Saturday, June 18, 2011

Superstar

I'm going to use this moment to brag about my husband, since I figure that's the beauty of having a blog. As soon as we got our assignment to come to Kansas (more than 18 months ago) he announced he wanted to do the Kansas Half Ironman. I'm kind of used to him setting and achieving these lofty physical goals and I had no doubt he'd do it. However, after watching him balance training, work, family and fun for the last six months, I was still impressed when I watched him complete his goal last weekend.

The race started with a 1.2 mile swim in Clinton Lake, which he says was more than a little choppy. Then he hopped on his bike for a 56 mile ride, which is where we caught up with him. Sadly, I failed to check my camera settings and completely screwed up my exposure for all the biking pictures so you'll have to take my word for it when I tell you that (A) he looked like he felt really good; (B) the kids were adorable, holding up signs that said "you rock" and "go Daddy, go!"; and (C) the kids got lots of props from other riders who liked it when they stood by the road, cheering and holding the Go, GO! signs. My family also deserves a shout-out for trekking through all the spectating with me. My parents rode with me and the kids, helping navigate the backroads of Douglas county, passing out snacks and providing supervision so I could concentrate on the ill-fated pictures and my sister and her family chose to spend their Sunday morning doing the same. Jeff had resigned himself to not seeing any of us, so he says that seeing all of us instead was a great surprise.

I managed to get the camera adjusted before the run, and he still looked happy while running his half-marathon to finish it out. See?

start of the run

6.5 miles to go

rounding the corner at the finish

Jeff on the left, headed for the finish line. Clock time is what you see on the board,
his chip time ended up being 5:43:56.

before we could regroup to find him, here he came, all smiles

Wyatt, running for his Daddy

my three favorite people

3 comments:

Steph said...

That's flipping amazing. Congrats, Vice! I'm gonna go ask Trash to please get off the couch now. ;)

Heather and Scott said...

Go Vice! I'm super impressed (and so is Cortez). :)

Laurie R. said...

Jeff, you are awesome! Congratulations!!