Round 2 of The Great Spudman Triathlon. You'd think we would have learned the first time and quit while we're ahead, but nope we wanted to do it again. This is by far one of the funnest triathlons. The course is perfect and of course we get to do it with each other and some of our friends. This year we brought the whole family and we are glad we did. They had a great time. We got to Burley, ID the night before the race and stayed in the same RV spot we had last year. It was nice we had our own trailer this time. After unhooking the trailer and setting it up, we headed to the race area so we could get our race packet and set up our transition areas. We also got tattooed with our bib numbers on our legs and arms.
We were ready to do this! After a carb-loaded spaghetti dinner, we went to bed early to hopefully get some sleep. Well I didn't get much sleep at all because of race nerves and a migraine headache. I was not looking forward to getting up in the morning...
Well it was an early morning for us to get there. The kids were still a sleep, and we let them stay that way. We had a later start getting to Burley than last year so we ended up having to park on the side of the road. When we got to the race area, we looked at the time and we had 30 minutes or so before I started. We still had to get our running stuff ready and get into our wet suits. We were there though and made it on time. I was tired but thankfully the migraine had gone away.
We found Colt Pini, Justin Slack and Tim Rohmann who were part of our group. Russell was a little nervous this year because he thought he had slacked on the swimming part of training. I felt pretty good about the swim because I had practiced a lot this year. We would soon see if that training helped...
I was in the first wave of the race so I started about 10 minutes before Russell and our friends. I got in the water and started swimming. I did really well for a ways but then started to panic a little because it felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. I kept pushing on though. I should have swam out farther into the main stream of the river and let it push me but I didn't realize I was so close to the edge. About 200 yards from the finish line I got totally disoriented and started zig-zagging back and forth so that really messed me up. I finally got out of the water and tripped on the same stupid rock I tripped on last year... Ugh...
The swim to bike transition went pretty smooth and soon I was off on my bike. I was excited about this part of the race because last year I really cruised on the bike portion. This year though I just could not get going. I had a head wind the whole time and I was exhausted from no sleep. I basically just trudged along at around 16 mph. I was passed by so many people which was really frustrating but I could not get my bike to go. Russell caught up to me at about the 20 mile mark and he was just zooming. I felt so slow.
Finally I made it to the second transition point. I racked my bike and changed my shoes and stared running. Less than half a mile in I realized I still had my helmet on! I felt so stupid but there was nothing I could do. I thought about taking it off and clipping it to my running belt but it kept bouncing and pulling my belt down. I also thought about stashing it somewhere but I didn't know when I could get back to find it. Finally I just decided to embrace the ridiculousness and wear the helmet while running.
I was never going to see these people again so who cared what they thought of me. And if I tripped, my head would be protected right? After wasting a few minutes messing with my helmet, I just started running to make up time from the other time events. Running is my best sport. I felt so good during the run. I felt like I made up a bunch of time. I kept hoping I could catch back up with Russell on the run but he ended up finishing about 30 seconds before me. I was so excited to see the finish line and sprint downhill through the trees to the finish.
Russell had a much better experience this year and did so well! Here is his experience: I was worried about the swim because I had not trained very much in swimming. I sucked it up though and off I went. The swim was not bad I thought to myself as I got out of the water. I ended up taking off a couple minutes from last year. The swim to bike transition was faster also. I felt like this year's ride was a lot easier but Tiffany felt opposite. I ended up catching up with her on the ride. I just kept riding thinking to myself, "I might be able to cross the finish line first this time." The whole time during the race the air was way smoky and overcast. It made it nice to stay cool. I got the the run portion and I had a goal this race to run the whole 10K. Off I went and just kept singing to myself, "put one foot in front of the other, and just keeping running."
Another fun motivator was getting across the finish line before Tiffany caught up with me. I made it the whole way running and felt good. I thought I had time before Tiffany came across, but I should have know better. As soon as I got out of the finish line area, I heard Tiffany Farnsworth across the PA system. She was only a few seconds behind me.
We had some funny and learning moments on this race. I laughed when Tiff came across the finish line with her helmet on and wondered what she was doing. As for me, I did not put band aids on my chest and my nipples were bleeding by the time I was finished. Not a good feeling. I looked like hairy chested big foot running into the finish line.
Spudman #2 was in the bag and we felt great once we were done. Last year was bad for my hydration, I was thirsty all day after the race. This year we found the right drinks and it helped a ton to drink after and put the sodium back in my body.
Once we were all done, we found our friends and of course compared our times and gave each other a hard time. I ended beating my time from last year and also beat Justin Slack, and Tiffany. It was cool. Colt Pini and Tim Rohmann killed all of us though so there is that...
In the end though we both improved our times from last year. Russell was able to shave 10 minutes off of his overall time which is awesome. Even with all of my problems, I was able to cut off 3 minutes from my previous overall time and get under 3 hours which was my original goal. I cut 2 minutes off of my swim time (which would have been more if I hadn't zig-zagged) so my training did help. My transition times also improved my a lot. And my run time also improved even with the helmet fiasco. Unfortunately my bike time was worse... But I will take the 3 minute overall improvement.
I don't know if we will do the Spudman again next year or try something new. It is fun to do a race together though even if Russell always beats me even without training.
After the race, we headed back to the trailer to get the kids. The Pini's came with us to hang out for a bit too. Emily and Colby had a blast hanging out with Hahna and Tony. We just chilled at the trailer for a while and chatted. Then the kids wanted to go do something so we loaded up the kayaks and went to find a place to launch them in the Snake River. By the time we got to the place, the weather turned bad fast and it started to rain and thunder. The water was so choppy that the kids were having a hard time getting back to the shore. We decided to give up on kayaking and headed back to the trailer. The Pini's decided to head home.
We chilled for a bit at the trailer and then the kids found the small pool at the RV park and wanted to go swimming. We had a great time! The pool was a little sketchy and pretty small but they kids didn't care. It was nice to relax on the lounge chair and watch them play.
We headed home the next day. This was a fun trip to Idaho.
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