By Georgia Osten
He flew in from Tampa on Thursday, with his bicycle packed in a box for travelling! This, being our son-in-law, the soon-to-be Ironman. I had a lot to learn about this competition, although I cannot possibly comprehend all the hard work and training, he put in to make it to this point. We all met at a burger joint over in League City to wish him well. Burgers were on his diet prior to the event, sounded good to us too! Our daughter and our other son-in-law offered to pick him up at the airport, transport him and his bike and paraphernalia to the Woodlands on Friday morning to check in and stash his stuff.

Saturday morning, bright and early, they went back to the Woodlands for Michael to begin the swimming competition at 7:02am. My daughter, Leigh, walked me through the app process so I could track his progress. A little tricky for this ol’ bird, but I finally got it. Only problem, I couldn’t bear to put my phone down the whole day! He made through the 2.4-mile swimming course in an hour and 13 minutes. Seven minutes later, he was in his biking shoes and the bicycle trek began. Some mighty fierce winds added to the challenge, but he finished the 112 miles at approximately 2:43 pm.

Nine minutes later, he began the running portion at 2:52. We were with him every step of the way. Easy for me to say …

For the entire 26.2 miles, the tracker told us his pace throughout, like every 14-15 minutes. He’d go from an 8:45 minute mile, to a 10:05, to a 11:39, back to a 9:21. His calf brace on his left leg finally sweated off, leaving him without support from a pulled Achilles. But he kept on with a big smile on his face!

Leigh & Paul took pictures all along the way, wherever they could station themselves to catch a glimpse of Michael and Michael could tell there were folks there rooting for him. Matthew & Pierce, our son and grandson, actually came out and ran the course with him for maybe a quarter mile.

Kelly, Addyson, Lil Michael & Dax stayed back in Florida. Addyson was in a Crew Regatta and the boys each had baseball games. All were appreciative for the support. Leigh & Paul posted a 297-photo gallery of the whole event.

Michael finally crossed the finish line at 7:44 pm, finish time 12:42:04.
148th Place out of 303 in his age group
821st Place out of 1,906 men
935th Place out of 2,288 overall

Leigh said when they got home at 9ish, Michael got his shower and doctored up his legs and Leigh gave him some Pedialyte, and they said goodnight.

We’re mighty proud of this guy. We hope he doesn’t do it again, but we know him all too well.

[GO: Apr-30-2024]