Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Chris - YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!


The Ironman journey came to an end yesterday when Chris and I parted ways at the Spokane airport. He journeyed home and Lil' E and I headed south with our final destination - San Francisco. More on that later...

HERE IS YOUR IRONMAN UPDATE!

Chris began training way back when, January maybe, in efforts to prepare for the AMAZING athletic feat - 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile swim, and 26.2 mile run. Crazy, if you ask me. I haven't really seen him night or day since then, as this training was pretty crazy - 2.5 hour swims after work, 100 mile rides on the weekend, and 2.5 hour runs. So, this IRONWIFE was glad to see the culmination of all his work.

We left for Coeur d'Alene, ID on Wednesday, 6.21, arriving to the hotel around midnight. LONG DAY. Thursday, we checked out the athlete village and picked up Chris' bike from TriBike Transport (the Saturday before we left, we dropped it off in Madison for it's journey to Idaho) and meandered around. Friday brought a tour of the bike and run course via car. Saturday, the nerves started to mount and Chris sampled the water with a swim - COLDDDD!! Wetsuits only if you're NOT crazy. (I only saw one guy without a wetsuit on Sunday!)

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY! Chris' day started at 4am, E and I got going around 5am. We stayed only 5-10 minutes from the course, so off we went. I created a nice little documentary of the day. (Anyone have pointers to posting a 15 minute video of the day??)

The goal was 11 hours - 1 hour for the swim, 5 hours for the bike, 5 hours for the run. That doesn't sound right now, but I think that was the goal. The swim ended up 1:02, the bike time was shorter than anticipated, and then the heat struck. Chris stopped sweating after the bike. Not good when you've got a marathon to run and it's almost 100 degrees!

So, what was the verdict? He made it, with an additional 1.5 hours tacked on to the goal time. That's a-okay, because he made it and I was so proud of him! Is there an Ironman in next year's game plan? NO WAY!

If you want to see the entire photo album, I have it posted on Snapfish.com. Let me know your email and I'll send you an invite to view it!

2 comments:

Gina said...

Wow! Congratulations Chris! That is quite an accomplishment.

Anonymous said...

Way to go Chris. Great picture!