Amber Ferreira is a sub-10 Hour Ironman! Ironman Arizona.

Amber went down this past weekend to Tempe, Arizona to compete in Ironman Arizona. I was unable to go due to using up too much of my days off with my Munich and China trips earlier this year, so I had to resign myself to watching her on the internet. As mentioned before, this race was stacked! Many of these women were coming off some excellent seasons and were expected to being vying for early season points for 2012. While Amber had been working hard, the October snow storm, and a stomach bug that went around had limited to some extent her ability to train and therefore we weren't sure how well she'd hold up. Amber did have some redemption she needed though at this race course, as it was the same one(only longer) that she had her un-illustrious Best of the US race a couple of years ago.

I'll let Amber do a formal race report but I just wanted to give a perspective of my day while she raced.

7am(5am in Arizona)-Amber texts me good morning. She's getting ready to head to the race start.

9am- Came back from a walk with my parents drove thirty minutes back to my house.

9:55am- Amber finishes her swim in a time of 55:22 good enough for 12th woman.

10am- Danny goes for a ten mile run.

11:10am- Danny has breakfast and showers. He puts back on his sweats he slept in.

11:40am-Amber crosses 37.4 miles averaging 21.53 mph on the bike.

11:41am-Danny takes an hour nap.

1:26pm- Amber crosses 74.6 miles averaging 20.98 mph.

1:30pm- Danny goes for a walk and grabs lunch.

3:15pm- Amber gets off the bike averaging 20.55 mph for the last 37.4 and 21.01mph for the 112 total.

3:16pm- Danny is still in sweats.

3:32pm- Amber runs the first 2.5 miles of the marathon in 17:17(6:54pace)!

4:35pm- Amber just covered the last 9 miles in 6:59 pace. She's passing people!

4:40pm- Danny thinks it's time he starts sending some good mojo Am's way so changes into his running clothes and does a late evening track workout.

5:10pm- Danny returns.

5:44pm- Although slowing slightly, Amber has moved from 22nd place at the beginning of the run to 15th!

5:45pm- Danny has dinner.

6:42pm- Amber finishes the marathon in a time of 3:21:54 with an overall race time of 9:42:20. 15th Pro female and 95th racer(male and female) OVERALL!

6:45pm- Danny celebrates with dessert.

6:55pm- Amber borrows our friend's, Jimmie Cochrane, phone at the finish and calls me to say we're going to Disney World! Okay so she didn't say that but we did talk and I told her how proud I was of her.

10pm- Danny goes to bed

10:25pm- Amber wakes up Danny to wish him a good night sleep. She has just finished munching on her 5th slice of pizza and (2) burgers. Time for Amber to replenish calories and for Danny to sleep.

2am(midnight Arizona time, 17hours after the start)- The last finishers hear the announcers shouting: "You are an Ironman!"

Congratulations to all finisher's in yesterday's race.

This was Am's first race breaking 10 hours and she did it big time. I cannot wait to see how well she does next season after dedicating her winter on getting faster on the bike. To quote her coach, Kurt Perham: "Amber, I envision a long winter of biking. Sorry Snowshoe Fans!" While that may be a loss for snowshoe fans, next year will certainly make up for it for the triathlon fans.

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving! Find a Turkey trot and spend some quality time with loved ones.