San Rafael Classic Triathlon

The 4 of us after our race. I love my Tri fam!

It's the middle of another triathlon season. We've done this for 6 seasons now and every season, we get to do something we haven't done before. This year, for the first time, we were able to do a triathlon where all 4 of us competed!

San Rafael Classic Triathlon is held in Huntington, UT- a tiny little town in central Utah. It just so happens to be the same tiny little town that I grew up in. I did this race once before, back in 2009. That year, I just did the sprint distance because I had an Olympic distance coming up soon after. This year, however, we chose to do the Olympic since we didn't have another tri for 3 weeks.

This race was special to me. My children have never had a chance to see where I grew up. I rarely visit. When we left in 1994, we had no family there. Most of my friends have since moved, and since we were living in Idaho until a year ago, it just didn't seem worth the trip. However, now that we are closer, I wanted a chance to show them where I grew up. It was the icing on the cake that this race also happened to have a junior triathlon that my kids could compete in.

Daniel and I registered for the Olympic distance, along with our good friend Melissa (who grew up in Ferron, a neighboring town. She and I attended the same high school). Two of our other friends, Shari and Sarah, registered for the sprint distance. My two older kids registered for the junior triathlon.

I made plans to meet up with one of my childhood best friends, Melanie (Holdaway) Bernard. While she and I were discussing plans, she reminded me that our other best friend, April, might be coming down, since her husband, Jeff, was interested in competing in the race as well. I got in touch with Jeff and April and was beyond thrilled that Jeff was indeed racing. This meant that April, Melanie and I would be able to get together for the first time since high school. We made plans to meet up after the race on Saturday. April also invited us to stay with them, at her parent's house. I think I spent more time in that house during my teenage years, than I did in my own home. Her parents were like my second parents and I was excited to be able to see them again.

We arrived in Huntington on Friday evening. After checking in for the race and getting our race packets, we spent a little time at the lake. Our kids enjoyed skipping rocks on the beautiful lake, and I was caught up in the childhood memories.

The family skipping rocks on Huntington Lake. I grew up swimming in this lake.

When Jayden saw these Great Danes, he said, "Mom, are those camels?" Love that kid!

Daniel, Jayden and Savannah looking over the lake the night before the race.

It was obvious that our swim would be a beautiful one.

 Later on, we headed over to the Nielson's to get settled for the night. On the way, we drove by my childhood home. I showed it to my kids and told them a few things I thought they might enjoy hearing about. We also drove by my old elementary school, the local grocery store and a few other places that hold fond memories for me. When we arrived at the Nielson's, I was so happy to see Boyd and Maryellen again. They were always so good to me. We spent a little while catching up with April and Jeff and then headed to bed to get some good rest for our race in the morning.

At 5:30am, we got out of bed and headed to the race. The little boys stayed at the house with April and her kids, while her husband Jeff, Daniel and I headed to the race. April brought Mason and Savannah over with her a little later so they could watch some of our race without getting up quite so early.

The race was fantastic. We thoroughly enjoyed the course and felt it was well run and enjoyable. The weather was perfect and the water was amazing. There really was nothing to complain about. Daniel's wave started first. My wave was 5 minutes behind his, and our friends who did the sprint started 10 minutes behind me. It was fun to have the waves so close together because it meant we got to see everyone at some point during the race.

When all was said and done, we couldn't have been happier. Daniel took first in the Clydesdale division. I took first in the Female 30-34 division and 5th overall. Jeff took first in the male 35-39 division. Our Saratoga Springs friends all placed in the top 3 of their divisions as well.

Daniel and I after the race.

Melissa Brown, Sarah Smith, me, and Shari Wycherly- our good friends from Saratoga Springs.

