Determination

Finishing line in downtown Kona

Yesterday in Kona was the annual Ironman World Championships, which is quite the event in our small little town! I was amazed to watch athletes, both professional and those that race for fun (?!), push their bodies to extreems in incredibly hot weather in literally a FULL day of exercise. 


An Ironman race consists of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bike and a marathon (42.195 kilometers (26.219 mi)) run, raced in that order and without a break. Most Ironman events have a strict time limit of 17 hours to complete the race, where the Ironman race starts at 7am, the mandatory swim cut off for is 2 hours 20 minutes, the bike cut off time is 5:30pm, and all finishers must complete their marathon by midnight. Wowzers! Talk about determination!


Determination is such an incredible thing. It can cause someone who is completely exhausted to continue to run for just one more mile, as I witnessed last night, or not give up and continue to press on. And who knew that at only 14 weeks old, a person can already have developed a sense of determination! 

Reaching-man....next Ironman? :)

In the last two days, Levi has been learning to reach for toys, or really anything that is overhead, in front of his face, to the side of him - it's amazing! But what has truly caught my attention is the level of concentration he's exhibiting to get this skill down! He gets the cutest, most determined expression, that I can only image that he's thinking something like...."if I just hold my arms still, open my fingers and reach a little, I KNOW I can pull that round circle!"...which in turn, when he does plays music, bringing a huge, beaming, proud, "I did that!" smile to my boy's face. 


This is where determination to complete a task or learn a skill can start; it's the same force that drives many of those Ironman tri-athletes. And then who knows....Levi, you could just be the next Ironman!