Reflections

Haven't done much post-race training. We walked for about an hour when we were in Hawaii. And then I ran for 40 minutes on Wednesday. I've been using every excuse to not train. Even so, already I'm thinking about that Vikingman, and already I'm thinking I enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong; I hated the bike and swim part, but I quite enjoyed the run part. Every triathlete does this. Give them some down time and they start thinking about the next race, what they want to do next, whether the last race was really worth it or not, etc. And usually, if triathlon really gets in your blood, you almost always want to do another one.

But a big reason why the Vikingman was so fun for me was because it was in my home town. We began the swim next to the house where my young women's leader lived. We swam past my best friend Keri's old neighborhood. We biked past my dad's old carlot and our family's old home. On the way in, I biked past my old church building and my old elementary school, the same school my grandmother and father graduated from. On the run, I got to see parts of Heyburn I haven't been to in close to 15 years. I ran past John Koyle's house. John Koyle was my first-grade crush. He invited me to his birthday party, and my mom dressed me in a dress. But I still managed to keep my dress clutched between my legs when competing in the head-standing contest. So many memories came flooding back to me to keep me company during the long day. I thought of many old friends I'd made through my early burglary years (thanks for that, Morrissey). I treasured the memories.

Kulani and I like the idea of doing triathlons in far away and exotic places. The idea behind it being we can train hard and do the race, then spend the rest of the week gorging the local food and taking in the local culture. Heyburn isn't a far away or exotic place, but for me, it was a great trip down memory lane.