Cheering in the Sun. Singing in the rain.

Brendan just did the Ironman last weekend! He did great, and finished the race (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile (a full marathon) run, and he even broke 11 hours! That took almost 42 minutes off his last time. Unbelievable. Pictures to come soon!

Of course, he wasn't feeling so hot at the end--until some magic chicken soup fixed him up and turned his color from gray to his normal rosy pink. I was pretty nervous when he wasn't making a ton of sense when I was talking to him. But, he perked right up. (His blood pressure had dropped to 80/70--which is really low for him. Normally he's around 130/80.) Not enough salt, we suspect.

But, he did so great! I'm really proud of him. And, his parents came out, as did Amy Blevins our resident photographer and endlessly supportive cheerleader. I had such a great time!

The weather could not have been more beautiful! (Of course, the next day it was non-stop pouring rain in the fifties, almost identical weather to the first time Brendan did it, so we definitely lucked out.)

But, the rain has not stopped, it seems. We've just been getting totally hammered in both Chicago and Michigan over the last few week, and over the last two days especially. Over 9 inches in 24 hours.

Yesterday was the wettest day in Chicago's history, in fact.

Here's a rough site to get a few pictures: http://web.me.com/brendangately

(He just built it tonight with his new cool apple applications--so it's still a little rough.) But click on my albums at the top!

And stay tuned for more soon!