New York City triathlon

Last year I did a hundred races all over BF Texas and NM. Not that Roswell isn't a nice place (it isn't), but I wanted something a little more glam for my 3rd full year competing. I did local tris at Ft. Bliss and Ruidoso, a tri clinic and race in Boulder, Colorado and this past weekend was New York City. September will have me in San Diego for another Olympic distance. I also signed up for my first 70.3 in October in Tempe. Big year for me and Nora! Onto the race report from NYC.

I was more than a little intimidated going in to NYC for 2 reasons:  this was only my 2nd Olympic distance and the race had close to 4000 entrants. My "biggest" race is Eagle in the Sun. My only other Olympic was the Elephant Man last September a-a-a-and my times sucked (45 minute swim, 90 minutes on the bike and over an hour on the run for a total time of 3:31 - you may remember reading about it). My fears were unfounded though as it was ran very smooth and I killed the race. I was also worried about the weather and the day before the race was hottest day of the year for NYC. Thankfully, it rained Saturday night and killed some of the heat.

My goal going in was to break 3 hours. Distances were mile swim in the Hudson, 40k on the bike, and 10k on the run. Got to transition at 5 and got set up. Race was wetsuit legal and the swim was in the Hudson so wetsuits were definitely in the picture. The swim was with the current but it got weaker as the day wore on and I was in a later wave.  We jumped off a barge into the river and off we went.  The swim was easy for sighting because there was a whole line of kayaks and boats to the riverside (2 swimmers died last year so they were a tad protective) and on the other side was the bank of the river. The only thing bad about the swim was the dead fish and debris that I kept bumping into. I can't tell you what the debris was as I was afraid to look but it felt pretty dang solid. I was hoping for a swim time of about 30 minutes. I got out in 23 minutes! Current helped for sure but 23 minutes!

 Long run from water exit to T1. Thanks to Brightroom for this shot.

Kept on keeping on to get to biking. Course included a steep short climb out of transition and then lovely scenic miles on the West Side highway of New York. It was hella hilly. There seemed to be people breaking down and waiting for SAG support all over the place but I guess that's to be expected with the number of athletes involved. There were also some pretty nasty crashes with one guy taken off in an ambulance.   I managed to dodge the carnage and kept a pretty decent pace and got off the bike in 1:17. I was hoping for about 1:15 but with the hills and the heat, that was good for me.

George Washington Bridge in the background

 Sidebar -  I'm sure somebody more technically adept than me could make this blog and the photos integrate more seamlessly so please forgive me if this blog looks like it was put together by a 3rd grader. I'm a father and husband first, lawyer second, triathlete third and somewhere way down the line comes the part of my life where I get to work on my computer skills.  Sorry for the digression. Where were we?

Got back into T2 and had a fast change to get out on the run. Went straight East out of transition up 72nd street into the middle of Central Park.  This park is a work of art and world renowned as a center of leisurely recreational activity.  It is great for that if you're moving at a "leisurely" pace.  If you are, however, running a 10K after swimming a mile in the nasty polluted Hudson and then biking 40K in 90 degree weather up and down hills, it is quite challenging.  Nora's law school buddies were very kind the night before the race to tell me, "Oh, you're not running in the north half of Central Park are you? That's very hilly!" Thanks guys, but they were right.  It was up and down but blessedly pretty shady the whole way and had lots of aid stations.  I was proud of my effort and my 5K and finishing splits were pretty close.  Finished the run in 55 minutes for a total time of 2:42

I think you can tell I didn't leave a lot in the tank

 I was ecstatic with my results. I couldn't believe it to be frank.  I knocked off 49 minutes from my previous Olympic distance time!  I was even more shocked to find out that I came in 6th in my division out of 45.  To top it all off, I was then told that I qualified for the U.S. National 5150 Championship by finishing in the top 15.  What a mind blower.  I saw a whole new look of admiration in my wife's eyes. That meant more to me than she'll ever know, especially since she's been there from the very beginning baby steps into triathlon and supported me so much.  I know it meant a lot to her too to see me do well.

All in all, all I can say is wow.  Keep up your training, stay consistent, and you never know how far your body will take you.

How not to apply sunscreen

I've actually heard of this happening which makes it all the more embarrassing that it happened to me but I post as a cautionary tale to all my fellow athletes.  If you're going to be riding for an extended period, like the 3 hours I did on Sunday, make sure you apply your sunscreen BEFORE you put your shirt on. Also, if you want a really cool tramp stamp sunburn, don't worry about your lower back where your shirt may ride up your back while your riding.

Top Ten Reasons You Know You're a "Real" Triathlete

In the order they came in my head:
1. You are not only on first name basis with the bike store and running store owners, you have their cell phone numbers AND they immediately return your texts.
2. You can't pass a flag without checking for wind direction, even if you're in your car.
3. You take two showers a day.
4. You get to take an island vacation and instead of thinking about lying on the beach, you start scoping out running routes and planning open water swims.
5. On a related note, baggage for any out of town trip includes running gear and goggles.
6. You know the lap swim schedule for every pool in town.
7. A day off from work makes you happy because now you can work out whenever you want.
8. You think it's sane to do a 3 hour brick workout, burn 2000+ calories, and then look at the labels of sports drinks to see which one has the least sugar.
9. The inside of your car looks like a going out of business sale at Sports Authority.
10. You've come to accept the necessity/vanity of the 2 hours it takes to shave.

Feel free to discuss among yourselves and add to the list.

Plan for the year

I've been derelict in my posting. I'm not even about doing 13 sprint triathlons this year. Did that last year and had a blast but this year I'm going to more scenic places than Roswell and Amarillo. I'm also going to ramp up the distances.  I'll be doing the New York City Triathlon on July 8 and the San Diego TriRock Triathlon on September 9. Both are Olympic distances.

For the NYC tri, I'm competing as a contestant for the Challenged Athletes Foundation and raising charity dollars. The Foundation provides prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs for athletes So far I've raised $2,505 with incredible donations from people like fellow triathlete Brooks Vandivort and fellow runners Colleen and Craig Marusich.  My goal is $3000 and anybody that wants to contribute to a very worthwhile cause can click here Rob Lovett CAF donation page.

