Spudman 2008

L to R: Me (babysitter and cheerleader), Torrie (team, swim), Hidee (full race), Carole (babysitter and cheerleader), Tammy (team, bike), and Daniel (team, run).

This weekend was the Spudman Triathlon in Burley, ID. I thought it would be an emotional race because I would be watching my husband out there (his first one) while I couldnt be a part of it. It did end up being an emotional race, but not at all for that reason.

Daniel and I left the older 3 children with his mom and headed up on Friday afternoon. Baby Jayden came along for the ride (Dan says we were breaking him in early). We met up with our group around 4 to get signed in and eat the carb up dinner. Then we went back to the hotel room for some sleep.

The next morning, we decided it was most practical for Daniel to ride over to the race with his teammates, while my friend Carole and I (Carole was helping with Torrie's baby while Torrie did the swim portion of the race) got the babies ready and took a separate car over a little later on. So they left around 6-ish to head over, and Carole and I headed out about 7:15, hoping to get there just in time to see Hidee and Torrie come out of the water.

As we arrived, Carole and I made our way to T2 and called Daniel to find out if Torrie was out of the water yet. He told us he was at T1 but their wave had been pulled out of the water and held back because a swimmer from an earier wave had gone missing. What a horrible thing. He told us that three women had seen this man put his hands in the air and call for help, and then go under, but not resurface. Carole and I decided to head down to T1 then, and wait it out with Daniel. We began walking when he called back to give me some more info, so we stopped close to the bank of the river. As we did so, we saw the rescue boat pull up right in front of us, and send in divers, tethered to the boat. It was obvious as we watched that they had located the missing swimmer and were pulling him out. By this point, he had been missing about a half hour. Carole and I just happened to be in the wrong spot, and were standing right there as they lifted the body out of the water and began to try to revive him, to no avail. What a heartwrenching thing to witness. At this point, the call needed to be made about what to do with the last wave of athletes. Most athletes wanted to continue afterwards, but the call was made to skip the swim, and do just a duathlon, with the bike and run portions.

We made our way down to T1 and met up with Daniel and Tammy (who was doing the bike portion). It was very chaotic as they tried to line up all the bikers who normally would have been coming out of the water one by one. The truth is, there was no accurate way now to time them with this kind of a start.

Tammy did the bike and did a great job. Daniel waited in T2 for her to finish, while Carole, myself, and Torrie took care of the babies. Tammy finished in about 1:19, and Dan took off into the run. He had it rough. Since the wave had been held back so long and he was the last wave as it was, it was now over an hour later than he should have been running and excruciatingly HOT! I waited at the finish, and watched as my friend Hidee came in from an earlier wave (she did the full race), and then waited for Dan to finish. Like a champ, tired and heat exhausted, he came down that hill and turned on the turbo speed, to finish the run. The run portion took him about 59 minutes.

Torrie, Daniel and Tammy's team came in right in the middle of the pack, but it's hard to really know what that means, since the start was so confusing and there was no swim...they started the time for everyone at once ,but it took a good 5 minutes for them all to actually get started.

Afterwards, we stopped at Red Lobster and had a great meal before heading back to the land of a million children ;)

I really enjoyed being able to share something I enjoy so much with Daniel and I have a feeling this won't be his last race. I can't wait to race it next year. At the same time, I send my thoughts and prayers to the family of Don Morehouse of Provo, the swimmer who was lost (incidentally, he happened to be the CEO of Slaymaker, who is over Winger's and TGI Fridays-my little brother works at TGI Fridays and knew him). Here is a link to the article with more details: http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2008/07/27/news/local_state/141165.txt

Here are some pictures from the race:

Daniel waiting anxiously in T2 for Tammy's arrival

Tieing those shoes-probably a good idea. And that water bottle? Yeah, that's a good idea too...

Tammy, just after finishing the bike portion.

Daniel, sprinting to the finish.

50 yards to go...

And he makes it!!!

Yeah, he drank all of those ;)

Not wanting to walk another step-ever.

Showering off- a welcome relief.

The finish line at Spudman. I'll see you next year!