Back in May, I went with my lovely in-laws to watch Brett’s brother, Matt, participate in a Half Iron Man. Let’s just say that I don’t see how anyone could do a whole one. Yipes! We had a great time in Florida and it was a relaxing way to celebrate being finished with school!
I’d much prefer being behind the camera on a day like this one. I’m thinking I could have lasted about 2 minutes in the water, if that. Thankfully, it was pretty cloudy up until the run. Then it got HOT. All of this to say, I enjoyed capturing the action, I love the idea of being a runner and I hope that maybe one day that can still happen. Since I know myself, I’m not going to bet anything on that possibility though.
Matt did a great job and was well under his goal for his finishing time! He said his goal for the swim was: don’t drown. As you can see, he did meet that goal. I’m pretty sure if the race had not been going on it would have been a red flag day. The waves were huge and lots of swimmers had to be pulled it. Brett and I enjoyed driving around trying to find Matt and we got a few fun shots along the way.
Yay for people that can do Half Iron Man races!

The waves look calm here. I had some close-ups that showed how bad it really was. This is where Matt said, “I’m going to die” – which isn’t the best thing to hear after the first leg of the race. Apparently he wasn’t alone in those feelings though, we heard a lot about how bad the ocean swim was that day.

I really like the guy that is just chillin, eatin’ his banana. The top right is an Army Veteran with paralyzed legs. However, his arms were probably the size of most people’s legs. He was ripped for sure. In the center, you see Matt just told us with a smile, “I’m about to pass everyone on this bridge” – he felt better here than after the swim I believe.

We quickly hopped back in the car so we could get some pics of him on the bridge. We scared a few bikers off of the road to help him out… *wink

Time for a run! Matt was all thumbs up to start…then the sun came out. The couple in the center got married that evening after the race. A good bit of their wedding party participated as well. They all had these bow tie shirts with their role printed on the back: Bride, Best Man, Wedding Singer, etc. Mine would say “Guest” and I would be patiently waiting at the finish line. The dog was a little buddy I met while we were waiting on Matt at the finish.  The last photo is Matt right before the end!

I think he was happy it was over.