I'm also going to do the Eagle in the Sun Triathlon also in September. Then I'm going to Costa Rica for a week in November to learn surfing. Fun times!

Not a 'wannabe' anymore

Its official. I have to change the name of this blog. Savvy KFOX news reporter Kandolite Flores called me a triathlete so it must be true. I'm not a wannabe anymore!

Winter blues

Man I hate when it gets cold. I know that's a relative term considering that I live in El Paso, but it still sucks going to swim when it's dark and cold outside. It just doesn't compute for me. I detest biking indoors and now daylight savings time kicks in tomorrow which might as well mean "no daylight time." I remember back in college that I thought the Monday after daylight savings time should be a holiday just so we could celebrate the extra sleep.

I also got sick for the first time in over two years and was OUT for 2 weeks. This month marks 2 years that I've been training and I thought at some point you got to the point where training becomes second nature but it's still a chore for me. A chore that too easily slips to the back burner when one isn't competing and the winter blues set in. This is problematic considering that I signed up for the Flying Horse half marathon here in El Paso and the Vegas half in December.

I did manage to drag my sorry butt out of bed yesterday and ran 7 miles and felt surprisingly good considering I've ran maybe 4 times since the Elephantman. I ran into Brian Carter at the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes charity event and was grousing about my lack of motivation. He kindly invited me to ride with him and Mike Baker. I was a little intimidated because Bryan is a stud triathlete and Mike is a legend. Showed up this morning and off we went! I found out that Mike has done 40 Iron distance races including 8 at Kona - freaking 40! Great guys and we knocked out 50 miles the last hour or so with a 50 mph wind.

I feel good about my fitness level surviving my dip in enthusiasm and am back on track!

Elephant Man Butt Whupping

Did my first Olympic distance triathlon in EB last Sunday. Just writing about it now because haven't had time and I needed the time to gain perspective on the race. The race was a 1 mile swim, 27 mile bike, and 6 mile run. My thinking was to be under 3 hours based on my performances in sprints this year. A confluence of events caused me to rethink my strategy race morning.  First, I already had enough points in the SW Challenge Series so, unless I got first place in my division, it wouldn't effect my point standings if I came in 2nd or last in my division. Second, I looked around at the start and holy cow there were some studs there! There were teams from Univ of Arizona, the Black Dog Tri team, and overall some big dudes that looked like former Navy Seals that all had their game faces on.  Having no particular ego-induced delusions about my own athletic prowess, I meekly asked Coach Gretchen at the transition area, "Uh Coach, would you be pissed if I just 'experienced' this race?"  For those of you who don't do these masochistic events on a regular basis, when you don't have a good race you just say "I wasn't racing that event, I was just using it as training."  Works like a charm.  Gretchen told me this is your first Oly, this is a very, very difficult race, it's the last race of the season - just have fun! Well, that's why she's a good coach, so that's what I set out to do.

I repeated my prerace approach from Socorro and rode my bike from the hotel to the transition area.  If you have the chance to do this, I highly recommend it as your family doesn't have to get up at dawn, you bypass all the traffic and hiking to transition area, and you get a little warm up/equipment check for free. Besides that, you look cool riding to your race with your tri gear on your back (at least I think so).  Had a large contingent of local tri geeks in attendance. Training partners Brooks Vandivort and Art Sanchez were carrying the big stick and doing the 70.3 (both 1sts for them, which leads me to question their sanity because this race will definitely not be my first 70.3). Cody H. did the 70.3 as well and is a stud of all studs for doing so (he knows why).  Gretchen, Jason M., Greg G., Juan E., Lowry B., Dr. Mark and a host of others were doing the Oly.

As stated, the swim was 1 mile in open water although all agreed it looked a lot longer than a mile. My number one goal for the swim was to survive as the longest open water swim I had done was 500 yards in a pond at Dexter that's maybe 5 feet deep and that took me 12 minutes. I was less than enthused about swimming a mile where I could never touch the bottom.  I've been working hard on my swimming though so I figured 35-45 minutes would be acceptable.  The water was 78 degrees and no wake, no wind at all so perfect conditions. I wore a sleeveless wetsuit for the first time because I feel too constrained in the full.  I kept up with the pack for the first 100 meters or so and then settled into a quasi rhythm interrupted by frequent sight checks.  I can't swim a straight line to save my life but managed not to take too many detours.  I stopped one time early on b/c my wetsuit strap kept wrapping around my right arm and was driving me batty (note to tri newbies - make sure your strap is tucked in).  Overall, I kept a very steady pace but slow and managed to come out of the water in one piece in 45 minutes.

I really don't think there's any way to mimic open water swimming in a pool. You just have to swim in big bodies of water which we are unfortunately lacking in El Paso.  I suggest all local triathletes pool our money (pun intended, ha ha) and get us a nice man-make lake in which we can train.  We could call it Lake Proud in honor of uber athlete Diana Proud who just passed from ALS. Diana Proud local legend
Food for thought.

This race has by far the longest transition of any race I've entered. Turns out when you have a triathlon with an open water swim, and the body of water is at a record low level, you have to go a long way to get to the parking lot that is serving as a transition area.  And you have to go up a big ass hill, barefoot, in the sand.  At least I had a cheerleader in my corner.

This particular 8 year old cheerleader had just completed his race the day before with his old man running up the hill beside him yelling encouragement including that he was being passed by certain other 8 year olds.  So he dutifully told me, "Dad, he's passing you!" at about this point. You can see the burst of speed I put on while telling him there's a long way to go.

Thanks to my beautiful wife for taking the photos and also encouraging me all the way.

My calves cramped up when I sat down to have my wetsuit stripped but it stopped when I stood up.  Got on my bike knowing that sub 3 hours was probably out of the picture due to my swim and decided to push hard but not kill myself and enjoy the experience.  

Even with that, I managed to pass 30 people on the bike (yes, I counted).  The bike course has an elevation change of over 1000 feet because there are some good climbs in and out of some canyons. I had no problems on the bike despite the rough road surface and felt pretty good coming back into transition and my bike split was 1:33.

