We did it!

Our team 'The Crew' had a great time at the Anthem Sprint Triathlon yesterday morning. We got up and arrived at the race site a little before 6:00AM and got our packet and t-shirts. We got Ryan's bike set up in the transition area then we got our numbers drawn on our arms by a very enthusiastic race volunteer. He thought it was AWESOME! that we were doing the race as a relay team. We waited a little while before the race started, we were in wave 2 that started at about 7:05. I ran the 3.1 mile course winding through the paths in Anthem by the community center, down to Gavilan Parkway and back to Anthem Rd and back to the community center. I was pretty wiped out coming into the transition area to hand off the timing chip to Ryan. He headed out for the 12.5 mile bike ride. Pam, Sarah and I cheered him on as he came by for his three laps around the course. Ryan did great and was right on pace for each of his laps. He came back to the transition area and handed the timing chip off to Sarah who then ran to the pool area where she 'mowed down' the competition and passed several people in the pool. She had a great time and our overall score was better than our goal by a few minutes. Great job!

Here are our times (click here for the official results)
h:mm:ss
Overall 1:38:49 (184 of 228 finishers)
Team 1:38:49 (11 of 13 teams)
Dana - Run 0:26:54 (121 of 232 finishers)
Ryan - Bike 1:01:48 (210 of 230 finishers) - Ryan was the youngest competitor!
Sarah - Swim 0:10:07 (103 of 228 finishers)

The big race this weekend

'The Crew' is getting ready for the Anthem Sprint Triathlon this weekend. We are doing it as a relay. Our swimmer needs to spend some time in the pool, the bike leg is in good shape, the run will be tough. We will earn those T-shirts for sure - Wish us luck!

It's official!

So - now that I have taken 100 trips to work, I think I can officially claim to be a bicycle commuter. I have built up my 'street' cred through the cold, rain and heat. OK it's Arizona, so only the heat counts but still...

Mountain Bikin'

We had a great ride this morning on the Campbell Mesa and Walnut Canyon trails north of Flagstaff. It was windy and cool - very invigorating. Ryan had a flat so we got to try out our patch kit.

Training Run

Ryan and I went for a training ride this past Saturday in preparation for the Anthem Sprint Triathlon. We followed the same 4 mile loop that will be used in the race. It starts out going up hill for a mile or so from the Community Center on Anthem Way to Daisy Mountain Road. Then we head down hill for an little over a mile to Dedication. This was our fastest part, Ryan was able to go over 21 miles an hour here - pretty speedy!


Next, we zig-zagged back through the neighborhood to the Community Center. We did 3 loops for a total of just over 12 miles. Our goal for the race is to finish in an hour or less. Saturday we did 1 hour and 6 minutes - pretty good for our first time. We will work on it some more the next few weeks to see how fast we can go. Afterward we enjoyed a cold drink from the Fry's Market. Ryan had an interesting and tasty Acai-berry drink.

It's going to be Tri-rific!

I discovered the Anthem Sprint Triathlon a couple of days ago. It is a 3.1 mile run, 12 mile bike ride and a 400 meter swim. I thought to myself, "Hey, I could do this."


I told my family about it and asked if they were interested. Ryan said he could ride his bike, Sarah said she could do the swim and I could do the run. It looks like we will be signing up to do it as a relay. Isn't that exciting? Have you ever done something like this? What is your best advice?

Hike to Indian Mesa

Pam and I went on an adventure this morning. She had wanted to go to the Grand Canyon (no entry fee today) but I had an appointment this afternoon. We decided to go to Indian Mesa instead. Not too far and something different. You take the Table Mesa rd exit west until you get to the Agua Fria river, then start walking. I thought it would be about 2 miles but it ended up more like 5. We heard wild burros braying to each other across the canyon. We saw lots of buzzards, birds and bugs. We didn't make it to the ruins, but you can click here to see more about that.

Here are the pictures we took - we recommend it, although it was a bit hot, probably even better in the fall. before the water starts flowing in the river again. Click 'view all' below to see captions and locations of the pictures

View all