I am told that I should write a race report as soon as possible after the race while the memories and emotions are fresh, but let me tell you my memories and emotions of this experience are permantley etched into my mind, but since it is 4:30am and I have only slept for 2hrs and I am sitting by the porch in the dark listening to the town below a buzz with tear down of the race…why not start typing….that is if my fingers can handle it (every part of my body both inside and outside aches..it even hurts to breath) 

My big question is how does one go through an experience like Ironman Kona without God and an amazing support group of family and friends?  God was everywhere…he  was there when things were going well and he carried me through when things were going bad and I was scared. He placed people in my presence to be with me when I needed them and He placed me in situations where I was able to be a blessing to someone else (and that was one of my prayers all along was to take this experience and be able to be a light to someone else) I talked to God ALL day and every chance I got I spoke of his goodness to others and I prayed for all my friends and family by name throughout the day….I was even caught by one of the volunteers singing to myself outloud and I think it was veggie tales song.  I thanked Him constantly through the ups and the downs. 

And let me tell you about my friends and family….WOW…my family has stuck with me through these training days.  Ronnie’s support and love is priceless, my mom and Phil blessed me with their prayers and babysitting services and the baking of the perfect food for nutrition on the bike, Kelly has been the best professional cheerleader and wonderful bike ride partner, the kids have put up with a sometimes cranky mom and getting up before the crack of dawn to come to races and yesterday enduring the heat of the island, my inlaws traveled many miles in support of me…sue has being our chef and big Ronnie has taken care of emma and jack at races and my brother, who even though he is far away and getting ready to move cross country still always called to check in on me during training.  

And friends…well I have the best of them.  All the Tri4Him team and friends who have come together to help me in so many ways…from doing training with me to offering words of encouragement to helping me with my bike mechanics to praying for me and to jeff (tri4Him founder) for his knowledge and advice. And how awesome it was to share this day with Clay, the other team member from dallas that got picked in the lottery….he and his family were such a blessing. And my friends from church have always checked up on me during my training (even when they thought I was crazy) and followed up after race day and prayed many times over. 

I also cried more in the past 24hrs than I have ever cried (and for those that don’t know I am NOT a crying person so this emotion took me by surprise) maybe a list of the tears will help sum up the day.

I cried when we went to the fca prayer service Thursday,

I cried when they gave me an escort to check in my bike and show me the transistion, 

cried when they stamped my race number so perfectly on my arm,

cried when they asked me about my dad’s picture I put on my handle bars (a pic of him riding his bike waving at the camera),

cried when we prayed before race start,

cried when we prayed getting into the water,

cried when I exited the swim (which was a perfect swim i killed my time by over 15minute thanks to craigs wonderful swim advice, crystal clear water and never got kicked and always had feet to follow),

cried when I ran through transistion to get my bike,

cried on the bike course when the wind was so strong I thought it was going to blow me over and the heat coming from the lava fields was much different from the heat of houston,

cried when a wonderful God sent man named john from Team FCA (federation of Christian athletes) prayed with me when I thought I might have to quit the bike course because I was so scared of the wind.

cried when my hands ached from having to hold my handle bars most of the way instead of being able to ride in the areobars (I had to stay so tightly gripped to the handle bars in order to keep upright),

cried on the 7mile climb to the havii turnaround when I was only going 5-7mph,

cried when I thanked every volunteer I came in contact with,

cried when a tailwind came and carried me so smoothly at 30mph for 45minutes at mile 80, cried when I was finishing the last 6miles of the bike next to athletes that were finishing their run (for those that don’t know the race is the world championship so being a lottery winner I was an “everyday joe” racing with the best of the best…they were amazing),

cried when the volunteers caught me and my bike when I got off,

cried while changing clothes,

cried when the volunteers told me they would pray for me,

cried starting the run,

cried EVERYTIME i saw my family (especially Kayla and Emma because I hope that I instilled in them that faith and hard work can take them so far in what ever they want to do in life), cried when I meet people from Houston on the course,

cried whenever someone told me they liked my jersey and to keep running for Him.

I cried when I thought of all my friends and family that were behind me in this endevor,

cried when I saw the physically challenged athletes (one who finished is the first triple amputee to complete an ironman..he has one arm and he finished 2hrs in front of me)

cried when my run felt great,

cried when my back had tightened up and I had to walk,

cried in the pitch black dark of night looking at the star filled beautiful night out in the energy lab and on the queen k hwy(thank goodness I had a headlamp),

cried when the God sent man from FCA  (john) showed up next to me at mile 6 of the run and we stayed together the entire time (what I cry about right now is that this man was the age of what my father would have been if he were alive…for those of you that don’t know my dad used to watch this race back in the early days on tv and I remember watching it with him…so running this race was special to me in that aspect) God gave me a “Dad” in John yesterday and I cried when I got the chance to thank him once we crossed the finish line,

cried when the NBC news crew pulled up next to me on the run to ask how my day was going,  

I cried after I rolled across the finish line to raise awareness of ALS and the father of the Jon Blaze (a racer that died from ALS  who rolled across the finish line to start ALS awareness) came up and hugged me and thanked me for rolling across and he cried,

cried when the NBC news cameras asked me how my race was,

cried when ronnie and Kelly hugged me,

i cried when i found out i beat my time from my first ironman and my first race was no where close to being as challenging as this one,

I cried everytime i felt God's presence,

I am crying as I type this letter and I am sure that when you ask me in person or over the phone about the race I will cry…..so can you tell how my day went.  

I think I am even going to cry because I don’t think I will lose any tonails…thank goodness for my new orthodics…ha ha. 

So I know it must seem odd to list my tears, but that is what sums up my day….even my eyes hurt this morning from the tears. 

No words are enough to express my gratitude to you all