Sunday, January 29, 2012

Ironman

A few weeks ago Spencer's mission buddy, Wes Johnson, called up to let us know that he will be in town for an Ironman competition here in Phoenix. We hadn't seen Wes since we had been married so we were so excited to be able to meet up with him while he was here and meet his new wife, even if it was just for a few minutes.

We decided to drive out to Phoenix and watch part of the competition since we had never experienced the energy of the Ironman. :) And let me tell you... there is definitely an energy of the Ironman.

It's amazing.


We were both amazed at the dedication these people had. There were people on the side lines cheering EVERYONE on. It was an incredibly uplifting environment with thousands of people attempting to accomplish the unthinkable.
*at least it was to me... the IRONMAN is definitely not on my bucket list*

2.4 mile swim
112 mile bike ride
26 mile run


We met up with Wes' family who all drove down from Utah for a quick two day trip. We cheered him on from the sidelines and were actually able to see him a few times as he was running.


GO WES!!!




After seeing him run the last few miles, we walked over to the finish line as the announcers were declaring to each individual runner that passed through, "Congratulations Wes Johnson -- YOU are an Ironman!"


Wes finished in just under 11 hours, placing second in the swim. Incredible.



On one of our many drives to Mesa when we first moved to AZ, I noticed these bridges that looked so pretty with the lights strung across the entire stretch. I decided that walking those bridges was going to be on our "AZ bucket list" - things to do before we move away from Arizona. A few weeks later I found out that they were not the kind of bridges I thought they were... only cars allowed. :(

When we got to the Ironman I realized that the race was roped off so that the runners would run across those very bridges... which meant that we could walk on them too! Miracle!



3 comments:

Sarah Goodman said...

I like those bridges too! Fun!

Lindsey Bench said...

That is funny you mention those bridges because when I was driving back from dinner with my sister I noticed them and thought "Oh, how romantic!" Guess I'll have to wait until the next iron man to get my romance on.

Melissa said...

First of all, blow that family pic up already and hang it in the house before it's outdated. It's too cute to not show. So fun that you were able to experience Ironman, even if it were from the side. That's where I would be too because I would drowned from the swim before I could get to the run to bike ride!