Race Report
It was the usual night before the race routine. Slept horrible. Super nervous. Kids woke me up a few different times. Probably on got a couple hours of
sleep. Finally it’s 4:30 am. I had prepped and loaded everything the
night before so once I woke up all I had to do was eat some toast and get my water bottles out of the
freezer and head out. Took a
couple of pepto bismol tablets to slow things down for the rest of the
day. Headed out to Utah Lake State
park. Found a place to park and
got all my stuff out and headed over to the transition area to get set up. I wasn’t sure where to go but I’ve
found whenever you arrive at a race, all you have to do is walk towards the
bright light and that’s usually the right way to go. Found a good spot on the racks in the middle of the transition area. Got all my gear set up. This is triathlon #3 for me so I’m
getting used to setting my stuff up.
Took my time. Headed
over and got my body markings and timing chip. Used the restroom.
Listened to a little music and finally it was time. After a short pre race meeting we got
our wetsuits on and headed towards the water. It was a super calm and peaceful morning. The water was smooth. ( a good thing for swimming in open
water) as we are waiting to start
we are all looking at the buoys making sure we know which way to go. The race director tells us it will be a
deep water start.
The waves will
start every 3 minutes. First the
elites, then the 29 and under then it’s my turn. We swim over to the start area. Soon enough the horn sounds and we are off. It’s a little crowded at first but we
thin out quickly. I’m so thankful
that we got to use wetsuits.
Last week they told us the water was 82 and not to plan on a
wetsuit. Which freaked me out to
say the least. Luckily the water
temp cooled down so we could all wear wetsuits. About .2
miles into the swim just after we round the first buoy. I go to tread water to rest a bit and I
feel the ground. Very good
news. I look over and notice a few
other people touching the ground to.
So I continue to walk a bit and swim a bit. We round the second buoy. I’m still able to touch the ground. I try to swim as much as possible but
it was very nice to know I could touch if I needed to. I still have a long ways to go
with my swimming endurance. Around the next buoy and we have
completed the first swim lap. The
sun is peaking up now making it hard to see exactly where I’m going. The first lap took a while but I knew I
could do it again. I successfully
make the 2nd lap with intermittent breaks of walking and back
stroke. Finally I head towards the
water exit. Veered off the wrong
direction a few times. The water
was deep during this last stretch but I just kept moving. Took a second to go pee in the water
before getting out. Made it to the
boat ramp. It was super slippery
and mossy so baby steps up the boat ramp and headed over to the transition area
with a huge smile on my face, happy the swim is over. The swim took me 48 minutes which wasn’t too bad for me. T1 took less than 2 minutes. I took some time to put on some
sunscreen. Brought a bucket this
time to sit on while taking off my wetsuit and changing shoes. I thought that worked good. After a quick mount I was off on the 56
mile bike ride. There were lots of
turns at the beginning. In the
first 5 miles I saw like 6 people with flats. I kept praying I wouldn’t get one. I started off with a pretty good pace, keeping it to around
a 3 minute mile. The entire bike
course was real flat. So it was
easy to keep a constant pace.
Every once and a while I would hear what sounded like a car coming near
me, and it turns out it is a real fast bike cruising by me with what seemed
like very little effort. About 15 miles or so into the ride
they had an aid station with drinks.
I passed by it. I had
enough on my bike to get me thru
the entire ride. The ride
took us way out south towards Spanish fork. Made it to mile 28 and we turned around and headed
back. The out and back is
nice cause you can see who is ahead of you and who is behind you. A few people in my age group passed
me. Which surprised me cause I
really thought I was the last person out on the swim in my age group. The 2nd half of the bike
course was hard. Mostly because my
rear end was getting real sore.
Had to keep standing up and giving it a break. I tried munching on a clif bar. It was real hard to get it down. I took a caffeine gu when I had an hour left on the
bike. The last 5 miles of the bike were kinda
fun. There was one guy in my age
group that we kept passing each other.
He finally ended up beating me
into the transition area But I knew I’d pass him on the run. I ate one more caffeine gu just before
finishing. . I did see April and the kids at the end of the bike which was
great to see a familiar face. The bike ended up taking me 2 hours and 55
minutes. Which I was pretty happy
with.
Quickly transitioned into a runner. Applied some sunscreen. 1 minute 28
seconds later I was off on the run.
Legs were pretty heavy to start out but had a pretty good pace. The first mile took so long to
finish. Finally I completed the
first mile in 6:35. The next mile
was 6:45. I was flying by all the
people that passed me on the bike.
That’s always the funnest part of tri’s for me is passing people on the
run.
I saw Jimmy Joe and he ran with
me for a half a mile or so and gave some good motivation. Each mile seemed to get longer and
longer and I started losing steam.
I had my hand water bottle with me full of Gatorade. But water was the
only thing that sounded good. A
few more miles later I saw my brother and his wife again and they gave me some
more motivation. After starting
the second loop I was getting real tired. By mile 7 I had slowed to an 8 min
mile pace. Around mile 9 my
brother ran with me and stayed with me till the end. It helped so much having him there and keeping me
moving. My body was shutting
down. I know I needed another
caffeine gu or I was going to bonk.
I was on the verge of throwing up so all I could take in was water. All the aid stations were great. They had ice cold water, ice and
Gatorade. I ended up emptying out
my handheld and filling it with ice water. Which worked out great. I kept spraying my face and dumping it on me. The temperature the whole day had been
great. But it was really starting
to heat up on the run.
My stomach
was getting worse and worse. Finally during mile 12 I had to stop and pause and
throw up gatorage for a while. As
people ran by me they’d shout out things like “you’ll feel better in a
minute” which I did. We started moving again. I passed most of the people that passed
my while throwing up. I was so
tired though. All I wanted to do was fall over and cry. But I had to keep moving. The finish
line was so close but felt so far away.
Finally we round the bend, entering the park. As I head towards the finish line I can see my family. A sight for sore eyes. There really is nothing better than
seeing loved ones and the end of a long exhausting race.
I called out for Zade to hold my hand
and he runs me across the finish line.
What an amazing experience.
I am so happy to have completed this race. Only last year completing a triathlon was only a dream. Now I’m living that dream. You really can do anything you set your
mind to. You just have to get out
there and do it. Even though at
the end of the race I couldn’t have taken another step. I still have this desire to do a full
Iron man. I know I’m not ready for it right now. But I will do it. Oh yes I will.
