THE RACE
We left my parents house on Friday afternoon. The siblings who came left their children at home in hopes of avoiding having to swim after a little one in the big river that the race surrounds. After driving the 2 hours to Burley Idaho, we started checking in and heading over to the bike set up. Robb and I are both a bit of a mess on race day so we meticulously laid each of our items out and prayed we didn't forget anything. Competition aside we both genuinely hoped that the others race would go smoothly and we shared racing strategy as we set up. If we were more spiteful we probably would have laced each others Gatorades with milk as we are both highly lactose intolerant making for a terrible day for the other. That not being the case (although we both thought about it) we spent 2 hours setting out gear, pinning on numbers, and discussing the quickest way to get through the course.
Here we are setting up at the bike transition.
That night my dad, sister (Trish), brother in law (Tyler), brother (Spencer), Robb, and his wife Carlie, and I set up tents on the golf course about 200 meters away from the starting line. This is the first year that we have done this and it was ideal. Each of our 'waves' started at different times so it took away the stress of getting everyone to the starting line at separate times.
It would not be a Lifferth campout if there was not a small amount of silliness going on. Which is how I captured this gem of a photo...
It can be argued that we had drank a few too many drinks prior to this shot, but truthfully we got the laughs and the flash was blinding us. It was so fun to talk as siblings. Most the time we are all chasing our kids and I think we were all feeling a bit relieved to only be taking care of ourselves.. :)
The morning of we all woke up with pre-race jitters. We choked down bagels, peanut butter and a few bananas and headed to the line. My start time was 20 minutes before Robbs and 50 minutes from the two relay teams. 
Here we are just after we all took 20 minutes to get these skin tight wet suits on. Then right after I get the dang thing on I had to go pee again! A word to the wise, you might not want to borrow mywetsuit...
Here is a picture from the start of the race. Yes, it's impossible to tell who is who. But if I were to guess, I was the one near the back who was getting dunked by all the fast people. Oh by the way, notice the person out there in the HO life jacket? Yep, they got disqualified but you can't blame them for trying! The swim was Robb and my weaknesses. We both got out of the water in 20 minutes (although our start times were not the same). In comparison, Trish and Spencer, who were on separate relays, swam it in 14 minutes. Robb and I thought about swimming faster but we wanted to leave room to grow for next year. ;) The bike went well for both both of us. Biking is Robb's sport and he averaged 21.5 mph. Although biking is not my main event I did ride well for myself and buzzed along at 19.3 mph. I knew that once I got off the bike I would have to high tail it on the 10k to make up time. Robb came off the bike and was heard yelling to his wife, "how much time do I have on Stacie!?" At least I had him scared for a little while. :) After the bike Robb had me by about 7 minutes. The bonus about being a runner in a triathlon is that your strongest event is last. So no matter what i'm always looking forward to the end of the race. I pushed myself up the small hill at the beginning and ran on cruise control for the rest of the race. I had side cramps that were bothering me throughout most of it but I able to push through and pace out at 7:16 pace for the 6 miles. Once Robb stopped yelling to his wife for his time, he also put it in high gear and ran about 8:15 pace.
By the end of the race we were both totally gassed. Like I said, my heat started 20 minutes ahead of Robb's so I waited for him to come through. When he came across the line I knew it was going to be close. After anxiously awaiting our results we confirmed that over a two and a half hour racing period Robb and I came across at almost the SAME time. Robb ran 2:28.28 while I ran a 2:28.49. HE WON. You would have thought he won a blasted Gold medal and (maybe you would have thought I just lost a gold medal). Robb whooped and howled and jumped circles around me while I slowly grinned in disbelief (and possibly said a curse word that I am repenting for.)
It was then and there that I knew that I was going to have to listen to his taunting for a full year. Perhaps if I would have grasped thetrue terribleness of this I would have renegotiated on the original deal. But no, there I was, dead tired, listening like a 12 year old girl being teased by her 17 year old brother about how I got beat. He was singing and dancing, hooting and hollaring, saying "Hey, take a picture of us! I just won!" Note: It does sound cruel for him to treat me this way. But really I don't get beat by my brothers very often so it was warranted.
And win he did, by the skin of his teeth! Pride, root beer and a social media 'Ode to the Other' on the line!
Oh how I wanted that root beer... and oh how I still want to snatch it out of his sticky little fingers.
I also have to give a shout out to my dad and Spencer(2:21.21) , as well as Trish and Tyler (2:21.44) who also did great on the relay side of things and took 2nd place respectively in their categories. Notice how they also finished within 20 seconds of each other. What are the chances?!
Throughout the past week I've had a few people say to me, "so what happened to you?" In which I had to laugh. "What happened to me? Well, I got beat." I ran that race 100% and so did he and I simply got beat. It reminded me of a quote by Prefontaine that my coach used to tell us:
"Sure there will be a lot of pressure. And a lot of us will be facing more experienced competitors, and maybe we don't have any right to win. But all I know is if I go out and bust my gut until I black out and somebody still beats me, and if I have made that guy reach down and use everything he has and then more, why then it just proves that on that day he's a better man than I. "
So Robert, at that race, you were the better competitor than I. But hopefully I forced you to give it everything you absolutely had. So today, you go ahead, drink your root beer, enjoy tomorrow's ODE TO ROBERT, but next year brother, you better be ready because I am coming!
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