WOW! What a weekend we had!
We just got home from a 4-day weekend in The Woodlands (near Houston) for the Ironman Texas 140.6! This was Chris' first full ironman race, and it was one for the memory books!
The 140.6 includes a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a full marathon (26.2 miles)! Stop a moment and just think about that. After all that swimming and riding, these crazy people still had to do a MARATHON!
In this post, I'll give the specifics on Chris' race...and in future posts, I'll talk about the other things like the trip itself, the friends/support crew, etc. Lots to share there, too!
As for the race...
Chris trained extremely hard for this race for six full months. Hours and hours of training and sweat and dedication and mental training. His coach, Adsy, really worked to get him in the best shape possible.
The swim went GREAT! It ended up being a lot faster swim than he anticipated, and he was pumped! For the first time in many years, this race was a wetsuit-eligible race. That means that the water was colder than a certain temperature, and they were all allowed to wear the suits. This is a great bonus, in that the wetsuit adds a nice amount of buoyancy. Since swimming is Chris' weakest leg of the three disciplines, he was pretty happy about this!
The swim starts quite a distance out, in a lake. They do most of the swim there, then finish off down a straight stretch of channel. Imagine the San Antonio Riverwalk...it's about that wide, and is surrounded on both sides by sidewalk and buildings. Chris came powering down the channel, right behind QLefty and we were actually able to spot him! I've never been able to see him during a swim, so that was pretty cool! Out of the water, there were volunteers who helped them strip off their wetsuits and then Chris ran through the transition area to the bike and set off on that leg!
The 112 mile bike ride was mostly four 20 mile stretches up and back on the toll road. They had closed down one side of the toll road for the race, so that was kind of interesting. We weren't able to see any of the bike leg, unfortunately. But, it went very well and Chris had a solid, strong ride. There were a lot of accidents, flat tires, etc. so we are both so glad that he made it through safely!!!! We saw him as him came back in, dropped off the bike, and transitioned to his running gear. Then he was off for the marathon!
The run course consisted of three loops around the waterway, so we were able to see the runners about five times before they headed to the finish line (we could see on both sides of the water). Chris' first loop was strong, and then the intense heat and miles on the swim/bike started to take their toll. Loop two was a bit slower, but he worked hard to cool off and came back to get a little faster on the third loop. The run is definitely Chris' strength, so he fared much better than most in the run. The temperature was about 84 degrees, but there were no clouds and no wind. As spectators, we were in the shade as much as possible because it was too much to handle.
We were all so excited to see him coming into the finishing shoot!!!! He was so excited, he did an airplane move as he came down the final part of the shoot and that was great to see!! He was having fun with it and celebrating his accomplishment!!! One of the neat things was that the "Ironman Voice" was there to announce every single athlete as they come across the finish line -- so, to hear him say, "George Baber! YOU are an Ironman!" was such an epic moment in his life!
As a first full Ironman, he had fantastic times and results! He is very pleased with how the day went, and we are so proud of him!!! Below are the numbers:
Swim Leg : 1:17:01
Transition 1 : 5:17
Bike Leg : 5:15:01
Transition 2 : 4:52
Run Leg : 3:53:48
Full Time : 10:35:58
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72nd Place out of 350 Males 40-44
368th Place out of 1,734 Males
438th Place out of 2,346 Overall
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AMAZING!!!!!!!
Here is a fun fact - Adsy's first full Ironman time was also 10:35! How crazy is that????
Chris has amazing mental strength, and that is definitely needed during such an insane physical challenge like the Ironman! He amazes me with his ability and dedication...and he is getting stronger and faster the older he gets! He is in the best shape of his life right now, and he is setting himself up well to have an awesome experience in South Africa on September 2nd!!
Congrats to my hubby!! I love you and am so, so proud of you!!!!
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