Being an Ironman is hard

We were up at 5:00 AM to pick up mom & head over to Louisville to watch Rhonda jump in the water to start the Ironman.  Her swim took about 1 hour & 45 minutes.  

I'm disappointed we didn't get any good pics of her leaving on her bike.  She left in a pack of people & she was on the wrong side of the shoot from us.  I printed copies of her bib & we pinned them to us.  I made Butterfly one too...but he didn't wear it.  SHOCKING.

B-rad was the official photographer for the day.  While we were waiting for Rhonda to get off the bike to start her run (which goes over 2nd Street Bridge), the boys went over to get a beer.  See the arrow on the left?  That's me...sitting on the sidewalk...watching our stuff. (which means Buttefly's tricycle bike... more on that later...)  Mom's there on the right watching Rhonda going onto the bridge.

Then we switched & mom watched our stuff & I walked into the middle of the street to see Rhonda on her way back over the bridge.  She had told Butterfly she was 'dead' when they saw her before she went over the bridge so I knew she was having a hard time... But lets put this in perspective...she had just ridden her bike for 6 & 1/2 hours...& she had 25 miles left to run.  Gulp.

And I'm not the type to say, "It's ok, Rhonda...you can quit now...no one will judge you.  You've only trained for a year.  You even powered through the pain of a broken clavicle... and you still continued to train... but yea, you're right - now it's time to give up..."  Nope, nu uh...have you MET me?!

I told her she was doing great... (uhm, yea that's me pointing my finger at her.  I HAD to stress my point!)

And she told me, "I'm dead..."  

And I may or may not have said, "NO YOU'RE NOT!  You GOT this!"

And again she said, "Yes I am...I'm dead...."  

And I may or may not have said, "SUCK IT UP SISTER!  You can do it!"

And I'm not saying my words of encouragement were the only reason she fed... but I'm sure it helped... Tough love works, people.  Just look at that thumbs up...I think she got my message... 

Butterfly was absolutely NO help in any way about anything.  I couldn't remember what split it was between when they came around 4th Street the first time.  He had no clue either.  Really?  

The triathlon group they're in always rents out an area in one of the restaurants on 4th street & we're able to join in on that.  We headed down there after we saw the run to hang out & wait for her to make the first loop at 4th street.  I decided it was after the 13 mile split so mom & I walked down a couple of blocks to see her...well, uhm, my calculations were wrong & it was after the 8 mile split so we had missed her.  I did feel really bad about that too.  

(I mean, what if she needed my special words of encouragement as she made the first pass of 4th street & could SEE the finish line yet it was still HOURS from her grasp?  I let my Ironman down...)

You may not know this, but you can track your athletes online.  That's how you know how fast their pace is & kind of where they are during the competition & more importantly it allows you to do fancy math problems on your iPad to figure out about what time she may be finishing.

We knew around 8:15 that she would finish around 9:30 if she kept her pace consistent.  We kept tracking her & she was right on track.  At 9:15 I decided we needed to walk towards the finish lines to the barricades surrounded by people.  I have found that if you tell them your athlete is coming, they will gladly move aside to let you take pics.  I put B-rad before the finish line & Butterfly, mom & I went to right past it. I wanted to get video of her crossing.   

I LOVE this pic B-rad got of her. 

You can see the sheer JOY on her face.  She made it...she finished...& best of all - she's alive...  

(She finished her run in 5 hours & 45 minutes.)

Of course we all ran to the end of the finish line shoot to see her.  Mom got this great pic of us right after.  

I told her I KNEW she could do it!  We hugged, she kissed me on the cheek...I kissed her on the cheek... It was like licking a salt block!  I said, "UHM, you are digusting!"  She said, "I know - I am sooo gross!"  Her suit was like soaking wet with sweat.  GAG.  (Hello - I'm nothing if not honest!)

She kept saying over & over again, "You guys stayed for me!  I can't believe you stayed for me!"  Then she started to cry... & then I started to cry. 

 I said, "OK-NO TEARS!  B-rad - take our picture do we don't cry!!!"