It Came ... Then Went!

So I'm sure everyone is dying to know how the BIG Triathlon went. Well it went well. I survived it and beat my goal by 39 seconds! Whew!!

While running the race, the thought went through my mind..."I'll NEVER do this again". But the next day, I was planning ways to take 30+ minutes off my time next year. It must not have been too bad.

The swim was a little scary for me at the beginning. But about half way through, I was able to relax and swim a lot better. It wasn't so bad. I would never do it without a wetsuit. There was a tragedy during my swim group. A 60 year old man from Provo went under and died. They're not sure what happened, but everyone speculates that it was a heartattack. Very sad news.

The bike wasn't bad. For some reason I can't get going (unless going downhill) faster than about 15 mph on my bike. For next year, I need to work on strength training more and focus on my leg muscles. I wanted to average 15 mph and my average turned out to be 15 mph on the nose. So I was ok with that.

The run was more run/walk/run/walk...But hey...I got to the finish line with 39 seconds to spare! And I was VERY happy about that.

But I finished!!! And here's proof I crossed the finish line!

The friends I did it with did AWESOME!! They beat my time by 45-50 minutes. I'm by no means complaining about my time. I started from scratch on everything and only training for 7-8 months for this, so I am very happy with my time.

Do we look tough and like professional Triathletes?

It was an amazing experience. The thing I loved the most is realizing that I CAN do it. As I was training for this I kept thinking...I can't do this. What am I thinking? But here is the proof that I can do it.

Thanks to those who came up to Idaho to support me! It was so fun having them there!

Idaho...Ready or Not...Here We Come!!

Well, the Spudman is finally upon us. Less than two weeks. This is the last week to get in some "good" training before we hit our taporing week.

So...a week ago saturday we tried a Practice Triathlon. We rode our bikes to the gym. Swam about 900 meeters, rode our bikes up to Vivian Park and back home and then tried (I repeat...TRIED) to run 4 miles. My die hard companion made it. I turned around when she passed me coming back and then she made it home and came and picked me up in the car and drove me home.

Now, this was not the best feeling I've had about my training. I only have two weeks to go and I couldn't even run 1 mile. So I tried again this last Saturday. I went swimming in the morning, then I came home and rode my bike 6.5 miles and ran 3 miles. A little better, I guess.

Just a word of advise to those coming to cheer me on....

Don't plan on me being done before 12:00 noon!

We're maybe going to do another "Brick" workout tomorrow morning. That is a bike ride, right into a run. It's called a "Brick" because your legs feel like bricks when you run right after a long bike ride. Well, I'm as prepared as I'm going to get, so now all I need is to eat right, get good amounts of sleep and practice eating gu and electrolyte drinks!

IDAHO...HERE WE COME!

Keeping in Touch

I put an account on Facebook a while ago. I don't know why I did, because I waste a lot of time looking through it and at others, but it has been fun.
I have found so many friends on there and have received invites to add friends from highschool. People I haven't seen in 18 years. (I know...I'm old...Don't say anything).
It's been so fun to see what people are up too.
Everyone has gone in different directions. Some have kids and are happily married. Others divorced and starting over. Some never married (thats good to hear that there are others) And one guy (maybe two..We'll see if the 2nd accepts my invite to be a friend)...it turns out is(are) interested in MEN! hahaha Not really a surprise though. Kinda figured that 18 years ago!
Some that have invited me I haven't even recognized. We change so much over the years.
How fun it has been to revisit those good old memories of the past. And to catch up on old times and make new memories now.

Salem Spring Triathlon!

Yesterday as I mentioned was our Salem Spring Triathlon. We were all so excited because we got to swim with 40 pound carp in Salem Pond. We all had heard all kinds of fun stories, so we couldn't wait to jump in.

To prepare for our "Open Water Swim" we went to Utah Lake and practiced. I was soo glad that we did that, so we could realize that these Wetsuits are like life jackets. I felt like I was out waterskiing. Remember now, I am a sinker...so to swim 800 meters was a little scary for me. But after the swim in Utah Lake I knew I'd at least be able to float if I got too tired to swim it.

Well the day came...I got up all ready to do it! I looked out the window and what did I see???
(Not popcorn popping on the Apricot Trees). I saw RAIN!!! Ugh! We were in for a treat!
We packed up our bikes and drove to Salem. The further South we go the harder it was raining. I couldn't believe it. Were we really turning into diehards?

We got there, unloaded out bikes and went and registered. Got our body markings

and our timing chips and then waited. In the RAIN!! I was soaked! We had to walk on the grass for some stuff and water was coming in my shoes and my socks were wet and my feet were cold and my finger tips were cold. I was hoping that after an hour it would start clearing up. Well it didn't. It seemed to be getting worse.

They cancelled the Bike portion of the race and were debating on whether to do the swim/run portions or just turn it into a 10K run (the run is usually a 5k). Then they asked for volunteers to jump into the pond to test the water. Right, like people who WANTED to jump in and test the water would say it was too cold. So of course they said it was fine and they decided to continue with the swim/run portions. That's when probably at least 50% of the people turned in their chips and went home. It was nuts. We would have to jump in the water and swim (IN THE RAIN) and then get out and run a 5K in the rain.

Well...We went home. :)

Unfortunately it turned into a beautiful day! Too bad they couldn't have postponed it a couple of hours! It was a great experience to be there among the diehards, to get poured on and frozed.

Relaxation!!

I shouldn't complain that this week was a crazy one. Since most of the stuff I was doing was fun. I got a call last Sunday to speak in church today. I thought...Of all weeks. But it usually works out that way, no matter when they call you, you seem to be busy with other things.

Luckily I had all week to work on it. I had a meeting in SL on Wednesday night, and my B-day was Thursday, and another b-day dinner Friday night, and I had to pack and get everything ready Friday night for my Triathlon Saturday, then Saturday I had the Triathlon in the morning and a concert that night, so I had little time in between to work on it. Luckily I had the opportunity to chat with several people about the topic. So I finally got the talk done on Saturday just before I had to run out and buy B-day presents for my niece and Sister who also had birthdays this week. I was sooo releaved that I had finished it. And with a couple of hours to spare!

Then I read it. WHAT??? Only 5 minutes?? hahahaha Common! Really? 5 minutes? I must have skipped over some things. So I read it again...5 minutes. This talk was supposed to be 12 minutes and I had 2 hours to get ready, go shopping for b-day gifts, and get up to SL. I didn't have time to right 5 more minutes of talk! That much took me all week as it was! haha

So, I went shopping. And then I went to SL and went to the concert. The concert was at 6:30, so I figured I'd get home in time to go through my talk and fluff it up a little. Well the concert was FOREVER!! Needless to say, I didn't get home until 1:30am. I wanted to cry. But, when I got home, Dan had e-mailed me some ideas that we had talked about throughout the night. Some fluff so to speak. haha How funny is that. Well the ideas helped me a ton. I was able to be in bed by 3:00am instead of staying up all night. Finally my talk was done!

I got up at 8:00am so I could go through it and finalize some things before hand so I wouldn't have to read the whole thing. Get more comfortable with everything. Well what happened? I was so nervous I could do nothing, but read it. Oh well.
It is 2:30 and I am done with it! It is time for me to go to bed and relax for a couple of hours!!