IRONMAN 70.3 Austin, TX

I am so terribly sorry to my dear blog for neglecting you. It is very hard to get motivated when you are so behind, but we just got a little busy. No excuses though and I will try not to let it happen again!

Back in October, shortly after my triathlon, Forrest completed the Ironman 70.3 in Austin and did absolutely AMAZING. Aaron, Jeremy (friend), and Will (Aaron’s friend) joined him in the race. They all did so great- all of us girls were so proud.

I wish I could share the book I made Forrest– it has all of his thoughts, all pictures, it is so great at telling the story. In fact, if it is not too long I will maybe try and add some of that into here. Anyways, I am so proud of him. He worked so hard to get to this point. I cannot wait to cheer for him in the IRONMAN Texas in May 2011.

   

   

  

A note from the athlete himself:

“First and foremost.... I want to thank all of my family who made the trip to Austin to support Aaron and myself in the Longhorn 70.3 Ironman this past weekend.  I was completely taken back at numerous moments of how much support we had.  It would be ZERO exaggeration to say that Aaron and I had the best and loudest fans of anyone in the race.  So a BIG THANK YOU to Aunt Dede, Rob, supa dupa paratrooper (Dyron), Kim, Madison, Rocky, Rod &Donna, Amberly, Natalie, Aiden, Ashton, My Parents and a big thank you to Megan as if it were not for her I would have never signed up for the event.  Also, thanks Pop for picking up my slack around the ranch while I was training for the event.  I am often reminded how lucky I am to have such a wonderful loving family that cares so much about each other and what is going on in each of our lives.  Family is what makes everything in life all worth it.” -Forrest

Race Day!

 “Head to the starting line with the knowledge that the woman who starts the race is not the same as the woman who will finish it.” – Sally Edwards

Race day was eventful and filled with moments I could never explain. I can’t imagine going through the experience without all of my wonderful family being there by my side. Between Forrest, his parents, my parents, Amberly’s family, it seemed like someone was there every corner I made with a camera and a big smile. It made me feel so good and reminded me of how thankful I am for them.

So starting with the morning of:

I was extremely grateful that Forrest had set up accommodations for all of us at a lodge on site because that made such a difference in how we were all able to spend our morning. We didn’t have to deal with traveling, parking, waking up extra early, etc. It was absolutely perfect!

The day started at 5:30am which was the time that the transition area opened. Amberly and I rolled out of bed after waking up every couple of hours through the night thinking it was game time. The transition area was just opening up and we wanted to be some of the first ones down there to rack our bikes, which we were. The temperature outside was in the lower 60’s so it felt a little chilly. Feeling a little anxious at this point especially thinking about getting in that water!

Next we came back to the room to get ready, ate a little breakfast, and gathered all of our things. Then around 7am, we headed back down to the transition area to set our things up next to our bikes. We then went through the body marking area to get all of our numbers put on us and eventually made our way down to the swim start, setting our shoes up along the way.  Soon it was time to put our lovely swim caps on and line up according to our wave.

     

The swim went well. I started in the back and fortunately did not experience any leg kicks to the face or anything like. I only choked on water once and had to stop to catch my breath. Other than that, I finished feeling good and ready to start the bike.

Amberly and I met up in transition after the swim which was nice because for the remainder of the event we were able to stay together. The bike course was difficult because of all the hills but we made it through.

   

We still had energy for the run but decided to take it easy. The course was a little rocky and the last mile was completely uphill. We finished strong and held each others hands as we crossed the finish line.

 

 

 

Afterwards we celebrated and had fun rooting the rest of the women on as they crossed the finish line!

 

Thank you to all my family for being so great to me and for all of the support this weekend. It means so much to me. and I will always cherish the memories we made!