2nd Half Ironman

 Do 2 half ironman races equal a full Ironman?  I'm not sure, but Buck managed to complete his second October 12.  How he manages to train and finish is beyond me.  It's nothing shy of amazing.  Of course, just days before the due date, the question was always whether or not the baby would beat him to the finish line.  And more importantly, I asked him, "If I need to rush to the hospital, should I stop you in the middle of the race?"  Fortunately that wasn't an issue.  We had lots of preparation to do for the big race (although I opted out on making new shirts...we recycled the shirts from the previous race).

 

 The kids worked really hard making signs.
Fortunately this race wasn't as far as Wisconsin.  It was in Anderson.  Another fortunate thing was that Robert and Judy flied in for the festivities.  I was HUGE, and couldn't have made it through the race myself without so much help.  A race of this magnitude truly is a team effort if you want to cheer at all.  It's exhausting (although I'm sure not nearly as much as actually racing), but it's also so much fun. (Side note on the exhausting comment...in the interest of full disclosure, while Buck was on his second bike loop, several hours into the race, we stopped to eat lunch at McDonalds).

The swim was a shuttle away and started super early.  I know our limits and figured we'd just have to miss the swim.  There were terrible storms coming through, which actually delayed the start and caused them to shorten the swim due to lightening.  That's right, Buck was swimming in a lightening storm!  We waited for him in the warm dry car.  When we saw the bikes start coming, Jake was so excited to see, "eh come a-nuh one!".  Cute.

 You can't see us all in the picture, but we were all there...Robert, Judy, Mom, Jake, Ellie, John, Eve, and me.  We caught Buck at a handful of places on the bike course.  He had a smile on his face the whole time, and even made a wisecrack about traffic at one point.

 Good Job Dad! (Ellie's sign)

 1st (another of Ellie's)

 Jake's

 John's

 Eve's

 Thumb's up!

 This was our view (from inside the comfortable car) during part of the bike portion.  A few miles away where Buck was at the time, there was hail.  That's right.  Buck swam through a lightening storm, and rode his bike through a hail storm!

 Here he is rounding the bend to the bike/run transition.

 This is somewhere near the middle of the run...still looking strong.  Really, the run was cushy...no storms :)

And he finished!  They allowed the family to run with the athletes across the finish line.  Eve opted out, but the others joined him.  He CARRIED Jake (and he's no lightweight) across the finish line.  We had a logistical error and didn't get a picture of them all crossing.  What an amazing job!  I am so very proud of him!  During the last one he said, "remind me to NEVER do this again!", but after this one, I think he's caught the bug.  Way to go, Buck!