Live, Love Tri-->August 27, 2011

Live Well, Love More, Tri Harder.  So say the women who organized the Live, Love Tri held this weekend in Rio Rancho, NM.  The race filled and we had a WONDERFUL time.  I've not done any other women only events.  When I saw that they were organizing this early in the spring I signed up online right away, as evidenced by my bib number 3.  I sent an email and a text, no reason to trust only one form of electronic communication, to my dear friend and fellow triathlete Marcy Oxford, and she also signed up immediately and she was #5.  Now this matters because we ended up with assigned racking and we were assigned by bib number, so we were rack buddies :-)  and now I am waaaaay ahead of myself in the story.

I arrived in Albuquerque in time to go to REI on Friday night to get my packet about 6:45 and ended up waiting in line until 7:30.  Now I know people usually gripe about waiting in line, but this was just a lovely time to visit with fellow triathletes and get to meet new friends.  It was really fun when I got up to the check in station and the organizers said, "Oh, you are Patricia Miller, the AMAZING Patricia Miller that we've heard so much about." and we all had a great giggle about that.  I guess Angie from Chasing3 Race Productions had been telling them about our Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon that we had in Fort Sumner, so that means we may get some more good entries next year.  Of course now I will owe Angie some payment for the good publicity <grin>.  After packet pick up  it was off to VietQ Grill to meet Marcy, Lisa and Lisa's daughter for supper and great conversation. 

As per our usual athlete ethic, we were in bed by 10 and up at 4:30 AM so we could hit Starbucks for skinny lattes and be at the race venue by 5:45 AM.  We even got to park in the parking lot and had no problem getting everything set up in transition.  The body marking and race organization were great.  The event was held at the Rio Rancho Aquatic Center and was set up as a reverse sprint triathlon.  We started with the run and went off in waves separated by three minutes.  Marcy and I were in the first wave.  The course is the same as the Patriot Triathlon and we start of going uphill and then we go off the paved path and go into the desert and run more uphill in the sand.  I don't really mind the sandy trail running because it is easier on my knees, but the sand is challenging.  I did love the downhill portions though, I felt so FAST.  My pace was nice for this run and while it was not my best 5K time, it was not bad at 42:41. Last year when I did the Patriot Triathlon on the same route my time was 52:53, so that is a 10 minute improvement.  Of course in the Patriot the run comes at the end, so a direct comparison is not very fair. 

T1 was great, as always in a reverse sprint, and then it was off on the bike for a great hilly 12 mile ride.  I passed so many people and it was hugely rewarding.  I got to say, "On your left" to so many people.  There were a number of folks who had not done triathlons before, so there were some folks who didn't know basic things like not riding two abreast or not to pass when someone is already passing someone.  Since I am a fairly aggressive cyclist, I paid close attention to everyone else and did really well and was extremely happy with my bike split time of 43:15.  The bike route does not compare to Patriot's route, but Chili Harvest has a 12 mile bike route and is much less hilly and it took me 45:45, so I am happy.  I should be happy because I am really sore today, so my legs worked hard yesterday.

T2 went really fast too since it is just a matter of stripping excess items off and running to the pool.  I did forget to take my inhaler out of my short pocket, and lost in the pool.  The pool was a bit of a battle zone.  I did a combination of backstroke and breaststroke and my time was 14:08, again an improvement and I passed some folks in the pool, and that is a novel experience for me.  I am still a super poor swimmer and I am freaking out the closer we get to Elephant Man.  That mile swim at Elephant Butte is making me tense, but I will just plug away because I know that I am a good plug away person.  Frankly, the kayak people are always great about shadowing the last person in the water, and since I have LOTS of experience being that person, it will be okay.  That is the positive self-talk I am using every time I begin screaming in my head anyway.

