Ironman

The morning of Ironman started out very early for us.  Rich was up by 4:00 a.m. getting his things ready and as he walked out the door at 4:45 Joseph woke up-I guess he felt the excitement as well.  I didn't try putting him back in bed since we had to leave by 6:00 so he helped me pack things for the day and then get ready to go.  We met Carrie and the girls (along with her in-laws and brother-in-law) at 6:15 in the Methodist church parking lot and walked across the bridge to Northshore park.  It was such a fun walk as we were amongst athletes and very excited spectators-the bridge was packed but with two double strollers most people made way for us.  Thankfully we found Rich and Mike before the start and were able to wish them good luck one last time.

On their way to the start.  

The race started at 7:00 and although we couldn't spot Rich or Mike in the water it was great to experience it all.

So neat seeing all of the spectators on the bridge!

And they're off!

Carrie and I

I am so thankful that we had one another during all of this-not only just race day but all of the training as well.  It was much more fun with her.  

The Ducote/Conley cheering crew!

Following the start we walked about a mile to Towne Green where the swim to bike transition was.  Carrie and I both had bought the Irontrac app for our phones (seriously, what would we do without the iphone?!) so we were both checking it obsessively to find out when the guys had exited the water. All of a sudden I looked down at my phone and saw that Rich had finished the swim and after giving a loud shriek I moved to the front of the spectator crowd to watch him get on the bike.  He saw us which was awesome and off he went for the 112 mile bike ride.  He finished the swim in 1:11:22, approximately 10 minutes faster than he was hoping for and Mike followed shortly behind him.

Here was the crowd at the transition

My good friend, Jamie, was with us for the entire day and was great about getting pictures so I could focus on cheering!  

And there he goes!

The bike was going to take more than 5 hours and there really weren't any great spots to view them since the course went way out in the country so we decided to both head home to relax and stay cool for a few hours.  Originally we were going to stay in the Market Street area because we were worried about the traffic but I am so thankful that we made the decision to go home.  It was a long day already and we still had many hours ahead of us so it was nice to go home and just sit for a bit.  When we were home the flowers below were delivered.  Joseph, if you are reading this, just remember that if your future wife tells you not to spend money on flowers don't always listen to her-I am sure that she will appreciate them every now and then.  These made my day.

After about 3 hours we left and headed back to Market Street.  We met up with Carrie and her crew, as well as the Kramer family, and after about 20 minutes of watching the bikers fly by, Rich zoomed by on his bike.  He saw us cheering and he looked really strong and was about 20 minutes faster on the bike than he was hoping for.  He finished the bike in 5:26:56.  At the transition from the bike to the run he had to run on asphalt and he was barefoot since he bikes without socks and the minute that he stepped onto the ground he said his feet were just on fire- 90 plus degrees in the Texas sun will make for a very hot surface which caused some serious blisters throughout the run.  As if running a marathon in 90 degree heat isn't bad enough (especially after already working out for almost 7 hours!) the blisters on his feet just really made the run rough.

Once we saw Mike on the bike our crew walked for awhile in hopes to see the guys on the start of the run.  Norah was concerned with the sun that day so she made sure that she was all lathered up in sunscreen on the walk.  This was hilarious and the best part about this was that people kept walking by snickering and finally a man stopped and told us-we had no idea since she was in the front and we couldn't see her!

Here is Rich at mile 2 looking strong with a smile on his face!  Our friend, Monica, was volunteering at this mile marker so she sent me the picture.

 Rich actually spotted us as we were walking (hard to miss our entourage) when he was at about mile 5.  After we saw him we headed towards the splash pad which was conveniently located on the run course.  The kids played for hours in the water, Ella chilled in the shade with all of her favorite Texas aunts and uncles and we tried to keep one eye on the kids and one eye on the runners looking for Mike and Rich.  The course was a big loop so they would have passed us 3 times but we only saw Rich once as it was a little chaotic and hard to track exactly when they would be passing us.  When Rich ran by he said something to me about 8 miles but I couldn't quite catch what he said.  He told me after that he said, "That was a 'ruff' 8 miles."  Joseph's favorite book, "Homer", that Ella gave to him when she was born, is about a dog that plays baseball and Rich and I often quote the book since we read it all of the time.  Our favorites are, "He's lickin' good" and "It's going to be a ruff game" and once I found out what he had said we were both cracking up.  At least he was in good spirits on the run!

Joseph and Will taking a break from the splash pad and cheering on the runners.

At about 5:00 we all decided that we needed to get something to eat and cool off for a bit before seeing the finish.  The restaurants were packed and with three strollers and a party of ten we weren't going to fit anywhere except for the movie theatre!!  I think it was Jamie who had the great idea about the movie theatre dining area and it was perfect.  It was cool and actually the food was pretty decent (or maybe we were just all starving that it tasted pretty good)!  Joseph fell asleep on the walk to the movie theatre and slept for all of maybe thirty minutes.  He was really great though the entire day especially considering he had been up at 4:45.  Ella was a trooper, too!  I think the only time she fussed all day was in the morning on the walk to town green as she was trying to fall asleep.  Other than that she was her happy self just bouncing from one set of loving arms to the next.

Here is part of our crew having dinner at the movie theatre!

As we were finishing up dinner Val received a text from Tim, who was volunteering at mile 24, that Rich had just passed so we quickly packed things up and made our way to the finish line.  Jamie came with me and I gave her my camera (and Ella!) so I could keep my eye out for Rich.  She caught these very special images.  Things at the finish line were chaotic and I couldn't decide where I wanted to stand to see Rich finish and Joseph and Ella both started fussing...these next pictures pretty much sum up the finish.

I had just taken Joseph out of the stroller since he had just woken up from his very short nap and was not the happiest of campers.

But, we were getting excited to see Rich!

Checking my phone for the time-I was starting to get nervous because we hadn't seen him cross the finish line yet and I thought that he should had crossed by this point.

And as I checked my phone I received a text message saying, "Congratulations Rich" and I immediately broke into tears since we had missed him run through the chute and cross the finish line.  Somehow in between me changing spectating positions, parking the stroller, taking the kids out of the stroller and walking back to the original viewing position he finished-as I said it was chaotic and I was tired and pre-occupied with the kids and just totally lost track of time.  This picture still brings tears to my eyes and it makes me so sad that I missed him running down the chute to finish but I told him that he'll just have to do another one so I can see it!

Thankfully we walked fast and found him immediately (or at least I tell myself that) after he crossed the finish line. 

We are so proud of him!  He finished the marathon in 5:00:26.  Overall he felt really good and if it weren't for the crazy blisters on his feet he would have felt great.  He'll probably lose 5 or 6 toenails and his blisters took up half of his foot-doesn't that sound awesome?!  

He finished the entire race in 11:51:43, came in 69th out of 317 people for his age group and was 366th overall, out 0f over 2100 people! Pretty awesome!

We have great friends who all came out to cheer for Rich and Mike.  It was so great seeing them and having their support, not only on race day but during their training as well.  After Rich finished we stayed at the finish line to cheer on Mike, who did awesome, too, and then we ran into some of our friends before heading home. I think I made it home with the kids around 9 and Rich got home around 10 after picking up his bike and other things.  It was such an emotional day but was such a neat experience and we are so thankful that Rich was safe and healthy during the race and that he did so well.  Congratulations Ironman!!