Boise Half Ironman

Darren tore a tendon in his knee a few weeks ago.  He wasn't able to run or bike for 3 weeks.  That isn't a good thing when you have a half iron man and a full iron man in the near future.  

We drove to Boise and asked them if we could switch to a relay team for his half iron man.  A few moments later I walked out with this bracelet.  Darren was going to swim 1.2 miles and I was going to bike 56 miles and then run 13.2 miles.  WOW!

We stayed at my cousins house in Meridian.  Jessica is an amazing cook. I could write a whole post about the food we ate.  My uncle Fred (Craig) made us flaming bananas as a kid so Randy and Jessica whipped up some so I could actually try them now.  I never ate them as a kid. They were bananas. This time they were delicious!

Jessica and Randy watched our kids all day on Saturday.  My kids loved it.  

(Ella, Aiden, Elaine)

The race was a bit of a disaster. 

1. the temperature was in the low 40's for the start of the swim

2. the winds were out of control, some places the wind was up to 35 mph on the course

3. There was snow in the benches of Boise

4. Darren had to get in a wetsuit and swim 

5. The water was 54 degrees but getting into the water when your totally freezing is terrible

6. He could barely put his face in the water and he couldn't even cup his hands to paddle

7. Due to all that, they shortened the bike to only 14 miles into town

So really a 14 miles bike ride that was sunny and nice by the time I was finished... then a 13 mile run in great weather wasn't bad.  My one chance to do part of an ironman was not really amazing. 

I didn't get any picture of Darren swimming since it was totally down pouring for hours before the race and then raining at the beginning of the race.  We were just trying to stay warm.  

Darren is back on his bike now.  barely .... but back on it.  He cant run yet.  He has 5 weeks until he has to swim over 2 miles, bike over 100 miles and then run a full marathon.  oh my!