As soon as we were done, we had to rush to get the bikes and transitions set up for Mason and Savannah. They were both nervous and excited. Mason was finally tall enough to ride my road bike instead of his heavy bike. Savannah is still much too small, but she sure looked cute on her pink, shiny bike! Both kids did fantastic. They didn't have the kids divided out by age, which bummed Savannah out (since she knew she couldn't really compete with 17 year old boys), but Dan and I couldn't have been more proud of either of them. Mason ended up coming in 6th overall, which was exciting! There were so many kids this year. They really enjoyed themselves and we enjoyed sharing such a fun race with them.

Savannah coming out of the water- Can you believe that grin?

Mason coming out of the water- he swam strong!

Coming in to T2 after the bike.

Savannah on the very tail end of the run- sprinting to the finish.

After the awards ceremony, we headed back to the Nielson's for some much needed food, showers and rest. Our kids were having the time of their lives playing with the Mower's (April and Jeff's kids). After a little while, I got a message from Melanie that she was on her way over. It's hard to describe how great it felt to have the three of us together again. I moved after our sophomore year of high school and hated leaving them behind. While the move was a positive thing for me, and Idaho quickly became my home, I never replaced April and Melanie. Being together again felt like coming home. I love them both so much.

While there is more of that story to tell, I want to post that in a separate blog, complete with pics from then and now....soooo, that's all the girlfriend reunion talk for now!

Saturday evening, we headed back home. Everyone had a perfect weekend. We enjoyed our time together as a family, as well as catching up with old friends. I am so thankful for a healthy body, a healthy family, and the ability to do these things that we love so much. I am thankful that I can share these things with friends, old and new. It truly was a beautiful weekend.

Race Report- Prison Break Half Marathon- Oct 24th, 2009

About 6 weeks ago I decided that even though my season had been so tri-filled that I hadn't had time to train for a half marathon like I had planned, I would still squeeze one in late season. I didnt have much training time and the time I did have, I didn't use wisely ;)

I ran 8 miles once, about 5 weeks out. I ran 10 miles once (and started having trouble with hip bursitis or something on the 10th mile), about 4 weeks out. Then I didnt run for a week (because of the hip issue). The next week, I ran 4 miles. The week of the race, I ran 2 (because once again, my hip was killing me!!! Didnt want to push it 3 days before the race). So I was totally not properly trained, but wanted to do it anyway.

Initially, a whole group of us planned to go, but one by one, each person going had something come up that made it impossible for them to go. Except me... Dan and I and the kids drove up to Boise the night before and stayed with my sister Miriam (who works at the prison). I didnt get any sleep the night before since Jayden was on the floor in our room (I forgot the pack n play) and kept waking up crying.

That morning, I got up and got ready. Miriam took me over to the race while Daniel got the kids up and ready to come over. It was cold outside, which I was thankful for, knowing that a few miles in, I wouldn't be worried about that cold!

The race has a really fun set up. You line up out front of the prison. They have guards and cops and lots of people with guns ;) They set off the siren and have planes do a flyover.... Miriam and I chatted while I stretched and choked down some gel.

The siren went off and off I went, just praying my heart out that both my knee and my hip would cooperate and let me do this race. My goal was to finish in under 2 hours. I had never seen the course before, had never run 13.1 miles in my life, but my guess was that I would complete it in about 1:58.

As I started, emotional mom that I am, I got all choked up. Does that give you an idea of what an emotional release running is for me? It truly is how I get out my stress, my anxiety, my anger (not that I have any of that.... ). So I swallowed those silly tears and started to run with the pack.

The race had a 5K, a 10K and a half marathon. We all started together so the beginning was incredibly crowded. It was hard to find any sort of pace. You mostly just worked your way around people to try to get with those running your speed. But that only lasted about a mile and then things got less congested. The 5K athletes turned off about 2 miles in which freed up even more space, and 3 miles in, the 10K athletes turned around. By that point there was plenty of room to run.

