Salt Lake City Triathlon TEAM

So there I was at Lake Mead, attempting to do one of the hardest 70.3 distance races out there….at least that’s what the advertisements said.  My good buddy/teammate, Peggy, was a big influence in me doing this race.  I didn’t know whether to thank her or curse her.  Prior to the race I wanted to curse her.  Looking at the swim course made me want to throw-up in my mouth a little.  It looked a lot further than 1.2 miles.  It was a gorgeous day with flat water, gorgeous scenery and blue sky.

Then, we were off!  After the first 500 meters, I began having a leaky goggle situation, which is never a good thing when you still have such a long ways to go.  I had to stop about five times to fix the goggles, but still felt pretty good.  I was drafting off a guy with a Blue Seventy wetsuit.  He earned the nickname of “Blue” and he seemed to swim fairly straight, bless him.  I followed “Blue” pretty much the whole distance and he did not lead me too far astray.

I got out of the water and headed to the “strippers”.  I was super worried about them yanking my tri shorts off, along with my wetsuit, but made it through with my “goods” still covered up.  As I was getting to my bike, I noticed Peggy just leaving the transition area.  At first, I was tempted to attempt to try to catch her, but knew that I would just blow myself up on the bike and have nothing left for the run.  Peggy is a strong rider, so I just let her go and tried to keep my heart rate under control for the bike, which was approximately 4,000 feet of climbing.  That meant some cool descents, too, and I was pretty happy about that.  There were quite a few challenged athletes in this race, which was way awesome!  One guy with prosthetic legs, and a good sense of humor, passed me and told me his legs were falling asleep.  I wasn’t quite sure if he was messing with me, but figured/hoped he was.  The bike course was tough, but I made it to T2 in once piece and feeling pretty good for the run.

I actually felt great on the run, which was quite hilly.  I was able to pass some of the people who had passed me on the bike.  The run course had several “out and back” areas and I was able to see Peggy quite a few times during the run.  It was nice to see her familiar face and it helped to keep me going.  I was able to cross the finish line feeling pretty good, which was a big confidence booster.  The last 70.3 I did was Boise and I felt awful when I finished that race, so I was way excited to finish feeling good.

I’m sure the Silverman and I will have another meeting sometime in my future.  It was a great race!  The course was hard, but beautiful. It was very well supported and the volunteers were great!  Peggy’s husband, Chip, was our support crew and did an awesome job taking photos and cheering us on.