Damons IronMan

November 20

So my brother Damon was insane enough to do the Arizona Ironman. When he first told us about it I knew I wanted to go and support him in this big event.  The commitment and training this takes so you can just finish is more than I could comprehend.  

The closer it got to the race we knew there was no way my family could all go for one Cody's sister was leaving that next weekend to move to Nebraska and the money to fly us all out would have been way to much.  So we kept watching and came across a great price on air fair for I was able to fly out for the weekend.

The Saturday before the race they had the racers check in all their drop bags and bikes. He was able to do a practice swim in the canal to test the temp of the water and expo we were able to enjoy.

This is under the finish line the day before the race.

The practice swim to test out the temp of the water and get a feel for it. I say man wet suits are so attractive and easy to spot your swimmer. haha

Then it was off to bag drop and wrack your bike.  I believe my nerves would have been getting the best of me at this point, but no he was extremely calm.

Morning of the big day. This is where they left him to start off the day.  The swim started at 6:00am

The girls were such great sports that morning since they had to be up around 4:30am

And this was about all you could see during the swim.  We new he was somewhere out there.  I kept saying hes the one in the green cap and black wet suit you just decide which one. He did do really awesome in the swim though. Swim was 2.4 miles he finished that in 1:15:49 rank 883 division 140

Then off on the bike he goes.  This was set up very spectator friendly we were able to see him on all 3 of his laps which was really fun. Again he was doing extremely well in his bike which is 112 miles his time was 5:59:49 rank: 887 Division 143

And this is what we did in our spare time waiting in between laps of the bike.

Once he had completed his bike off to a marathon he will run.  He was looking really good and again very spectator friendly.  We could have seen him 3 times before the finish line, but didn't know where he was in mileage so we scooted out one lap early.  This way we wouldn't miss him finishing and we that we could get good seats.  The run was 26.2 miles and his time was 4:45:56 rank: 868 Division:141

And of course we were all so excited to see him coming up the finishing stretch we forgot all about the cameras cause we were cheering so hard for him oops no finishing picture. Good thing for camera men along the course to insure you get a picture if your family forgets. haha  He looked so good coming across the finishing line I was such a proud sister.  What an accomplishment and to do it in such great time on his first.  Finishing time 12:10:20 rank:868 Division:141

Way to go this was so worth flying out for the weekend to see only it kind of gave me the bug to want to do one. 

I made him this fun little candy bar poster to just let him know I was behind him 100% and knew he could do anything he put his mind too.