Last year was the first time I did the Chile Harvest Triathlon in Socorro, NM (sprint distance race). This year I was excited for a couple of reasons: first, I would be able to compare times and see how much I'd improved from one year to the next, and second, one of the members of our fitness posse decided she could join me and do her first triathlon.
On the way over to Socorro on Friday afternoon (3.5 hour drive from our village), Laurie was telling me that she was swimming a half a mile in about 30 minutes. That made me feel really good because I've been stressing that my mile time is an hour and six minutes as I try to get ready for the Olympic distance Elephant Man race in September. Once we got to Socorro and did our packet pick up, we went to look at the pool. As Laurie talked it became clear that she's been swimming a mile in 20 minutes. Since this was a seeded swim start, she had way overestimated her time and was back with me in the 15 minute 400 meter group.
There were 365 racers registered, and a number of the attendees were staying at our hotel, so that was fun to catch up and visit with people from the triathlon "circuit." Some friends from Las Cruces (Grady, Marcy and their college-aged son Jeffery) arrived about 9, so short visit and early to bed so we could be at the transition area by 5:30 AM. Laurie and I'd gone to the store to purchase fruit and yogurt for breakfast the next morning, so we were set to roll early.
We arose to some thunderstorms, and while it sprinkled a bit between five and 7, it was all good by the time the race started. Since I am an honest assessor of my poor swimming speed, I was number 342 and it took about an hour to get my turn to get into the water. I had some great time to visit with other folks who were waiting for their turns as well. The mosquitoes were out in force, but the kind race volunteers rounded up some bug spray for us. Once I got in the water, I was able to swim freestyle for a couple of laps and that felt good because I generally do the backstroke, back broadstroke, and the breast stroke. I was feeling good and switched over to the back broadstroke and realized I was swimming up on someone. I stood up (in the shallow end, fortunately) and apologized profusely. The gentleman was so courteous and said, "No apologies needed. You are passing me; good for you." I was so jazzed because I've never passed anyone before, so while I am pitifully slow, I was doing well on the swim. Last year the swim took me 17:31 and this year it took me only 13:35. I know that is still terribly slow, but such an improvement made me happy.
Off running into transition, and that went pretty well and I got off on the bike. The route is uphill for the first two miles, then some rolling hills and then uphill for another three miles and then a nice downhill for the last four miles. This year I was actually on the course when other people were on the course. Did I mention that last year I was the absolute last person to finish the race and that they announced, "Here is our last triathlete of 2009, Patricia Miller from Fort Sumner."? No, I didn't think I'd mentioned that little memento of shame. Anyway, I passed people, people passed me, there were people on the bike course and I was not the last one in from the bike course :-D Last year the bike (12.5 miles) took me 1:05:57 and this year it only took me 55:41!
Much jubilation for me, and then out on the run course. It was hot and humid (okay not humid by Florida or Houston standards) but I still improved on last year's run time of 54:49 by finishing the run in 49:54. This was not my best 5K time, but overall I was able to cut 19 minutes off the event from one year to the next (2009-->2:25:34 and 2010-->2:05:24). The best part of all is that there were people on the course while I was on the course. I have not had that experience before.
This year I was fifth from the last of those that finished, coming in ahead of two men and two women.
The next sprint race is the Rio Rancho Patriot Tri on Sept. 12th with a 400m swim, 16.5 mi bike, and a 5K. This is a pretty hilly course, and last year I did it in 2:27:40, but the bike was only 14 miles last year due to road construction. I am going to try to do the total time in two hours and ten minutes or less.
I guess it takes a long time to get in shape, even when you've lost a lot of weight. I am still training 8-10 hours a week, though I am worried quite a bit about the Elephant Man (Olympic distance) on September 26th. While I am slow, I do persevere, so right now my race plan is to "keep swimming, keep cycling, and run when I can and walk the rest."
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