Spudman Triathlon

 

So...Sunni and I did a thing.  I convinced Sunni to do the Spudman Triathlon with me.  I had done one other Olympic distance triathlon before but it was 14 years ago and Sunni had never done any triathlon before.  Our Dad did the very first Spudman Triathlon when we lived in Burley 37 years ago.  Our Mom also did the bike portion for a team that same year.  I wrote us a training program that we started way back in April.  It was very time consuming, especially with the 3 spin classes I taught each week on top of my training. I ended up having to double up workouts at least twice a week.  My body was definitely spent by the end especially after having the flu, strep throat and going on two vacations during training.  On Friday July 29th I met Sunni and Akirah in Burley.  We got all checked in and got our transition areas set up and then headed to our friends the Taylor's home to spend the night.

Saturday morning we were up early and back to the race sight.  We made sure our bike tires had air and our transition areas were all good to go.  As the sun was rising we got into our wetsuits and got ready to go.  Sunni started in the wave behind me.  Luckily the Snake River was feeling fairly warm so our wetsuits were mainly to help with flotation.  I was really excited for the swim part, which normally I dread, because it was current aided.  There were about 300 or so people in my wave.  Once we headed out into the water we had to tread water to make sure we didn't float too far down river.  The swim portion is 1.5 KM (just shy of a mile).  With the help of the current I was able to swim it in 20 minutes.  It usually takes my about 35/40 minutes to swim a mile in the pool.  We then transitioned onto the bikes.  Had to get the wetsuit off while trying to run to my bike and then had to get socks and bike shoes on and then hop on the bike to start the 40 KM (about 25 miles) ride.  The ride was through back roads and country side that was really beautiful.  About halfway through my ride is when some people from the wave behind me started to catch me.  They wrote our ages on one of ours calves during check in so when people passed you would know if they were catching you from waves behind. I felt like I was riding as hard as possible, about 18 miles an hour with my heart rate in the upper 180's, but I just wasn't keeping up.  I still beat my goal time, but everyone else just made it look a lot easier.  I came into the second transition area and quickly switched out my bike shoes for my running shoes.  The course started straight up hill but then luckily leveled off quickly.  They didn't let us have music, but luckily I found another racer who was running the same pace as me so we took off together.  We carried a pretty quick pace and were gradually picking people off, I am happy to say that no one passed us.  I was able to keep up with her for about 4 miles, but my heart rate had been in the 190's and then jumped up to 195, so I had to back off a little bit.  My last 2 miles were a little slower, but I kept it steady.  As always I finished with a kick.  I finished the whole race in 2:36:44.  My goal time was 3 hours, so I am very happy with the results.  I wish I could have pushed it a little harder on the bike, but it is what it is.  It really was a fun race.  They had everything so well organized and you really can't beat the current aided swim.  Sunni did extremely well.  She actually beat my time, she killed me on the bike portion, but I'd like to attribute some of that to the amazing coach she had that wrote her training plan for her.

After the race we cooled off a little and ate some fruit and then grabbed our gear and headed back to the Taylor's house to shower off and get packed up.  I then hopped in Sunni's van with her and Akirah and we were off to Rexburg for Mason's mission farewell.  He did a great job and it was great to spend time with family.  This was the first time I have ever been away from the kids without Craig, it was a little weird, but also nice.  Sunday afternoon I rode with my Mom and Tucker back to Burley to get my car and then finished the drive back to Boise.  It was a great weekend.  I am glad the race is over, especially the training.  It was very time consuming, but I am really glad that I did it.  Now on to the next adventure.