A lot has been happening lately and so I have a lot to catch up on! Ben's biggest happening was the Ironman 70.3 in St. George, Utah. (A 70.3 is also called a half-Ironman. The full Ironman distance is insane! The half is partially insane!)
Ben didn't decide on doing this event until early January - limiting his training period to about 4 months. Which is a lot in a little time, but he did good with his training and it paid off in a well-done race for him!
Just Ben and I went out for this and it was kind of nice with just the two of us. The kids probably would have been really bored so it was good they stayed home and we didn't have to worry about entertaining them and could just focus on getting Ben ready and supporting him on the day of the race.
So Ben and I headed out Thursday and got there in the late evening. Friday morning I actually did a bike ride of the Snow Canyon loop - it's the last 10-15 miles (but ended up being 20 for me as I headed out on my bike from our place) of Ben's arduous 56-mile ride - and definitely the most challenging part. I wanted to get an idea of what it was like. It was tough! Once you enter Snow Canyon, it's a pretty good (i.e., steep) incline for the first 3 miles and then that last mile up is a killer. Ben actually drove up and met me at the top and that was fun and a surprise. :) The ride/fly home was pretty fast and exciting.
After that, it was getting Ben all set-up and ready for his race. We did a lot of checking in, dropping off bags, listening to a pre-race meeting, etc. at the Town Square area. We also had to go out to Sand Hollow and drop off Ben's bike there. It was pretty exciting. There were some vendors and such and so we shopped around a bit. Ben ended up renting some pretty awesome fancy bike wheels (carbon frame or something) and so that was cool. We cooked up some delicious pasta and zucchini for dinner and then headed to bed fairly early.
Saturday we got up nice and early - before 4am! We drove to the Town Square and hopped on a shuttle bus for Sand Hollow. We were there by about 5am and then waited and waited. It was kind of chilly (low-to-mid 50s, but no sun yet). I was happy when Ben changed into his wetsuit so I could borrow his sweatshirt, ha.
The pros started their swims at 6:50 (male) and 6:53 (female). The rest of the group entered the chute and water in waves of 2-3 athletes every 5 seconds. The first group began at 7:03 and everyone (about 1,500 athletes) were all in the water by 8. Ben went in about 7:50am. The pros were insane and were out of there in 22 minutes for the fastest of the bunch. They are crazy.
I saw Ben get out of the water and then head out on his bike ride. I then took the shuttle back to town and I had brought my bike and so I rode around to different spots and caught Ben at the various points in his race. It was fun to see him zooming by!
All in all, Ben did great! He felt happy with his swim and said it was just a bit of chaos. You aren't out there calming and gracefully doing your strokes - it's a battle and a wild swim, with Ben even accidentally get punched twice! But he said it was exciting and just made for kind of a new and fun experience while swimming.
Ben was happy with his bike ride and passed probably about 500 people! He felt strong and was about 30 minutes faster than originally expected (due to race excitement - but also to the fancy wheels!) He was surprised his average speed wasn't his goal of 20 MPH, but still felt really good about the ride.
The run was tough - I mean, it's a half-marathon AFTER all that swimming and biking. Aiyiyi. He pushed through it and ran the entire course - but slower than he had anticipated. But it was so hot and sunny by then and so it was just awesome he was able to run the whole thing.
Ben finished right over 6 hours - 6:03 or so. For his gender and overall he was right above the 50% - yay! For his age group, he was about in the top 1/3. Awesome! The most amazing thing to me was that he felt pretty great afterwards (if I had to run 13.1 miles in the hot sun, I would have felt super-sick. . . ). It was a fun day and I was super proud of Ben and this huge accomplishment.
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