I felt really good the while time. My hip started acting up about 2 miles in, but it wasn't bad enough to slow me down. My knee also felt good initially. The weather was ideal. I was enjoying every second of it. Throughout the whole race, it looked as though I was on target to meet my goal of under 2 hours. The course is relatively flat with just small hills until mile 12. Right at mile 12, you hit a huge hill. The hill made my hip really act up. It's a sharp, shooting pain (almost a shock) that takes your leg out from under you. I just started praying that it would hold out, that I could push through it, for that last mile. The hill itself wasn't as hard as it had looked (thank you RUSH Tri run course for your training), but by the time I reached the top, the pain in my hip was almost debilitating. I was within 2 minutes of my goal so I wasn't about to walk for a minute or slow down. I just prayed some more, closed my eyes and pushed through it. At the finish, I was even able to give it one last burst so I could "sprint" through the finish line.

I felt amazing! It was something I had wanted to do and I met my goal by finishing in 1:58 (just like I had estimated). I grabbed my sister and pulled her over to the asphalt where I laid down and made her help me stretch out the hip before I couldn't walk. I was limping. The worst part was that it didn't feel that hard! I felt great the whole time, except for that one pain. And yet when I finished, I could barely move that leg. After stretching for a while, it felt much better. I could tell my knee would also swell up but it takes a while (sure enough, by the end of the night, I couldnt bend my knee at all, but by a day later, it felt good again).

What a great experience! It was a fun, well organized race. It was fun to have my family, and my sister and her family, there to support me. I was able to finish in my goal time...

Once the final results were in, I found out I came in 15th out of 103 in my division and 35th out of 224 females overall. I was very happy with this result considering my lack of training, lack of sleep, and this being my first half. I will definitely be doing more, no question about it. I hope that next time I will have some of my crew running with me though- I missed them :)

The Prison

Me running that last 100 yards or so...owee owee owee....

Crossing the finish line.

Me with my little sister, Miriam, after the race. I swear she's running it with me next year.

Playing Catch up!!!!

Have I seriously not blogged since August??? What is wrong with me? I guess I will just sum it all up then...

August- Rush Tri- I dont have pics because everyone I know was racing :) But here is how it went. Me, Daniel, Tammy, Torrie, Hidee, Heidi, Debbie, Tracy (tammy's husband), and Lyndi all raced. Lyndi (my SIL) raced as a team and did the swim portion (her first) while the rest of us did the whole thing. Great race. I took 3rd in my division. Had an awesome run on that difficult course. Hidee took 2nd in our division. Tammy took 1st in her division. Lyndi's team took 1st in their division also. It was a blast. Sorry I don't have any pictures.

August- Savannah's birthday- My baby girl turned 6!!! We had family over for a party for her and then had a friend party at Leo's place. She had so much fun! I can't believe my baby girl is getting so big! I'm trying my best to stop it. But in honor of her...

Savannah babe- You are my BFF. I love spending so much time with you. I love our girlie-ness. I love getting Mommy/daughter mani-pedis and shopping our little hearts out. I love doing our hair and accessorizing and watching you dance and flip around the house. You are amazing. You treat everyone else so kindly and are always taking care of someone. You are a light in the lives of everyone who knows you! I love you girl!!!!

September- Bear Lake Brawl- Awesome race! Once again we all raced and almost all of us placed in our divisions, which was amazing. Tammy took 2nd overall (Go CHICKA!). Hidee took 1st in our division, 5th overall. I took 2nd in our division, 6th overall. Daniel took 1st in Clydesdale. Lyndi took 3rd in Athena. Heidi took 1st in Athena. Probably our best standings as a group ever. Good times!

And..I've been crazy busy with my photography business. New blogs and pics up at http://annamariemillerphotography.blogspot.com/. Seriously check it out and leave me some love. No one reads it and comments and I'm feeling somewhat loser-ish ;) I am no longer teaching piano this year but as you can tell, I haven't slowed down. Mason is taking piano from my friend Erica and he is doing very well. I continue to teach Savannah. She is also doing amazing this year. Savannah is also busy with gymnastics and ballroom. She has has first ballroom competition next weekend.

That's the short of it. I'm gonna try to keep up better this month!!!