On to the run.  For perspective, Clay Mosley won the 70.3 in a time of 4:44.  I heard him say afterward that the run course was the hardest he had ever been on.  It was brutal.  No flat terrain, up and down winding hills, no shade, no relief.  I took my time like I've never done before, walked most of the uphills and finished the run in 1:06 for a total time of 3:30.

Do I regret not pushing myself more and putting up a more respectable time? Absolutely not.  I enjoyed the experience and for a first time oly distance on such a hard course, I'm happy with it. I even managed to have some encouraging words for other athletes and a smile on my face for parts of the race.

The race itself was well-organized with tons of helpful volunteers.  The race director? Not such a nice lady but I'm kind of spoiled by race director extraordinaire Gabby Gallegos who always had a smile on her face even though there were over 500 athletes at the Eagle in the Sun asking lots of questions.  I think Kori just wants everybody to show up, race, and keep their mouth shuts. I was very leery of her going in due to some comments she made after the Dam It man Triathlon but kept a open mind.  I know now how she earned her reputation as she was very terse and dismissive when I tried to ask a couple of questions.  That being said, the race was organized and executed beautifully so personal dislike for her communication skills aside, I give the race a thumbs up.

Holloman Raptor Duathlon

I know I've always had trouble in the past locating registration forms for the races held at Holloman AFB so when I located the form, I decided to post just in case anybody else has issues tracking it down. Here's the link: http://www.hollomanfss.com/FitnessNSports/Forms/Triathlon2011.pdf

It's a 5K, 30K bike, and 700 meter swim and it's called the "Raptor" for cyring out loud! How can you resist? See you there!

Yucca Triathlon, Weekend training

Did the Yucca Triathlon at White Sands Missile Range on Saturday.  I really, really thought about not going to this one. I am tired.  Just got a huge influx of cases from a big shot television advertising lawyer from out of town who decided he didn't want to handle his El Paso cases. Have a trial starting on Tuesday. Worked what seemed like 80 hours this week and I left all I had on the table at Eagle in the Sun. But come 9 the night before, I dutifully started putting my stuff together by shaming myself by asking what would Cody or Gretchen do? They'd compete and so I did. Not to mention this event was carbon made as a good training event for the upcoming Elephant Man as it was advertised as an 8K run, 45K bike, and 400 meter swim. Close to olympic distance and would be the longest distance tri I've done so far.

If you haven't done a triathlon at WSMR, I highly advise it. The base is never crowded, it's only a hour drive from the west side of El Paso, and they have good volunteers and are well organized. The schwag? Not so good but who couldn't use another cotton race t-shirt right?

Got up at 4 to get ready and make the drive and was searching the base for the staging area by 5:30.  When in doubt, just follow the other guys with tri bikes and they'll get you there.  There was noise about cancelling the race because only 30 people had signed up but they got enough late registrants to yield about 51 racers so we were on. Race was a reverse distance course.  Run was basically a 4.25 loop on streets and I felt good and managed to negative split the miles and came in just under 34 minutes.  I needed to put time on my Clydesdale competitor John G. because I knew he'd be coming for me hard on the bike.  The slightly longer run gave me an opportunity to get ahead of him but the longer bike to come would give him a greater opportunity to catch me and pass me before we got to the swim. We're about equal in the water, so I didn't want him passing me on the bike.

One of the good things about a non-USAT sanctioned race held on a military base is they are not sticklers for the rules. Case in point - no mount/dismount line.  You could run up to your bike, get your shoes on, mount and cycle right out of the transition area.  You could also do the same coming in off the bike which I took full advantage of and made for some lightning fast transition times.

The bike route was out the base down a long a gradual hill and then a small loop off the main road on a pea gravel road that shook the crap out of everybody.  You were on that road for about 12-13 miles and felt it later in the day.  No volunteers at the turn points anywhere so you just had to follow the crowd and keep an eye out for markers.  One guy missed the turn barrel and ended up doing the bike portion backwards but got it done.  After getting off the gravel road, you were back on the main road going back up that long gradual hill which strangely wasn't so gradual anymore.

Obligatory Cheesy Medal Shot

I thought I was flying down the hill and keeping the distance between me and John but at the 14 mile turnaround, he was right freaking behind me!  He looked beat though but I knew that didn't mean anything when it came to John.  I figured I could hold him off to maybe 20 miles and then he'd pass me but I kept going as fast as I could go.  Shockingly, he never caught me on the bike and into the pool.  I was Cadillac'ing the swim because there was nobody in front of me I could catch and nobody trying to catch me.  Swim was up and back in 25 meter pool for 8 lanes. I was looking for John and saw him coming up the first lane when I entered the 3rd.  The rest of the swim was something like swim, swim, swim, look for John, swim, swim, swim, look for John, repeat.  Finished in 1:54 and took 1st in the old fat guy division!

Then I looked at the Gretchen torture, er, training calendar for tomorrow hoping for the always appreciated but rare "off day."

Bo the wonder dog

Nope - I quote "This is a critical workout for Elephant Butte." 26 mile ride followed by 6 mile run. Gulp.  I was tired but, again, dragged my sorry butt out of bed and joined the group for the ride.  Kept up just fine until I got to 13 miles then turned around and headed back on my own. Grabbed my running shoes and my running buddy "Bo the wonder dog" and off.

6 miles was 2 miles to get legs under me, 2 mile at Yucca tempo (8/mile) and then last 2 doing 30/30s. I forgot to take my "sports legs" power pills this morning and my legs started to cramp something fierce while doing the tempo miles.  I managed to keep up the tempo but I could feel that if I tensed up my quads at all, they were going to lock up.  I had never felt that while running before. After the workout? Lotsa times. Never during. Note to self - load up the sports legs pills before any 2 hour or longer workout!

Eagle in the Sun 2011 Race Report

The race report for the race I've been shooting for all year! So the goal in my head was to significantly redeem myself from last year's piss poor effort. I wanted to do well last year but laid an egg with no excuse other than psyching myself out.  My times last year were 400 meter swim 10:52, 20K bike 39:35 and 5K run 29:37.  The first two times include transitions as they didn't break that out from the splits last year.  The bike wasn't bad for my conditioning level last year but I had swam closer to 9 minutes and had run a 5K in 22 minutes not long before the tri, so I was disappointed.  Due to that, and that I know a lot of the entrants, and that its my hometown, I felt like all my training this year and the good results I had earlier in the year would be a waste if I didn't do as well as I wanted in this race.  Enough melodramatic head drama Rob! On to the race report.

