The Spudman Triathlon

On July 25th Rand and I competed in the Spudman Triathlon in Burley, ID.

This was my second time doing this triathlon and Rand's first.

Last time I did this triathlon (3 years ago), I trained about 5 days a week for over 2 months prior to the race.

This year, since I am in far worse shape than I was 3 years ago,

I decided to train just a handful of times!

NOT WISE!

Basically I had only a few goals going into this race:

1. Don't drown (always my #1 goal)

2. Finish the race

3. Don't walk during the run

I'm happy to say I accomplished all three goals. One day I'll set a time goal too! haha!

It was definitely fun to have Rand competing with me this year.

His parents all came up with us to watch and cheer us on.

Here we are finding a good spot to leave our running gear for the bike-to-run transition

the night before the race.

Setting up our bikes the night before as well.

Always important to remember where you put your stuff or your transition times are horrible!

A few minutes before Rand's heat began.

Once they are in the water, it's hard to know who it who since most everyone is in wetsuits and wearing the same color cap.

Rand's mom found me after the swim as I was heading out on the bike portion.

Rand at the bike-to-run transition.

Here Rand is running into the finish line.

It's definitely nice to finish on a downhill!

Here I am coming in to the finish (in the middle).

I had been running with the girl in front of me towards the end, but my knees were killing me (lack of proper training) so she went ahead for the last quarter mile.

But the competitive side of me always kicks in and we crossed the finish line at the same time.

Here we are SO happy for the race to be over!

Rand finished 16th in his division (out of 94) with a time of 2:21:30

I can't wait to see what he pulls off when he legitimately trains for a race!

I finished with a time of 2:55:55

I can't tell you my actual placement because there were girls in my category who

started with an earlier heat, therefore shaving 20 minutes off their time.

I think I officially finished in the top 1/3.

My time three years ago was 2:54:48 (I finished 22nd out of 63).

So my time this year was very comparable to 3 years ago.

I wonder how I did that considering I am in MUCH worse shape and trained less.

Let me assure you...the pain I felt after the race this year was the difference!

And of course, what better to throw into your body after a big race than something like this:

Seriously, for some reason after a big race this is all your body craves!

And we feel it only necessary to reward our bodies for finishing such a feat. :o)

After the race we drove back to Utah.

My sister-in-law Lacey was visiting her family and we decided to stop by and see her.

It was my first time seeing my new nephew Efraim,

and it had been about 7 months since seeing his big brother Hyrum.

They were so excited to see us as you can see in the following pictures!

Oh well!

Loved holding Efraim while he was asleep, and it was definitely good to see Lacey!

Besides, we made a trip out to see my family in August and we got

plenty of fun time with these kiddos!

More on that later!

The saddest thing about this triathlon (which is my favorite one) is that I won't be able to do it next year due to my work schedule. This year the race was the day before the start of my biggest camp (how I pulled off doing it was insane).

But next year it is the Saturday after that same camp. Seeing as how the camp ends around midnight, I don't think I'll make it up in time for that race (nor would I have the energy!)