IM Austin 70.3...2 of 3 check!

For those that follow me on FB you probably saw that Will finished his first official Ironman Event...Ironman Austin 70.3 this past weekend.  You might have also saw my Day 8 Thankful post which stated this: "Today I am thankful that God has blessed me with the best teammate and partner for life.  We have built a marriage and family together that allows ALL of us to accomplish not only our goals as a family but as individuals...and today Will accomplished a remarkable goal."

He completed a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run -- YES I mean in the same day without stopping for those that might not be familiar with triathlon events.  As I said this was his first official Ironman event and it was nothing less than exciting.  Our dear friends, Robin & Ken, joined us to help support Will but also be there for since my surgery was just three weeks ago.  Ken, Robin and I were able to watch the pro athletes come into the finish line.  The overall male winner came in at 3:48:49 and that isn't the time of day that means he finished 70.3 miles in 3 hours and 48 minutes and 49 seconds.  It was a pretty cool finish to watch.  You might be wondering why we were at the finish line and not watching Will...but he was zooming along on the bike course which we weren't able to get too.

This is triathlon event 2 of 3 in the grand scheme of training.  The next event for Will is BIG...it is Ironman Cozumel which is a full ironman distance - 2.4 mile swim, 110 mile bike and 26.2 mile run. Will will be racing with a friend, Nate, who also works for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program.  Nate is training and fundraising in memory of his Mom and Aunt Peggy and I encourage you to visit his page to read more about him and his journey.  He has an incredible story that inspires me every time I read it!

Will isn't fundraising for these events like Nate but his inspiration is never far from him...you can see in the photo above on his left wrist are two bracelets - his orange Keeping Georgia on Your Mind bracelet in honor or Georgia and his green GFORCE bracelet in honor of Grayson.  Georgia just celebrated 18.5 months OFF treatment. Grayson is in still in the maintenance phase and his treatment plan will end in February 2015.  

In the end it was a full day filled with so many emotions.  I couldn't have been more proud to see him running into the finishing chute...smiling!  And as much as I love that photo (which I posted on FB) I had to post this one because he's gotta show off that medal - he earned it!  Continue to wish him luck...32 days to Cozumel.

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