Spudman

Spudman has always been one of my favorite races - not only because the swim is downstream (woohoo!) but we've made it into such a fun family weekend, camping by the river, telling stories half the night, then waking up early and cheering each other on. We woke up early since Devan went in the Elite wave and we all wanted to see him start. I was in the second wave so headed over shortly after he started. I got to the start line and looked down and noticed something very important was missing...my race chip! I raced back to our tent and threw it on and barely made it into the water before the gun went off! Whew! The sun was just coming up and the swim was beautiful. I had heard the current was slower than the year before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. A 19:20 wasn't the slowest, but it definitely wasn't the fastest.
Onto the bike! I wanted to beat my bike time from the previous year. Unfortunately there was a pretty good head wind, which made that difficult. In fact, I was way off my time from last year - almost 5 minutes! That also may have to do with the fact that last year I was in the last wave, which meant there were tons of people on the course. This year being in the second wave, the elites were long gone by the time I hit the course. I was glad of that because it's a more pure race when you bike without the help of drafting (not that I meant to the first year, it's just inevitable with that many racers). I ended up having the third fastest bike in my age group (1:13).
The run starts with a short steep hill, but it might as well have been Mt Everest how long and hard it felt right after the bike. My legs felt like concrete and I shuffled up the beast and the course finally flattened out. The residents of Burley are amazing and many of them stand out in their yard and spray you down with their hoses. You run along back country farm roads lined on either side with...that's right...spuds. I took my Vanilla GU at mile 3 and for the first time EVER in a race remember thinking, 'Well shoot - I'm already half way done! This is going pretty fast!' I'm not sure what was wrong with me. Thank you GU for the confidence boost.
I don't wear a watch when I race so I wasn't sure how fast I was going, but I've had this goal for the last couple of years. I've always wanted to run 8-minute miles in an olympic distance race. That is slow for some people, but remember – I am not a runner. When I saw my final time of 49:11, I was just excited that I was under 50 minutes. Then I did the math...7:54 minute miles!! I know that is not impressive for most triathletes, but it’s one of those little achievements I was so excited to get.
I crossed the finish line and headed over to the stand to look up my time. They are pretty tech-savvy at this race and you simply type your race number into a screen and it tells you your overall and division placing. I couldn't believe it...first in the my age group! And my time was way slower than the year before! (I keep telling myself it had to be because of the slower current, headwind...excuses, excuses).
We waited around for awards and chatted with some of our Utah friends. There is a fairly long grass hill you have to walk up to accept your award. Naturally, I started heading up it as soon as they announced the awards for female age group 25-29. I wouldn't want them to have to wait for me! Over the speakers I heard, "And in first place...(remember I'm almost to the stand by now), Cait Morgan!” Ohhhhkayyy. Walk of shame back down the hill. In front of the whole family. And the Utah friends. Then I hear “Second place…Taylor Tandy!” And back up the grass hill! Some say (ah hem, Devan) that second is the first loser, but hey, I'll take it! Cait did in fact beat me…by a long shot…but all that matters is that I have a giant potato head award on my mantle. Special thanks to my amazing sponsors who made this race possible! Flexr Sports, GU Nutrition, Darn Tough Socks, BEARPAW, HEAD Swimming, T3 Triathlon

2nd in division and 5th overall!

I think I'm standing on the wrong side...