My husband is so incredible.
He is one of the most motivated individuals I have ever met in my life. His is constantly setting incredibly high goals for himself and he achieves everyone. He has a work ethic that I think is almost irritating and I cannot believe the list of accomplishments he has amassed.
Last Sunday, David achieved one of his other goals. He completed his second Ironman.
David was awake and our of the condo well before Sydney and I. I got up at 5:20am and got everything ready for the day before waking Syd up. If you have ever been to an Ironman... you know that it is an impossibly long day for both athletes and spectators. We packed up the Chariot and ran the two kilometers to the start line. When we got there we were greeted with this....
We couldn't see anything! No big deal. I knew if we turned around and ran back to transition that we would get a great spot to see David come through. We ran back to transition and on our way a 518 plane flew over head three times to signal the start of the race. Sydney was so incredibly tired.
We were lucky in that David's bike (appropriately named Stella because she is sexy) and transition zone was in the aisle closest to the fence. We had a clean line of sight to where he would be coming through.
We waited and waited and after an hour and eight minutes in the water, a quick change and a run through transition, he was there!!!
We cheered so loud that we distracted him and he almost ran into some other athletes on their way out... oops!
While he was off on his bike, Sydney and I went back up to the room and had a very long nap followed by some nice brunch.
We really had to hoof it down to transition again to see him dismount his bike. While most athletes took their time getting off of their bike realizing that their legs may be shaky after 180km... David flew off hitting the ground running. He had an amazing bike time of 5 hours and 22 minutes!
The next time we saw him, he was half way through the run. We jogged over to us and gave us a few kisses and hugs all while admitting that he really wasn't feeling great. He was so disappointed in how he was running and his biggest fear was that he would not break eleven hours.
At around 26km in to the run, David found a running partner who had the same sub eleven hour goal. Neither were feeling great but knew they could push each other. They raced the rest of the run together and both accomplished their goal.
David finished in a time of 10 hours and 53 minutes. That is 28 minutes faster than his last Ironman time! He crossed with arms in the air while I cheered and cried. I am so proud of his incredible accomplishment and perseverance.
The finish line at an Ironman is seriously the worlds biggest party. It is so much fun and everybody is so pumped up and happy for their loved ones. The music is pumping all the way up to midnight and the announcers call everyone across the line yelling "You Are An Ironman!"
Sydney got a brand new shirt for race day. It says "When I grow up I want to be an Ironman".
After the race it was all about the food! We started with pizza and pasta....
And moved onto the caban a sucre for some maple taffy. Yum! They basically poor hot maple syrup over packed snow, you wait 45 seconds and then you roll it up onto your stick and enjoy! It is so tasty!
Our last stop was for beaver tails. David had the apples and cinnamon version and I inhaled a cinnamon sugar one. It was so good!
In the end it was an amazing day. Months of training and sacrificed family time culminated in an incredibly emotional journey to the finish line. There were a lot of tears, some anxious moments, relieved embraces and perfect memories made.
Mrs. E
