my window: Ironman 70.3 Branson

Wow, it's hard to know where to begin. Josh has been training for this race for a year, and I feel like I have mentally been thinking about this race for 7 months, starting the day he signed up and told me we would be driving to Branson to watch him do a 1/2 Ironman.
We left early Friday morning morning so the kids could sleep part of the 7 hour drive to get there. We stopped a couples time so they could get out and run off some energy. One of the stops was the the Bass Proshop, which the kids loved.

We were able to spend some time by the pool on Friday and Saturday. Josh was only able to join us on Friday because he was busy on Saturday getting ready for the big day.

Saturday night we had dinner with a few a Josh's teammates, and families, who were also participating in the race. After dinner we went miniature golfing with Wes Chaplin's family.

Noah, Courtney (Wes's kids) and Lake.

Love this...we are standing alike. :)

Race Day

I went to the start of the race and left the kids with Mike and Vicki because it was going to be a long enough day for them. I met up with Amy Recker, and we watched the swim and bike portion together.

In case you aren't familiar with an Ironman, Josh did a 1/2 which is considered 70.3...1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run.

Josh and his teammates waiting for the swim waves to start. The swim is broken up by age groups, hence the color of their swim caps.

Josh's wave got in the water at 7:27

and their off! The swim can be nerve racking to watch because they are in the water for what seems like forever. This is the longest race Josh has ever done, so at this time of the day I was already a nervous wreck. I say a lot of prayers throughout the morning for Josh's safety and I always feel better when I see him get out of the water.

Here he comes, out of the water, up the hill to T1. That was a good feeling to see him. :)

Walking/running his bike to the start of the bike

Once he starts on the bike I know I won't see him for at least 2 1/2 hours.

So, it seems like I am missing a few pictures here and I am. Amy and I got stuck in traffic for over 1 1/2 hours, but at one point we were on the bike course and I was able to see Josh ride past coming back into Branson.

On the run, he looked hot and tired but he gave us the thumbs up.

And he's done! I have never been more relieved to see him come through the finish and be okay. His final time was 5 hours 32 minutes. It was an honor to be his wife that day and I am very proud of him. He trains hard, and at times that can get tiring for me because it means he is away from us in the evenings and weekends, but he accomplished an amazing goal this past weekend and I am very happy for him. He has hopes of doing Ironman 140.4 sometime in the next couple years, but for now he is pleased with his performance and is looking forward to taking a "break" from training. (and by "break" I mean maybe a week of two. :))