**Penny's 2 Cents**: The BIG day! IRONMAN 2015.

This is the perfect picture to start this blog. Shayne is in the black wet suit standing up on the paddle board just off to the right. The water was still and it was a perfect day for a race.

You can actually see Shayne helping a guy in this one. She is kneeling on her paddle board and a guys arm is coming up, out of the water.

This picture was posted by Tiffany Gust. I don't know who she got it from but it's awesome! Joel is in there somewhere. Shayne is at the start and Sophie says she is right on the corner that is cut off from the picture.

This year since Shayne and Sophie were lifeguards and Josh was at the aid station on the shore, I had the scouts with me. Riley and Miles were with me instead of Ben and David. They stayed home to play their last soccer game of the season. David's team lost, of course, (next blog) and Ben's won! Anyway, The three of us cheered everyone on and only one person needed help. He got a flat so Riley ran down to help him out. That's where he was when Joel passed us. He was looking good and doing good!

Then Shawn came by and he was all smiles. He was stoked to be doing the Ironman. I had given him an IV the night before and he was all ready to go.

Then Spencer flew by. I would have missed him if it weren't for him yelling at me.

Then a surprise entry...

KYLE!!! He decided that he was feeling good enough to do the swim and bike. So he did.

After the bikers passed me they went through Hurricane and took Telegraph to the Washington Parkway Exit where they saw these crazy, awesome people.

Our YW were signed up to help with the 2nd bike aid station. They had the best time especially when the bishop came by. They are amazing!

Holly took these pictures of Joel further up into the course. I was grateful that he had such great support throughout the entire race.

I believe Joel's dad took these at the transition from bike to run.

At this time we were over at Kalo's handing out Popsicles to the runners. This lady caught my eye when I was watching out for Joel to come. She made me think of Darby and I instantly put the picture on facebook and tagged her in it and told her that this should be her next goal in life. She could definitely do it. She's on heck of a swimmer and the best triathletes are swimmers.

Here, once again, is Spencer. He had to yell at me and I still missed him because my camera wasn't turned on. So you get a nice butt shot of him running away. Hahaha. He's just to dang fast.

Then Joel came up the hill. Truett and David both wanted to give him a Popsicle so he ended up taking a couple.

He high-fived Ben, Josh, Shayne and Kalo and continued on his quest. He still had 12 more miles to go at this point. Kalo's house is only a mile from the finish line.

We continued to hand out Popsicle to wait for him to come back.

David and Truett had a blast together. At one point Truett took a break and became Spiderman.

About 8 miles up the road John was waiting to cheer Joel on. Just what he needed. I think this year will be Joel's favorite because of all the love and support he has gotten from everyone. It was really different to be the only one from the Beckstrands participating.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we were like a well oiled machine. Shayne and Sophie sat in the shade with the Popsicles opening them up and breaking them in half. While the rest of us handed them out.

Along came Fire Fighter Rob. He has the record for running the most Ironman races in full gear. The swimming and biking he does in regular workout clothes but he runs the 13.1 in 90 degree weather. Truett was so excited that he took his Popsicle.

Here are about 1/100th of the picture I took of them handing out Popsicles. I handed some out to at the end and gave Josh my camera. I don't give my camera over to people easily but I didn't want to miss out on the fun.

Here is our friend Colleen Rue. She's a running beast. And one by one all of the people I knew came running by.

Then Dan Woodside came by and wanted to know where his Popsicle was. He's a little older that Joel and they used to work together. His son and Daniel were good friends in high school.

Then our favorite, Lyle Anderson, came running by. Lyle has MS and doing triathlons keeps his body going.

TIFFANY!!! I just love her. She's such a cutie. She was killing this Ironman. I gave her an IV the night before also and it looks like it helped. Tiff has a blood disease that causes her blood to clot for no apparent reason which makes her have strokes. So it's very important for her to be at her best at all times. She also trains others to be at their best. She trains other triathletes. And she rocks at it!

Then Spencer came by and I didn't have the camera Josh did. So I yelled at him to make sure he took a bunch of pictures for me.

I love this shot of everyone running down diagonal. At this point there weren't any people running up it. There is a time limit and it was up for people to start running. They had to already be on the course.

Here is Shawn. This will tell you how fast Spence is...Shawn had already passed by Kalo's house before we got there and it was about a half an hour after we got there before we saw Spence. So he was flying!

Here's Adam Caldwell. He is so funny. He said, "Oh sure, make sure you get a picture of me WALKING, eating a Popsicle." So we did. Adam was one of the last people to get a Popsicle. We had bought 800 of them! We saved one Orange one for Joel and put it in Kalo's freezer but that was it. We were out. So we got the hose out. Every year Josh hoses down the runners but this year he was out of town, so Megin go it out. We couldn't keep David and Truett out of it. Megin told them that it was only for the runners so they'd run by so they could get wet.

Next thing we here is, "I see him!" from Josh. He was looking though the zoom on my camera. Joel was still a half mile away but we all got ready. Sophie go the Popsicle, Truett had been saving some water balloons to throw at him and Megin had the hose all ready.

As soon as he passed by we ran to the van and drove like a bat out of hell to the finish line to watch him cross. We got there just in time. Josh and Sophie stayed at the end and Ben, David and I ran to the round-about where he was just coming into. We cheered and snapped a couple shots then ran to the end.

This is Seth, Megin's little brother with Shawn.

This is Kyle Peterson, Russ's son. He finished too. A big family of athletes.

Later that night we went to the volunteer party. We had great food and made our own entertainment.

Miles lost in a hula hoop contest. David lost in a jump rope contest and so did LuLu. She was HILARIOUS! Oh man I about wet myself. She had no idea what so ever how to jump a rope. She just held on to it, wiggled it around and jumped up and down. It was great.

Ben was up against Mary in the hula hoop contest and she won. Everyone got a prize though and Ben got to keep his hula hoop. David got a gift certificate to Chick-fil-a.