The Burley Spudman - I did it

Today I did the Burley Spudman triathlon.  The last time I did the Spudman was 2008.  A man in the heat ahead of me had a heart attack and drowned, and so they cancelled the swim and changed it to a duathlon for my heat. I registered, but missed out in 2009 and didn't register in 2010.  I wanted to do it again and see if I could reach my goals so in January I registered and today was the big event.

My goals are the same as they were three years ago.
1.  Don't die
2   Finish the event in under three hours
3.  Finish the run in under 1 hour

However, last time I tried, I was three years younger.  Now I'm a senior citizen.  I'm also not quite as active as I was three years ago, I'm trying to hang in there, but the 'JOB' takes more of my time than I would like.  I haven't been able to train as much.  So far this year, and before today's event, I've biked 252 miles, ran 45, and swam .15.  That's a whole lot less preparation than what I would have liked.

I don't have my official times yet, but inspite of the lack of training, I think I achieved all three goals:
1.  I'm still alive
2.  I believe that I was just under three hours, however I did take a lot longer than usual in the transistions.  I hurt my left foot last week just as we were beginning the hikes at Zion National Park.  It is still pretty tender, so I wanted to make sure that I had my foot properly protected for both the bike and the run.
3.  I finished the run in 57:43 (unofficially).

Once I get my official times, I'll compare it with my goals and my other years times to see if I've improved.  I feel like I did about the same on the swim - Just keep my head afloat and I'll make it to the exit point.  However, I feel like I was a bit sluggish on the bike.  My bike-o-meter quit working and I haven't replaced it yet.  Without being able to monitor my times, the only thing I could really concentrate on is trying to pass or at least stay even with the folks just ahead of me.

The run was the event I wanted to focus on.  In the past years, after doing a swim and bike ride, it was really hard to do the run.  This is the first time in five tries that I've had my run under 60 minutes.  Needless to say, I'm happy with the results.

Me and my bike, After the finish

The race was a well organized event.  From my perspective it went very smoothly even though the number of participants and spectators was huge compared to my memory of past events.

7 Aug 2011 Update
I retrieved the official results yesterday.  There were 40 finisher's in 55-60 year group.  I came in at number 27.  Swim time:  23:03;  Bike time:  90:53;  Run time:  57.42;  Overall time  176:07 ( 2:56:07).  So I met all three of my goals.

Historically, my times are as follows:
Year                   Swim                    Bike                    Run                      Total
2005                  27:43                     77:55                 64:14                   2:49:53
2006                  23:59                     87:50                 87:22                   3:29:11  (calf muscle injury)
2007                  23:50                     72:39                 61:50                   2:47:09
2008                                                74:56                 59:13                   2:16:41  (duathlon)
2011                  23:03                     90:53                 57:42                   2:56:07

Note:  Some of the segment times in different years included the transitions and some did not.  So the numbers listed above are not truly accurate of the real segment times.

San Juan River Trip

Saturday June 4, 2011.  Today I came home from a backpacking trip with some girls in our ward.  We went up the Indian Trail last night, cooked out, pitched tents and this morning we hiked back out.  After getting home, I changed my clothes, packed a different set of bags, and then headed down to Bluff, Ut.  My co-worker Dave invited me to go on a float trip with his four children.  I'd take my kayak and he would be in his raft.  Dave left early this morning and I didn't get on the road until nearly 4 p.m.

I arrived in Bluff just after 10 p.m. and after calling Dave, drove over to his camp site on the San Juan River.  It was pitch black, so I had no idea on the terrain, but it is definitely warm.

Sunday, June 5, 2011.  Today was the first day of our float trip.  We packed up this morning, moved over to the boat ramp and then started rigging and loading the raft.  The nice thing about going with Dave is that I don't have to try carrying my gear in my little 10 foot kayak.  However, after loading up this morning, my amount of gear is definitely a lot less than his.  He does travel in style and comfort.

After shuttling the vehicles, we were ready to leave.  We got on the river about noon and the trip began.

San Juan River

Upper Green River Float Trip

Nine months in the making!  It's now in the rear view mirror!  And no, I'm not talking about a baby although we are expecting two more in our family.

I'm talking about the Young Men's canoe trip down the Upper Green River.  Last fall, the young men identified it as one of the activities that they would like to do.  In November, I got it on the calendar and the week of July 11 was set at the time.  The week of July 11 has come and gone and so has our canoe trip.  I believe that everyone had some good experiences and hopefully they've learned some things that will last them a life time.  I won't say that everyone had a good time all the time, because there were definitely some ups and downs.

However, here are the highlights.

The Cottonwood Creek River Crowd

We met and loaded up at my house at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of July 11.  After saying goodbyes and a few photos, we were off.  Our first stop was at Walmart in Evanston because one of the driver's had forgotten his water shoes.  While he was getting some shoes, we noticed that he had also picked up a nail in one of his tires, so a trip to the tire store was in order.  An hour later, we finished our breakfast at McDonalds and we were on the road again.

Breakfast at McD's

We arrived at Camp New Fork in time for lunch and a movie.  The movie was our training before hitting the river.  It was a review of things we've talked about over the last few weeks concerning hydraulics, strainers, rapids, etc.  Then it was off to the water front for some hands on with the canoes.