When things get easier

Yesterday I was honored to meet one of my Ironman and Triathlon idols, Mr. Robert Key and his lovely wife, Susan. They are visiting Seattle from Texas, going from Alaska to Portland & back home. He had contacted us a while ago to let us know he would like to get together so we enjoyed a nice dinner at Anthonys in Seattle. Besides me & Lan, there was Linda & Steve and Sarah.

5 Ironmen, 1 halfer-soon-to-be Ironman

 Robert is one of my idols, 5 years ago he had a heart attack, now, 5 years later, he is a 7 time Ironman finisher and a motivational speaker who travels all over talking about his journey. He told us the story of a kid named Ivy and long story short, it was about him. I had a feeling when he started it...

Susan, Robert, Sarah, Me, Lan, Linda & Steve

 He did IMWI a few years ago and Linda shared the link to his photos so I studied them to see what I needed for my own race. For my last race, I went back to revisit and saw that in one of his recent races he had just the bare essentials, so that's all I went with. If he doesn't need it for an Ironman, I certainly don't need it for a sprint.

Selfie!

Today just as I was starting my run there were two other ladies out on the road going the same direction as me and I had to run past them. They were walking but it looked like they had been running too. As I passed by I asked if they run every day and they said yes, they asked me how far I was going so I told them an easy 6. As I sped off one of them remarked,

AND SHES GOT AN IRONMAN TATTOO.

 

That made me feel proud, then it made me get teary eyed and a snotty nose. Suck it up, I had to tell myself. So I ran to the old farm 2.95 miles, walked another .67 miles there while cleaning and ran back home but added in that extra .05 so I got in the 6 I had previously bragged about.
6 miles
1:27:14
14:32 min/mile
4.13 mph avg
My Garmin said my average was 5.1MPH but whatever. I did it.