I had mucho trepidation going in because Gabriella enlarged the number of entrants to 550 - that's a lot of people for a sprint, especially with a staggered swim start. I was actually surprised at how well it went. Everything was very smooth.  Fellow Gretchen acolyte/trainee Art Sanchez and I rode out together and got there right at 5:30 for the 7:30 beginning of swim starts.  They had volunteers checking helmets and bikes for race numbers, bar inserts, etc. My word of advice to newbies - get there freaking early because Art and I snagged perfect spots for our bikes and got set up and ready to go before the multitudes hit. Saw Gretchen for a brief second and she was focused like a laser.  Saw Bobby, John Gardea, Trey Hancock and lots of fellow "veterans" from last year's race.  I can never get over what a great group of people triathletes are.

We all lined up and swim started rather smoothly. Just met fellow blogger Juan E. at Socorro Chile Harvest Tri and now he's stalking me! Actually might have something to do with the fact that he was number 190 and I was 188 and we have similar abilities and were within sight of each other all day. My swim was solid although I got a little discombobulated right off the bat when I jumped in the pool. We jumped in on the deep end and I can never quite position myself right - do I jump in headfirst, sit on the edge and slide in, or hop in? I've never committed to anyone one approach and invariably flop in as an adrenaline-ridden contorted mess.  One of the results of the uncoordinated water entry is water in the goggles and water up the nose. I ignored the suffocating feeling and continued swimming but for some reason I never felt like I was breathing properly.  I freaked out my wife a little bit because my unease finally got to be too much and I stopped in the middle of the 4th or 5th lane for just a second and stood up to clear my head.  Hadn't done that in a while. After that, I was cool and finished in 8:55.

Got on my bike super fast and was gone quickly.  I was very excited about the bike because of my new toy for the back wheel.  That's a Zipp 9 Disk baby! I've always hesitated to buy stuff like that because I don't want to be the jackass with all the fancy toys that puts his nose in the air (hate that guy).  But a little discussion I had with fellow clysdesdale Jason McClure included the advise "don't be ashamed to pay for speed." Took his advise and got this baby and LOVE it! Improved my bike split from last year by 6 minutes to 33:18 for the flat out-and-back 20k.  I was hoping to be at 35 or under but when I made the turn and started back I really picked up the speed and ended up with an average speed of 22.5 mph.

I passed a jillion people on the bike and only got passed by one - Mr. Escobar.  Worked out well because we took turns passing each other (draft legally, mind you) for the entire 20K.  I was happy with my flying dismount as I finally figured out how to get my feet out of my shoes while riding.  The only problem with the bike route is you have a lot of little twists and turns as you're coming in the last little bit which kills your speed but maybe that's the idea?

Had a really fast T2 of 45 seconds thanks to the aforementioned dismounting trick and off on the run.  Here's the only part that didn't go to plan.  In my restless nights leading up to the race, I imagined a "perfect" race of 8:30-9 on the swim, 35 on the bike with 1-2 minutes for transitions so I'd be on the run by 45 minutes and lay down a 23-24 minute 5K so my "perfect" time would be 1:08 or so.  I figured I needed that time to win the Clydesdale division - that is until I saw the Clydes signed up for this race included David Fairbanks.  Haven't heard much from Mr. Fairbanks this year but last year he won Clyde every time he entered, and was usually in top 3 overall.  His best time for a distance like this is in the one hour even range so I knew I had no shot of winning the division.  (Gonna stop the digressions -  I swear!)

Me and John waiting for results

Started the run feeling good but didn't have my usual level of speed.  I did the 5K at Socorro in 24 flat so I figured I'd top that but it wasn't to be.  Ended up at 25:19 with some thanks to Art and Gretchen who saw me finishing up and ran with me a bit to keep the pace up.  Thanks guys!

Overall time of 1:09:24 and 2nd in Clydesdales Master Division of 23.  As a side note, there were 28 under 40 Clydesdales and 1st place in their group would've been in 5th in the "old" clydes. So take that whipper snappers!  My good friend John Gardea told me in the transition area that this race was "just for fun" but he still almost beat me even with a slow T2 because of trouble with his knee brace.  That just makes me shake my head because there is no way John should be as fast as he is with a bad knee and weighing 400 pounds not that long ago.  He just amazes me.


So for those of you keeping track at home, I improved my time from last year by 11 minutes and went from 79th overall to 30th. I'm happy with that and now just got to figure out the pacing on the bike so I don't lose strength on the run.

 On a related note, do you think this photo means Nora's ready to start swimming and become a triathlete? I think so!

Next race will be the Elephant Man Olympic triathlon (my first non-sprint distance). I signed up for the Yucca triathlon this coming Saturday but it's probably going to get cancelled for non-participation.  Wish me luck for the 1 mile swim at Elephant Butte!

Countdown to Eagle in the Sun

I don't know why but the Eagle in the Sun triathlon next Sunday has taken up an inordinate amount of my mental focus all year. Maybe its because I laid an egg last year en route to a miserable finish and need to redeem myself. It's a great race with over 450 competitors, flat as a pancake, and well-organized. I personally know a large percentage of the athletes, El Paso being such a small big town. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well in this race and last year was the first year it was held and I cracked. I had only been training about 10 months when I raced it and the swim completely freaked me  out. I had only swam (swum?) in a 50 meter pool one time before and didn't cope so well. The swim was simple -8 laps in a 50 meter lane for 400 meters, 8 lanes in the pool so no up and back in the same lane. Like I said, I freaked and about half way down the first lap, I popped up gasping, out of air, and stood up. I recovered okay but still took me 10:52 including the swim to bike transition, which was just awful. By comparison, I just did the same swim at Soccoro in 8:40. The swim threw me off for the rest of the race and I took 39:35, again including transition, to do the 20K bike, and 29:37 for the 5K (no transition excuse this time) for a total time of 1:20:04.

