IronMan Saturday

This last Saturday was a great day! We started off going to the temple early in the morning. Of course, the kids were sleeping late that day and we had to rouse them out of bed, rush them to get dressed and take breakfast with them to eat at their cousins' house. We had an enjoyable session, came back and worked out plans with Codi & Scott to go watch our brother Jason compete in the half Ironman that was hosted in Boise. We had just about an hour and a half to get the house spiffed up, food packed, bikes loaded up, all our gear ready, and get the kids taken over to my parent's house. The plan was originally for them to take the kids from 12:30 to 3:30, then they would take the kids back to our house switch off with a babysitter that we had arranged with and come down to meet us at the race. Hold that thought for a second, I'll catch back up to it.

So Marc, Scott, Codi & I drove over to Barber Park and rode our bikes up to Lucky Peak to catch the start of the Ironman. It was so fun to watch all the competitors lined up in their different waves and start their swim. From an observers standpoint, 1.2 miles is a heck of a long swim! We got to watch the professionals complete the swim in an amazing speed, and then get out and on their fancy bikes. We watched Jason take off and waited for him to get out of the water and transition onto his bike. This was the first HOT day we've had in Boise yet, and it was pretty windy, so the conditions were not the most ideal especially for all the Boise participators who have trained in the cooler, wetter temperatures, it was almost a cruel joke to have the temperatures rise so much so quickly, though it was glorious for spectating!

The races lined up in their waves waiting for their turn to get in the water

Jason's Fan Club (Jen, Codi, Scott, Marc & Natatlie)

Jason's wave (by sex & age group) starting the swim
Jason Finishing the swimGo Ironman, Go!

We biked back down to Barber Park and on the way back, we got a phone call from my parents that it was 4:00 and the babysitter had not shown up yet. We scrambled to try and get the phone number to reach the babysitter, and eventually found it. I called and got an upset mother on the phone who told me her daughter had been at my house at 3:00 and nobody was there and when they tried to reach me they weren't able to (everyone in the ward has the wrong number for us, its glorious). I tried to politely explain that I had told her daughter to be there at 3:30 so that was the reason nobody was there and I gave her our phone number, tried to smooth over the situation and ended the phone call. As soon as I got off, everyone was wondering why I didn't ask her to come back, so I called the mother again, asked her if her daughter would be willing to come back and I would pay her as if she had been at our house at 3:00, the daughter refused to come back! I was floored. Guess she'll never be babysitting for us again! My goodness. When we called my parents back, they informed us that they were taking the kids back to their house and getting all set to have a party. I was strictly told to stay where I was, enjoy the time out, and not to worry about them. I felt terrible, but what else were we supposed to do?

We decided to head downtown and we were going to run on the greenbelt for a bit while we waited for Jason to get done with the 56 mile bike ride. Somehow, we picked the exact spot on the greenbelt that was part of the 13.2 mile course for the run part for the Ironman. The top professionals were running on the course at the time and we felt like idiots being on the same course as the race (though it was still open to the public which we found strange). Scott & I were behind Marc & Codi, so we just stopped at the water station and watched the runners come through for a while. Marc & Codi finally came back, and we jogged/walked over to the finish of the race. Craig Alexander, the world champion and returning champion of the last Boise 70.3 finished first, winning $25,000! I had thrown on some shorts and a button up shirt over my biking gear, so I was nominated to go get us on the waiting list at the restaurant. As I was in there, I missed Jason coming off his bike and starting the run. He was behind where he thought he would be time wise. While we were eating, Marc went out and saw him come by on the first loop. We finished up and went back to the greenbelt to try and see him again, but all of us needed to get back to our kids and alleviate the poor babysitters who had had them for the last 8 hours. We missed him by a matter of minutes so didn't get to see him finish. But we had such a great time! It was a nice semi-vacation away from our children, and we are SO grateful to my parents who got stuck with our kids and had to miss the race. I

think I'll MAYBE do a half (ironman) one day. MAYBE. But my kids need to be in school before I'll ever have the time necessary for the training that you need to put into something like that. In the meantime, I'm trying to gear up for an Olympic triathlon in July. The most amazing part is that I feel more comfortable that I could finish the swim than the bike or run! I need to spend a lot more time on my bike. So far, the longest ride I've been on is 14 miles and I need to be able to ride 25 miles and then RUN 6.2 miles. I think I must be crazy! At this point, I'm fairly confident and ready for a Sprint Triathlon which is only 12.5 mile bike and 3.2 mile run, but the way the races fell this Summer, the Olympic that I want to do is in July and the Sprint is in August. We'll see what happens.