Spudman 2008 Recap

As the sun rose in Burley, Idaho on Saturday, Jamie and I were preparing for the Spudman Triathlon. (It was a hectic morning and that story will be a post of its own that I'll put out here in the next day or two.) Some of you may remember that last year I did the swim and run for this race. This year, my intention had been to do the whole thing with Jamie. My April ear surgery rendered me unable to do the swim portion, but my neighbor Kirt (whose parents let us stay at their home) helped me out. Although Kirt's swim was a little slower than my swim from last year, the time was gained in the transition since I didn't have to dry off before getting on my bike. Therefore, I feel as though my time was an accurate reflection of my racing abilities.

Jamie, who has really been doing an awesome job of keeping up with her workouts completed the entire race in 2 hours and 38 minutes. She killed her goal of 2:45! My time was 2 hours and 36 minutes and was also ahead of my goal time which was to finish. Fortunately for me, since my heat started about a half hour before hers, I got to cool down and still watch her at the finish line. It was pretty awesome watching her as she finished really strong and with an incredible time. (In the picture of her finishing, I am on the far left in blue cheering my wife to the finish, while clinging to the fence post for support.) To see a breakdown of our times click here and here.There were over 2,000 people who signed up for the race, and over 1,750 that actually competed. This included Jamie's sister Tracy (who rocked the race with a time of 2:55) and several others we knew.

The great thing about the Spudman is that the mile swim is in the Snake River so you get a little help from the current. Jamie flew down the river beating my time from last year by almost 3 minutes. The 25 mile bike course is pretty flat, and that is a good thing. Jamie toasted me on the bike, and I learned the hard way as I watched packs of racers fly by me that I should have done more bike work (I never rode for more than about 8 miles before the race...oops!). The bike course took us around the farmland of Burley and if my legs hadn't been yelling at me, I think I would have enjoyed the scene. Jamie, meanwhile, didn't even notice that there was a strong headwind and managed a pace of 20 mph throughout her ride. No wonder her legs have been looking so good lately! The run was a 10K loop that followed some of the canals around the farm. I felt pretty good on the run, considering my legs were so achy from the biking. In fact, I never got passed on the run and did a fair amount of passing. Of course, considering the hundreds that passed me on the bike it should be no surprise there was no one left behind me to pass me up.

One funny thing, as I was running by a guy, trying to be encouraging I said, "Great stride man." His response floored me and I almost burst out laughing. He said, "Don't patronize me, I recognize those hairy legs and must have passed you an hour ago on the bike!" My legs are pretty one-of-a-kind. Though my run time wasn't great for just a 10-k, considering I'd just done 25 miles of biking I was proud to have kept my average mile well under 8 minutes. The run is also the only part of the race where I was better than Jamie who is seriously in amazing shape.

Of course, our boys were also very proud of us. According to my mom they were as good as gold while we were gone. Special thanks to my parents for watching the boys so that Jamie and I could do this together. Tyler was a little disappointed when I told him that I didn't win the race; but I told him that his mom and I are definately winners just for doing so good. Not sure he totally bought it, but I tried.
One very unfortunate story that did put a bit of a damper on the event was that a Provo man passed away during the swim. I don't know a lot of the details, most of what I do know came from this article here.