IronJen

I headed down to St. George to watch my good friend Jennifer Lane Newman compete in her first Iron Man. The Iron Man is the triathlon of all triathlons. It starts with a 2.4 mile swim, then a 112 mile bike ride, and finishes with a 26.2 run (a full marathon). Insane! Lacy Jenkins and I made this candygram on the way down in the car. Jen's sister, Kim and I made posters the night before to support Jen and her friend, Stephen who competed as well.

We woke up at 4:30 in the morning in order to be to the reservoir by six to wish Jen good luck.

This is Wes. He is a triathlon coach. Jen claims he's her boyfriend.

Notice the lady in the pink swim cap. Take a look at her right foot. Incredible.

Thanks to Mike Hanks, we were all able to sport "Team Newman" shirts for the event.

Heading out to the water Jen was so excited...she got the cameraman's attention with her pre-swim dance.

There were some crazy spectators...trophy husband? Really? Pretty funny.

I got super claustrophobic thinking about swimming in open waters with people kicking me in the face...but Jen made great time and ran out of the water to jump on her bike.

Lacy and I thought we were pretty cool with our Iron Man tattoos. Mine left a killer tan line after being in the sun all day.

This guy was a Marine. He carried the American flag the entire run. It was pretty inspiring.

This is at mile 2 of the run...Jen was all smiles.

Her support squad.

And at mile thirteen...still smiling.

She finished in 12 hours and 31 minutes...and somehow had the energy to do a celebratory heel click when she crossed the finish line.

Stephen's sunburn. OUCH! He finished just about an hour or so after Jen.

Massage tent at the end of the race.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to do this, and how its physically possible. But it was pretty cool to be a part of. Congratulations Jen-you're a machine. I'm really glad I was able to experience such an accomplishment!