Kokopelli Triathlon

We have now completed our second triathlon, and we loved it! Nathan ended up working at the office all day Thursday night, and didn't come back home until 2:15pm on Friday, and we left at about 3:45 for St. George. He did get to sleep on the way down, but poor guy all the same:(We got to St. George to check in on Friday evening, and then the next morning we raced. This time we got there early to set up to have plenty of room, and it was a much larger race than Provo was, over a thousand people, however, also much more organized! It was also a much harder course as well, which we found out as we were competing. The swim part was great, I could see, not nearly as murky of water as Utah Lake, and I rented a wetsuit, and that made all the difference regarding buoyancy. It was awesome, I stayed with the pack the entire way! The biking had a lot of long hills, one that lasted for about five miles (I was keeping track on my bike speedometer), and then at the bottom of the hill was a cattle guard! Yikes! My max speed was 32.5 miles/hour, Nathan's was 35.7 miles/hour. Pretty fun. The run was the hardest, and it was all trail running through the red sand down there. Wasn't ready for that one, I was ready for road running. Running through sand just saps your energy. The last part of the race was road, and that was fine, so for the next one we'll be prepared for either. And it was hot, so I was grateful I had just started running during the day so that I was a little more ready for the hot weather. Overall it was great, and we are hooked! It is the day after and we feel great, and I can't wait to keep training for another!

The St. George Temple, we walked the grounds the night before the race.

Nathan is in the water, somewhere in there....

We finished another one!!!

On the way back we decided to take a scenic byway through Zions National Park and Kolob Canyon, and that was absolutely gorgeous! We stopped many times to take pictures and enjoy the views of the spectacular rock formations. Our road though became dirt though for about 40miles, and we got lost since the road split, we took one option, and it ended up becoming impassable unless you were going serious fourwheeling. Going down had taken about 4 1/2 hours, taking the scenic byway that spit us back at the I-15 at Cedar City took 4 hours! It was pretty, but we did get back latter than we thought. But you know us, always up for an adventure. We just had to laugh when we were lost and had to ask an older couple that was walking by Kolob Reservior where we were. It was the right road, just not maintained, especially for a sedan:) Very beautiful down that way though, and we were blessed to be able to spend the time together.

In beautiful Kolob Canyon in Zion's National Park. Right before the road turned to dirt!

Asking an older couple "Where are we?", the road after this point was not maintained at all and became impassable. At least we were reading the map right.