Overall, my time was 1:43:53 and that is 10 minutes faster than the similar distanced race in Socorro held just a few weeks ago.  I was 202 out of 265, so that means I can in ahead of 63 other competitors, and that is the most people I've come in ahead of in any triathlon.  Dance of joy moment!   We all got great necklaces as we finished.   My triathlon friend Paula gave me this really cool (operative word) neck bandana that I can use when I do the Yucca Triathlon and Elephant Man.  It has gel crystals in it and it will help me not to get overheated.

Next up on the fun list:

• Hearts on Fire Youth Retreat with our FCA students on Sunday/Monday of Labor Day weekend
• Yucca Triathlon at White Sands on 9/10.  This will be a different distance because it is a 7K run, a 45K bike, and a 400M swim.  After the triathlon I'll head to Las Cruces and spend the rest of the weekend with our daughter and son-in-law.  It will be great to see our friends in Las Cruces at the church there too. 
• Cotton County Triathlon at Levelland on 9/17.  I will drive over to Clovis and ride to Levelland with some of the Clovis triathletes.  They tell me that this is a great triathlon, and I am looking forward to it and have never done this one before.
• Elephant Man at Elephant Butte on 9/25.  This is an Olympic distance race, so that means a 1 mile swim, 26 mile bike, and 10K run.  At the recent clinic they told the attendees to power walk the first mile in the sand up the hill on the run rather than to try to run it, and then when we get to the paved road surface we can start running.  So glad they gave me permission to walk, giggle.  Heat can be an issue for the slow pokes like me.  Now the good news for me this year is that they are also having a 1/2 iron distance race, so my finishing time will be about the time that the finishers of the 1/2 iron distance folks are finishing--- yeah, I am truly that slow.  Oh well, it will be my race and it will be in my time. 

School has started, and I am so glad.  We are having a great time with the kids back on the campus.  My schedule of races is set up around the schedule of games, so there are relatively few conflicts.  Some of the triathlons are even set BECAUSE of the game schedule.  For example, the Yucca Triathlon follows a game at Capitan on the 9th, so I can drive to Alamogordo after the game and spend the night there and then be up at 4:15 the next morning so I can be at the White Sands gate by 5 AM for entrance to the base for the triathlon.  Training is early in the morning, and I'm logging lots of time in the weight room and have been getting in significant time on the elliptical or on the stationery bike.  For long runs I've been going out on the weekends that I don't race and leave the van parked at the top of seven mile hill and then I run home.  Later I have Les drive me out to pick up the van.  It always amazes me how far it seems when we drive out there.  It never seems that far when I am running, but when we drive, it seems like a long way.  That always seems like it should be reversed. 

October will bring a duathlon at Santa Rosa, the Candy Land Triathlon in Albuquerque, and the Duke City Marathon, so it has some fun ahead too.

Living Well, Loving More, and DEFINITELY Tring Harder,
Patricia

Chili Harvest Triathlon--> August 6, 2011

Oh, this was as GREAT triathlon in Socorro.  I had so much fun and improved my time by 12 minutes over last year.  I have to do the celebration part right at the beginning.  Three years ago I was the last person to finish this triathlon by 30 seconds.  It took me 2 hours and 24 minutes and 34 seconds to do this course that year.  This year it took me 1 hour and 53 minutes, so I've cut 31 minutes off my overall time in those three years.  It feels so great. My swim time was pitiful at 15 minutes and my run as sadly slow at 47 minutes (I'm not sure why either), but I was thrilled with the bike time of 45 minutes.   I finished the race ahead of seven people and was 8th in the Athena division.

Details of the Race

There was really no incentive to do packet pick-up on Friday evening or to come particularly early on Saturday since racking in transition was assigned.  Transition opened at 5:30, so I had a wake-up call for 5:00 and was at McDonald's for a big coffee and an egg McMuffin (no disgusting cheese with a 'z').  I toss half the muffin away and it is "just right" as Goldilocks would say.  There has been such a lot of dialog on some of the web blogs about the evils of caffeine in endurance events, with the recommendation that athletes limit themselves to only 200 mg of caffeine before competition or long training events.  I have decided that this is based on spurious and anecdotal evidence. Bring on the caffeine. Evidently they have three national cases of marathoners that had cardiac incidents in the last few miles of a marathon that they were able to revive.  All three had significant caffeine intake. There have been numerous others who have not been revived and they were not able to determine caffeine intake or any other reason for the cardiac incident.  I have determined that three is a mighty small number for this sort of recommendation, just my opinion and if you die, well I will be sad. Ranting will now cease. 

