He's an IRONMAN!!!

happy mother's day/anniversary to me! this year i got an ironman!

(yes, this post is soooooo overdue.) 

we are so proud of mauricio for his accomplishment in completing his first IRONMAN triathlon.  he has competed in several other triathlons this past year leading up to the big full length ironman race in st. george, utah.  for those of you not familiar with triathlons and all that goes with it, this is a pretty big deal.  swim: 2.4 miles bike: 112 miles run: 26.2 miles.  and yes, all in one day! crazy right? i know! 

training in st. george before the race

he had trained so hard for this race and a few months ago started having problems with his IT band (knee) and wasn't sure how it was all going to work out.  through many therapy/massage & taping sessions he was able to make it doable. 

at the bike racks the day before

unfortunately, he must have contracted a virus before the race and ended up with some kind of stomach bug that day which manifested itself after he finished the swim. :/  in true ironman fashion, he pushed through and finished! what a champ! to be able to finish this kind of race being completely healthy is a feat in itself, but to do it with a stomach virus, and vomiting to the point of delirium, well that's just uber amazing!  the human spirit cannot be contained when one is determined enough.  


i do have to say (because you all know how i am) that a few of the pro athletes pulled out because of "not having a great swim and then my back was spasiming" or "yeah, my foot was really hurting and i didn't want to injure it more".  yes, i know, they do this for a living and why injure themselves more when they have other races on the schedule, but the whole idea is to finish the race isn't it? does it matter if they place horribly? no.  what matters is that they show enough respect for all the other "non pro athletes", or age groupers as they are called, to finish the race alongside them.  that is the true spirit of the ironman.  

the swim start.  always a beautiful way to start the day even if it is at the crack of dawn, literally.

the photos, except the two taken off of the computer, are courtesy of many family members who attended and shared with us who could not be there.  thanks guys for the coverage! 

the beginning of the bike course.

part of the bike course appropriately named "the wall".  
not only did they have to do it once, but twice!

here he is conquering the wall.

at this point he said he was not feeling so fantastic, but he dug in and  kept on going.  he had to at one point get off the bike and throw up, but couldn't even do that! the dry heaves. we all know how fun that is.  

coming down from the last loop of the bike course cruising through
downtown st. george. 

at the ironman site they offer a live feed of all their races so we were able to at least feel like we were a part of it without being there.  i was diligently watching the monitor for any glimpse of him and got lucky with this one and through the magic of pausing the live feed i could snap a photo for posterity. 

working his way through the marathon.

he was then off to the last leg of the race, the little thing they like to call a marathon. you know, only 26.2 miles of running.  or if you are puking your guts out you walk mostly and run when you can.  

i am thinking that at this point i would have thrown in the towel and said "that's all folks!" and let the medics cart me off in the ambulance, but not this champ! he said he was hiding from the officials behind the port -o- potties at one point.  he was throwing up and trying to get his wits about him when they saw him and took him to the medical tent to try and recoup.  

he was there for about an hour and was thinking "i gotta finish this thing." he and another athlete, who was also in the tent trying to recover, decided to leave and get going together on the rest of the marathon.  


meanwhile, we were back at home waiting on pins and needles for any word of where he might be.  


and by the way: "mauricio, YOU are an IRONMAN!" 

ready for the next one in eight weeks??? yes, he is certifiably crazy!