Race is over!

Quite a day... I hope Matt will write a report of his day, so we can get the REAL details, but here's what Cheryl and I know.

He had a FANTASTIC swim. 1:37. That's SUPER good.... Matt didn't even really know how to swim when he started this year! He finished the bike leg well before the cut-off. The weather, like we've said 100 times on the blogs and twitter, was wretchedly hot and humid. And there was some wind on the Queen K from what we understand. To top it off, it Sounds like he had some stomach issues later on the in the bike and wasn't keeping anything d

own.

So on to the run - overheated, dehydrated, underfueled, fatigued....hard to get going like that! The first 10 miles were super tough and we were starting to get a little concerned about the cut-off. I got a text out of the blue from George Anderson (good friend, PT, and athletic trainer) asking how Matt was doing. I told George what I knew and he said he'd probably bounce right back and get to the finish line if he just got cooled off. They poured buckets (garbage cans!) of cold water over Matt at the aid stations, and gave him some chicken broth (that was to drink, not to pour on him) and he DID bounce back. In fact, he started running again and dropped MINUTES off his pace per mile. But in spite of that huge effort, he just couldn't quite bridge the gap. He charged across the finish line, though, just 3 minutes past cut-off at 17:03.

We just LOVED watching Matt take that race on today. And it was fun to see Suzy and their boys and a whole CREW of family and friends out to support him. His months of preparation and training really paid off.

Your family at Raise the Bar is super proud of you, Matt. WAY TO GO!