My husband is the most dedicated and high achieving person I know. He loves a challenge and has a high level of self-discipline that enables him to do challenging things, whether it be aerospace engineering or a 40 mile trail run

This past weekend, however, he took on the biggest physical challenge yet: an Ironman. He registered for it 9 months ago and pretty swiftly pursued a coach with a training plan to get himself in the best shape for this race.

An Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. Consecutively.

I know.

He chose the Ironman in Lake Placid for a few reasons. The timing of the race worked well with him not having to do long runs or bikes in the dead heat of summer (July/August/September) in Raleigh. He also really loved the fact that it was the 25th year anniversary of the Ironman and it was held at a place he always wanted to visit.
Lake Placid was the location of the 1980 Winter Olympics where the USA hockey team beat the Russians, and then went on to beat Finland and take gold. At that time in the world, that win meant so much more than a gold medal.

One of Justin?s favorite movies from his youth is Miracle, so to be able to stand in the exact ice rink where the team played that incredible game was pretty moving for him.

Needless to say, it was a very cool location for a very hard race, and all of the emotion about it funneled into a victorious and exciting race day for him!

I shared a lot of behi...