Devon and Steve competed in their first Half Iron Man. Not only was it their first Half Iron Man, it was also Devon's first triathlon and his first time swimming in open water. To top it off, this is one of the hardest Half Iron Man courses out there. If you're unfamiliar with what a Half Iron Man is is consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 50 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run, which adds up to be 70.3 miles. I am so proud of these two for the dedication they have put into their training to achieve this goal, and to move them toward their goal of doing a full Iron Man.
Devon and Steve headed out to the race super early in the morning (like 4 am??) and then the kids and I headed out around 6:45. It was hard to get up and get everyone ready that early and quickly. I was worried we wouldn't get there fast enough, but it all worked out wonderfully.
We had a little while to wait while the boys did their swim. We passed the time waiting in line for the restrooms, watching swimmers get out of the water (or at least tried to... the crowds were thick and it was hard to see anything right there), and played around.
The skies were threatening rain and even lightening. The rain held off until Devon and Steve both finished their swim. We saw Steve get out of the water and cheered for him, but we somehow missed Devon. We waited at this spot where the bikers were just starting and watched for him. Finally we headed out, thinking we must have missed him. Sadly, I think we just needed to wait a few more minutes. I'm pretty sure he must have passed us as we walked out of the venue toward our car. It was at that time, that it started to rain. And rain it did! I was quite the downpour! We got pretty soaked as we ran to the car to get out of the rain, but it was about a half mile to our car.
We had debated whether we would just go hang out in the condo while Devon did his bike ride. And that was the plan until the route we were taking to get to the condo happened to also be the route of the bike race. The racers all had chips on them that we was supposed to be able to see where they were on the course. So when we saw all the racers, we looked up quick to see where they were. We could see that it looked like if we just drove to the entrance to our condo, we would see them there with perfect timing. The tricky thing is the chips malfunctioned a little, and was totally off of where they really were at. We thought Devon was in front of Steve, but then suddenly it showed it with Devon way behind, so we were really confused. When we got to our spot and got out of the car, just at that moment the kids said "Hey, wasn't that Dad that just went by?" Unfortunately it was. We thought about just giving up and going into the condo since we were pretty much right there. But I was feeling bummed at missing them, so we decided to go drive after them. We drove up a ways, and got out to watch for them at a corner where they turned. It was so tricky watching all the bikes go by, trying to see if any of them were Steve or Devon. One of the kids said "Was that Steve that went by? He looked at me kind of funny." I looked out past us around the corner and thought, "Darn, that looks like him. I missed him!" I yelled "Go Steve" anyway. Later he told us he saw one of my kids and did a double take because he wasn't expecting to see us, so that probably really was him. At this point we were still thinking Devon was ahead of Steve, so we thought that maybe we missed him, even though the GPS showed him still way back by the condo. We waited a few more minutes, then finally went to get in the car. Just as we got in the car, I look up and there is Devon passing us by! So we yelled out to him from the open car doors. Bummer!! I'm glad we saw him, but I still felt like we missed him. I really wanted to get some pictures of them. So we hurried and buckled up, and went along the route. I gave one of the kids my phone, rolled down the window and had them snap some pictures of Devon as we went by (telling them, don't hold the phone out the window!). After that we tried to drive far enough ahead to find them, especially if that was Steve in front of Devon (which at that time we weren't sure). I drove up what I thought was plenty and ran some chairs across the street for us to sit on, then ran back to get the kids. Just then Devon rode by again. Darn! I was so sure I was way up ahead and we would have 10-15 minutes before they got to us. Well, after that the route went a direction I couldn't go because of roads closed for the race. So, we gave up and headed for the next transition, which was also near the finish line.
While they did their run it was hard to decide what to do. We needed some lunch, but there really wasn't a whole lot of options. There were a few food carts with some food, but nothing really sounded good. We asked someone about restaurants, but they were a bit of a walk away. We finally decided to just eat from the food trucks and make it work. It was a little rough since some of the kids didn't like anything we bought. Everyone else just tried a little of each thing and ate what they liked. The kids really wanted a snowcone, so I gave in and got them one. The only problem was it wasn't very warm, so it just made us all colder. One lady told me that she heard that eating cold things when you're cold makes you warmer. I smiled politely, and thought to myself, "you are very wrong." The kids had been quite good walking around, and waiting for Devon, but it was at this point while waiting on the bleachers that my kids reached their limit. It was a bit rough. I also had to make several trips with kids to the bathroom that was across the park. Oh, the fun of doing things with kids not quite old enough to go into the restroom themselves, not to mention trying to find the restroom in a place they aren't familiar with. Finally it got to when I knew the boys should start coming in soon. So we watched diligently, trying to pick either of them out. Finally we saw Steve and we were so excited and I hurried to get my phone out to take a picture. Unfortunately, my phone loaded slowly and I got nothing. I felt so bad!! Devon was just a few minutes behind him and I was able to get a little video of him finishing. They both finished so strong and it was so fun to see them accomplish such a big feat!
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