The Day After the Race

The day after the race was still quite festive even though the course was completely disassembled.  We woke up early despite the exhaustion we all felt (Tom obviously felt the most).  He barely slept the entire night; apparently it was very difficult to get comfortable.  It is surprising to me the inability of the body to want to rest soundly.  But, that is the toll an Ironman triathlon takes on one's body.

We went into town early to have breakfast and check out the finisher products.  The line was already about 100 people deep an hour before the store would open!  After our delicious breakfast, we ran a couple of errands and then came back to the condo so Nolan could play.  Shortly thereafter we went to a small nearby beach.  Nolan really enjoyed the sand but went nowhere near the water.  The waves were about three feet high and were crashing against the rocks and seawall.

After playing at the beach we would have to go get ready for the closing banquet.  We picked up our friend Bryan and headed to the same outdoor venue where the opening dinner took place.  Once again the performance was spectacular.  There were much quieter performances and even a group of young girls, about 7-9 years old, performing a hula dance.  Nolan much preferred these performances to the opening performances on Thursday.

We watched all the age group winners and the pros receive their awards.  Tom and Bryan were actually able to talk to a few of the pros afterwards.  Although I did not actually meet any of the pros, I did have the honor of meeting one pro in my book, Scott Rigsby.  We spoke about how he is a true inspiration to athletes and non-athletes everywhere.  He gave my a brief background about his accident at age 18, then his 12 years of life, until age 30, with just one leg.  At the age of 30 he decided to amputate the second leg and pursue a life with two prosthetic legs.  Scott walks, runs and rides his bike with three different sets of legs.  It really made my day to hear Scott speak and I am very thankful that he was so willing to talk about his challenges.  I am really looking forward to the fact that Scott said he is willing to Skype from Atlanta so students can ask him more questions!