It’s hard to take photos and cheer… oh, and handle 2 children! We don’t have great pictures of Brian’s finish, but we’re counting on the professional one to show us his exciting finish line moment with Analise. But here are some fun glimpses of the weekend.

First, Brian, Josiah and I enjoying a chilly sunset on the beach on Friday night.

During the day on Friday, We visited the Ironman Village and picked up registration info (below). Then Brian, Ben and Arthur went out for a ride. They also got into their wetsuits to test out swimming in the ocean.

Finally, it was race day. Brian left at about 5:30 to walk down to the start area. He had to get "body-marked" where they write your race numbers on your arms and legs, check on his bike, put a few last minute things in his transition bags (like his shoes! which he couldn’t put into the bag the day before because he was wearing them and had forgotten other shoes!). I walked down the beach from our condo and saw the start from the distance. It was pretty crowded, and I was on the wrong side of the swim area, but here are the pictures of the start and racers coming into the beach finishing their first lap before heading out for their second lap.

Though I missed Brian coming through the beach between his swim laps, the rest of our group saw him. Then we moved over to where they come out of the swim-bike transition area to head out on their ride. Here’s a picture of a tiny part of the bike area – 2500 bikes! This was taken by Brian after he dropped his bike off on Friday afternoon.

After we cheered Brian on his way out onto the bike course (again, we couldn’t get a picture of him – maybe because he was moving too fast through all this?!?), I went back to the condo while everyone else headed out onto the bike course. They got this great picture of Brian flying by. Lauren said she’d never seen him so intensely focused.   I suppose so!  He passed more than 1300 people, averaging 22mph!

Beverly and the kids and I walked down to the bike-to-run transition area and caught Brian dropping off his bike, changing his shoes and heading out for his his long run.

We saw him twice on the run, right outside our condo, as he finished his first 13 miles, turned around about a half mile down the road and headed out again.  No photos of that.   I’m a SERIOUS cheer-er… Brian knows not to expect pictures from me because I am too busy cheering. After we saw him head out onto his second half of the marathon, we headed to the finish line around 5:30, expecting him before 6pm. It was dark and cold and my little ones were tired. It took him a bit longer to come through than we expected, and I started to get worried. He told me that he ran most of the first half of the marathon, but had to walk about 10 miles of the 2nd half. He was walking at mile 25 and another guy who was just finishing his first lap started walking with him. Brian had lost track of time, and because it was dark, he thought it was pretty late, like 8:30, or getting close to 14 hours. But when this guy found out Brian was almost finished, he told him he was pretty close to breaking 12 hours. Brian ran the last mile, and finished just before 7pm. Yeah! So here are our only finish pictures – Brian and Ben after Ben’s finish at 10:52pm.

After Brian had showered and gotten some food, we headed back to the finish line to cheer on Ben. We ended up staying until midnight, the 17 hour cut-off time. That’s a fun place to be – the music’s blaring, the announcer is keeping everyone riled up, they’re giving away hats and t-shirts, and the "everyday" ironmen are coming through. It was fun to see them achieving such a monumentous task. The last picture is of Brian and I cheering on the last finishers.

Here are his finish stats:

2.4 mile Swim: 1:28:10 (1647th place of 2109 finishers)
Swim-to-Bike transition: 14:39
112 mile Bike: 5:05:08 (346th place in the race overall after this segment, 81st place in bike times!)
Bike-to-Run transition: 4:32
26.2 mile run: 5:02:11 (1291st in run times)
Total: 11:54:40 (762 overall, 114th of 261 in men’s 30-34 age category)

That’s my wrap-up of the Ironman Adventure. If you have questions for Brian, post them here, and he’ll answer them in a first-hand from-the-mouth-of-the-Ironman blog sometime this week.

Waking up as an Ironman is painful. Brian’s doing pretty well today, considering he traveled 140.6 miles yesterday by the power of his own body(2.4mi swim, 112mi bike, 26.2mile run)! He even got on his bike for a short ride. He’s still pretty stiff and sore, but he’s definitely doing well. The 2nd day after an event like this is usually the worst. He’s got a normal day planned – riding to work and back for a total of 25 hilly miles.  We’ll see… I hope to have some time to blog about his adventure for him tomorrow, and I’ll get some pictures posted. Thanks for checking in on him!

