Maxwell House: The Spudman Triathlon, Burley ID

Ben and I were lucky enough to have gotten spots on the raffle-only (as of this year) Spudman Triathlon. I had first heard of this race from the doctor I work with, Dr. Oldroyd. This was back when I hadn't done an olympic distance triathlon yet and was talking to him about it, wanting to try one, etc. He mentioned that he had done the Spudman race years ago and that it's a good 1st-time olympic distance tri because you swim in a river with the current. So Ben and I tried to register for it in 2024, but it sold out in 8 minutes (hence the new raffle system). It's a big race - almost 2,000 register, so it's crazy that it sold out that fast.

Anyways, I was a bit anxious about the swim part as I have discovered my heart rate during open-water swimming is like 184! Holy Moly! Running, biking, and even pool swimming my top HR is 140. So that's probably why I felt a sense of "impending doom" at the Lake 2 Lake tri last summer . . . Even in our practice pond swims here in Montrose, my HR was in the 180s. Which makes me feel like I am having an anxiety attack. Which I probably am. . . Anyways, I had tried a couple different tactics to help me - like starting even slower than I start, back-floating if needing to, etc. I had read about an Ironman athlete who had died in the swimming portion earlier that week and that didn't help . . .

Anyways, I totally skipped ahead of myself. Ben, myself, Miles, and Lucy headed up to Idaho on Friday. We met up with Sam's new and adorable wife, Niquelle, in Pocatello. Sam was on his way back from SLC and wasn't there yet. But Miles and Lucy were going to stay with them as hotels had booked up the first week of January in the Burley area and Ben and I were only able to get a one-room stay in a AirBnB home.

So we drove to Pocatello, had a fun visit with Niquelle, and then Ben and I left and drove a little over an hour to Burley. We got checked-in for the race and got our swag bags (yes, complete with a potato and an instant-potato packet) and checked out the race venue. I even ran into one of my best-friends/gym mates from 30 years ago - Heidi Nickel. It was crazy!

After checking in, etc., we grabbed some dinner and then made our way to our place. It was a lovely room in an old and beautiful house in Rupert, Idaho. It was late by the time we got there and so we basically got our stuff ready for the next day and went to bed.

I don't want to bore everyone with all the details, but I want to remember them for my sake. So feel free to skip to pictures at this point (if you even made it to this point, ha).

I was in the 2nd wave and so got to start right at 7:00am. Yay! Ben started next at 7:10 so that was pretty great for him, too! (Spoiler alert: he passes me on the bike.) I was a bit nervous about the swim as mentioned above. I took long breaths and told myself I could do it. I started out behind everyone because I certainly didn't need to be in the thick of it getting kicked at, etc. It was an excellent move on my part. I was not in the crowd and so didn't have to worry about that. However, my goggles completely fogged up within the first 2 minutes and I could barely see for the next 10+ minutes until I convinced myself to back-float and rub my goggles clear. It was tricky but I managed to do it and it was amazing once I could see again! I really think it slowed me down (like a few seconds ha) not being able to clearly see. I didn't feel like the current was aiding me at all and was mad at the stupid river. But turns out the current was and I finished in half the time I normally would have swam a mile, ha! :) About 24 minutes, amazing.

Ben was in the thick of it for his swim. People everywhere, bumping, hitting, kicking one another. He said it was crazy. I am SO glad I wasn't in that. But Ben had a good swim and made it out in 20 minutes.

Next up was the bike. It's a pretty flat course - which is both good and bad. Good as there are no significant climbs. But bad in that you never get a nice "coasting" period. But I felt decent on the bike and was happy with my time and pace. Ben ended up getting a group and they all basically illegally drafted off the leaders. Ha, lucky! None of them meant for it to happen, but it just did. Ben said there were about 30 of them in this peloton and so Ben cruised on the ride. He had a fast time and ride. He did say at one point an official drove past his peloton and yelled for them to break up - which he said was pretty impossible to do with that size of group and on a limited area. The official also took some photos and so we weren't sure if Ben would be disqualified. Luckily, he wasn't. Ben passed me about 10 miles in (total bike was 25 miles). We said "hi" to each other, how cute.

Next and last up was the run! Yay! I have had a very bad case of plantar fasciitis and so my running has been slow and painful - painfully slow, ha. But I loaded up on an excedrin and ibuprofen when I started my bike ride and I think it (plus the racing endorphins!) really, really helped me. I felt great on the run and even greater passing people ha. Like fit men with huge tattooed calves. :) Anyways, it was good to feel strong again on my run as I haven't felt that in a very long time. I was super pleased with my pace, even though it's not what it used to be for my normal race-times, it was significantly better than my training. Ben hadn't trained or exercised as much as he had last summer (but he was coming off training for a 1/2 Ironman . . .). So Ben wasn't expecting greatness, but still hoped for it, ha. And great he was. He did really well on the run!

All in all, I loved it and hope to do it again! It was a great event and super fun doing it with Ben.

Final stats:

Ben basically crushed it, even with "suboptimal" training. He took 85th out of 1,583 olympic-distance athletes. What the heck?! 78th out of 1,078 males. And 8th out of 99 in his age group. AMAZING. His times: swim, 20:49 (29th in age-group); bike, 1:06:39 (about 16th in age-group); run, 48:35 (about 9th). His overall time was 2:21:21.

I took 584th overall of the olympic-distance athletes with an overall time of 2:29:45. I was 110 out of 505 females. And 9th out of 40 in my age-group. My times: swim, 24:30 (17th in age-group); bike 1:22:31 (about 13th); and run 55:38 (about 9th).