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.