PS… if you’re wondering when he’s planning the next one, it will be a long while.  He’s convinced he’ll enjoy being just a great cyclist for a while. 

Woohoo!  I’ve finally got internet… not a good enough connection in our condo, so I drove around the parking lot, then around the block, then across the street, all with "connectivity" but not enough to pull anything up.  But here I am, in the parking space outside our condo and I’ve got a connection.  WOOHOO!

Crazy morning, but so fun!  I missed Brian’s first lap of the swim but our friends saw him and he was feeling good and said a few words to them.  His first lap was about 10 minutes faster than he expected!  His total swim was 1:28, which was 15 minutes fast than he really thought he’d do, so that’s great.  He’s just relieved to be done with the swim, I’m sure, as that was the part he felt least prepared for.  We saw him head out on his bike.  He looked good and I know he’s blazing his way through right now.  You can go to probably check in on him directly here, and his bib number is 306.  If that doesn’t work you can go to www.Ironmanlive.com, click on the Athlete Split page on the right under Ironman Florida and look him up by # or name.  I’ll try to keep you posted!  My kiddos are inside resting so we can be ready to be on the run course.  It goes right outside our condo, and it’s a 2 lap out-and-back course, so we can see him 4 times right here outside our place! 

Check back soon!  I might go inside and upload a couple pictures from this morning!

We’re on our Ironman Adventure!  It’s been a long week, and it took a lot of work to get here, but we finally made it yesterday afternoon. 

We’ve had a sliding set of plans for when we were going to head down to Panama City.  1st: Brian was only going to miss class on Friday, so we’d stay through the end of his Thursday class (2:50) and then drive the 4.5-5 hours.  2nd:  The inauguration of the new president of Samford was set for this morning from 10-12, and Brian was going to participate in the event in his UC Davis cap/gown.  We found out that there was a "mandatory" athlete meeting at 7:30pm, so we thought it would be best if we left at noon, and he left an assignment for his class.  3rd:  We found out that no one else could pick up Brian’s race packet, which supposedly could only be picked up until 4pm today.  We decided that it’d be best if he missed the inauguration event and left by 10am.  4th:  I got to campus at 10 to pick him up, and we left at 10:30, with a "whoops-forgot-something" trip at home.  After that, we finally left at 11am. 

Analise got to ride down with her Grandma and Grandpa, in the car with DVD player.  I had looked up directions on Google Maps and we set out with a full car, and a sleeping Josiah, much to our joy.  We made great progress for a couple hours.  We followed the Google Maps directions, even though Brian thought about another way (that his dad -who left an hour before us) ended up taking.  Poor choice.  We watched the time tick by and got more and more stressed as 4pm came and went.  We finally pulled up and dropped Brian off at 4:20.  He’d missed packet picked up.  Thankfully, graciously, they opened again for "latecomers" this morning.  He did make it to the mandatory meeting though. 

Yesterday was an exhausting day, especially since we hardly slept the night before.  We’re in a nice 4 bedroom condo with Brian’s parents and our friends, Tim and Lindsay and their son, Bryant.  Tonight, more friends are joining us, Bryant and Lauren.  Today, Brian’s gotten do a little swimming in the ocean and bike the run course, get all his gear ready, and drop off his bags and relax a bit, before the 7am start on tomorrow.  Then, just a reminder – it’ll be a 2.4 mile (2 lap course) swim in the ocean (which is surprisingly warm!), a 112 mile bike ride that he’ll fly through, and a 26.2 mile (2 lap- out and back course) marathon.  Whew!  I’m tired just typing it all.  I’ll post again tomorrow with a few more details, but if you’re interested, you can follow his progress and check to see his results LIVE on the Ironman website.  How cool is that?!?   We’ll check back in tomorrow! Post your comments here on this page to cheer Brian along. We’ll check back in tonight and then again tomorrow night after the race.

(From Brian) – For those of you who want to follow along live, check out:  http://www.ironmanlive.com  Click on Athlete Split Time on the right side of the page underneath Ford Ironman Florida. Then type in my name into the search box and there you should be able to see my splits after I finish each event. The race starts at 7AM and I should be out of the ocean by 8:30AM. Then I should be finished the bike by 1:30PM and finally be through with the run by 6PM hopefully at the latest.

