Bring it on

All marked up and ready to go: Ironman Texas earns a "tough" reputation in itssecond year

Bodymarking continued until nearly 6:50 a.m Saturday morning, when the pro swimbegan.
Photo by Marlo Saucedo
"Who's going to be an Ironman today?"
Photo by Marlo Saucedo
Swim start!
Photo by Marlo Saucedo
The bikes, lined up and ready to go.
Photo by Marlo Saucedo
Friday night, the transition bags are already ready for the participants to grabon their way to the bikes.
Photo by Marlo Saucedo

I hauled myself out of bed on Saturday at 4 a.m, part of the wave of over 6,000 volunteers from 30 states who helped the more than 2,000 athletes at Ironman Texas in The Woodlands get ready for their big day. Part of the “bodymarking” team, our specific duty was to mark each person’s upper arms with their race number and their left calf with their USA Triathalon age (a.k.a. age at the end of the year).

The kind of people who participate in Ironman simply seek out tough and brutal, in order to conquer it. Joyfully.

We arrived at about 4:15 a.m., received our instructions, and stood around for about an hour with our Sharpies in hand as the first few Ironman participants trickled in and the rest were busy finding parking, visiting the bike transition area to stuff their bags and bikes with the gels and liquids that woule be their meal, then walking the slow one mile to meet us and our Sharpies at Northshore Park where they'd be starting their race with a swim in Lake Woodlands.

We were the first volunteers they'd see race day, among many. There was only one smiley face request for me this year, and the athletes in general seemed a bit more nervous than I'd remembered. One young man asked to borrow the marker and wrote “Phil 4:13” just below the hem of his bike shorts, where he’d doubtless take courage from it during the last stage, the marathon.

Excitement and anticipation from the athletes I saw who'd come from all over the United States and Mexico was every bit as tangible as before last year's race, and understandably most were channeling nerves via restrained or joking mannerisms — except for a refreshing so-over-my-age 74-year-old — who didn’t want his secret revealed on his calf.

The reputation of Ironman Texas, in only its second year, has probably been sealed by a quote from third place finisher Mathias Hecht of Switzerland, who called the heat and humidity “absolutely brutal," and went on to compare The Woodlands to Kona:

This is like Hawaii … This was really tough, probably one of the toughest races I've ever done."

Ironically, should they run across it, this statement will probably attract, rather than dissuade, possible registrants for next year: The kind of people who participate in Ironman simply seek out tough and brutal, in order to conquer it. Joyfully.

There's no way to know what became of the people I marked on Saturday, whether any were among the 12 percent DNF (did not finish) rate while attempting to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run a full marathon without a break that day, as heat rose to 90 degrees in the afternoon.

They hit the water at 7 a.m., and many of them wouldn’t finish for 15 hours. But I did catch up with #2516, Rusty Robertson of southern California, who did finish. He swears he enjoys the heat as compared to his town of Oceanside’s dry, cool climate. “I feel pretty good,” he said, “the normal soreness.”

Volunteering and witnessing Ironman Texas is motivating and encouraging to me — as a runner — in the same way attending Quilt Fest influences me as an artist: Quilting’s not my medium, and it probably never will be, but it’s just so darn amazing and inspiring to see what some people are able to do with fabric.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”