Andrew Brady

This post is in honor of Andrew Brady who passed away this past Sunday at the young age of 33. His funeral was today. Andrew was a dedicated basketball coach and teacher at Central Arkansas Christian school, son, brother, uncle and friend to many. He was diagnosed with leukemia on November 21, 2006. 33 is too young to go. It's difficult to make sense of it all.

Ironstar

September 16 to December 2nd? What gives? First of all I'm one of those Newbie bloggers...still trying to figure out how to post pictures. Seriously, what good's a blog if you don't have pictures? No one wants to get on a blog and read "WAR & PEACE" without the human element of pictures do they? So that being said this is my random picture. The young, good-looking guy is my 14 year-old, Alex. This picture is from my first half-ironman near Houston, Texas...the Ironstar Triathlon it was called. It was a half with a twist because the bike leg was 59-miles rather than 56. I don't know why other than maybe they just couldn't measure out 56 and 59 worked perfectly. Anyway, this wasn't an officially sanctioned Ironman 70.3 and the 59 mile bike leg probably had a lot to do with that. Officially sanctioned Ironman 70.3 races have a 56-mile bike leg. OK, enough of that. About the race. The above picture was taken during the calm before the storm. Well, OK, all outward appearences suggest it was calm...inside, it was anything but calm. I was pretty much a nervous wreck. But, I will say, I was very excited at the same time. It was definately an adventure. Long story short, it was a successful day. I had a goal to finish in less than 6:30 hours and my final time was 6:29:33. Really it was poor planning because had I known I would've taken an extra 13 seconds in each transition area! It was fun completing my first half with my brother-in-law, Trey, and our friend, Kevin. They are both veterans of an Ironman...they completed IM Florida in 2005...and they have the tats to prove it! They are both my ironman idols!

Ironman Wisconsin 2007

OK, the line in the sand has been drawn, the money has been paid and my name is officially on the "participants" list for Ironman Wisconsin 2007. No backing out now, but that's OK because I don't want to. I'm excited about it and looking forward to the challenge...the year-long challange. I'm not doing alone either. I've got three Ironman veterans doing it with me in Trey Chandler, Kevin Birdwell and Dyron Hamlin...I just want to keep up! As the symbol says "09-09-07"

My Familia

Family is a great thing! This is mine and I'm indeed blessed.