It’s been a good week, but Analise has been a little sick.  Yesterday, I’d been preparing for us to have our family photos taken, and I was excited to get some of Analise and Josiah.  We had cute outfits, I got my hair cut and some new clothes that fit, and we were READY.  Except… Josiah only napped for 20 minutes and so he was tired and non-smiley when we got there.  Analise wasn’t feeling well, and everything at the photo place was reducing her to tears, and she had red eyes and a drippy nose that I had to keep trying to fix.  She would hardly smile.  It was miserable.  I couldn’t believe what a terrible time we had.  I’m glad we got a couple pictures, but it was quite a disappointment.  I even had a great matching set of outfits for them to get some other pictures taken, but we didn’t get that far.  I ended up taking Analise into the doctors later in the afternoon to see if she had another ear infection like last time but it was just a cold.  Anyway, here’s pretty much the only good pictures we got.  (See pictures below)

Then we had home church to get ready for (I made an awesome spinach artichoke dip – I’ll have to post the recipe soon).  It was a great night of being together with our friends.  But after everyone left, we had to get the house back in order, and start packing.  I was moving laundry through the washer and dryer and packing from the growing pile of clean clothes on the couch.  Brian’s had tons of work to do this week, and instead of getting a good night’s rest, he was up working until 2 and up at 5.  I stayed up getting stuff done until about 1:30, and luckily got to sleep until 7. 

Continuing another blog with the Ironman Adventure, but first our professional pics:

Yes, these should really be South Carolina pictures, but I got stalled and it’s bedtime.  But here are a couple glimpses of my cuties from today (and recently).  My favorite – Analise hugging Josiah.  She said, "Mom!  Take a picture of me and ‘Siah!"  I even got a smile!  Sweet!

Analise is a bumblebee for Halloween – we’ll get a better picture tomorrow.  Josiah is a skunk:)  We visited Samford this afternoon for a Fall Festival with trick-or-treating in a dorm and some fun activities.  We even got to hear the bells played from the bell tower at sunset! 

Lastly, a picture of Josiah seated in his transition high chair like a big boy.  He’s still learning to sit up, but he does like to be at the table with us. 

Since I posted the inspiring words from my Beth Moore bible study last Wednesday night, I’ve felt a big difference in my outlook and attitude.  I was realizing what emotional beings we are, how we really our interactions are totally driven by our emotions.  Yesterday was a prime example.  It had all the potential to be a "down" day, but in spite of Brian working most of the day and being on my own with the kids like the rest of the week, in spite of neither Analise or Josiah napping, in spite of the usual things that would have worn me down by the end of the day, I found myself in a good mood, with an extra measure of patience.

This morning on the way to church, I was overwhelmed with just how sweet life is.  The colors of the fall trees are splashed across the ridges of Birmingham, the air is cool but the sun is shining just enough to keep it warm.  This is absolutely my favorite season.  Though my sleep last night was very interrupted, I got an extra hour of sleep on the couch this morning while Josiah "talked" to the fish circling above him in his swing.  Brian blessed me by emptying the dishwasher AND putting the full-sink’s worth of dishes in it before I even got off the couch this morning.  Josiah’s interactions with Analise are heartwarming… he just watches her like she’s the coolest thing.  He loves to smile at her, and she loves his attention.  I found Analise playing with ther little people, and they were praying!  She likes to sing bits and pieces of her praise and worship songs, and she’ll gladly tell you her 3 Bible verses ("God is love", "The Lord is my shepherd" and "Shout to the Lord".)  It was an awesome time of worship and a great message at church this morning.  We had a relaxing afternoon nap – all 3 of us (while Brian rode).  All in all, it was a sweet day, and I think the attitude check of Wednesday night has been really good for me to see things in a different light.

