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
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