IronMan...Race Day

It is finally here! The day Ben has been preparing for for months. We got to bed at about 12:00 the night before and got up at 3:30 to get the day started. My two nieces slept at our house so that I could go and watch the swim and not worry about my kids. Ben said he finally fell asleep a little after 1:00 so he was functioning on 2 1/2 hours of sleep. Ty showed up at our house at 4:15 and we were off to get the day started. We had to first drop off their special needs run bag and then we headed to the lake. It was so nice in St. George that I almost left my hoodie at home, but grabbed it just to leave in the car. Later I was really glad that I had it! Once we got to the lake they met up with Nick and Ryan and then had to go and pump up tires on their bikes (they make them let some air out when they drop them off the day before because if it gets hot the tires can pop) fill up water bottles on their bikes and get ready to start the swim. I think they were just ready to get the race started!

Ty, Ben, & Ryan getting their wetsuits on about 45 minutes before the race was going to start.

It was such a beautiful morning. The water was calm and it wasn't too cold. Perfect day for the IronMan...or so we all thought!

Ty, Nick, Ben, & Ryan standing in line waiting to start the swim. There was a pretty small area to enter the water so all of the swimmers had to head in and tread water for a few minutes until the race started.

The swim was definitely the thing that Ben was worried about the most...mostly because if you don't finish the swim you can't go on. He has been swimming quite a bit and was pretty confident that he could do the swim between 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.

The sun rising over the lake as all of the swimmers are entering.

6:45 AM - Everybody in the water and just waiting for race the to start.

7:00 AM - And they are off. It was pretty cool to see them all start. I can't imagine what it would be like to be in the water when this thing started. It was chaotic but pretty awesome to see it from the shores.

I was hoping to be able to keep my eye on Ben but I lost him the second he got in the water. Everybody had black wetsuits and green hats and they all looked exactly the same. We sat on the edge of the dam and watched them for as long as we could (about 10 minutes) and then decided to head over to wear they would come out of the water. As soon as we got up on top of the dam we noticed the wind. It wasn't there at all before and it was gusting. Ben had said before the race started that he would rather it be hot than windy so I knew that he wasn't going to be happy with this change. I kept thinking that it was going to stop but it never did.

Ben's parents and sisters came to watch along with the wives of the other brothers. We had a group of us and we were all bundled up and trying to stay warm. We had awesome shirts made but nobody could see them because we had to wear coats.

The wind just kept getting stronger and stronger.

Finally we saw some swimmers starting to come in.

This picture doesn't really do justice to the waves but this is a lake and you can see all of the white caps out there...those aren't the swimmers...those are waves. The swimmers all said that there were 5-6 foot swells during the whole swim.

This is a boat full of swimmers who were too tired to go on. They were bringing in boat after boat of swimmers. Amy, Ben's sister, kept watching the boats to see if anybody we knew was getting out. The time kept ticking by and I knew that it would take longer than he had planned on but as the time went by I kept getting more and more nervous. Finally Nick came out of the water and we definitely felt some relief when we saw him. About 15 minutes later Ben came out...his swim time was 1:55 - 30 minutes slower than he had expected.

8:56 AM - It was a huge sense of relief to finally see him coming out of the water. I have to say that he looked worse than I have ever seen him. He came over and talked to us for just a second as he was getting his bag and just told us how terrible it had been in the water. He said that he kept dry heaving because of the waves and swallowing water. I was just glad that he had made it out alive. If you want to read another bloggers version of what the water was like out there click here. I read this article yesterday and was in tears as I read about the conditions. I am glad I didn't understand how bad it really was while he was in the water because then I really would have been freaking out! Ty & Ryan came out about 10 minutes after Ben and we were thankful to have everybody out safe.

9:07 AM - Ben getting started on the bike. He looked a lot better than he had 10 minutes before!

1:24 PM - Ben coming around the corner in Santa Clara. I had told him that I would be waiting for him at this corner so he saw me the second I saw him and started waving. I was glad to see that he was looking so great. This was at mile 66 in the bike...only 46 miles to go!

The first thing Ben asked me when he saw me was if Ryan & Ty had made it out of the water. He had been worried about it the entire time and was glad to hear that everybody was on their bikes. He said that he was feeling great!

4:22 PM - Ben coming in from the bike into Transition 2. I had run home after seeing him in Santa Clara so that the babies could take a nap. A friend called when they saw him in Dammeron Valley and I hurried to get the babies ready and out the door so I could see him come in. I was a little stressed that I was going to miss him.

When you get off your bike they have somebody there to take your bike so you can head in to get ready for the run.

Ben getting lathered up with sunscreen. They did a pretty good job...he only had one little triangle on his tricep that got burned!

Once again he was looking good and was already off and running.

Ben giving the whole family "5" on his way to start the run.

4:29 PM - Ben starting the race course. The race course was three loops through downtown St. George.

Most of the Neumann family. We were out in force.

6:10 PM - Ben heading down Main Street on his second loop...still looking good.

The little girls all put their swimsuits on and played in the ditch for a little while.

7:45 PM - Heading back up Main Street on his third lap...only 7 miles to go! I almost missed him on this lap because I wasn't expecting him and decided to walk down and take a look and he was just a half block away. Since there was a turn around everybody else was able to make it down before him came back by. I loved the run course because I got to see him so much.

Ben turning the corner heading for the last 3 miles...I booked it back to the finish line because I didn't want to miss him. At this point I had gotten a babysitter and put the babies down so that I could enjoy the finish line. Ben's sisters took Ady & Emma with them to the finish line so I could get closer and then see Ben after the race was over. Ben ran the entire marathon after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles. AMAZING!

This is the picture that I got of him coming down down the shoot to the finish line. I was so excited to see him that I didn't even get a good shot.

9:05 PM - Ben coming in to the finish line. I LOVE this shot. He looked great coming in and still had enough energy for a victory jump.

They were showing the finish line on-line so I had my babysitter record him coming across the finish line. He did AWESOME!!!

Ben at the finish line. I couldn't believe how good he still looked after 14 hours of constant exercise.

Me and my IRONMAN:) Way to go BEN!!!

Ben with the Taylor's. I think that these guys were just as proud of Ben as I was. They were there supporting him the entire day and even got "Team Neumann" T-shirts.

We hung out while Ben stared at a few slices of pizza that he couldn't bring himself to eat and then we headed back to the finish line so we could watch his brothers and a few friends finish the race. 

Ben chillin' at the finish line and cheering on the other racers.

Getting ready to cheer his brothers in to the finish line. 

Ty, Ryan, & Ben trying to figure out why they just put themselves through all of that torture. 

We hitched a ride home from the Taylor's so that we wouldn't have to walk home and met up with everybody at our house again for a few minutes.  Ryan decided to leave his truck at our house and not try and drive back to Cedar (probably a good idea considering the day he had just been through). 

This is what I found when we walked into our house.  The kids were crashed everywhere (most of the parents had already come and taken their kids).  They were all so exhausted.

 

We had a great day and Ben did amazing.  We were dead by the time we got home.  We had been up since 3:30 and it was now well after midnight.  I seriously think that I was as tired as Ben (that is terrible for me).  He had been preparing for this day for months and I hadn't been.  I was probably on my feet for 15 hours and my feet hurt SO bad...pretty pathetic:)

I am glad that it is all over with.  He did a lot of training but it all paid off in the end.  I know that I wasn't always the most supportive wife throughout this endeavor but I am proud of what he accomplished.  Ben NEVER quits at anything...even if it is hard...and I hope that my kids learn that from him.  Way to go Ben...YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!