IronMan Wisconsin, 2012

 Andy trained really hard and earned the above poster.  Most of all he did better than he hoped for.  His goal was 13 hours...Swim 2.4 miles, ride bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles!

Here's Andy posing in front of the finish line.  Madison, Wisconsin is a beautiful city and the people were very welcoming.  They shut this whole town down for this event and came and cheered on the athletes.

The morning of...3 am, getting ready to leave the hotel

The walk into the building....everyone tired, but there was excitement in the air

Morning check-in...drop your different bags off in different rooms

 The bikes and people dropping of last-minute items

Look at all the spectators.  We didn't even try to get up close

All the swimmers, Andy's in there somewhere

Shot-gun start...we heard the gun and we saw some people swimming...again, Andy's in there somewhere

 Andy coming out of the water

 Andy on the bike

 Remember when I said the community was very supportive.  I meant it, the school used their buses and transported all of us to the loop on the bike trail that bikers will pass twice.  Here's Drake waiting

 And Dane entertaining Angela (her husband, Rick did the IronMan with Andy)

 Angela had bought a cheese head hat...Drake wore it most of the day

 When we got off of the buses, it was really a big deal...live music, an announcer for the athletes arriving, the high school sports teams sold fresh grilled burgers, hotdogs and brats and walked around with coolers full of ice cold drinks.  I didn't realize that would be available so I had a cooler with food and another bag with entertainment things...13 hours is a long time and we got there 3 1/2 hours before the race started. 

 After playing UNO, War, Battle Ship and tag for several hours they played their DS and PSP

 I'm not even sure they noticed I had knelt down in front of them and was taking close-ups

 Finally, there's Andy!

 The bus took us back to the 2nd transition where Andy would drop off his bike and begin his run.  Drake fell asleep on the bus.

 Dane sat at the back with Angela and she sent me a picture of Dane asleep after I sent her one of Drake.

 They played a joke on me...he was faking!

 We have Netflix and a hotspot, so Dane watched Star Wars while Drake finished his nap.

Andy running through the stadium

 

After Drake woke up, we went to the downtown loop so we could see Andy run past us twice...

here he is, Shake those cowbells boys!

 Looking good and taking a minute to give us all sweaty hugs and kisses:)

 At the finish line.  The boys are still doing really good considering it is around 7pm now and we've been here since 3:30am.

 Such a pretty view....anxiously waiting...tic toc tic toc tic toc

 He's early and he looks so strong!

 High-fiving the crowd!

 See that time.....34 minutes early!

ANDY SMOLA....YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!

Dad with his boys

 bed time...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz