Spudman!

Rob and I both participated in the "Spudman" in Burley, Idaho. It was my first triathalon--Rob's third, but longest. I thought I'd like it, but I wasn't sure. I was especially worried about the biking part because I don't bike! It happened on July 25, 2009. Exciting, scary, and a ton of fun! We started off with a mile swim in the Snake River, then we biked 24 miles and then ran 6 miles. Cath was our official photographer, and my brother Dave came too (as a spectator!).

This is a fun picture of the swim. With 2000 participants, it was broken into 7 waves of about 300 people per wave. Rob was assigned wave 4, starting at 7:30 am, and I was in wave 6 which started at 7:50 am. Swimming in open water sure is harder than swimming in a pool! The good news is that this triathalon is touted as "Home of the World's Fastest Swim Course." The Snake River was actually running even faster than usual--4 1/2 miles an hour. A mile in a pool takes me 40 minutes. I did this one in 22 minutes and Rob did it in 25 minutes.

Here we are finishing the bike course. The pic on the left is Rob (he's in navy blue), then I'm the middle biker (tiny image) in the center photo, with my back in the right photo. This was almost at the finish line. My biking time was 1 hour and 35 minutes, Rob's time was 1 hour and 32 minutes.

Here's Rob running across the finish line after the running leg (last leg). The final hundred or so feet was downhill on grass, so it was easy to sprint to the end. Part of the run was on the road and part was on canal banks. It was a 6 mile run--the strong point for both Rob and me. Rob's running time was 1:06 and mine was 59 minutes.

And here I am at the finish. It was pretty exciting to finish! Rob and I both felt like real winners. I'm pretty sure we'll do the Spudman again (if we can get in--it's a tough one to get in because it's super popular and they do a drawing).

Here we are with the Snake River in the background. My total time was 3:08 and Rob's was 3:19. A good time was had by all!!!

My Birthday

Happy 53rd!

To paraphrase a 1963 pop song sung by Lesley Gore, "It's my party and I'll climb if I want to . . ." For my birthday I climbed Mt. Olympus! Wonderful time had by all (all being me!). I left home at about 8:00 am, was climbing by 8:30, summited at about 11:30, spent a half hour enjoying the view, and was back at my car just after 2:30 pm. I really had a wonderful climb.


On the left is Mt. Olympus from the valley, and on the right is a pic of the top of Mt. Olympus, as well as a view of the valley. It's absolutely a gorgeous view! It's a pretty hard hike, but well worth it!
Rob took this pic for me at the end of the day--back at our house (and also the first pic on the blog). Since no one was with me, I couldn't get a pic of me on the mountain. Rob had me take off my glasses because "I look more prettier that way." :)


That evening the fam met in Lehi at Tepanyaki. So so food, fabulous company. The above 2 pics show the fam--Wendy, Kimball, me, Rach, Karen, McKay and Steph. Rob was the official photographer. The pics below show 1) the restaurant and 2) our cook. It's kind-of like Beni Hana where the cook puts on a show as he cooks the dinner. Good show. I didn't think much of the food. Mostly, though, it's just not my "kind" of food. Kimball loves the place. So does Karen's Sam.

And finally we finished off the evening at Kimball's with Rob's version of Aunt Timme's famous cheesecake. It was a great day.