Kokopelli Triathlon

Several months ago Rinar set a lofty goal, an Olympic triathlon. This means that you have to swim 1.5k, bike 33k, and then run a 10k. I thought he was completely insane and I didn't know if he would be able to pull it off. I mean, he works half of the week in Albuquerque and travels to other places as well for his job. How would he be able to get all of the training done?

But sure enough, every morning he was up at 5am doing something, whether it was biking, running or swimming. Many times we would run together after the kids were asleep, doing numerous laps around our little neighborhood.

Another motivation for him was that his brother Lyf decided to do it with him and his friend Rich from work. Rich's wife Johanna also does triathlons and she is pretty fast and was going to compete in the Kokopelli as well. I think Rinar was most worried about getting beat by Johanna. He just didn't want to get beat by her!

It was a beautiful morning at Sand Hollow Reservoir in Hurricane, Utah.

They were ready to go. Bring it on! The hay was in the barn and he was ready to roll.

Lyf was in the older age group, so his group started 10 minutes after Rinar's group.

Rinar came out of the water really fast. I was surprised. I think he was in the top 15 overall. He was looking good.

Angie and I were wondering when Lyf would come out of the water. It took a while!

There is Rinar coming back from his 20+ mile bike leg.

Rinar had good transitions so he was back out on the road for his run quickly. Then I later saw Johanna making her way on foot. Her group started 20 minutes after Rinar's group, so I wasn't sure if he was ahead of her. We guessed that he was.

She looked really good and she always had a smile on her face. Johanna did it with style.

After getting disoriented on his swim (he probably swam and extra 1/2 mile because he went the wrong way a lot), Lyf did a solid bike and then got going on his run.

Here comes Rinar for his big finish. He was really hurting by this point and had to walk some. But he was still able to finish strong. Did I mention that the last 1/2 mile is mostly uphill? Yuck, huh? But they were not deterred.

That is one proud mama!

A true triathlete.
I was pretty proud of him too. His time was really good.

2 Hours 33 Minutes and 2 Seconds

Here he is with Rich and Johanna...and yes, he beat them both. What a relief. Johanna just barely beat her husband. Rich is amazing. I can't believe he even did a triathlon. He has major hip problems and I think he even had one of his hips replaced. He is either amazing or completely crazy.
And then Lyf made it to the end. 3 hours and 9 minutes. He would have been under 3 hours if he had had a more focused swim, for sure. But it was still a solid time, and he didn't come in last!

Angie is explaining to Lyf what his wayward swim looked like from dry land.

The end!