Ironman Kona

Many of you have heard that Jimmy's brother Joey recently competed in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii a few weekends ago.  He was fortunate to be selected to participate through the lottery, which only accepts 200 applicants from all over the world.  This is something that people often try for their whole competitive careers and sometimes never get chosen, so Joey felt that there was definitely a reason that he was meant to be there (known only to the Big Guy upstairs...!).  After 6 months of training and probably the longest day of his life, he was able to complete the 2.4 mile ocean swim, 112 bike,  26.2 mile run (a full marathon) in 14 hours and 3 minutes.

I have to share the ridiculous story of how the day of the competition began for Jimmy and I.  I had planned to wake up at 4:15 to give me time to shower and get ready to leave the house at 5 (we had a 40 minute drive into Kona where the race started and Joey had to be there with time to spare for the 7am start).  So I set the alarm on my cell phone, and Jimmy set his for 4:30.  When my alarm went off, I got out of bed, showered and got completely ready to leave.  In the meantime I woke Jimmy (thinking 'why didn't his alarm go off to wake him??') and he, too, got ready then headed upstairs to meet everyone else.  When he got there he looked at the clock and saw that it was actually now 2 AM, not 5am like we thought it was.  I had made the mistake of setting my phone alarm to 4:15am California time, not Hawaii time, which is three hours behind CA!  We both hopped back into bed to try and get a bit more sleep but didn't get much before the real wake up time had come.  Made a very long day unnecessarily longer! :S

Jimmy and I were lucky enough to go to Kona to support him (and get in a mini 'babymoon' before number two arrives), along with his wife Aly, baby Tessa, and Aly's parents.  It was a busy few days, but we did get in a few hours at the beach and got to do a little snorkeling, too.  Big baby belly = good buoyancy!

Here are a few highlights from the weekend.  You can see a lot more of Joey's Ironman details on the Facebook page Jimmy kept during the race (more videos and pictures posted there) - search "Go Joe! Ironman" and you should find it:

The crowd trying to catch a glimpse of the swimmers at the start, around 6:30am as the sun was still coming up

Joey and Aly just before he got in the water to warm up

At the beginning of the biking, and right after he left the water from the swim

Beginning of the run.  Jimmy jogged alongside to catch some video footage and encourage his brother

The home stretch of the 26 mile run, with about 2 miles left to go.

Joey's suprise dance after he came across the finish line.  We (and the crowd) all loved it!!

"Joey Williams, YOU are an Ironman!!"

The cove that we had access to through the house we had rented

The 34 week belly :)