Since January, Kraig and I have been training for the Sand Hollow St. George Triathlon. Well we finally did it last Saturday. I'm relieved it's over but at the same time it's a little bit of a letdown, kind of like how it feels after throwing a big party or something.
The funnest thing about doing these races is doing it with people you know. Kraig has been trying to recruit family members to join us for a few years, and this time around his two brothers, Klaron and Kent, were competitors also.
The guys started their race at 9:40am with the 1/2 mile swim in the lake. I watched them as they took their places on the edge of the crowd (that way they have to swim farther but avoid fighting the crowd). Thirteen minutes later Kraig was out of the lake and running to transition. He was probably about the tenth one out of the water. He literally can swim twice as fast as me. His bros followed him out of the water 6 minutes later, but by then I had started my swim.
The water was a freezing 60 degrees but we all had wetsuits on so it wasn't too cold at first, except for our feet, hands, and heads. Then I opened up the neck of my suit to let a little water in (for insulation) and talk about a shock to the system! Made me take a few quick breaths, and then my goggles came undone as I was tightening them. Luckily I got them fixed 10 seconds before we took off, and I waited a little longer to let the crowd get ahead of me. Swimming is my weakest area and I was happy to be at the back. So I try swimming front stroke, like I've been practicing for months, but it was SO COLD when I put my face in that it was hard to get my breathing timed right, so I ended up doing backstroke most of the way, and turning around every so often to orient myself. I guess it worked pretty well because even though I felt like I was in that lake forever, I only took 25 minutes, which is what I usually take to do that distance in a pool.
Climbing out of the water I felt a little dizzy and disoriented, but found myself trotting to the transition area to get ready for the bike. At first I couldn't get my skintight wetsuit off, but finally did, put my shirt, helmet, glasses, socks, and shoes on and was off on the 13 mile bike ride. The bike ride was pretty fun! I saw Kraig coming back from the ride on my way out, which was cool since I didn't know if I'd see him much. The bike course was pretty challenging, with a mile long 6% grade hill, which is pretty dang steep. My goal was to just not walk my bike. I kicked it into the lowest gear I had, and just kept peddling, and I made it to the top! After that there was quite a bit of distance still left, then I turned around and headed down the hill I came up, which was pretty exhilarating but scary because if something goes wrong at that kind of speed it's BAD news. The bike ended up taking me 53 minutes in all. Oh, and I dropped my waterb0ttle along the way and had to go back for it.
Then in the transition to the run, I ran out of the wrong gate in the transition zone! So I had to go back and go out the other end, wasting more time. Oh well!
The run wasn't too bad, just 3 miles but it was 85 degrees by that time of the day and I was ready to be out of the sun. The run ended up taking me 30 minutes which is slow for me, but my legs felt like rubber and wouldn't go much faster.
At the end, the Cramer crowd was cheering me on, and I glanced over at them and ended up almost running the wrong way again! They distracted me!
I finished it and felt overheated and exhausted, but so happy I'd finished it and I didn't stop.
Kraig ended up beating his two brothers because of his ultra quick swim time, but they all did a great job! I'm glad I did this race but don't think I'll be doing one again for a while. I'm still recovering.....it took a lot out of me this time!
Below are some pictures of us after the race.
Mikayla got to hang out with Grandma Cramer during our time in St. George, which was fun for both. Thanks to Pat and Amy for watching all 4 kids while we raced!