Well, even though assigned racking usually makes me want to growl a bit, I got a spot I liked just fine on the end of a rack and I was a happy triathlete.  I was able to hook up with some of the Outlaws and that was great fun and then the Oxfords from Las Cruces were all racing too, as were a whole host of folks from the Las Cruces triathlon scene, so it was fun visiting around prior to the race.  We lined up based on our pre-entered swim time.  I turned in 15 minutes, but ended up with people who turned in 12 and ahead of people who turned in 10, so I don't understand how that worked out.  I can tell you that the pool ended up being okay.  I had to do the back broadstroke most of the way, and so I hugged the lane line and stayed out of the way so folks could pass easily, so it was not a huge issue.

Once I was off on the bike, I was a passing maniac.  I LOVE the bike portion of the triathlon.  I may need to sign up for some bike races.  They'd paved some portions of the road recently and Grace (my bike) and I fairly flew along the way.  It was a dream bike ride.  Right after I made the turn on the way towards the first turnaround I was passed by a 12 year old boy.  My first thought was, "What!  How can that happen?  I'm having a great ride and no 12 year old boy can pass ME, no today."  Well, I calmed myself and reminded myself that I was doing my race, not his race, and that he was not my competition anyway...... chattering monkeys in my head continued to converse.  Well, he slowed down, so I had to say, "On your left," and pass him.  He could not stand it, and he immediately passed me.  I guess he had his own chattering monkeys in his head telling him that the 52 year old woman (ages on our legs in triathlon) could not pass HIM.  He almost immediately slowed though, and  I am really good at maintaining a consistent cadence, so I knew I needed o pass him back; yeah, you can see where this is going, can't you?  Anyway, we were close to the first turnaround, and that is a poor place to pass, so I hung back until we finished the turn, and then it was a slight downhill.  Well, my "superior mass" (shall we say weight) meant that gravity was certainly my friend and I blew past him.  After the next turn though, I knew he would have his chance because there was a long uphill and he would almost certainly pass me.  All along the way I was passing a good number of people.  The bike was good to me and  made great time.  Going up the hill my 12 year old nemesis did pass me, but that was okay because after the last turnaround, I passed him and he stayed passed.  It was 30-35 mph all the way back to transition and it was AWESOME.  I love the bike portion of this triathlon.

Okay, the run was not hideously hot, so I  have no explanation for my slowpoke time. I like the route, we get to run on an irrigation ditch for part of the way and that feels good on my legs, so I can't really tell you why it was slow.  No asthma issues, so it was just me having no gas and no go.  It was only 2 minutes faster than last year and I should have been 45 minutes or faster this year.  If it had been really hot...... oh well, it is done.  I just hated being passed by EVERYONE that I passed on the bike.  That made me sad to lose the lead I built up. Grady Oxford got second in his age group, Jeffery got 4th in his, and Marcy got 4th in hers, and the NM Outlaws were second in the team division.  

F1 Triathlon was cancelled this weekend because the fish have died in Bottomless Lake.  Mary was mocking me and said she is surprised they didn't just say, "Hey, this is an endurance sport, keep your mouth closed."  Evidently the Health Department takes a dim view on people swimming in decaying fish.  That makes the next event the Live, Love Tri at Rio Rancho, NM on August 27th.  After that I've got a 1/2 marathon in Roswell, NM on Sept. 5th and three triathlons in Sept., so the season is rolling along well into the fall.

Tri-ing Harder Every Day,
Patricia