Ironman Girl

Hey, Y'all! I interrupt my experiment in short affirmation blogs for a quick post about my weekend. That's the good thing about having your own blog,you can do whatever you want and change your mind frequently. My daughter Lauren flew home from Rio to do a half Ironman race in New Orleans this weekend. That race is a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run, in that order. Whew! 

I was the bad mom, back in December when she announced she was going to do this, trying to dissuade her with comments like, "Are you sure you have enough time to train for this?" and "What - you're gonna fly all the way back from Brazil for a weekend just to do a race?" and "Can you even swim that far?" Not that I didn't want her to try, I just thought, what with moving to Brazil, starting work in a new office down there, learning a new language, finding an apartment, and volunteering for an NGO, she might have her hands full already. Why stress out by adding this massive task? I was wrong. She took swimming lessons, ran and biked her body into shape without a problem. This is a gal who likes to be busy. Never underestimate your kids. I should know that by now.

Anyhow, the race was this past Sunday. It was a bit crazy because her flight to the US took an emergency landing in Puerto Rico and spent many, many hours there. We lost a day of our trip to New Orleans, basically all the fun stuff and sightseeing got cut and the trip was shortened to 45 hours long, 21 of which were spent riding in the car. But it was fun anyhow. Lauren's friend Susan came with us to support her buddy, even when she knew the fun part was axed. That is a true friend, and she helped QG and I a lot with her navigational skills as we tried to follow Lauren through various parts of the race. 

Lauren ended up finishing faster than she had hoped for and didn't croak in the process, so it was a success. Also, she was able to swap her return flight for tonight instead of yesterday morning. Yay! We are heading out now for shopping. Shocker, I know!