IMAZ-pre-race...

Where can I start? Let's see, Saturday AM about 8:30 I got the call from my son-in-law Dan (in Denver) that Becca was in labor, in the hospital and 6 cms dilated. OMG, the baby will be here by noon! I thought. As we were busy getting our stuff together to go down to the race site for drop off, I anxiously awaited word from Dan..and nothing..I managed to only text him like once an hour, trying not to be bugging the parents' to be and he reported no changes except baby was not moving down and was upside down. We headed down to Iron Village and dropped our bikes and stuff off.

There is our little Ironhouse crew, Michi, MG, me, Hartley and Mark. Lorna, Mark's girlfriend, who was the "house mother' and resident massage therapist (how did we get so lucky?) was not in the picture but was a huge part of the weekend..

Off we went back to the Ironhouse, where MG kept us wrapped tightly in his ADD pre Ironman mode. We made videos of fight scenes, danced on the living room, sang karaoke and generally acted like drunk people who were stone cold sober. I was not only suffering very badly from pre-iron nerves but was getting more nervous by the minute about Becca and the baby. I was getting calls from the rest of the family all day wanting word of Hadley's arrival, to no avail. Dan was great about keeping me informed but I was so worried about my baby, Becca, who I knew was suffering for so long (she did have an epidural for some of this time). Finally when all my Ironpeeps were fast asleep, I got the call. Baby Hadley Lee, 7 lbs, 7 oz, 20.5 inches long finally was delivered by C-section at 9:42 PM the night before Grandma and Grandpa did an Ironman:


Here she is just waking up to a whole new world:


I was so grateful she was OK, Becca was OK and poor Dan-I knew he had been a trooper the whole 28+ hrs of the whole ordeal...I finally went to sleep with a new grand baby.

Dan texted me: Run the race for Hadley. So I did...