On June 1st, while Jennie was still visiting, we packed up the car and drove 2 hours to Comlara Park, Illinois, for Kevin's 1st ever TRIATHLON!
We arrived at the TriShark Triathlon village with plenty of time to set up, say hi to ward friends who were also racing, and get good luck hugs and kisses from the girls :)
Then it was time for the race to begin, but due to a crazy amount of flooding prior to the race, the lake was filled with E-coli so they had to cancel the swim and replace it with a two mile run.
Kevin was up for the challenge though, and he easily blew past many of the racers!
Soon we saw him running back in to the transition area and we could tell he was doing quite well! It only took him 12 minutes and 46 seconds to complete the first 2 miles.
He grabbed his bike and biking gear, and was back out on the course in a record 1 minute and 4 seconds. This is where Kevin learned that most triathletes are strongest on the bike, and although he is very quick on the bike, he got to experience what it feels like, first hand, to have people blow past you even though you're peddling your guts out! (A first for Kevin.)
He still did great though and finished the 13 mile biking portion in 39 minutes and 50 seconds! Woohoo! He dismounted with ease (which is a big deal because we watched several other bikers biff it, or come off wobbling after the bike race) and was back in his running gear and on the road in 56 seconds!
Once again, Kevin started blowing past people as he finished up his 5K (3.1 miles) in 20 minutes and 27 seconds!
He finished the entire race in 1 hour 15 minutes and 7 seconds! Pretty amazing if you ask me! Here are his stats again:
| Run 1: |
12:46.9 |
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| T1: |
01:04.8 |
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|
| Bike: |
39:50.9 |
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| T2: |
00:56.8 |
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| Run: |
20:27.8 |
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| Overall: |
01:15:07.2 |
After the race, we said good bye to our friends, who also did an amazing job, and headed back home so Kevin could pack his bags to fly to Alaska for a site inspection!
By June 3rd, Kevin was in Alaska, checking out fascinating graveyards, eating yummy food, buying souvenirs, and hiking some pretty incredible mountains!
And no. That is not why he flew there! Although he definitely took advantage of his free time!
He went to inspect a power generating facility that his office has been working on for some time now. He worked his little booty off from 9-5 each day, and then went back out to play in wild Alaska!
Kevin was gone from June 3rd until June 6th and managed to get all his work done, make some new friends, and summit several mountains!
On June 6th, Kevin flew home late at night and got some much needed rest before we packed up our things again and headed up to Wisconsin to volunteer for Ragnar Relay Chicago!
On June 7th, we left our kids with my sister Becca and headed to Wisconsin to protect runners from biffing it in cornfields between 10pm and 3 in the morning! We had run the Ragnar the 2 previous years with Dan Cotton (pictured above), his family, and some of our ward friends, but when we realized we couldn't afford it this year, we decided to volunteer for our team to save them some money during registration. We had so much fun (although we did miss running) and were glad to be able to spend the time together. And that about wraps up our crazy week in June!
