Galveston Ironman 70.3

Last Saturday we woke up bright and early to nice, cool weather. Tiptoeing around the house, so we wouldn't wake everyone else up, Landon and I gathered up his bag and water bottles and breakfast and everything else he needed for the race (except the bike--he had to check that in the night before) and headed down to Moody Gardens, talking and jamming out to the radio as we drove along the seawall. I think I was just as nervous for his race as I had been for mine the day before.

After getting body marked when we first walked up to the race area, (where they write your race number on your arms and your age on your calf) Landon headed into the transition area to get all of this things set up for the race. They only let racers into the transition area, so I hung out and watched him get ready from afar. :)

He's the guy in red, about halfway down Row C.

There were SO many people there! And this was definitely the biggest group of insanely athletic people that we've ever been around. It was pretty crazy. We enjoyed a minute or two just looking around at all the people as we stood in line for the port a potties. :)

And almost before we knew it, the sun had come up and it was almost time to head over to the swim start.

Landon's dad and our friend Ben showed up just time time for us to walk over to the start of the race--I'm pretty sure I had more butterflies in my stomach than Landon did at this point, haha. I think he was just ready to get it started.


Around 7am, we headed over to the the dock where the swimmers would take off. Again, there were SO many people--it was pretty cool.

Finally, after waiting around for a few minutes, Ben and I helped him put on his wetsuit, I gave his a hug and he was off!

The swimmers were all grouped by gender and age and Landon's group was near the front, in the light blue hats. They made them jump off the dock, tread water for a few minutes and then, after a 10 second countdown, they shot the gun and they were off.

It looked like a REALLY far way out they had to swim and Landon said that it felt SO far! He never really got tired, but it just seemed to take forever. Comparatively, the longest race swim we've done was only 1/4 of the distance of his race this time.

But he made it and had an awesome time a smile on his face! I was relieved when he was out of the water, haha! He's now 1/3 of an Ironman 70.3!

After running through the swim chute and getting his wesuit peeled off by the wetsuit strippers, he RAN to the transition tent, grabbed his shoes and bike and was off! Becky, Kenna and I had to run to meet up with him at the bike exit!

I am so impressed he can put his shoes on as he bikes. I tried once--I am definitely not coordinated enough to do that. :)

And he's off for a 56 mile bike ride, still looking strong and happy.

We were Team Speights--Becky, Kenna and I made his signs the night before to cheer him on!

While we were killing 3 hours, waiting to see him come back into the chute and start the run, we watched the pros. They were AWESOME.

This is Chris Lieto. He's a huge Christian, big into World Vision (you'll definitely be hearing more about his and what he's doing on this blog at a later date!) and an awesome athlete. He came in first on the bike and headed off the the run before anyone else even finished the bike!

And, he had the lead for the first 3.5 out of 4 laps. Then, in the last part of the last lap, he got overtaken by this guy (whose name I can't remember!). Landon and I were SO bummed.

Then this guy, who's name I also can't remember, came in a few seconds later for 2nd.

And a few seconds later, Chris Lieto came in. I was too busy cheering that I somehow managed to cut off his head. But man--look at those muscles. Especially his quad. Ridiculous. Impressive.

After watching the first four finishers, who were all within a minute of one another, we decided to run back over to where Landon would be finishing his bike, in case he came in earlier than we expected. And I was SO glad we did because just a minute after we got there, we saw him riding in! He did awesome!! He finished the bike in just around 3 hours, which is what he was going for, even though I didn't know that until after the race! He rode the whole thing at just over 18 miles an hour, which is pretty darn fast, especially to hold for that long, with wind and some hills. I know he was tired at the end, but he hid it well. Meeting time goals goes a long way to counteract the pain it takes to reach them, for the moment at least!

We talked to him for a minute as he was racking his bike and he was still laughing and making jokes, which is so impressive to me. I don't hide pain as well as he does, we decided. :)

And within minutes, he was off again!

I ran to meet him at the run out and give him a high five. Funny story--I said something like "good job babe!" as I was reaching out to give him a high five as he began his run and he looked at me like I was crazy and shouted "no!" and kept running. I was SO confused, but just laughed, because I had no idea what he thought I said. Later, we were talking and he thought I was putting my hand out to get him to stop and take a picture, because I had my camera in my hand and he thought I was crazy!

We both wore out Team World Vision shirts this weekend and it was cool because we ran into the TWV people who run everything and they said that we were the only ones out at the race. And it was cool because we both had a number of people comment on our shirts and say they loved World Vision or ask us what it was, which was neat because we got to spread the message and talk about WV, even though we didn't get to raise money for this event.

And, because we were the only ones there with TWV, aside from the people who work for them, we got to spend a decent amount of time talking with one of there people at the Expo and are pretty excited about some of the ideas we got to chat with her about!

Anyway, after seeing Landon off in his run w found a spot where we could see him 4 times each loop he ran (he had to run 4 loops!) his cheering squad settled in for the last 2 hours.

It was fun seeing him so much and he was doing SO good---especially since it was REALLY hot! At one point during lap 2, he looked at us and said something like "isn't this lap 8 already??". Doing a lap course makes the miles go by SLOW.

I love this man. And it's amazing that he can look this good after swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles and being 10 miles into a half marathon.

Still going strong! And I was so proud of him for not walking at all, because A LOT of people did quite a bit of walking, from what we could see. I think the heat was getting to people. I know he was getting tired those last miles, but he kept plugging away.

A little encouragement from Ben as he finished up his last 2 miles!


And he's done!! I definitely got all choked up as he came across the finish line! I was (am) in awe of what he did and so, so proud! And, he finished with a smile, not looking at all like he'd just completed 70.3 miles with just his own body power!

He even posed for the camera! :)

After hugs and congrats from his fan club, we headed over to the food tent to grab him some food and let him have a seat. Again, I am so, so proud. And, I am so happy for him that it went well and he basically hit his time goals and finished saying he felt good!


Me and my Ironman 70.3! I love him!


Landon and his proud papa, looking good in their matching orange. :)

Us and Ben and Becky, our awesome friends who came out to Galveston and woke up at the crack of dawn and ran around all day to cheer Landon on!! We love you guys and are SO happy you came out with us!!

And lastly, before leaving, we took a minute to look at the times. We times him and were within a few seconds of the official time. We were proud of ourselves. But more proud of him, of course.

Landon, you are my hero. Seriously.

Cour'de'Alene, here we come!!