Brian’s at a meeting at church, and I’ve got little ones to get ready for bed.  But I’ve set myself a deadline of TONIGHT to get our pictures from SC done, so maybe you’ll find them in the morning.  Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Tonight was Open House at Analise’s Mother’s Day Out program.  We had been looking forward to visiting her classroom, but I had no idea it would be so much fun!  Analise’s teacher said she’s very good, helpful and talkative.  She’s got 8 students in her class.  We saw lots of cute little thumbprint and stamped art projects.  We also go to meet some of her friends.  Tonight we met Jacob – a cute little blondie, just a couple weeks younger than her.  Whenever I’ve asked Analise who is in her class, she only has said "Jacob".  Ms. Mona says when Analise arrives, she always asks if Jacob is there.  If he’s not, she’ll wait at the door for him or she’ll go right over to play with him.  She said Analise is full of hugs – and kisses! – but especially for Jacob!.  Not sure what I think about my 2-year old little girl giving kisses already, especially to a little boy, but I suppose at this age its sweet.  She was really excited when Jacob walked in tonight and started playing with him.  She was definitely the liveliest of the 4 kids that were there… which doesn’t surprise me AT ALL:)  We ventured to the Book Fair to pick out a book to round out our evening.  Fun times!  I can’t believe what a big girl she is! 

In case you think we forgot… I am in the process of resizing photos from our SC trip.  I’d better hurry before we head off to FL next weekend for the Ironman!  

I’ve written several posts in my head in the last few days.  A couple were triumphantly announcing that I’d "caught up" on life.  A couple other posts were downers in various states of overwhelmed-ness.  This will be somewhere in between, some late night ramblings, and some good thoughts from my pre-bedtime bible study.

It has been an overwhelming week.  Not in any way particularly, just that Brian is working very hard on no less than 5 major things and trying to train for an Ironman Triathlon (which culminates in just over a week!).  He’s stressed, but doing his best.  I, on the other hand, just have been managing daily life around our house.  Nothing’s particularly hard… we’re all healthy – at least for the moment, Analise has been on pretty good behaviour lately, we haven’t had too much going on.  I have been battling laundry since we came back from South Carolina.  Just when I get "caught up", the basket in my room threatens to overflow, and it starts all over again.  It doesn’t help that we’re doing diaper laundry 3 times a week.  (Yes, I do believe at this moment I’m crazy to be cloth-diapering, but I’m also too cheap to start buying more disposables, so that’s all I’ll complain about that.)  Josiah is not sleeping well at night, so it’s made me a bit grumpy in the mornings.  He’s also been grumpy off and on during the day, really needing to be held when he’s sleepy.  Today was the usual Wednesday flurry of getting my house pulled back into order for our home church gathering.  I’m always worn out from it, but it is so wonderful to be able to share our home this way, besides the fact that its easier to have the kids in my own home.  The kitchen needs 30-60 minutes of attention after the little ones are in bed each night, so it seems that my life going keeps going in the same circles.  It’s just been a bit discouraging lately.  But such is this season of life. 

I did find a great Word in my bible study tonight, though.  I’m working on a Beth Moore study, called Daniel   It’s TREMENDOUS.  The first half of the study is about having integrity in a world that parallels the Babylon that Daniel lived in.  We’ve just started the second half which explores prophecies from the time of Daniel through the second coming of Christ.  I’ve never studied anything like it, and it’s very interesting.  My women’s study is on Thursday mornings, and of course, I’m always struggling to get my 5-days worth of homework done on Wednesday night.  Here’s what I read tonight:

**(from Daniel 7:25: "He [Satan] will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws.")

Oppress literally means "’to wear away’ or ‘to wear out’, as one would wear out a garmet." Though Satan’s persecutions of God’s people will reach full measure in the last days, he certainly oppresses Christians today.  

One of Satan’s most effective schemes is simply to wear God’s people out.  Satan uses exhaustion and profound discouragement to persuade us to give up opposing him.  We must not give up!  As believers in Christ in whom the Spirit of God dwells, Satan may be able to wear out our human strength, but he cannot wear out the Holy Spirit’s.  We can call upon God’s supernatural strength to fight the good fight of faith and persist in our proclamation of Christ, the son of the Most High God.

The Apostle Paul said in Colossians 1:29, "To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me".  We who are Christians have God’s "all-surpassing power" in our "jars of clay" (2 Corinthians 4:7).  Let’s not wait until we’re at the end of our strength to utilize it!  Let’s call on God to fill us with His all-surpassing power day in and day out.  His "incomparably great power" is accessible daily for those who believe!  This power is the same power He used to raise Jesus from the dead (see Ephesians 1:18-20).  What more could we need?

Enough said.  What more could I need to hear tonight?  Hope it encourages someone else tonight!  I’m saying a prayer for you as I tumble into bed:)