Last year Jodi and I did the Triathlon at the Utah Summer Games in St. George. We had the idea to train all winter and do lots of triathlons this summer but so far we haven’t done much training or any triathlons. Jodi and her brother, Josh, signed up for a few swimming events at Summer Games in Cedar City, it was my first time ever going to a swimming competition and I thought it was pretty interesting. The competition was at an indoor olympic size pool at SUU, it was nice being indoors instead of outside in the sun all three days! They seemed well organized and had people from all ages swimming. There were swimmers from 20 to 81. We only went to the adult competition but they had a separate one for people under 18. One of the guys that swam in several events only used his arms when he swam and had to scoot himself along the floor to get to his lane. He walked with a brace on one leg and a cane but he swam very well! I’m sure he could beat me in any swimming event and I have two able legs!

Jodi and Josh did well, especially for not training much at all. They both earned some medals and Josh set a couple of records. They both use to swim competitively in high school but haven’t competed since then, I think summer games rekindled their love for competitive swimming! They were both talking about doing it again next year. The only problem if Josh does it next year is and if I chose to compete he would be in my age group which would pretty much guarantee that I wouldn’t do so well.

We all had a good time and it was good to take a few days off work (yes, it’s true, I didn’t work at all while we were down there!) We made it down to St. George one day and went to In-N-Out for lunch and then Jodi and I went shopping while Josh, Sabrina, Harrison, Kelley and Kathy hung out with Sabrina’s sister in their pool. Harrison had his first swim, Josh was so excited to get him in the pool he almost didn’t wait for Sabrina to put her swimming suit on before getting him out there. We also got to see our cousin, Lins, and her fiance while we were down there for a minute at dinner. It was so hot in St. George, 110 degrees!

This past weekend was our triathlon. Jodi did the swimming which was 750 meters (0.47 miles) and I did the biking and running. The bike was a 20K (12.4 miles) and the run was a 5K (3.1 miles). It was a bit harder than I had expected, part of my problem was that I rented a bike and only rode it once before the race. The bike was very nice though! Jodi swam the distance in about 18 minutes, I biked in just under an hour and ran in about 37 minutes. I should have been able to do the run faster, but while biking I had a couple of cramps in my calves that I had to get rid of before I could run. Full results are available here. We placed 11th out of all of the relays and 4th in mixed relays.

We had some car trouble on our way to St. George and ended up having to get a new fuel pump. We drove the Blazer down and it died half a dozen times on the way there. It was able to start right back up after it shut off and we pulled over. That was an expensive repair that we weren’t expecting! One nice side effect that had as well is it fixed the gas gauge so now we know how much gas is actually in the tank! That hasn’t worked for a couple of years.

We also went to Tuacahn just outside of St. George and saw My Fair Lady. It was neat to go to an open-air play, they had horses, old cars and rain as props. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn in St. George and spent quite a bit of our time there in the pool. It was nice to get away for a couple of days and to hang out with everyone. Jodi’s older brother and his wife came and did the triathlon. Jodi’s parents and grandmother were there too. Two of Jodi’s cousins were there, J and Lins, Lins ran in the triathlon with two of her friends.

The Utah Summer Games are this weekend in St. George and I am excited to be able to participate. I haven’t really trained quite as much as I had hoped to, but I should still do fine. My goal is just to finish before Jodi’s brother and sister-in-law and her cousin and friends that are doing it! We’ll see what happens. On Monday I picked up the bike that I am renting from Salt Lake Running Company, it is pretty nice. There is a picture of the bike to the left, it is a Guru Tri bike. It is a little different than a road bike to ride, but I think I’ll be fine on it. It also has clipless pedals which I have never used before but I did go for a quick ride on Monday and I think that I should be fine. I just hope I don’t fall over because I can’t get my feet out!

There are 153 days left until Jodi and I do our triathlon in June. We are doing the Utah Summer Games triathlon down at the Sand Hollow State Park by St. George. This will be my first triathlon that I will be participating in. Jodi and I are doing it as a team, so right now our plan is for her to swim and I am going to bike (14 miles) and run (5K). Right now it looks like Jodi’s brothers are also going to be participating in this triathlon and we’re trying to recruit some other people as well.

Yesterday Jodi and I went to Salt Lake Running Company and bought some shoes and socks. I did not really have good running shoes and the ones I had were a few years old so I was in need of some new ones. At Salt Lake Running Company they put me on a treadmill and video taped my feet to determine what kind of shoes that I should wear. When my foot hits the ground it doesn’t hit quite flat so I need shoes with a little extra support on one side to help flatten me out. I have not actually used my new shoes yet, but I am planning to give them a good workout over the next 153 days.