"Nageled it!" Boise Half Ironman 70.3

It's officially in the books, the Nagel boys survived their first half Ironman. Thank you to everyone who cheered them on from near and far over the weekend. They definitely felt your support and both are recovering fantastically. I wish I would have written down more throughout the day, but chasing them around and trying to get photos was enough for me to handle.

Although I've only done a few smaller (and mostly local) races, I feel like I'm getting a good idea about what makes a good racecourse and what doesn't from being Kyle's cheerleader. This course was interesting in more ways than one. To start the race off, racers had to meet at Julia Davis park downtown and catch a shuttle up to Lucky Peak for the swim. Family and support crew were only allowed on once the driver was sure there were no other athletes. In theory, it sounds good, but we (me and my in-laws) missed the shuttle. So, it was up to us to get out there.

We ended up parking in the lower part of Lucky Peak and hiked about a mile up to the start, which wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds. But it was an interesting experience in comparison to the Cd'A Ironman where the start, finish, and transitions are all within walking distance.

Once the boys were on their bikes, we headed back into town to grab a bite to eat and catch them at their next transition. Now, during this time I had downloaded an app to watch them hit their checkpoints and let us know their paces. Something happened (or rather didn't happen) and Kendrich's first bike checkpoint never showed up. We were all worried that maybe he stopped or he'd hurt himself (he hurt his IT band about two weeks prior and almost didn't race). So off we went to check in with the medical tents and make sure he was still ok.

Sure enough, while checking up at him the app refreshed and said he'd finished the bike. We missed him. I also struggled with the Ironman website to follow athletes, I thought it had a lot to do with my cell service up at the swim, but I continued to have issues with it in town.

Needless to say, tracking Kyle and Kendrich was no easy feat. Luckily we met Kyle at each transition and several times during the run, where we eventually found Kendrich as well. Kyle finished the race in 5 hours, 34 minutes, almost 30 minutes faster than his goal time! Kendrich did great as well, especially considering he was injured - he finished at 6 hours, 23 minutes. Kyle's claim to fame for the day was almost having the same swim time as Apolo Ohno (yeah I totally spelled his name wrong in the last post - can you tell I watch speed skating religiously?) coming in at just 2 minutes slower. So rad!

I was so grateful for the shady park that day - it hovered right around 90 degrees the entire time we were there. SO proud of guys, they definitely earned their medals (which had the wrong date engraved on them - it said June 1, not June 7). I'll let you know about the rest of our trip soon.

Cheers!