Spudman 2009

I am so excited to blog about this :) What an amazing time it was. On July 25th, me and the girls were able to race in SPUDMAN 2009, in Burley, ID. This race is such a popular one that last year, registration (in January no less) filled up in 17 minutes (over 2,000 athletes), so this year, they decided to make it a lottery. Athletes had until April 15th to sign up and then were informed a week or so after that if they had been selected or not. When I got the email, I started jumping up and down and hollaring. My daughter thought it was hilarious. This is the race I most wanted to do the last couple of years but wasn't able to (since I was doing more important, better things, like having beautiful babies!).

Daniel was also selected, as was my friend Debbie. Torrie had an auto entry since she wasnt able to swim last year because of the tragic drowning. However, Tammy and Hidee did not get in, so we were discouraged. We had wanted to race it as a group.

A few weeks after we got our results however, Tammy and Hidee got an email saying there were more spots available and they had been selected! We were so excited that all of us would be able to race!

Daniel decided to sit this one out since he hadn't been training, so us girls headed up on Friday morning. We took Hidee's trailer and parked right on the course with all the other trailers. This was the way to do it, I tell you! We will never drive clear from Twin because that's the only place we could find a hotel-again!

We had a great time on Friday. Ate, got checked in, set up transition one.....

Saturday arrived and we were ready to go! We were all in the same wave except Tammy, who was in the wave starting 10 minutes after us.
Debbie and I heading down to the water.....


And...off we went....

The swim is current aided so it's fast and fun! It went rather smoothly except that I thought my timing chip was coming off, so I stopped moving my legs, trying desperately to keep it on. However, in a wetsuit, I dont feel like it slowed me down all that much. I did the 1 mile swim in 19:43. When I got out of the water (I always expect to be last out of the water of our group since I am the slowest swimmer), I was surprised to see everyone else still in transition, meaning I wasn't as far behind them as usual :) I had a relatively smooth transition and off I went....


Coming out of T1 and heading into the bike....

About mile 4 of the bike, I caught Torrie (I could see her thanks to our matching shirts. I just looked for the pink circle on the back and knew it was my girls!). About mile 14 I caught Debbie. The bike was going well and I think we all felt good about how well we did. It was a 25 mile bike. I finished the bike in 1:15. I got into transition and Debbie and Torrie were right behind me. I handed off some chewies to Debbie, changed out of my clips and into my running shoes and took off....


Me going into the run.....

By the time we hit the run. IT. WAS. HOT. We don't usually train in the heat since we have to go early morning. I have also been dealing with the knee injury and had not been able to run really in 5 weeks or so. The times I had attemtped to run, it had been really painful and I hadnt made it very far. I had (and still have been) doing physical therapy 3 times a week for it. I was still hoping to do a really good time on the run. But with the heat, my exhaustion by the time I got to the run, and the knee, I wasn't moving as fast as I would have liked. That's the bad news. The good news is apparently everyone else was in the same boat, and as usual the run is where I really made some progress and started passing so many people. About 2 miles into the run, I spotted Hidee's back. I didnt actually think I would even see her. She is a much faster swimmer and a faster biker than I am, so I figured she would be so far ahead of me that I wouldn't even see her. She was the only one I hadn't caught up to yet. It's always so fun to race with your friends and it was awesome to be able to spot them-loved those shirts! I caught up with Hidee about mile 4. That's about the same time I wanted to die ;) It was so hot. And I was so slow-or so it felt! But I kept on movin' along for all 6.2 miles. My goal was to finish the race in under 2:40 and when I crossed the finish line, I came in at 2:34:30! I was thrilled with that time. My knee held up surprisingly well! I'm not sure what did the trick but it was better than it had been for a couple of months!

Me crossing the finish line.... I was in wave 5 so that time is off by 40 minutes.

It was just 2 minutes before Hidee came through and finished in about 2:36.

