Our Ironman

After one of the fullest days of both Brian and Christopher's lives, Christopher is proud to say that his daddy finished his first half ironman today! That's right, 70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running that almost didn't happen due to the torrential downpour first thing this morning. More on that shortly... First, we all woke up rather early to prepare for the big day. Although Christopher is an early riser, 5AM is still a bit much for him. However, every time we wake him that early it is usually to do something fun so he didn't seem to mind. When we got to the transition area, Christopher began his own mini ironman and ran back and forth just about 50 times. When he decided to take a break, we managed to get a picture of him with Daddy:
As little man and I were walking around awaiting the start of the race, we suddenly noticed raindrops coming down with increasing speed. We ran for cover under an overhang and chatted with some very nice ladies who were helping me entertain CJ.
Initially, the race director was considering making the race a swim-run-swim because the bike course was seeming a little treacherous. Fortunately, they decided to go with the original race plan and only made the racers dismount at a point where the water was really deep on the road. Brian had an awesome swim time of about 37 minutes and we saw him get on the bike with a smile on his face. And then it was all a waiting game. When the athlete you've come to see has to bike 56 miles, a spectator has a bit of time to kill. Christopher and I did a lot of walking, a little eating, and an even smaller amount of napping in the car. Most of all, we tried to avoid this:
As you can see, there is a good reason why this race is called the Redman. And after several hours of rain, it was nearly impossible to avoid walking in the mud. Therefore, my running shoes are officially red and out of commision! When Christopher and I went back to the car for his nap, I removed all our shoes and socks, turned on the heat in the car and laid our apparel out to dry. It was quite a sight to see! After we dried off and napped a bit, it was back out to the course to look for Brian. Christopher did a lot of running in the rain, inspired by the athletes running past him. Because of the rain, I had to leave the camera in the car for a bit of the race. But when the sun came back out, we were able to retrieve it and snag some finishing pictures of Brian as he completed the race:

Speaking of the sun, Brian did become an official "Redman" after the sun finally decided to make an appearance and leave its mark on our triathlete. It was a truly inspiring and exhausting day for all of us and we are so so so proud of Brian's accomplishment!