I was an age grouper last year and came in firmly in the middle of the pack. Hanging on my refrigerator for the last couple of months is a piece of paper with those times written out along with the winner's time for the Clydes last year - Mr. Jason McClure in 1:10:56.

This year I fully intend to redeem myself. My training has been really good the last month. In the last 7 days, I've covered 143 miles in about 11 hours of training. I've picked up my swimming volume quite a bit and my runs off the bike have been crisp.  My goal will be 8:30 or under for the 400 meters, 35 or under for the 20K, and 23 for the 5K. Put that together with good transitions and I'm shooting for under 1:10, hopefully 1:08.

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.

Elephant Butte Tri Clinic

My coach set up a triathlon clinic to prepare for the upcoming Elephant Man Triathlon on September 25. She had a good turnout with 8 of us there including Brooks, Art, and Laura. Several newcomers as well which is always good to see. There will be an Olympic (1 mile swim, 26 mile bike, and 10K run) and Half Iron (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run). I've done 10 sprints this year and have the Eagle in the Sun coming up on September 4 and I was honestly thinking about not doing the Elephant Man because the idea of swimming a mile freaks me out a little. I've done 99% of my swimming in a 25 yard pool with workouts going up to 2000 yards.  A mile is 1750 yards so I know I can swim the distance but swimming that straight in a lake is a lot different from swimming in a pool 25 yards, pushing off a wall and doing it again, all with the safety that you just can stand up anytime you have a problem. Not so much in a freaking lake.

I went to Gretchen's clinic because I need the open water training and I never miss the chance to participate in a clinic since there are so few in this area. Gretchen put on a great clinic. We swam for about a mile and I surprised myself and swam really well. No problems with my fitness at all. Swimming a straight line? - whole 'nother story. Not good AT all. Gotta work on my sighting because I suck at it. Can't swim a straight line to save my life. Irritatingly, there's no black line on the lake bed, not that you could see it if there was.

The bike route is a 26 mile loop described by Gretchen as gentle rolling hills followed by 2 steep hills and then a long descending ride back.  My idea of "gentle rolling" dramatically differs from Gretchen's but they weren't all that bad. Pretty rough roads all the way but no dramatic pot holes that I discovered (although I did discover several dead animals).  The two steep hills were as advertised and are rumored to bring bikers to walking the hill with their bikes.  It's about 16 miles on the winding roads and "gentle rolling" hills and you end up back at I-25 and then back on a small highway that leads back to Elephant Butte.  Screaming fast ride back topped off by a nice scenic view of the lake as you come back.  Very, very careful on the way back down to the transition area as it STEEPLY descends into the boat ramp area.

We finished with a brief run to experience the beginning of the run. It's through the sand up some small hills and then one steep little hill til you are at the road that goes over the dam.

After today, I'm definitely doing the Olympic distance!  This will be a tough course made even more difficult by the fact that this race doesn't start until 8 a.m. (the real studs doing the 1/2 Iron start at 7). That means if the swim takes me approximately 30 minutes and the ride 1:15-1:30, I won't get to the run until almost 10 a.m. If you read my blog at all, you'll know that me, heat and running don't get along so well. I will do it though.

I cramped up something fierce after I cooled down but one of the guys helped me out with a banana and some CR333. This guy, who I just met today, is named Bates Gaddy and is 30. He decided he wanted to do a triathlon and started training this year and has already done 3 half Irons and just did Vineman Full Iron 2 weeks ago! Freaking crazy! I'm not even thinking half iron til next year and MAYBE a full Iron the year after that. Hats off to Bates.

Odessa Tumbleweed Triathlon

Day 2 in the Midland/Odessa triathlon saga. First to transition area again. Getting to be a bad habit. This triathlon was held on the UT Permian Basin campus. Was setting up my bike when Bobby and Brooks showed up and sat up right next to me. Great guys and Bobby is a consummate professional who stirs my feelings of inadequacy as I watch him "warm up" at a pace I can only dream of. Brooks is always a very positive influence and all around great guy who is humbly lightning fast.

I was surprised to find that I wasn't that sore despite having done the tri the day before in the heat in Midland. My back was spasming a little in the morning so was a little concerned about that. Warmed up a with a little jog and back spasms went away.  Swim start was a cluster mess but there was only 70 or so athletes in a 50 meter pool so it all worked out. Felt better on the swim today and came in for the 400 meters in 8:52. Went out on the bike and felt good there. Was looking for Jason McClure who had beat me by 2 1/2 minutes the day before.  Somehow he must've started the swim behind me because I didn't see him until I made the turn on the bike and he was trailing me by 1/4-1/2 mile. Started cranking as if John Gardea was chasing me.  Finished the 20K in 36:21 for a 21.2 mph average (yeah boy!) and hit the ground running.

5K is a flat out and back. Felt much better on the run than yesterday because it wasn't a million degrees and had mile splits of 8:30, 8:38 and 8:02. Saw Jason just after turnaround point again on run but had no idea how much after me he had started his swim. He told me I was looking good on the run which just goes to show what a class act he is and triathletes in general.  I finished the run and then started my watch again to see how far he was behind me.  I finished in 1:13:37 and Jason in 1:16:34, so 1st place in Clydesdale!

All in all, very well run triathlon other than the sloppy swim start. Bobby had a little bit of misfortune in that there were some speed bumps as you exited the campus. Bobby was looking down at his computer and didn't see the speed bump and had a minor wreck. He was still fast enough even with a wreck to come in 2nd overall in 57:16, only :37 seconds from winning. Some kind of stud.

My man Brooks was 9th overall in 1:05:09 and came in 2nd in his age group.  Ashley Petry and her dad Darrel Petry were also there and did awesome.

Bob Carlson said I probably owed by 4 minute improvement in one day in my 5K time to something called race effect. I don't know what it was but I like it!

Midland/Odessa Weekend of Triathlons

Signed up for the Midland Tall City Triathlon on Saturday July 29 and Odessa Tumbleweed Triathlon on July 30. Midland was 500 yard swim, 20K bike, and 5K run - Odessa the same except 400 meter swim.  Both races were put on by the respective YMCAs in each city and I give them credit for putting them on BUT neither were exactly setting the world on fire with organizational skills although Odessa was run better IMHO. Stayed in Midland for both and since Nora didn't go with me, I was equally looking forward to the races and reading Jim Butcher's new volume in the Dresden files "Ghost Story" in my down time between races. If you haven't read any of these books, I highly recommend. They're not geeky sci fi treatises but wry entertaining wizardy geeky sci fi. Back to the races.

