Southwest Challenge Series

Guys that have been doing triathlons a LOT longer than me came up with an idea to keep track of results for a series of triathlons in the surrounding areas. They dubbed it the southwest challenge series and currently this year, there were approximately 35 races ranging as far north and east as Amarillo and Lubbock and west to places like Roswell, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Farmington. Whoever took up this task of keeping track of the results of all these races and the athletes is to be commended. I can't quite figure it out but I know it's been around quite a while and they do a wonderful job.

And what do they get out of it? Well, that's a head scratcher. As far as I can tell, they get nada from anybody for going to all that trouble and they give out pretty nifty awards to the series winners at the end of the year. Like monogrammed fleece vests - cool, huh? The only thing I've seen similar in concept (at least as far as funding goes) is AA. I've been sober for almost 8 years and went to lots of meetings. I could never figure out how they kept the lights on when nobody pays any dues or membership fees. But they do and it's an incredible program helping to keep people sober for over 70 years. I'm not comparing AA to a tri challenge series in effect on world peace and families, but it is cool how selfless people believe strongly in something and sacrifice to share their love of sport with others. We that follow the Series thank you for sharing with us.

Im in the old big boy division, otherwise known as Masters Clydesdale. I just started tri's last year and didn't race Clydesdale because of ego and because I wasn't sure if I would stay above 200 all year. Well, this year I competed in Clydesdale and have stayed about 203-207 all year. I had pretty much given up on winning my category because John Gardea was a machine and seemingly did every flipping race for the first 6 months! After the Milkman Tri on June 4, he had done 9 races with 5 1sts and 4 2nds. I thought I stood no shot catching him. In the Series, you get 10 points for 1st, 9 for second, etc., etc. By the time we did Ruidoso the following week John had 74 points and I had 55 points Having done 6 races - no shot right?

Well, John did a couple more tri's after Ruidoso but then stopped because he was doing a half Iron in Boulder. He also sustained a knee injury (although he was able to gut out the half Iron with it). I've done 4 more races since then and the point standings now are dead even with 78 point each! We've both got 6 firsts and 2 seconds for our best 8 races. Technically, John has a quarter point lead on me because he's done 11 races and I've done 10 and you get a quarter point for each race past 8.

I've still got the Eagle in the Sun on sept 4, Yucca tri on sept 10, and Elephant Man on sept 25. John will be doing two of those with me and it sounds like an exciting finish in the fat boy division! I'm just glad I'm still in it because John is one heck of a competitor.