A year ago when I started doing triathlons, I had several conversations with students and community members about triathlons. Ultimately, we had students who wanted to know why we didn't host one here. After discussing it with the other administrators and the coaches, we decided it had possibilities to become a good fund raiser for our high school athletic program. Last fall I went to the Chamber of Commerce meeting and got permission to try setting up a triathlon during Old Fort Days. Old Fort Days is a multi-day event, and why not add one more (or two more) events to the festival? We decided to have a spaghetti dinner the Friday night before the Saturday triathlon, and that we would start the triathlon at 7 AM to avoid the heat and still allow folks to get into town in time for the parade.
Another first for me; being a race director for a triathlon. There are some rules to being a race director, and probably the most paramount is, "The race director is not allowed to run the race." However, I am fortunate to have friends in Fort Sumner who will help me break the rules, so I did get to swim, bike, and run on Saturday.
Friday afternoon Scott and Lisa McMath, Doreen Winn, Irma Rodriguez and I made brownies and cooked the spaghetti and got things set up. We had about 125 folks come for dinner, and that went well. On Saturday morning we headed out to Sumner Lake State Park about 5 AM. Lots of people were needing to do packet pick-up the morning of the triathlon, and NOW I understand why so many triathlons don’t permit day-of packet pick-up or registration. We were small enough that we did accommodate the needs, and as long as we always have good help, we should continue to be a “kinder, gentler” triathlon. Everyone needed to be body marked, so we had some permanent markers to help with that. I didn’t get to do any of my usual pre-race stretching, equipment fiddling, or warming up because the next thing I knew it was time for the pre-race meeting and to get into the water. Fortunately Les was willing to air up my bike tires for me and I jogged down to get into the water. In the pre-race meeting I just reminded everyone that the course was NOT closed and that in a contest with a car, a runner or cyclist will always be the loser.
The staff at Sumner Lake State Park had put out the polypropylene rope (orange and black of course) and had attached milk jugs to it to act as buoys. We needed lots more of them and next year we will have a colorful buoy at the end to make the swim a bit better. I’d done the conversion from feet to meters incorrectly, so what was supposed to be a 400 meter swim ended up being about a 600 meter swim. I did the backstroke most of the way and it took me 20 minutes. Then it was a dash up the boat ramp to the transition area to get into the bike gear. Les helped me get my shoes on, and then it was out on the bike route. I do have to tell you that it did my heart good to see about six folks off and pushing their bikes on portions of the route that I was able to bike up. Our race route was pretty hilly, though it was only about 8 miles. It took me 42 minutes to do the bike portion of the triathlon and then it was into the running shoes, off with the bike helmet and gloves, and on with the running cap. The run was hilly at the start and the end, with some nice flat for the middle portion. The entire route is just beautiful. I was so excited when I finished and discovered that I’d set a new personal best with the 5K at 43 minutes! My prior best time was at Jay Benson when the run came first and I did it in about 45 minutes. HURRAH!!
Doreen worked to get all of the prizes and awards lined out, and I started packing up stuff to get back to town because I still needed to be the announcer for the Old Fort Days parade at 10 AM. There was some good news too; I got my first (only) FIRST prize. I was the only woman in my age group. We had 22 individual participants and I was 21st overall because I beat a 30 year old male by a couple of minutes. We also had five teams, and they all had a terrific time at the Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon. The whole triathlon took me 1 hour and 54 minutes. It was such a fun day and I loved the hard work of the triathlon here at home. We ended up making a profit for our athletic program of about $1,200 and that will just get better as we have more people join in next year.
The next triathlons are July 10th (Bottomless Lake near Roswell, NM) and July 17th in Santa Fe. I am working on my training plan for the next three weeks to try to build strength for these two triathlons. I’ve got some travel to Denver at the end of this month and I’m teaching at Pine Springs the first week of July. I am thinking that most of the training will have to be running since that is a portable portion of triathlons. I will take my mountain bike when I go to Pine Springs. Last year I found it a challenge to ride in the mountains due to the altitude. I suspect running will be similarly challenging there and in Denver <grin>.
Happily,
Patricia
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