First one to transition at Midland which was in a alley next to the "COM." I had no idea what the "COM" was but every time I asked somebody in Midland, where's the race or where's the transition area, the inevitable response was, oh, you know, at the "COM." This even though I prefaced my question every time with "I'm from El Paso, where's the race and, no, I don't know where the 'COM' is." Anyway I found the COM and got set up by 6 for a 7 race start and then found out the seeded swim start was done by race numbers and I was close to last.  I didn't swim until 8 freaking 45 which meant I didn't get to my run til approximately 9:33. The run was around a park for 3 laps with zero shade and flat out died on the run. Rocked the bike.  500 yard swim was 10:29, 20K bike 37:04 (21 mph), and 5K was a miserable 30:20. Well-attended race with over 170 racers and great volunteers to assist.

I'm basing all this on my watch because I still can't find the results posted anywhere online.  I got 2nd in Clydesdale to Jason McClure who beat me by 3 minutes.  Drove the 15 minutes over to Odessa to pick up my race packet. The race director there was pulling his hair out because the online registrations didn't go through right.  Back to hotel to put my legs and dive into Ghost Story.

Socorro Chile Harvest Tri

A road weary race report. I've done 3 triathlons in 7 days traveling to Midland, then Odessa, back to El Paso and then back out to Socorro, New Mexico (not counting a 4 hour drive to Sierra Vista, Arizona for a deposition and return trip same day). I'm starting with the latest triathlon first as far as race-reporting goes as its the freshest in my mind.  The race in Socorro had approximately 300 people signed up but according to the final results 254 finished. Still a large field compared to most tri's.

I've driven through Socorro many, many times on I-25 on the way to/from Albuquerque and the only thing I knew about the town was fast food and convenience stores. This race wasn't on my "to do" list for that very reason.  I was wrong. The further you get into Socorro nearer the mountain and the New Mexico Institute of Technology campus, the prettier it gets.  Nora, Cannon, Sarah and I got in on Friday afternoon for the youth triathlon on Friday night on the NMIT campus.

If you've got kids, this youth tri was one of the best run I've ever seen.  They had actual chip timing, body marking, transition areas set up professionally, a swim start - basically everything that made my little 8 year old triathlete feel like the real deal.  Trying to run a youth triathlon is like trying to herd ritalin-dosed cats and these people pulled it off in spades.  I think my little man is hooked and he came in 2nd in his age group!

Back to the Holiday Inn Express which was only half-mile from the transition area for my triathlon.  Dinner with the family at Socorro Springs Restaurant. Very nice place to eat in what is a fast food town. Again, color me surprised ( can you say small town prejudgment anybody?).  We had a double bed room and believe it or not I slept better that night than I had before any of my previous races even though Nora and I are used to a Cali King bed and two less kids in the room when we go to sleep.

Up early and Holiday Inn Express was kind enough to open the breakfast area to conform to ungodly triathlete hours.  Rode my bike with my backpack the whole half mile to transition area and set up.  Again, the sponsors/organizers of this triathlon know their stuff.  Everything went off swimmingly, pun intended. I would invite the organizers of the Midland and Odessa Triathlons to observe how a triathlon should be run.

400 meter swim start started exactly at 7 with last swimmer #254 in water by 7:53.  Awesome job especially compared to Midland which had 100 less racers and I didn't get in the water til 8:45 (grumble, grumble).  The transition area was set up a little weird because you exited the bike and run from the same end.  Usually you exit the bike on one end of transition and come back in the same end.  The way this was set up, nobody got an advantage wherever their bike was racked because one way or another, you were going to have a long run with your bike.

I felt excellent on the swim. I've been working hard with Gretchen and Bob Carlson on my swimming and although I'm still slow by the fast guy standards, I've noticed I'm not pausing and catching my breath or using little tricks like, "oh no, my goggles are leaking, I'd better stop on the wall here and adjust for a second or 10." Feel much more stamina, just gotta start getting some speed. 400 meter clock time was 8:43 and off to bike.

Bike was up long gradual hill with several turns through the scenic NMIT campus and golf course.  Anybody that reads this blog knows that turns and I don't exactly get along (I have the scars to prove it wrecking in 3 different races this year alone with various level of mayhem ensuing).  I took the turns easy and saw my main competition in the fat boy division Jason McClure at various intervals. He was flying! Jason beat me in Midland by 2 1/2 minutes and I beat him by 3:00 in Odessa so this was our rubber match.  I feel honored just typing that because I didn't think once I saw that Jason was riding Clydesdale again I had any shot of beating him. Finished the bike in 37 and some change with 20.3 mph average which is good for me with hills and as many turns as there were. Quick transition and into the 5K.

Day started out overcast and it was still coolish on the run so I felt good. Actually felt better on the run than I've felt in a long time. Wanted to run first mile in under 8 and did that (7:57), picked up the pace on the 2nd mile to 7:52 and really let it go in last mile for 7:28 and kept the hammer down for last bit. Nora said I looked like an actual runner as I came to the finish line! I knew I had to bust it on the run because Jason is a beast on the bike and faster than me on the swim so I figured I needed to put pretty serious time in on him on the run.  For reference, my 5K time in Midland was 30:20 and in Odessa 26:01 - and in Socorro? - a blistering 24 flat, for an overall time of 1:13. My time in Odessa was 1:13:37 on a flat course and Jason was 1:16:34 so I figured I had him beat. Wrong! He didn't play fair and busted ass on the run to a 27 minute 5K and really kicked my butt on the bike by averaging 22.5 mph with hills to a 1:11 finish. So second in Clydesdale to me and kudos to Jason for winning the rubber match.

On a final note, we got to stop at Owl Bar and Cafe in San Antonio, NM for green chile cheeseburgers for everybody except Nora (doesn't eat red meat).  If you've never been, I can highly recommend it, the Holiday Inn Express, Socorro Springs Restaurant, and all events for the Socorro Chile Harvest Tri.

