My IRONMAN

The following weekend after our Hawaiian vacation, Tanner did something I will never be able to accomplish: A half ironman. I am still SO extremely proud of him and for his crazy hard work in finishing this race. Here are some pictures from that day.

SO extremely thankful that Tanner's parents and brother came in town for the race. I was kind of a nervous wreck this morning and I'm so thankful I had someone there with me to calm my nerves! Also - it was freezing so don't judge the outfit. We left the hotel at 4am and it's a miracle my contacts even got in my eyes!

The water was warmer than the outside air, and that was 43 degrees, so I don't know if I wished to be in the water or standing outside.

When he spotted us he was SO happy. So cold, numb, exhausted, but so happy to be done with the swim.

The pictures don't show the unreal weather conditions, but right after he hopped on his bike, it started down pouring, hailing, and dropped to freezing temperatures. It was really scary.

The picture above was right before the storm. After sitting in the car for a few minutes I started to get a little anxious. I wanted to know if he was okay because as you can see he was in a short sleeve, shorts, and nothing rain protectant. We decided to drive and find him and I'm so glad we did. When we got to the halfway biking point we saw about 5 ambulances filled with people who got hypothermia, girls that couldn't push the brakes on their bikes because their hands were frozen, and lots of crying. 3/4 of the group that started, didn't finish because of the conditions. It was so frightening. 

We couldn't find Tanner, so we kept going up the hill. All the sudden an ambulance zoomed passed us and I turned to "freak out" mode. I told Tanner's dad to step on it, and we finally saw him at the turnaround point. There he was with other grown men who couldn't stop shaking huddling in the sun together trying to get warm. Logan took off his socks and we gave Tanner new socks because his shoes were soaked. We gave him his jacket and tried to keep him warm. I think it was good for all of us to see each other because it gave him the extra boost to keep going. We waited at the top of the hill for him to go so we weren't just riding his tail, and we helped a lot of the other bikers. We only saw 2 full Iron Man racers pass us because everyone had given up - it was that insane. People were hopping in our cars to sit in front of the heater, and they were leaving their bikes on the side of the road and asking to be taken back. Needless to say, we are happy it's over!

We went past Tanner on the hill down and he says he was breaking completely, but because of the rain on the hill he couldn't really control it - it's such a blessing that we found him when we did!

Of course when we got back to the waiting station the sun decided to come out... it was still sprinkling during the beginning of his run, but at that point he knew he was almost done! 

He got to finish with one of our best friend's, Clayton, and I'm so glad they accomplished it together!

So proud of you babe!

The race was in Napa Valley, so for the rest of the weekend we got to relax with his parents and take it easy. I'm looking forward when we can go back and actually explore the area!