else on this no median policy and the haphazard enforcement at this type of event?