Half Iron, Half Man, 100% Sexy

A half Iron Man people. Eric did a HALF IRON MAN. That's a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run. A total of 70.3 miles. He trained for it all summer and the big day was Saturday, August 27th. I must admit, I was a bit nervous about the whole thing... I didn't want him to overdo it and injure his back and I also didn't want him to fail (heaven forbid) and not finish and be super disappointed. But he did great and I was so impressed!!

Early in the morning waiting for the race to start. The guy on the right is Eric's good friend D Brack, who did the race last year and was the reason Eric signed up for it this year.

Eric, Jonathan and Doug just before the race started

The race start, transitions and finish were at Utah Lake. It was actually really pretty early in the morning and so serene

Random homeless guy that ran the race... Just kidding! This is Eric's friend Jonathan that Eric got to do the race with him. He's a BYU student but didn't shave ALL SUMMER and this was the result.

Gettin ready to go

Eric was most nervous about the swim... You can just see the anticipation on his face

What a sight it was to see all these crazy people getting in the water

And they're off!

Here's Eric coming out of the water. Eric did really great on the swim! He did have a small panic attack right as the swim started, but he was able to turn onto his back, regain his composure and then he rolled back over and got into a great groove. I was so nervous during the swim because it was impossible to tell who was who so I had no idea where he was or how he was doing. I knew how nervous he had been so I was just worried and seeing him come out towards the beginning of the wave of people was quite a relief!

Yeah! So pumped for the next leg!

Starting the bike portion

His number one fan was quite a trooper, hanging out all day outside. She slept for most of it.

Waiting for him to come in on the bike... The bike part took him the longest and it was KILLER. Every one of his 3 friends that were racing with him came in way before him on the bike and me and Kelly (Doug's wife) were kinda getting worried. He finally came in and just looked so beat. I felt horrible and honestly I didn't think he would finish. But he took off on the run and did so great on that portion!

Here he is coming into the finish line! Halfway through the run they loop through the park so I was able to see him at mile 6.5 and I jogged with him for about a quarter of a mile. He probably was most prepared for the run and it showed. He made up some great time and felt really good crossing the finish line.

Victory!!!

Wow! What an accomplishment! I pretty much thought he was insane for wanting to do this race and I think I was more nervous about it than he was but it turned out to be such a great experience. He finished in just under 7 hours... Can you imagine doing intense exercise for that many hours STRAIGHT??!!? I'll never do one, but there were plenty of women participating and it was quite inspiring.