A Big One!

Well New Hampshire was terrific! The weather was rather cool - temps in the 60's - but the landscape is just out of this world! We were up in the White Mountains and while it kind of reminded me of Northern MN around the Iron Range, NH is on a much grander scale.

This was the view from our hotel room of Lake Winnipesaukee - the biggest lake in NH. Kind of like Lake Mille Lacs here in MN.
Even driving around was beautiful!

But the real reason we went to NH was so Dennis could try to qualify for the Half-Ironman (70.3) World Championships! He was a little ball of nerves on Friday and Saturday and I don't blame him since a lot was riding on this one race. I was so nervous for him too because of all of the preparation which has gone into getting to this point. The first 4 people in his age group qualified automatically and if anyone didn't take their spot for whatever reason, their spot would rolldown to number 5 then 6 and on and on until all of the spots were filled. So we were praying and praying that Dennis would be able to snag a top 4 spot and qualify in his own right, but the Lord had other plans for us. :) After a great swim and bike portion, Dennis started getting pain in his hip and had a slower run than he had anticipated. That caused him to be 7th in his age group. That meant three people had to turn down their spot in order for Dennis to qualify! Oh boy were we nervous! At that point, I went back to the car to wait until the award ceremony (where they were handing out spots), and Dennis walked around the race area. I was trying so hard to trust God that He knows where Dennis will end up, but my heart was still so sad for Dennis in that he got so close and there was a chance he wouldn't make it in. So anyway, I met up with Dennis again at the award ceremony and the announcer called out the 4 names who then had 20 minutes to claim their spot. What a stressful 20 minutes!! By the 20th minute, NO ONE had come to claim their spot so it rolled down to the next four which included Dennis!! We were SO happy and grateful to God for blessing us with a spot! Now we are looking onto Clearwater, Florida for the World Championships in November! Praise the Lord! :D

Here are some pictures from the race:

Dennis' swim wave getting in the water.

Getting off the bike (He went 56 miles!!)

Dennis at the finish line - he was really in pain but still looked strong!

So happy with his qualifier certificate!

I've got other pictures from the trip that I will post later - this one is getting a little long! :)