Here we are sweaty and dying of heat. Then we waited for everyone else to finish. Tammy actually came through just 10 minutes after I did (and she started 10 minutes later) meaning her time and my time were almost identical, even though we didnt race together. When all was said and done, she came in just 2 seconds after I did! Crazy that we were that close and didnt even know it since we didnt start together!

Debbie came in just after that, and Torrie just a few minutes later. We all beat our goal times by quite a bit.

The husbands (except Daniel) had come up late the night before to cheer everyone on and they were kind enough to take lots of pictures.

Here we are in the outdoor shower. I seriously cannot explain just how good this felt. We were totally overheated, sweaty, stinky and covered in all sorts of bodily fluids. I don't think anything has ever felt this good- ever.

And here we are showing off our....matching circles on our backs :)

The whole crew- Torrie, Debbie, Hidee, Me, and Tammy

I had an incredible time! I am so thankful for my girls! Training with them every day is a blast! Racing with them is even more fun! They are a light in my life and I feel so grateful to have this group of women as friends and training buddies! Don't know what I would do without them!

I honestly can't wait for Spudman next year. It's an amazing race! I hope we all get in once again so we can do this at least one more time!!!! Thanks Team We Tri! I love ya!

San Rafael Classic Triathlon- June 20th 2009

First of all, I would like to apologize for the idiocy that is Blogger. I cannot scroll my photos or reorder them (although I used to be able to, it no longer works for me). My photos also randomly disappear after I spent all the time uploading them. So these photos are not in order and make no sense. However, I have spent the better part of 2 days trying to get it to work the way is always has in the past, to no avail. I give up.

Me at the finish line (as you can see, this photo should go at the end...)

Getting on my bike (and this photo should go with the part of the blog that talks about that)

After the race...

Shopping at Gateway.

I have been a busy little racing bee as of late.... On June 20th, I had another triathlon. This one was in Huntington, UT, the town I grew up in. I lived there until I was 16 and that's when my family moved to Idaho. I have only been back a handful of times and this seemed like a good opportunity.

None of my training buddies could make it but lucky for me, a couple of awesome friends agreed to go with me and make a girl's weekend of it. Thanks Sandi and Lisa! You guys were a blast.

We headed out on Friday morning. We stopped to potty 100 times or so (thank you hydration), and made our way to SLC. The only thing I could think about the whole way was getting a pair of tri shorts that I desperately needed. I bought a pair, fell hopelessly in love with them, and lost them in one fell swoop. The truth is, I knew I couldn't live without them, so deep was my affection.... So we went to the Salt Lake Running Company and thankfully they had some left. I checked the hangers and found the 2nd pair to be mediums. I was thrilled and all was right with the world.

Then we went to eat at Tucanos. Tucano's is my faaavorite place. We had fun. See below.

Then we did a little shopping. Well, we didn't actually shop. We just walked through stores and let our jaws hit the floor that acid washed jeans in teal and purple, with bows and zippers are on the shelves once again. Wow for realizing I'm old.

After that, we headed to Huntington and got checked into the race and into our hotel. Right before bed, I tried on my new shorts and *GASP* they were the wrong size! I was soooo mad! I had checked the hanger several times but not the tag! After I stopped fuming I decided nothing could be done about it so just go to sleep and relax.

I had a much better race this time around. My swim went as it always does. Slowly but surely ;) I came in just above the middle of the pack. My T1 went much better than last time and I took 2.5 minutes (still not great but much better than Salem Spring!). The bike portion went well. It was a 7.5 mile climb and then turnaround and descend for a total of 15 miles. I came in 3rd on the bike portion at 55:01. T2 took me 53 seconds which was close to the top. The run is where I always know I can make up some time from being such a slow swimmer :) I gave it everything I had and came in 1st on the run with a time of 22:47. My overall time was 1:43:56.

Overall, I took 2nd place by 6 seconds (argh!) and first in my division. I would have loved to take that title but I know I gave it all I had and I can't be too upset with that. It was a very small race (hence my doing so well ;) but I enjoyed it and hope I can squeeze it in again next year.

