IRONMAN New Orleans 2009

WARNING: There's a LOT of pics in this post. If you have a small child crying, or a pot of water on the stove....go tend to it now, because it's going to be a while :)

WOW! What a day! Such excitement! So many nerves in the air! (I think I was more nervous for James that he was). Although, this pic below proves otherwise at the moment. Look at that serious "game day" face! Lana and I did a good job of hightailing it out of our hotel room at 6am Sunday morning with the kids and all our stuff.

They both fell asleep the night before at 6:30pm and slept til about 5:30am. It worked out nicely!

Ok, so there's a million pics and I'm just gonna explain as I go along (which is usually what I do anyways).....

The race is about to start...my triathlete is all focused and ready to go. He's trained for months and months for this.

And he PRAYS. I love this pic, why does it have to be blurry??

Lana and Andrew HERN. We had four friends in the race that day. Lana and I made signs for all of them. So fun to cheer everyone on! This is Hern's first race, ever. Like, he's never done a triathlon before. So he just jumps in and starts at the top with an IRONMAN. Hern is the man!

James' mom, Jo Ann, and three of her friends came down for the weekend to enjoy the city and watch James race. Of course, the boys were excited to see her!

7:08am....and their off on their 1.2 mile swim... That's James right there in the middle with a blue cap on. I know, they all have blue caps on. I need an arrow....

44 minutes and 33 seconds later this emerges from the water..beastly is the only word that comes to mind.

Trying to strip off his wetsuit...from what I hear that's the toughest part of the race!

Really can't explain this picture. But we laughed about it a lot when we saw it. Ha! At least he's smiling!

Here is the sea of bikes in the transition area. The athletes come out of the water and run about 150 yards into the transition and get their bikes and head out....

crazy huh? There were over 3000 triathlete's in this race. And you're looking at probably over a million dollars worth of tri-bikes!

James is on the left...heading out for his 56 mile bike.

When he passed us, his water bottle flew out of his bike holder....so he had no water on that leisurely bike ride. (but he did have some Gatorade).

It took him 2 hours and 50 minutes to complete the bike. So we had some time to kill.

We walked back up to the lake. If you were to get in a boat and keep going north in this picture you would run into Mandeville where we live!

This is the area where they came out of the water. They had two people on the side helping the swimmers strip off their wetsuits. I've never worn one, but I imagine I'd be pretty clausterphobic.

Here's our friend Hern again. He's off for his bike ride!

So we threw a blanket out in the grass and chilled. In the back of my mind, I wondering how James is doing, is he thirsty? Does he have a flat tire? .......worrywart.

So Charlie took his shoe off and put it on my big toe :)

It was nice and cloudy out. The sun came later in the day and so did my 2nd degree sunburn on my shoulders...ooops.

I made the boys matching tshirts to cheer on their daddy. The front says "Future Ironman". People were making comments all day long about how cute that was!

Don't know what we're looking at here. I was laid out on the blanket. Lana snapped this shot.

Here we are all laid out on our blanket. Our friend James and Cory brought us a box of fried chicken.

Here's our good friend Micah taking off for his run. He completed FIRST in his division. He had an amazing day. We're so proud of him!!

James taking off for his run. Can you imagine doing the swim and then the bike and then thinking, "ok! I've got to somehow muster up some energy from somewhere and go run

13 miles!"

oh did I mention that he had a smile on his face all day long????

This is Esplanade Ave in New Orleans. This street is so pretty. And I get to run down in on Saturday morning for my race!! Those trees are going to come in handy for shade, because it's supposed to be 80 degrees!

After we watched James leave for his run segment, we loaded up in the car and drove down to the French Quarter so we could get a spot to watch James cross the finish line. It was an exhausting day of shuffling our stuff and 2 kids around....but I shouldn't say that too loudly....

Tons of people. It was exciting!

Grandma and Jackson

Here's the finishline! They had music and an announcer and tons of people! We're right in front of Jackson Square.

A copper man on the street. They are fun to watch. They change up their stances every so often and freeze. This dude winked at me when I was taking his pic ;)

And if you did a 180, you'd see this most beautiful church in Jackson Square. It's called the St. Louis Cathedral. If I were Catholic, I'd have liked to get married here.

The masses of people.

Micah about to cross the finish line. He completed his race in under 5 hours! That's insane!!

Micah and his wife, Sara. They have a sweet baby girl named Evie. She slept through it all...

There he is!!! About to cross the line!

I believe that's what a sigh of relief looks like!

Oh my goodness. I love this picture. I took this right after he came across and Lana had a sign in her hand he must have seen.....I was far away, but had the zoom lens. Can't wait to frame this one. Would you have a big honkin' smile on your face after you accomplished something like that? I certainly would. I am so proud :)

Overall, it took him 6 hours and 19 minutes. He ranked 1168 out of 3000 something. WAY TO GO JAMES!

James and Micah post race.

Congratulating Daddy! Charlie sported his medal.

A Family shot. Boy, I look rough. Long day......

Hern and Lana..gooooood friends, just in case you were wondering :)

He headed to the food tent and ate pizza, crackers, a smoothie and some oreos in like 2.3 seconds.

James and his mom.

James and his training buddy, Tad. (I made a sign that said, "Tad is Rad")....it was awesome. Anyways, I have to give these two some credit. They were some dedicated triathletes. At the gym by 4:30am 5 days a week, for months.....

One of the first things James said to me after he finished was, "Well, I don't think I'll ever do another IRONMAN."

And just last night at the dinner table he starts talking about signing up for next year's race.....so we'll see :)

Next Saturday he's got a triathlon in Florida.