I got an email last Friday from the TimpTriClub about participating in the first Annual ULTOT 7000. Before I explain what it is I will first say that when I got the email and read it I though hey, my wife is be out of town in the morning for girls camp so It would be fun to do something with the TimpTriClub and try this out. Looking back at it now I don’t think fun was the right word.

The first annual ULTOT 7000 stands for “Utah Lake to the Top of Timp” and the 7000 is the feet that you actually climb during the whole thing. It started with a 1 mile swim in Utah Lake at the American Fork boat harbor and then a long bike ride up the Alpine Loop to the Timpanooke trail head and then a hike from the trail head to the top of Timpanogos Mountain. Sounds fun enough, right? Let me preface it with that I only completed the swim and barely eeked out the bike so I can’t be counted in with the dedicated (crazy) people who actually did the whole thing. I was able to get my buddy Paul and Danny to come along with me because of how “fun” it sounded. To not be in the heat all day the swim started at 5:30 am so I woke up at 4:00 got all prepared and went and picked up both Paul and Danny. When we arrived at 5:15 we were the only ones there and thought that we were at the wrong place. After hitting a concrete barrier with my bumper, almost backing into a sewer ditch and following a newspaper delivery girl because we though she was part of the club we went back to the first place we started and there was a ton of people there. I never realized that the mosquitoes were so dang bad in the morning by the lake. We probably got Nile fever just waiting to start the swim.

The water was perfect, well at least the temperature was. Utah Lake still smells (and tastes) like poo. The swim wasn’t anything crazy, for me at least. Danny was puking and Paul created a new swim stoke just to able to finish. This was their first time swimming in the open water so they did pretty well considering. After swimming the mile I ran back to the car to see that almost everyone was ready to leave. Either the club only did 1 lap (half mile) or I am a really slow swimmer. I would like to think it was the first.

A couple of the pack stayed back for the rest of us slow pokes and we started the bike. I should have thought it was a sign when after only 1 minute on the bike my tire blew. Thankfully the people that were with me stopped and helped me fix my flat. This was my first flat on the new bike. We then proceeded to bike up into American Fork Canyon. I was feeling pretty weak all the way up. That sad thing was that the mountain bikers were passing me. I must be pretty slow to have mountain bikers passing me when I’m on my super-duper road bike. The road just kept going and going, steeper and steeper at every corner. The worst thing to do is ask how much further it is up the hill; the answer will always be a disappointment. After what seemed to be hours of climbing up and up an up on the road., my legs burning like crazy, I decided to dismount and walk to get some rest. This helped but jacked up my clip-ins. One of my screws came loose and the next time I clipped in I couldn’t get my shoe off the pedal again.

I finally made it up the hill and found Paul after some searching. He had been up there looking for me for an hour or so. I decided to forgo the 6 hour hike up to the top of Timp. I was pretty wasted as-is and I wanted to be able to see Tammy as she was just getting back from girls camp as a leader. All in all I had some good hill training and most importantly I learned not to trust the ultra crazy athletes when they say they are going to do a “fun” 12 hour workout.