Chick Fil A Sprint triathlon race report

So this Friday I'm driving the 7 hours to Amarillo so I can do the aforementioned tri. Had my kids the night before and I have a 2 day trial starting on Monday so i was a little in a hurry to get going. I felt a little guilty taking off to go do a triathlon when I'm picking a jury on Monday but I worked hard all week getting my case and client together so what the heck right?! HOLY CRAP is that a long drive! Especially by yourself. Especially when you get a speeding ticket in a one building town with decreasing speed limit signs every 50 feet called Elida (warning - if you are anywhere near this town, there WILL be a sawed off little redneck in a 1990 vintage pickup waiting to light you up - I saw him twice). The drive gets even longer when you realize ,oh, about 6 hours into this 7 hour drive that you forgot to bring anything to wear to race in. Oops. If Amarillo didn't have some kind of sporting goods store open late, I was screwed or would have to race naked and nobody would want to see that.

So I get to packet pickup a whole 5 minutes before they shut down and luckily the pickup is at a sporting goods store that actually sells tri gear! Solved that problem. New problem - race starts at 7:00 a.m. Which is good because it's cooler, but bad because it's 7 central time and el paso is mountain. Transition opened at 5 (4), which means I need to get up at 4:30 (3:30) after driving 7 hours. I really enjoyed the race but I'll never do it again unless I go up at least a day earlier. I was exhausted.

That being said, what an excellent race! 1st class all the way. I got lots of emails before the race began, everything was organized well, precious little bad to say about it.

As far as the race itself, Swim was 10 minutes. 400 meter seeded swim start. Not too much mosh pit. Gotta work on my swimming. I was 2 minutes slower than just about everybody in big boy bracket. Bike avg speed was 20.1 and I had fastest bike split of clydes. Big wind for 3 mile so happy about the bike. Got off bike and right calf cramped up hard. Run was 24 mins. 2.9 miles.  Flat, flat course all around.

Felt better on the swim than I ever have. Didn't stop once, stayed consistent. Didn't stop at the wall and let people go past me which is first time that happened. Just slow. Gotta figure out how to pace myself faster without blowing up on the swim.

Ended up 2nd in Clydesdale category again finishing behind a 31 year old "kid" that looked undersized to me.

I wish they would bring a scale to the starts of these events. I've done 8 this year and nobody's been weighed ever. Let's keep everybody honest out there!

Next race isn't til July 9 which is good since I've done 3 races in a row. If I make it through this trial, I'll try to write about something other than boring race reports.

Ruidoso Sprint

Great trip to Ruidoso! I redeemed myself from Dexter, all our good friends from the world of triathlon were there, and my kids got to participate and rocked the kids triathlon! Here's my two budding triathletes.

Cannon's 7 and Sarah's 10 and they're already better swimmers than I am. Ruidoso was a hard course for a kids tri (it killed me) and they rocked it!  Couldn't be prouder.

Nora and I and the kids spent the night at the host hotel the Holiday Inn Express. Sarah wanted to know if they had a train there (I think she equates Ruidoso with snow, Polar Express the movie, you can see her logic, right?). Took this pic and couldn't resist posting as well. I know there's some kind of law that nobody ever thinks your kids are as cute as you think they are, but my blog, my kids, my posts.

Anyway, the race weather was perfect. No wind, no clouds, moderate temps. I don't think there's a flat area anywhere in the village of Ruidoso. The only thing flat about the course was the swimming pool. I did the same race last year and apparently I have a very selective memory. Bobby Gonzalez, Gretchen McElroy and Brooks Vandivort are all much better triathletes than me but were all asking me how the run route was. Due to my selective memory and fact that I had averaged an 8:30 pace last year, I told them it wasn't bad at all. I was wrong.

They reversed the route this year to make it USAT compliant and twisted the end of the run around and it was tough, very tough. It was basically a trail run on a trail on which most people wouldn't even think of trying to run. I was satisfied with my effort though and due to the fact that they started us Clydesdales with the ladies, I was able to judge pretty well where I was. I tried to keep Gretchen in sight for as long as I could and after that I got passed by only 2 Clydes.

Smoked transition to my bike and hit the road. Nora said I looked like a completely different athlete from last year at this event - maybe because this year I didn't clip into my pedals at the start of the bike and immediately fall over! One lady did (sorry ma'am, I was there, know how it feels). Flying down the hill towards the road that runs to Inn of the Mountain Gods. Long, steady hill climb for 2-3 miles past the lake by the Inn and then the turnaround. I was looking for my main man John Gardea because I knew I was ahead of him but didn't know by how far.

I saw John hauling butt about 1-2 minutes after I made the turn. By this time I was going back down that long, long hill with the wind at my back and was flying. I was going so fast that when I hit a little pothole, my brand new aero bottle went flying (again!). For those of you keeping track, that's two races in two weeks and two aero bottles lost. Expensive hobby.

Anyway, I kept going as hard as I could. There were two Clydes in front of me that I knew and i passed one on the long climb heading back into the transition area. He was walking his bike up the hill. As far as I knew, there was only one clyde in front of me. I knew I probably couldn't catch him since my swim sucks but I figured I could stay ahead of John b/c his swim isn't any better than mine. I figured 2nd place would be awesome because they give out actual carved bears to the winners in the groups.

I got in the pool after a long ass run from the transition area to the pool across a side hill parking lot and street and across what can only be described as dorm-room carpet scraps laid end-to-end and into the pool. The pool swim requires you to swim up and down each lane 4 times, get out of the pool and be magic markered by a lady standing there, and then back into the pool for a repeat of the same. Then you take your happy self out of the pool and run across the aformentioned carpet samples to the finish line.

I was about 2 laps in when I saw John come in. I managed to keep those two lanes in between us the whole way and ran to the finish. I was happy with my effort and waited for the results.  After a while, I found out that I got 3rd in the Clydesdales. I knew about the one guy that was ahead of me but had no idea who else it could be because only two guys passed me during the run and I caught one of them.  Nobody and I mean nobody at all passed me on the bike so I was perplexed. But I was happy because I figured, I'm top 3, I get a cool bear!

