Posted by Jo

Thank you everyone for taking the time to help me cheer Marvin on to a glorious finish that we will not soon forget!! Your support and encouragement throughout our Ironman journey continues to make a lasting impression on us, and we certainly feel the love from everyone! Each of your willingness to do whatever it takes to be part of this monumental event is priceless and much appreciated.

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

And kudos to our highly spirited IronGlee Club Leader Tony Abisia and the rest of the amazing Ironfamily Team Abisia for contributing your superior cheering skills, getting us to the photo op locations safely, and taking the awesome pics/video of this historical and monumental event that will certainly be remembered now and cherished in the years to come :-)

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

Way to go Marv on crossing the finish line on your first Ironman Triathlon – you did it!

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

What an amazing finish and thank you for exposing us to an extraordinary event that showed us that anything is possible when you have confidence in your ability and be tough enough to follow through.

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

While the distances are truly mind-boggling what’s even more mind boggling is witnessing your extraordinary transformation, remarkable courage and determination to stay committed and focus on balancing multiple life role responsibilities as a loving and protective husband, son, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend.

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

And though you were coaching yourself for the Ironman which occurred at the same time during our Nike Marathon training program, you made priority to coach athletes from different levels to help us achieve our own Ironman finish and brilliantly designed and launched our team’s inaugural clothing apparel with the Team Abisia Endurance Racing shirt. And the cool part is I know that you are only getting started :-)

You are and will continue to be an inspiration to all of us. Your light shines radiantly as an example of living life to the fullest, you are amazing beyond amazing.

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

You create your own music and encourage us all to have the unquestionable willingness to elevate our life of greater joy and meaning. You are my rock, inspire me to be better, and challenge me for the better. I love you and looking forward to many more crazy adventures together! :-)

From Ironman Florida 09 Highlights

Meanwhile...please stay tuned for more as we are still sorting through all the media gathered from the trip! For now, here are some more pictures!
MORE PICTURES FROM FLORIDA HERE - ENJOY!

Less Than 10 Days Before We Just Do It

Hello there our loyal readers! Guess what today is? See that spinning yellow star at the top of this page? It tells you that we are within 10 days of Team Abisia's inaugural participation in the Nike Marathon!

We continued our training and preparation for this event in earnest this weekend. We also added two new team members to our roster of Team Abisia train. While this past weekend was quite chilly, we still managed to knock down quite a few miles in training.

See the exciting details about it, including who these two new members are, by CLICKING HERE, and reading our post: "Team Abisia Still Hiring". :)

Labor Day Weekend Fun

This post comes about a week late, as we've been quite busy with some seriously long training sessions lately. We hope everyone enjoyed the past Labor Day weekend, either lounging around or out and about with friends or family.

As for us, we spent most of Saturday performing our training regimens for our upcoming races. On Sunday, we blocked out the afternoon to spend time with Dad and Mom as a belated gift for Dad's birthday which was back in August. We started with lunch in Tiburon at a restaurant on the water.

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

It was a tasty and delightful family-style meal of mediterranean omelette, fish 'n chips, calamari, and clam chowder.

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

The weather was perfect, and to top it all off, our server threw in a peanut butter oreo cheesecake for good measure...after all, this was a celebration of Dad's birthday.

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

As he usually says....Mmmmm, DELICIOUS !!!

Afterwards, we took a stroll around the Tiburon waterfront to burn off some of the recently ingested calories, but more enjoyably, to take in the sights and sounds of a beautiful day in Marin county.

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

After the light stroll, we mosey'd on up the bayside to Sausalito, to view a hidden treasure. Built in the 1960's by the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Bay Model is a huge scaled model of all the waterways and structures that comprise the San Francisco Bay Area, including the delta and the Sacramento river! It was a pretty unique experience, and while computers now perform all the simulations of tides and other water scenarios, for a long time this model was used to study the ebbs and flows of bay water.

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

Finally, we settled into downtown Sausalito to sit down for some good ol' Lappert's ice cream! A great ending to an awesome outing for Dad's birthday on Sunday!

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

From Dad's Birthday Outing 2009

Labor Day Monday, Jo and Jackie each were competing in the UC Davis Golden Harriers 10K race. This race functioned as a checkpoint race as they round up the last 6 weeks of training leading up to the Nike Marathon. And of course, Team Marv.n.Jo's #1 fans were present to help cheer on! :) CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES FROM THE RACE.


We ended Monday with a nice little reunion dinner with our friends Matt and Liz. It was a nice little reunion, as we have not seen Liz for a year or so, outside of online interaction. Thanks for a great dinner, Matt and Liz!

An Awesome Fun-Filled Weekend-Before-Labor-Day Weekend

This past weekend was filled with activities, both family-oriented, and fitness-related. Sunday afternoon was spent celebrating Alex's 13th annual 21st birthday. We started the celebration with lunch at a wonderful little pizza place in Lafayette called Pizza Antica.



They specialize in thin crust, Roman style using dough that proofs for nearly three days before pinning it into pies that are both chewy and crispy. Toppings are seasonal and procured from local artisans: savory cured meats, fresh cheeses, wild mushrooms, tender, organic greens. Needless to say, we had an excellent refueling lunch after our very intense training.

CLICK ABOVE TO PLAY THE SLIDESHOW

In other news, training for Nike and Ironman Florida continues to heat up, and some amazing things have been happening!!!
For the latest news on our fitness endeavors...head on over here: http://steel-resolve.blogspot.com

13 weeks and counting...

I'm 13 weeks out, and next week starts the "peak" phase where my distances in each discipline will increase dramatically. Thankfully this week was a much needed "rest" week. I limited most of my riding to about 20 miles or less, and the longest swim was 2500 yards. Easing back into running, as I still have a little bit of tenderness from a calf strain from a 2 weeks ago. So I haven't pushed much more than about 6 miles three times since Sunday.

I'm enjoying the calm before the storm, which is just about to arrive...