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!!!