4:35am - Adam's up, making coffee and eating a little breakfast.
4:45am - Catherine's up, drinking coffee.
Today's the day! I'm excited; Adam will be once transition is set and he's waiting for the start. It's humid and there are more waves than Adam would like, but generally this week's weather predictions seem to have been right on. A few last-minute preps, then we'll walk (about a mile) over to the race start.
5:50am - We're headed over!
6:17am - Adam's set up his transition area, and is now getting excited!
We walked over to the beach together, watching the incredible crowd.
6:52am - Kissed him goodbye and sent him off for a great day!
7:00am - RACE START!
The masses are incredible - both athletes and supporters. Headed over to the finish chute to watch Adam and his coach Shaughnessy come in from the first lap, and then again at the end of the swim.
7:42am - Adam's finished the first lap - a little quicker than anticipated!
8:28am - Adam finished the swim! Got a big, salty, wet kiss on his way in. :-)
8:40am - (or so) Adam's out on the ride.
Sherry and I headed back to our condo for coffee and phone charging. We headed out on a Spyder (three-wheel bike type of thing) to find them on the bike course.
12:00pm - (or so) Found him at about mile 80 of the bike course - looking good!
3:00pm - LUNCH! We stopped for a burger... (my first food all day -- oops!)
4:00pm - Adam comes out of transition to head out for the run.
We saw Adam head out for the run, a little behind where he wanted to be time-wise, but still in good time. We sent him off to run; caught Shaughnessy mid-run (a little before/after the turn-around in the two-loop course), then headed up to the condo for a brief break (and phone charging).
7:05pm - Adam's coming in from the first loop of the run! He's exhausted, but looking steady.
7:17pm - Adam is heading out on the last loop of the run - very last leg of the event!
We saw Shaughnessy coming in for the finish shortly thereafter, so chased her to the finish line. She ended up pretty dehydrated, so we spent a good hour and a half waiting for her recovery in the medical tent and then got her some food once she was back on her feet; then she was fine.
I waited about 45 minutes at the finish line, tracking the last few posted split times of his progress on the run and calculating when he should finish.
Waiting at the finish line is always an incredible experience. As Adam said, there is no way to replicate, or even adequately describe, the finish line at a triathlon - especially an IronMan. EVERYONE -- ALL family members, and other supporters, cheer on EVERY person who comes in. There is a huge crowd, a loud speaker system (Adam said he was able to hear it about a mile and a half from the finish), a huge video screen showing total race time and each finisher as they cross the line, and an announcer who proudly calls every finisher's name, saying, "Adam Tunks, from Garland, Texas, YOU are an IRONMAN!" Even describing it now, my eyes filled with tears. It's a very powerful moment at each finish.
10:54pm - Adam is coming down the finish chute...
10:55pm - Adam is an IRONMAN!
He finished strong and looked great. He was happy to be finished, of course, but felt good about it at the end. We headed to the athlete food area for him to change and get some real food. After getting into sweat pants and a dry t-shirt, and having chocolate milk and three slices of pizza, he was feeling much better. We slowly made our way back to the condo and hung out with Shaughnessy and some friends for a while before setting the clocks back an hour and crashing, with no alarm set. It was a long and great day.
I've added pictures from the entire day to our Shutterfly site. We'll be happy to tell stories when we see you next.
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