Triathlon, Ranch, and Biking White Rim Weekend

The last weekend in May, Mark went to Moab with a friend to mountain bike the White Rim Trail.  They did 100 miles in 2 and half days.  Remember, that's mountain biking, not road biking.  He went with a group of guys that do it almost every year.  They get a truck and fill it will hardy food and frozen drinks and camping gear then they head out riding on the trail and taking turns driving the truck.  I wish I had pictures and if Mark ever gets them from his friend I will post them. Mark loved it.  He rode hard and rocked it,  keeping up with the seriously hardcore bikers he was riding with.


While Mark was riding the White Rim, I participated in the Tri The Heights Sprint Triathlon at the Cottonwood Heights Rec Center.  It was a great experience.  I enjoyed training for a triathlon more than training for the half marathon last year.  I swam 400 meters in the pool, rode over 11 miles on my bike and then ran a 5k.  I am posting my time just for the record, but it is certainly not something to brag about.  I finished in 1 hour and 45 minutes.  I came in 135th out of 189 participants.  I guess for me it is just a big deal that I did it.  I actually did better on the swim than I thought I would and I really liked the swimming part of training, which was a surprise to me.  I had biked the cycle route before and I was able to cut my time by a few minutes on the bike ride.  There are some steep climbs on that route which were difficult for me, but I love biking so I enjoyed the whole ride.  Running was my least favorite part of training, so I slacked off and did not run as much as I should have.  My legs were dead by that time and the course was uphill the first half.  I was seriously slow, basically just shuffling along.  It ended up being my slowest 5k run ever.  

I didn't take pictures while at the race, but I grabbed this one of the transition zone off the Facebook page.  Triathlons are interesting things to me.  It was fun to experience how it works transitioning from swimming to biking to running.

Because Mark was gone on the bike trip and my race was insanely early on Saturday morning, I stayed up at the Ranch Friday night and drove down for the race so that my mom could stay there and watch the kids and I was the only one who had to up before dawn.  It ended up being a fabulous overnight vacation for me and the kids at the Ranch with a triathlon race in the middle.

The boys got to do so many fun things.  They loved floating down the ditch and it brought back so many memories of all my summers growing up when we floated down some ditch or river or canal about every day.  Luckily we got to spend a little time with Mandy and Ellie as well.

Thanks Mom for getting out the horses for Brian and Timmy to ride.  They were so excited to ride them.

They also love the hot tub.

I love everything about the Ranch and watching the sun set and experience the peace and beauty that abound in the evenings there is one of my favorite things in the world.

 I took the above picture of Sultan, and then he did this.  It is almost like he seemed to know I was taking a photo of him and decided to pull a face like a little boy.  It cracks me up to see the pictures in succession.

What an epic weekend for me and Mark and the boys!