Everyday Life

I just saw that I had started this post a while back and never published it.  

Check out the cuteness!

Ryan and his God-son, Trace Hurt.

Ryan Glendenning, You Are An IRONMAN!!!

Ryan's recovery from the half ironman was phenomenal, but he still only had a few weeks to gear up for the full.  Plus, we were going to be in Salt Lake City for a week of that time.  He did what he could in the weeks leading up, but again, he was happy he was even able to attempt it.  He knew he was just going to do what he had to do to finish.

The day came quickly.  The morning was BEAUTIFUL!  Perfect weather!

He fueled up that morning with a Nutrimeal, Banana, and Rev 3!

All 2500 athletes were off at once on the 2.4 mile swim.  Ryan finished in 1:26, which is really good considering he's never swam that far before.  I got to catch him on the way in, and then again on the way out.  (I opted to take more videos than pictures.)

Ryan's parent's and I were walking to our car to head out to the bike course when I got a call from an unknown number, with Ryan on the other end saying, "Well, my race is over."  Wait, what?!  I was so shocked to hear his voice and couldn't believe what I was hearing.  He was in a 3-person bike crash and his front wheel was trashed.  (I later found out that a guy in front of him crashed, he tried to avoid it, hit the breaks, and was hit by two others coming from behind.  Bike parts, tools, nutrition, ad water bottles were everywhere.  His handlebars were bent down and he was bleeding quite a bit from his shoulder).  He told me he was ok, just some road rash, but his wheel wouldn't spin, so he wasn't going to be able to go any further.  I was so sad for him.  I wanted to get to him, but I didn't know how.  He said a truck would be picking he and his bike up and bringing them back to transition, so we waited there.  What was I going to say to him when I saw him?  Obviously there was nothing I could say or do to make him feel better.

I was about to text all of the others that were coming up to watch to stay home, but then he called back and said Trek was able to repair his wheel well enough to ride.  He would be back on his bike in a few minutes!  Talk about a roller coaster of emotions!  As if the ankle surgery wasn't enough, he had to endure a bike crash, too.  Praise the Lord he wasn't injured and that his bike was repairable. (They did get his wheel really close to normal, but it was wobbly the whole rest of the race...110.5 MILES)!  Tom and Sandy and I drove to the 30 mile mark and waited there.  We were tracking on the MyAthlete app, but it was stopped at 25 miles for what seemed like forever!  Maybe 15 minutes?  We thought for sure his bike broke again.  We were about to start driving his direction when we finally saw him!!!  I'm pretty sure we all had tears in our eyes once we saw him.  We didn't see any injuries, and his bike looked fine, too.  He was smiling and loving the adventure.

I snapped this picture quick and then started screaming!

We saw him I think 8 times on the bike. It was great! Lucas and Angie Knapp, Dan Haskell, Joshua Melby, and Nate and Nat joined us throughout the bike portion.  The Glendenning Support Crew was getting bigger and bigger every time we saw him!

Then, we went to the "Bike In" location and devised a plan on how we were going to cheer for him, and then run like crazies all the way to the other end of the transition to see him again on his way out to the run.  It worked!  It was hilarious.  We were all dead tired because we had to go up and down and in and out of the Monona Terrace to find him.  Now the only thing left is...a marathon...

My parents arrived with the kids and we walked to where we wanted to see Ryan on the run. Both kids were so sweet the whole time.  Parker was really excited to be at Daddy's race, and Adley was just as happy as could be.

The first time Ryan saw them, he gave Parker a huge hug, while the rest of us held back the tears.

He gave Adley a squeeze, too.

I was worried he would cramp a lot again, but he started taking salt tabs the day before to try and eliminate that problem, and it worked!  He ran everything except the aide stations and the hills, everytime we saw him he was smiling, he was positive, he even stopped for about 20 minutes to help a guy who collapsed in front of him and needed medical help.  He is downright inspiring!!

We all kind of spread out for the finish.  Similar to the half-ironman, I was sick to my stomach.  I thought I saw him so many times, but when I did, I started jumping up and down like crazy!  The people around me backed off a little.  They thought I was nuts.  He finished right at 14 hours. 14:02.  

Ryan Glendenning, You Are An IRONMAN!!!

I couldn't be more proud of this man!

Most of the Glendenning Support Crew 

(Minus Tom and Sandy and the many supporters watching from home).

Adley fell asleep before the finish =)

Parker was calling himself an IronKid all day!  He really wants to be like his daddy =)

We went to pick up his bike and talked through the whole day.  Best.Day.Ever!

Ryan had a hard time regulating his temperature for about a day after.  He went from freezing to sweating and back again.  He was tired, but he could walk fine. He has some road rash from the crash and a big gash on his shoulder, but he wasn't uncomfortably sore, and two days later he was already thinking about when he wanted to do his next one.  Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to the next one, too!  We also plugged in his Garmin watch to check out the stats, and between the crash and helping the guy on the run, he was stopped for a whole hour.

Awesome job, Ryan!  I love you so much.  I'm proud to be your #1 supporter =)

Steelhead Half-Ironman

Last September, Ryan went to watch his buddy, Brad, do Ironman Madison, and I wasn't surprised when he came home and said he wanted to do it next year.  He was just getting into triathlons and I figured the Ironman would be on his bucket list.  So, he signed up, a year in advance.  Little did we know he was going to have to have reconstructive ankle surgery in April do to an injury at work.  It seemed as though his Ironman dreams were gone, because you're supposed to train for this thing for like, 8 months!  And the recovery alone was expected to be 6-8 months.  He was really bummed, but there's nothing he could do about it.  The worst part was that he couldn't get his money back or transfer to the next year.  So, he got the surgery mid-April, and the recovery was off to a really great start!  He didn't have any swelling, he was out of the boot 4 weeks later, therapy started at 6 weeks, and he was back to work and nearly 100% about 4 months after.  Wahoo!!  He did the half ironman on August 10th.  He went into it with a thankful mentality, happy to be there and hoping to finish.

We arrived at 5am.  Ryan set up his transition while I got some coffee.  There were three other guys that he works with at AHFD that were doing the race, too.

To star the race, we had to walk a mile down the beach.
Seeing how long a mile is in the water is quite intimidating!!  

 

Ryan went off with his wave 

and then I had to speed walk all the way back to make sure I didn't miss him!

Once I saw him, I ran up to the other end of the transition so I could see him go out on the bike.

I was relieved to see he was smiling coming in on the bike and going out to start the run.  I can't believe he was able to do this physically or mentally after having surgery so recently!

He started cramping up within the first mile of the run.  When we went to stretch his quad, his hamstring cramped, too!  He continued to walk until it released, and run until he cramped, for 13.1 MILES!!  

I got to the finish area and just took in the view.  On one side there were tons of spectators.

and the other was the beautiful beach and Lake Michigan.

I was so anxious waiting for him to finish.  I didn't know whether to cry, barf, or both!  My stomach was in knots!  He turned a the corner and ran in to the finish! 

 It was SO awesome!  I couldn't be more proud!!

I could barely walk by the end because my legs were so sore from being a "spectathlete."  Ryan was walking around just fine, and his ankle was still in great shape.  Praise the Lord!

We went waist-high in the Lake for a little "ice bath."  The temp was 64.  It was a wonderful day!  

Four weeks and he'll be doing the full!