On Sept 20th we went down to St. George to compete in the Kokopelli Triathlon. My Dad, Jeremy, and I had been training long and hard for this race. Last year I did the Summer Games triathlon, and convinced my Dad and Jeremy to do another one with me this year. It had to be later in the summer because I had to get back in shape after Riley was born.
Race morning finally came. It seemed like we had been training forever. We made sure that our bike tires were pumped up, set up our transition area, picked up our timing chips, and put on our wetsuits. Then we just waited to start. I think that was the worst part. All of the training that we did came down to this morning. There were about 800 athletes competing, so they started everyone out in different waves, Intermediate and Relay groups went first, starting at 7:50 am. Then they started the Sprint divisions after that. Around 8:00 am I gave my Dad a hug and wished him good luck. He made his way down to the dock and they started his group. Then I gave Jeremy a hug before he went down to the dock. They started his group soon after my Dad's, and then it was my turn. As I waited in the water with all of the other million pink caps, which seemed like forever, the race director said that our wave was going to be delayed because they had to pick up two men out of the water that were not going to finish the race and bring them back to the dock. The first thing that went through my mind was, "oh no, please don't let it be Jeremy o
r my Dad". They were both so worried about the swim leg of the race, I hoped that they didn't freeze up and not want to finish. Luckily it was some guy that dislocated his shoulder and some other guy. I was so relieved Jeremy and my Dad were out there somewhere still swimming. Then they gave us one minute heads-up before they blew the horn to start my group. We all started situating ourselves to get a place to start. Some place themselves in the very front, and some try to stay back and avoid the kicking and hitting of the swim start. I placed myself right behind the competitive ladies in the front. I knew I was not the fastest swimmer in the group, but I knew I wanted to get a good spot. They blew the horn and everyone was scrambling to get a spot to swim. People getting kicked and hit left and right just to get an edge on the other racers. I loved it. It didn't take me more than 50 m to get my own spot.
I guess Jeremy's experience was not so great. He made sure that he had a good easy spot to start with so he didn't have to fight for position. A few minutes into the swim he started to sight, or make sure that he was swimming in the right direction, and then out of no where...wham! Some guy kicked Jeremy right in the neck, just under his jaw. Jeremy was struggling for air, swallowing more water than he would like. One of the guys in a kayak noticed Jeremy struggling came over and let him hold on and recover. Jeremy held on for a few minutes just dry heaving. After a few minutes Jeremy decided that all of his hard work training all spring and summer would not be wasted, and he finished the swim. As you can see in the pictures he was elated to be done with the swim leg.After we finished the swim we had to run up the ramp into the transition area and get ready for the bike leg of the race. I don't think that any of us had too much trouble on the bike, except for my Dad.
There were a few sharp turns on the course where there would be volunteers telling us to slow down for the turn. My Dad acknowledged the warning and thought he was going slow enough, but he still flew off of the race course...twice. Once on the way out, and once on the way back to the transition area. Both times he avoided falling and getting road rash. Good thing they decided to go with tape to block off the course instead of cement barriers.There was one part of the bike that was tough to get through. It is almost a mile long and 6% grade. The great thing about going up a huge steep hill in an out-and-back course is that you get to go down it too. On the way down the hill I looked at my bike computer and I was cruising at over 40 mph! That was so fun, and the crazy thing about it, there were some people going faster than I was.
After we got back to the transition area, we had to get ready for the final leg of the race, the run. The race directors decided to change the run from the paved road to an off road, sandy run. We agreed that this part of the race was one of the hardest because we didn't train on sand, so our times were all a few minutes slower that what we were predicting. At the finish line, a bunch of our family were there cheering us on. For me, that helped out a lot.
We all did a great job in the race. I took 102nd out of 527 total racers, 22nd out of 235 women, and 10th out of 52 women in my age division. My total time was 1:31:12.9.Jeremy took 201st out of 527 total racers, 139th out of 281 men, and 27th out of 59 men in his age division. Jeremy's total time was 1:40:09.6.
My Dad placed 168th out of 527 total racers, 125 out of 231 men, and 7th out of 14 in his age division. His total time was 1:37:14.5.
I hope my Dad and Jeremy were not too upset that they got beat by a girl.
After the race was all over Jeremy and I knew that we wanted to do more races next season. My Dad wanted to give himself a day or so to decide weather or not he had that much fun to do more. About a week after the race we were all talking about how much fun the race was and doing another triathlon next year.
