Charlie, David and I have just completed the 2008 Spudman. We had a great time with each of us posting our personal bests....excluding David Daniel Harris Ward's time from last year. This is a post victory shot.
This is the three of us before the race, Charlie is in the back ground he was tired of waiting on David and I. We missed placing our bikes the night before as David and I were a little slow.
If you look out over the top of the dock you can see two swimmers out there waving, that is David and I "bobbing" down the river. We took the swim very easy, not pushing too hard there at all. We just tried to stay in the current the best we could and enjoy the morning. We enjoyed floating past our camp site and waving to our group as they got ready for a day of swimming.
This is a picture of Dave and I coming out of T1 you can see clearly that I am in the lead.....
Here is David sneaking by my as I stopped to have my picture taken.....
Just as this picture was being taken, David said that last time he would see me until after the race because I would be ahead of him for the remainder of the race. Neither one of us knew that David had past me at this point, so I was riding hard to stay in front of him and I would look at every rider as they past me to see if it was David and I needed to kick it up a little to keep up with him. In the meantime, David was riding hard to try to catch up with me thinking that I was in front of him. So he was pushing hard while I was holding back a little saving what little I had left.....When David got to T2 and my bike was not there, he figure out he must have passed me somewhere. When I got to the bikes and saw his there, I was demoralized not knowing how far he was in front of me after spending all the time on the bikes thinking that I was beating him. I knew that Charlie would kill us with his times, up until then I thought I had a chance to get David. So I dropped my bike off, stored the camel-back took off the gloves, put on my hat and reached into Charlie's bag to get my Gatorade that I had left there, to only find it had leaked out of the container somehow.... So the 10K was mostly a walking race for me, as I was more out of shape for this race then any of the others and I was knew I just needed to beat my last time as I was not going to beat either of my brothers.
The kids enjoyed the river while we were gone. We were mean parents and made them swim with life preservers.....
James, little Dave, Matthew, and Joe came along to have some fun together...and they did. 
Team Ward from Spanish Fork that where there for the race.
Here we are on the drive home, there were a lot of tired members of the race team....the support team anyways....
Laura was a good sport and road home in the back seat so Charlie could stretch his legs after beating us all so soundly.
We had a great time this year and hope to see all 6 pigs screaming down the river with us next year!!Times:
Michael WARD 03:36:06.9
David WARD 03:23:10.3
Charles WARD 02:47:43.8
4 comments:
It was a great race. I improved in everything but the swim; I blame that on the Olympics starting so late that I did not get to see any swimming on TV this year. I did watch chuck swim the night before and that helped.
I think I see when I passed you Mike I had my bike on the ground and for some reason you carried yours. With Charlie turning in a sub 3-hour performance, I am going to have to train outside next year not just on the couch.
congratulations to all of you for FINISHING! In my book that is a great accomplishment. Maybe next year Dad and I can come and watch you all. I think it is funny that the "support" team is more tired than the participants and Laura who had to suppervise the "support" team. And, Laura is a good sport in more ways than just riding in the back seat. I can't even imagine competing in a triathalon so my proverbial hat is off to David, Michael and Charlie.
What does a "proverbial" hat look like? I totally agree with mom; I'm glad that you all entered, competed and best of all, finished! When we heard this morning about the 60-year old drowning in the race we both felt even more relieved that you did finish. The "great pass" looks for all the world like Dave knows he got you Mike ... he's pretty sneaky. Char, I see you had a great time in the swim ... only 25 racers had a better one. Next year we won't let anything get in our way of our being there.
Happy and proud to be your dad, I am!
Dad
I slept really great Saturday night, woke up Sunday and swam 1500 meters with my team. I feel great other than a little saddle sore. Probably all this is due to the fact that Laura let me sit in the front seat down and back.
I had an amazing time. Who knew pushing your body to extreme performance and nearly killing yourself could be make you feel so alive? I’m officially addicted. Next year I’m going to break 2- ½ hours, so you better get off the couch Dave!
Those darn leaky Gatorade bottles! I’m sure that drink is what propelled me to finish. Thanks for the link Mike on the Spud fatality Mike. (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3868868) I actually knew Don, well, knew of him and had met him once in passing. He was in great shape, defiantly better shape than any of us. Pretty darn sad, but like I said, we’re all going sometime – nothing like a great exit to a great life. I’m just glad it wasn’t either one of you or me. I’ve got a lot more living yet to do.
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