Boise

School got out on Thursday, and bright and early Friday morning we pulled the kids out of bed and loaded into the car for a trek to Boise.

A few hours spent in the car, followed by a bit of time at the Boise Center while Shawn attended a mandatory race meeting, and finally at the hotel where the littles got to ride on the luggage cart.  (They were really looking forward to that part.)

As always, we are a bit of a spectacle wherever we go.

We drove up to the reservoir so Shawn could drop off his bike.  He was pretty excited to see Matty Reed there.  I guess the pros are allowed to get in the water and test it out.  no one else could.

We all tested out the chilly waters.  Getting my feet wet was enough for me.

After a lovely night's sleep and some good sleeping in, (Shawns' race didn't start until noon)  we're ready to head to the starting line for the Boise Half Ironman.  (It was in the 90's - a little warm for racing, but what can you do?)

We rode the shuttle to Lucky Peaks Reservoir.  (The whole family went this time since the weather was 100 times better than last year.)

Shawn getting "labeled."

Heading off to set up in the transition area.

Where the swim takes place.  Water was a balmy 60 degrees.

There was plenty of time for hanging around before the start of the race.  We found some shade and made ourselves comfortable.

Some pre-race music and eating for Shawn.

Finally, it was time to start.

That's a lot of bikes in T-1.

Little Peter.

Peter got tired of standing around so found some rocks to line up and organize.

Shawn's group was the second to last to go out, so we still had to wait a while.

His group is finally on deck ready to go.

He's in there somewhere with all of the other silver caps.

Lined up and waiting for the starter's gun.

I think he was 8th out of the water?

One of the fastest transitions I've ever seen him do.  (And I've been watching him do this for close to 20 years.)

Clearly feeling good.

Peter flashing some signs or something.  He was extremely patient.

After the last biker left the transition, we got back on the shuttle and headed down to the city to wait at the next transition.

At this point, the kids actually went back to the hotel because they were hot and tired, but I was there when Shawn came in off of the bike.

Still looking good with a fantastic bike time.  Another fast transition. He was set up to finish amazingly well.

Heading out on the run looking strong.

And then, things changed.  I went back to the hotel to get the kids to come to the finish line.  We should have missed him at the turn around, but we didn't.  Long after I expected to see him there, Shawn came walking to the turn around point.  I knew he wasn't doing very well then, but I kept thinking he would pull out of it and do fairly well.

We waited and waited.

It was HOT!

The kids were melting.

And this was Shawn's status far from the finish.  He bonked.  Hard.  And puked, too.  He was feeling great - but not really, at all.

The kids were hot, and red cheeked and done, so I finally sent them back to the hotel to get some water and go swim,

since they were sweating off their "race numbers."

Shawn was frustrated and disappointed at his finish time, especially because he had been doing so well for the first 2 parts of the race, but he just totally shut down at about mile 4 and couldn't recover.  I guess that's how it goes in racing sometimes.  I'm sure he'll be back to try again because he's just like that.