Ironman St. George

Last weekend Jason and I headed to St. George so Jason could participate in the St. George Ironman.  I drove up to Lincoln with the boys Tuesday evening (so our parents could watch them while we were gone), went and looked at houses Wednesday morning, and then flew out of Sacramento that afternoon.  It was a busy couple of days.  Jason flew out of San Jose Wednesday and we met each other in Las Vegas.  By the time we got our rental car and checked into our hotel I was starving.  We heard that the Bellagio has an awesome buffet but the line was like 45 minutes long so we opted for the next highest rated buffet The Wicked Spoon at The Cosmopolitan.  It was pretty delicious and we loved being able to sample lots of different foods.  I had high hopes of catching a show as well but it just didn't work out that night.

So hungry and ready to eat.

Some of the yummy food.  Isn't that individual sized pot so cute?!?

We really love to eat out and try different food but it is so hard to do with the kids, so needless to say we really enjoyed ourselves.

Dessert was SO good.

I don't even like marshmallows but I couldn't resist trying one of these.

We aren't gamblers, but we had to put a little money in 25c slot machines.

We watched the fountain show at the Bellagio.

Had to get a picture with the Las Vegas sign on our way out of town.

 We got up Thursday morning and drove the two hours to St. George. We stayed with Jason's grandparents, and it was so great to spend time with them.  Jason's sister Jen and brother Mike also made the trek down from Lehi/Provo which was so nice, and we were so happy they came (especially me since we hung out during the race).  Thursday and Friday were spent checking into the race, dropping off all Jason's bags of stuff, a trial swim, etc.  It was nice though because we took our time and if we wanted to do something we just did it.  Thursday night they had a dinner/info session for the participants so I went and saw Water for Elephants (is it weird that I love going to the movies by myself?).

Tom, Jason and Austin in front of Sand Hollow reservoir where the swim took place. 

We toured the St. George tabernacle.  It is such a beautiful building.  We learned that every prophet of the LDS church except Joseph Smith has spoken from this pulpit.

Saturday was the big day.  If you are friends with me or Jason on facebook you know that the race did not turn out as Jason had hoped.  Long story short the heat, and improper nutrition made it so Jason suffered dehydration and consequently a heat stroke (the temp was 93 degrees that day) causing him to drop out of the race at mile 92 of the 112 bike ride (if you are interested in the long story, you can read it here, and in case you are wondering DNF stands for "did not finish").  Jason was pretty disappointed since he trains so hard for these races and was excited to do this race with friends.  I am just happy he is ok, things could have been much worse if he had waited any longer to stop.  Here are some pics from earlier that day.

Jason's support team (Jared, Shannon and Jamison Burton, me, Jenny and Mike)

Jason after the swim about to get on his bike.  He had a great 2.4 mile swim, with a PR time of 1:12.

Cute little Jamison ringing his cowbell.  He was such a good sport that day.

After we saw Jason transition to the bike leg, Jenny, Mike and I  went and had breakfast.  I felt kind of bad enjoying a delicious breakfast in an air conditioned restaurant while Jason was out in the brutal heat, but he is the one that signs up for these crazy races.

 After breakfast we went out to try to see Jason along the bike course.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  I always worry if Jason doesn't come right around the time I expect him to and normally my worries are unfounded, but on Saturday just when I was starting to feel a little pit in my stomach I get a text from a number I didn't recognize saying, "Your husband is ok.  He has suffered a heat stroke, he is ok.  He has dropped out of the race and will be back shortly."  I'm pretty sure Jason, even though he was kind of out of it, made sure the girl emphasized that he was OK, because he knows how much I worry. It took him a long time to get back because they were picking up so many people who had also dropped out.  Jason was pretty bummed when I did finally meet up with him, but I was just happy he was ok.

Here we are with Jason's grandparents and siblings.

Sunday we went to church, ran a few race errands, and stopped for a walk around the St. George temple.  It was a wonderfully relaxing day.

While some aspects of the weekend were kind of a bummer, overall we had a great time.  I loved spending time with just me and Jason.  It felt like we had so much free time.  We missed our boys though and are happy to be back with them.  By the way, the boys had such a great time.  We were just leaving to drive home and I asked Ollie if he wanted to go home, or back to grandma's, he said he wanted to go back to grandma's.  Don't worry, it didn't hurt my feelings, I'm just glad he had as much fun as we did.  I may even convince Jason to attempt Ironman St. George again next year so we can go back, on second thought, I'm fine with him being done with Ironman distance triathlons for a while...