Half Ironman

Josh completed his first half Ironman triathlon today and boy was it memorable! He started out on the swim remarkably fast (his fastest time yet for that distance) and felt great. His exact quote to me in the transition area after the swim was "That was fun!" I think you can see it in the look on his face as he's running into the transition area here...



He took off on the bike and told me that he was feeling great. He was keeping up with some of the elite guys and keeping a great pace.

About halfway into the bike... Josh was going about 20 mph down a hill and didn't notice that the next turn was extremely tight. He had the option of either hitting the breaks hard and sliding along the pavement or trying to make a landing on the grass straight ahead. He picked the latter... he ended up sailing into a curb at 20 mph, flipped off his bike, had the bike flip over his head and they both landed in a heap on the grass. Thank God he is okay. We have heard numerous stories of how many triathletes have been paralyzed this exact way. We are saying our prayers of thanks tonight that he is still able to walk and is doing okay. Josh's guardian angel had to work some overtime today.

Now most of you know my crazy husband and can guess that yes, he picked himself up and decided to try and finish the rest of the race. As he was sitting on the ground after his crash, two other racers came by and laughed at him. I would love to find these guys and knock them out personally, but of course that was all the motivation Josh needed so he hopped on his bike (first had to fix the chain because it was royally messed up from the crash) and took off after those guys. And guess what? He caught them! But unfortunately the crash and the extra energy it took to catch those guys caught up to him during the run and his run didn't go as well as he would've liked.

But all of that doesn't matter to me because I am so stinking proud of him! He swam 1.2 miles, biked 56 miles and then ran 13.1 miles all in one outing. HE IS A HALF IRONMAN! I'm sure many of you are just like me and you can't even fathom trying to do this. It is an incredible feat and not something that many people can say that they've done, let alone the fact that he did half of the race after a major accident. Tonight as I write this I am so proud of him for completing this race, but I am even more thankful to have my husband with me safe and sound and in one piece.

On to the pictures -

You'll notice the half smirk on Josh's face in the picture below... probably in disbelief that he is starting the 13.1 miles of run right after that accident. All the while he was running by me he was trying to tell me about it and all I could see was the huge scrapes all along his back. Other passers by that heard me yelling back and forth with Josh then told me that they witnessed the crash and told me how incredibly horrible it was. Now I had to sit and wait and see if my husband would make it through the run okay....


I was so thankful to see Josh at this point in time. I was worried sick that he wouldn't make it through the run after his crash.


Coming into the finish and SO glad to be done!


We owe a huge thank you to my parents for watching the girls for us during all three triathlons this summer. It required a lot of early mornings and time from them so that Josh could compete in his races and I could go and cheer him on. Thank you so much for all of your help and support Mom and Dad! We really appreciate it!