Ironman

First up, this rescue is still with us. She will leave this week.  She is a really great dog, but my dogs hate her. Its made it hard to get anything done, just watching dogs to make sure they dont fight.   She is happy and friendly. Seems to like everyone.  She doesnt read other dogs very well which is part of the problem.   They will growl  at her but she doesnt listen. She just keeps on and they they get mad. Java doesnt allow her to play with anyone. Guiness will play with her and I have to put Java up.  I dont think she has been in the house before. She can jump from a stand still unto the counters and table. Wow, I never had a dog do that before.  So she is on leash alot in the house.  I do think she will learn quickly and will turn out to be a well behaved dog.


Lou's friend had taped this poster to our door during the night. All his training buddies had signed it.

I like what the one guy wrote, "This is the worst parade ever! Get it done".  LOL

My husband competed in an Ironman distance triathlon.   Very stressful worrying about him when you dont know where they are on course. The live tracking system wasnt working.

We got up at 4am.  He had to catch a bus to the T1 site to drop off his bag of bike clothes, helmet and shoes that he will put on after the swim. We had dropped his bike off the day before.  Then a shuttle takes him down the road to the swim start. Unless I wanted to ride a bike in the dark and it was freezing out, I couldnt see the swim start.  There were 800 people doing the Full ironman. There were a total of 2500 people, so the rest were either relay teams or half ironman people.  The full Ironman start first at 7:30am.

I took this picture while waiting for him to finish the swim.

 It was freezing. I had lots of clothes on  and I was good except my toes. They hurt so bad by the time I went back to the car.  He swam the 2.4 miles in 1 hour and 13 minutes.

This is wear  he got out of the water. They had ladders down off the dock.  (I took this the day before with my phone).

He got out of the water, then people called Strippers, pull you out of your wet suit.  Then you run to the T1 (transition) site. No shoes on and on the street.  I figured between being wet and cold and then running barefoot, my husband wouldnt be happy. He always wears shoes, even in the house.

Look how happy the guy is behind Lou. Hes having a great time.  LOL

 

 

These were some of the bikes, I couldnt get them all in.

 

 

Then it took him about 10 minutes or so to change clothes and he came out on the bike.

 

 

 

Off he went. For 112 miles.  I figured it would take him about 6 hours to do the 112 miles. I tried to go further down the bile route to see if I could see him and get some pictures. But I never saw him. I did see a guy take a bad spill off the bike. He asked me if Igot a picture. I told him no. I didnt tell him I was just looking for my husband. But that stressed me out, seeing that guy fall, so I went back to the hotel.

 

Then around 2:15 his friend texted me that she thought he would be starting the run soon. So I went out behind the hotel for the run. I waited 2 hours and I never saw him. I was getting nervous. I knew if something really bad happened, they would call me. But if his bike broke or he had flats, that would slow him down.  And you could just stop at a medical tent if you were having trouble and they wouldnt call you for that. Ack.  I walked the run route to the convention center where the bike route ended. I never saw him. I waited and watched bikers come in for a while. Then went inside to see if I could find out if his bike was dropped off. But it was packed with people waiting to pick up bikes so I couldnt fine out if he had dropped the bike yet.  I walked back to the hotel, got the buddy pass that allowed me to pick up his bike and two bags of clothes.  Then I got a text that someone saw him at mile 1 of the 26 mile run. Walked back  to the convention center and waited in line for the bike. Then to the next line for the bags.   Then I went back to the run route and waited for a while because they come back that way after  mile 13 but it would be a while, so I took the bike and stuff back to the hotel.   Waited some more, then his friend texted me he was on his way back pass the hotel. So I went outside and waited.

 

 

I took these pictures while waiting.  I finally saw him. I asked him if he was ok, he said no.  But he looked ok. His color was good and he was running strong. So I figured he was ok but tired.

 

Then waited some more, about 2 hours. Then went to the finish line. I wasnt going to miss him coming over the finish line like last time.

 

 

 

 

 

He did it!!   13 hours and 47 minutes.