On the way back, we ate at Cafe Rio, and stopped at the Salt Lake Running Company again, where the nice man happily exchanged my worn shorts for the right size. And once again, all was right with the world.

I had a wonderful time with the girls and a great race. Couldn't have been better! Except if blogger would let me type a cohesive blog with pictures and all, that is...

Salem Spring Triathlon- May 30th 2009

Finally, it is that time of year again- race season- YAY!

We had our first triathlon of the season this past weekend, and it was a blast! Daniel, myself, Tammy, Hidee and Torrie all traveled to Payson, UT for the Salem Spring Triathlon. This was my first time doing the race (although my friends have done it before) because prior to this year, I kept gettin' pregnant before it ;)

Last year, I vividly remember when all the girls headed out for this race. I was 8 months pregnant and I dreamed that I decided I was doing to do the race anyway. I was out there running in all my pregnant glory, thinking it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be! lol...

Anyway, so back to this year...we got down there the night before and decided to brave the water. We didn't have open water up here yet. The week before, we took our wetsuits to our gym and swam in the outdoor, unheated pool. Oh. My. HECK!!! It was sooo cold and miserable! That's what we were expecting when we got to Salem, but lucky for us, the water was beautiful! We swam justa bit the night before to get used to it.

The next morning, it was race time. The weather was perfect! It was warm, but not too hot and not windy. Storm clouds were threatening but they held off until after the race.

Now to the race- the swim portion was about like I thought it would be. I'm pretty slow. I got stuck behind someone frog leggin' it and couldn't get around her. I don't know what was more pathetic- that she was frog leggin' it the whole time or that me, freestylin', was behind her ;) But anyway, it went fine and I finished in about 18 minutes, which is pretty much what I expected to do it in.

On to T1. This is where my problems began. You don't care to hear what the heck I was doing spending 4 1/2 minutes in T1 when most people were out in 2. All that matters is that I was doing a whole bunch of things I should know better than by now! I wasted a bunch of time I needed since I came out of the water already behind. Phooey.

On to the bike. The bike was a really fun course (minus the potholes). Lots of ups and downs. My only problem was since I came out of the water slow, I was behind some slow people. It's a narrow course which makes passing difficult. But all that aside, I really did like the course and rode it in about 46 minutes, which is a respectable time, although nothing amazing.

Then came T2, where all the problems I left at T1 picked right back up and took off. I had it in my head that I wanted to run with my MP3 player, but my MP3 player was having issues and I spent an eternity messing with it, to no avail. So off I went without it only to have the best run I've ever had in a triathlon, without it! Note to self: Don't waste the time in transtion fussing with an MP3 player you don't need anyway.

I completed the run in just over 25 minutes, which was a really great time. I was beyond thrilled with that time, coming after jello legs from the bike.

All in all, I came in just above the middle of the pack, and I can see that had I been smarter about my transitions, I actually would have had a really good race. So lessons learned. But I had a blast and can't wait to do this race again next year.

Dan raced also. He chose to race Clydesdale which is with the men over 200 lbs, instead of with his age group. Dan had a really good swim, coming in just under 15 minutes. Dan biked the course in about 48 minutes and rain it in just over 28. His transtions were far better than mine. We finished in close to the same time. Dan swam faster, I biked and ran faster, but since he had better transitions, he came in a minute or so faster than I did and came in 15th in the Clydesdale division.

All my friends had a good race also and we had a realy enjoyable weekend. What race would be complete without a little shopping and some really horrifically unhealthy food? ;)

Next up I have a 10K race on the 20th of June and then an Olympic distance triathlon- SPUDMAN- July 25th!


Torrie Miller, Hidee Beddes, me and Tammy Mobley before the race.

Daniel and I before the race.

Me running, waving to Jason, Torrie's husband, who was kind enough to take pics for all of us.

Stinky, sweaty me and the beefcake after the race ;)

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!