Wrong! Epic fail on the race's part.  Apparently, the race decided that since they were giving out such cool finisher prizes, they would only give them to the top 2, instead of normal top 3. That means yours truly got a nice pat on the back from his friends and no stinking bear.  To top that off, Gretchen and Bobby rocked the course and up until the moment they called out awards (and even a little after in Gretchen's case) they didn't even show that either Bobby or Gretchen had even finished the race.

Oh, and I finally saw the guy that finished first in Clydesdale in 1:07. Looked about 19 and Nora said (and I agree) no way is that kid over 200 pounds. So for the record, those are Nora's sour grapes and not mine (but again I agree with her, as a good husband should). 2nd place was 1:17 and I was 1:20. 3rd out of 15 Clydes. I'm happy with that.

All in all a good race, a great weekend with my wife and kids and life is good. Bonus is that it should have been good training for my 3rd race in a row this weekend, the Chick-Fil-A tri in scenic Amarillo. I'm actually looking forward to this one as I've gotten emails this week from the run coordinator, the swim coordinator, the bike coordinator, and even the transition coordinator (didn't even know there was such a thing) telling me in exquisite detail everything about their respective realms.  They must put on one hell of a show.  I'll let you know.

Finishing Milkman

I was so fast, the clock burned out - not!

Milkman Triathlon 2011 - A humbling experience

Well run tri with wave start by age group. Arrived early on Friday before race and so Gretchen, Bobby and I drove the bike route to get a feel for it. The road felt rough sitting in a brand new Yukon so I knew it was going to be rattly.  

I did the Milkman last year and it was the hottest most miserable race in which I've competed. My time last year was 1:33 which for a 500 meter swim, 12.4 mile bike, and 5K run is pretty slow for me. I went to bed about 10 but couldn't get to sleep until about 1 a.m. so had lots of time to formulate how well I was going to do the next day. I told the race director at packet pick up that 1:15 was my goal. Sounded reasonable when I was standing between two legends - my coach and Bobby Gonzalez.  While I was trying to go to sleep, I thought I could do the 500 meters in about 10 minutes, bike less than 40 (only have to average 20 mph to do that), and counting quick transitions I could run the 5K in under 25 minutes and be golden. All those times are slow compared to my training. I just did a 550 yard swim time trial in 9:57 and my fastest 5K time is a little less than 21.  All these thoughts were racing in my tired head at the glamorous and luxurious Fairfield Inn in scenic Roswell (gotta love Marriott Rewards Points!)

Got up at 5:30 on race morning and this time didn't stop at a gas station to get a honey bun for breakfast (did that last year - one of my many excuses for the 1:33). My beautiful wife actually packed me breakfast stuff so I had a banana and some almond butter and a lara bar. Good to go!

Got sat up and my friend John Gardea was there and we wished each other luck, knowing that we had been chasing each other in 4 or 5 prior races. A lot of people were vacillating between wearing a wet suit or not. I had already made up my mind that I was going to wear mine even though the only one I have is full suit. The people that were wearing suits had on sleeveless. Water was 67 degrees and clear.

I started with my wave and felt much better than I did last year when I was uncomfortable and freaking about swimming "that far" in a lake. Came out of the water in 12:00. Oops, a little behind schedule but I figured I can make that up on the bike.

This is where it started to fall apart. I came out of the water before my good friend/competition John but I COULD NOT get the damn wetsuit off my feet! I know, I know, everybody said that would be a problem and I did practice taking the wet suit off.  Unfortunately, I just don't think you can simulate trying to get a wet suit off after swimming 500 meters being pushed around, digging seaweed off your face, and the general free for all that is the swim start of a triathlon.  I was so slow in transition, that John beat me out and was gone on the bike.

Felt good going out and was averaging well over 20 mph until I started climbing a hill that went up down and up for about 2 1/2 miles. I didn't even remember any hill climbing in last year's race but apparently I just blocked that out b/c they were definitely there and killed my speed to the 12-14 mph department. Gretchen started 5 minutes after me and passed me on the bike with first 4 miles. Also, the damn road was so bumpy, my fancy aero bottle bounced out from between my aero bars.  Thankfully they were handing out actual waters bottles that were blessedly cold at the half way turnaround on the bike.

I was trying to get John in my sights and saw him coming back when i was 1/2 mile from turnaround. Bobby passed me about 2 miles into the return trip.   I thought if I can just get close enough to John that I could see him starting his run when I'm coming in off the bike, I'd be able to catch him on the run.  He's a beast on the bike but I'm a lot faster than him on the run so I figured I could catch him if I saw him.  The ride back was hot and into a headwind.  Unfortunately for all my "catch John Gardea plans," I wrecked - again. Turning last corner to go back into the park area and all of sudden it was like my wheels were on ice and they just slid right from underneath me! I landed by sliding on my left side. Here's some photos

I'm proud to say I didn't stay down very long. I didn't even give the two guys that were standing at that particular corner to get to me. I just jumped back on my bike (no obvious damage this time), and kept going - and promptly fell at the next corner too. No new injuries that time but by this point, I was afraid to look. I just got back into transition area and put on my running shoes.

At least I thought they were running shoes, but apparently some jerk replaced my shoes with concrete replicas because I could not manager any better than 9:30 pace.  I don't know why, but the Dexter Milkman just kicks my ass for some reason.  My two worst performances last year was this race and the Eagle in the Sun and the only things those have in common is a swim start.

I faded worse in the last part of the run but managed to finish the run despite the blood, sweat and tears. Finished in 1:27 so that's 6 minutes better than last year but no where near what I thought I could do. Bad news John came in around 1:17 and kicked everybody's butt in the Clydesdale division, 7 minutes ahead of closest competitor. I was 4th out of 5.  Sucky, sucky, sucky. I have Ruidoso this weekend and Amarillo weekend after that so I need to get over my pity party pretty pronto.  I've trained well since I got over the double pneumonia but I don't think my fitness is near where it was. I'm going have to race my way back into shape!

the rest of my crew did aweome. Both Bobby and Gretchen were second overall and 1st in their age group. Brooks was top 15 in 2nd in his age group. I need some of their star power to start rubbing off on me!