Iron Man 70.3 St George, Utah {May 3, 2014}

This year Steve, Phil's BF talked him into doing the half Iron Man in St George. I wasn't completely on board (to say the least) in the beginning. Having little kids, including a 6 month old baby, I just felt like now was not the time. Phil promised his training would have little to no effect on the family.

Lucky for me Phil is a man of his word and he woke up early every day and trained hard. Other than going to bed a little earlier and it being hard to coordinate training between the two of us, it was totally fine. Not nearly as hard or bad as I expected.

A couple months before the wives to some of guys decided to do the relay. I picked to be the runner.

My brother and his wife kept our boys {thanks so much!!} and we brought Phil's sister Missy with us for Myla duty and our personal photographer! {she is awesome!} We went down Thursday afternoon and just hung around that night.

Friday we enjoyed Iron Man square, went for a practice swim (which made me so glad I wasn't doing that. I am a horrible swimmer and that looked terrifying!) and then made dinner at our friends parents house. Everyone tried to go to bed early but I am sure no one slept great.

I was happy Myla slept through the night and didn't keep any of us up since Phil, Missy and I were all in her room. :) We headed up to Sand Hallow for the start before the sun even came up.

 The whole reason Phil was even thinking about Iron Man goes to this here friend above, Steve. These two are like 2 peas in a pod. Steve really talked Phil into it and they trained a ton together!

                                 Stu, Phil and Steve                   Jace, Phil, Steve and Morgan

Bri (bike) Laura (swim) Alesha (run)

Our cute neighbor/friend Holli was supposed to be our rider but was super sick for a few weeks leading up to the event. So she had to pull out. Luckily our friend Bri who lives in St George was able to fill in last minute and nailed it!

We stood next to the swim exit but weren't really able to identify any of our friends getting out. :( So, after we rounded up Laura, who rocked a very hard swim, we headed back to where we were staying. The boys were riding right past where we were staying. So Missy, Laura and Holli went out to watch for them while I fed Myla.

We headed over to the run but really had no idea how fast to expect Bri. Missy Laura, My and I totally missed Steve again heading out for the run. He was so speedy! We were walking along to another spot to watch and had to cross the race path. I had the stroller and the guy ushering said "hurry go!" so I started going really fast with the stroller and totally almost got hit by a biker! It was super scary and he was swearing at me! It totally wasn't my fault. I couldn't see and just went when the guy said. SCARY!

So we are watching and we see Jace come out to start the run and we are cheering for him and he's all "Alesha, Bri is waiting for you!!" Holy cow she was so fast, I wasn't even ready for her! I ran in and exchanged and then as I started running out the shoot Phil came out of the bathroom and was like "hey?! Wanna run together?" We hadn't even thought it would be an option to run together with the way start times worked and how long each person's legs would take.

I didn't even think I would be able to see him cross the finish line. INSTEAD we crossed TOGETHER! It was so awesome to run the whole thing together. I was able to motivate him and push him and we have never got to run a full race together. Such an awesome experience. He kept telling me to leave him but I just kept thinking how lucky we were it worked out that way and how neat the whole thing was.

I am so so glad I did this because of the opportunity (that I didn't even know would happen) to run it with Phil. I didn't love doing the relay, especially in the runner position. I felt like everyone at the point was dying (it was 100 degrees, mid day, bright sun, no shade) they'd already done a ton and I was fresh as a daisy running backwards half the time. ;) It felt cheap. I think in the other aspects (biking or the swim) this wouldn't be as noticeable but I really felt it in the run. I really doubt I would do that again. I would love to do the whole thing sometime but it would really take an adult swim coach! haha As far as Phil, he says it was SO SO hard and the time commitment was so intense. But I think he'd for sure do it again. :)

So incredibly proud of him! He did awesome. Did I mention this was his first ever Triathlon. Way to just bust out 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 for your first time! And in under 6:30!!! He is pretty awesome....and he's all mine! ♥♥♥