Spudman Triathlon 2008

Yea, I did it...my first triathlon.  It was so amazing for me, such a positive experience.  So here's the overview:  It was an olympic tri so a mile swim, 26 miles on the bike, and the run was a 10K (6.2 miles I think).  Approximately two months before the race I pulled a ligament or tendon in my ankle when I was doing some crazy dance moves with my sisters at a party.  I kept doing stuff on it so it didn't heal.  So I put most of my training efforts into swimming which is good cause I had no idea how to swim right.  A lady in our ward let me borrow her road bike and I went biking with her a couple of times before the race.  I tried running again about two weeks before the race and felt so discouraged because of my ankle, wondering if I'd be able to do the race at all.  A doctor looked at it, told me that nothing was seriously wrong with it and it should heal fine in a few weeks.  It must have been partially mental cause from that point on it started rapidly healing.  The race was finally here. I was excited but of course nervous cause I didn't feel all the way ready.  Everyone told me to know how to change a flat cause it's a common thing I guess.  I learned the day before but prayed my guts out that I wouldn't get one.  I knew the race would be over for me if I did. 

 I actually did decent considering it was my first race and I could have trained a lot better.  I finished 8th in my division but should have done elite division cause I would have finished 5th!  I swam the mile in 18 min. (although it was in the snake river), I averaged 21 mph on the bike and averaged an 8 min. mile on the run.  My transitions amazingly enough were smooth and quick (I guess it's important).  Ben was such a great cheerleader and support for me. I don't know what I would do without him. He originally made fun of the spandex shorts I had to wear but then stopped when he realized that EVERYBODY wore them.  Somehow if Ben ever did a triathlon, I still don't think he would wear spandex shorts. 

It wasn't all happy though.  An older man that was in the group after me drown and they couldn't revive him.  Ben saw them administering cpr to him and had to turn away cause it was so sad to see.  I feel for his family.