Enduring the Half Ironman Race

AUGUST 22 - D DAY

This is it! D-day is almost here, Erick woke up at 1AM, he couldn't sleep because of the excitement so he decided to watch a movie on the computer, but it's loud noise woke me up. So Erick and I were awake and waited while watching a movie. I decided to ready the stuffs that we would be bringing, a bag for Erick's post race and a bag for me and for the kids. I dressed up, dressed the kids while they were sleeping and called the cafe to follow-up on our breakfast.

Erick was a bit anxious, I felt like I was walking on thin ice, I'm careful of what to say for I don't want to ruin his mood. It was past 4AM when we left the hotel to drive for CWC, it was already filled with participants, cheerer and supporters when we arrived.  One by one the transition area was filled with participants having their body markings, you could feel the excitement from everywhere.

With Jonas of Sunkist

 

A few minutes later, Erick was on his way to the big lake, you could hear applause and cheer from supporters. At this time, I was feeling nervous, I was praying to God to keep everyone safe, that no mishap would happen, and one by one I telephoned Erick's mom, my mother, my sister and my best friend informing them that in while Erick would start on reaching for his dream and to help me for praying Erick's safety. 

Waiting for the start of their wave

 

The sound of the horn indicates the start of the Professional and Elite athletes start. Everyone was clapping and shouting, we could see how fast these guys are and have trained so hard for this race. Erick's wave would start 2 minutes after the pro and elite started, their wave was the biggest, and most of them are competitive. At the sound of the second horn, the louder the cheer, my hands won't stop shaking while I was taking a video.

Wave 2 (Photo from Doc Marvin)

After taking a video, I immediately went to on to the small lake to wait for Erick's transition from Lago del Rey to the small lake. One by one, pro and elite athletes came running to swim for another 300m. 

NZ's Terenzo Bozzone who won 1st last year :D

Noy Jopson who won 1st last year

Finally! Erick made it out of the big lake

 

Erick finished his 1.9K swim in 41minutes and 0.2 seconds which is fast, at this point I was worried thinking that he might have pushed himself so hard at the swim that his run might suffer.  I was even more excited when I saw him off to the transition area.

Running to T1

 

I had no way of watching Erick in the bike leg except from his exit to the highway, so we just patiently waited for him at the run course. And that is the reason why I don't have a picture of him on the bike leg. It was a hot day, and it was almost everyone's comment on the weather that day, the last year result is faster than that day. 

 

He finished the 90K bike route in 2hours and 35minutes and was on his way to T2. WHAT?!!! he has a fast bike time, so what happens now to his run? would he be walking and crawling his way to the finish line? this are my thoughts when I was calculating his time, I just hope that he had done his proper nutrition so that his run wouldn't suffer. Then he was off to his first loop at the 21K run.

But why would I be worried if he looks like this? All smile pa rin. :)

Or maybe because he saw my "hakot cheerer"  NOTE: pumayag po sila na walang bayad basta pakainin ko lang daw po sila. :)

 

We have agreed that his estimate time of finish would be 5hours 50minutes or up to 6hours. But with his performance I predicted that he could finish in 5hours 30minutes considering that he won't walk at the run leg. But once a runner always a runner.

Nearing his way to the finish line (Photo courtesy of Doc Marvin)

My calculations were wrong, he could do a sub 5hours 30minutes. He clocked his finish time at 5hours 25minutes, which is a decent time for a first time half Ironman participant. He did it! He reached for his dream and made me proud. All glory and praises belong to the Lord alone! His love ENDURES forever and His mercy never ends.

Almost there

Victory is yours!

Here is his time according to Ironmanlive

Congratulations to the member of Team Endure who are also an Ironman James, Rico, Ziggy, Ronald, Melvin, Jason. Hats off to all of you! You rocked CamSur! And to the unequaled supporter/cheerer Taty, Marga, Ellen, Carina, Doc Marvin, RJ and Emil, I salute you. Money can't buy your efforts, for giving the time just to be there for the team. God bless you all even more and God bless Team Endure!