toughest race so far

Whew! The Farmington Olympic Triathlon is no joke. Its tough. Hilly and unforgiving. At least for me. This race was the first time in recent memory that I wasn't actually racing - I was trying to finish.

I set out for Farmington on Friday with my wife Paula, hitting the road about noonish. Paula and I had our first date in Farmington, back when we were teachers on the reservation. Farmington brings back good memories for both of us, and we were exicted to return.

I met up with an old law school buddy that was also racing. We drove the course (scary hilly), and had dinner. Paula and I stayed at our friends' house that currently put up for sale. We slept (sort of) on an air mattress and shared a single pillow. I was thankful when the alarm went off. A quick bagel, yougurt, and out we went.

The race begins with a 1.5k swim, then a 10k trail run, and finishes with a brutal 25mi bike. The strange order, coupled with different T1 and T2 locations, makes this race a departure from the norm. I had been warned about the hills, but I guess I wasn't paying attention.

The swim was fairly uneventful. There was a little bumping and kicking, but nothing substantial. My problem was being unable to see the buoys. I was sans contacts. I swam a good more than I needed to. After rounding the first buoy, the sun was right in my eyes when breathing to the right (which is the only side I use). After the second buoy, we were swimming right into the sun. Wow. If I couldn't sight before, I certainly couldn't now. I would look for the wake of other swimmers and stay on their tails. I thought for sure my time was going to be terrible. Although I had a good rhythm and felt strong, I was swimming all over the place. I ended up with a time of 28:35. Pretty, pretty good. I might be able to salvage a respectable time after all.





A quick sandy change of clothes, and off for the run. I tried to start slowly, and certainly did. But I was only going to get slower. My back tightened up, and I didn't have the spark in my legs. Also, I had an injury from a soccer game the week prior, that ached with each right step.


I ended up walking at the water stations. I had to stop and stretch my back out too. I was getting passed left and right. If I wasn't running up a hill, I was running down one. The scenery itself was great. After a washerboard road and paved street, the trail turned into a mountain bike path. I had a good half-mile run on that trial all to myself. I was loosening up, and my ankle was starting to go numb. In short I was feeling good(ish). But when I finished with a time of 55:10, I knew I wasn't going to beat my Lubbock time of 2:42.

Off on the bike I went. I was pretty excited. I knew it started with a downhill and I was going to put up some good speeds. Sure enough, I passed a good number of people on the bike and put up a solid 12.5 mile split of 35:00. My law school buddy was a good few miles ahead of me and was looking good, but not great. Once I turned around, I quickly realized why. We had a headwind that slowed everything down. I was hurting going up the hills, and couldn't build up speed on the downhills. On about mile 16, I stopped racing. The thought was: finish this thing and race another day. The bike ended up taking 1:24:27.

The whole race took me 2:51:12. I think I'll take this race and look forward to improving on it last year. Even though I was suffering, I really enjoyed the course. It was a well-run race (an improvement from years past, according to reports). The views were great and the course was challenging. It'll give me the motivation to hit the hills and trails.

As for my lawschool friend, he crushed the race. And took one of my age group spots away. One day I'll be able to keep up with him.

Total Swim T1 Run T2 Bike
2:51:12.6 28:35 1:52 55:10 1:07 1:24:27

Gallup Triathlon Part II

I like doing this triathlon thing because I'm starting to repeat races. I raced Gallup last year with my friend Nat, who is now on to bigger and better things (although he should be back for Farmington). Here's a pic from the race last year (before I had a tri top):


Last year's times:

 Total     Swim     T1    Bike     T2      Run  

1:13:50    6:51    0:48   41:00    1:05   24:03

This year's times:

 Total     Swim     T1    Bike     T2      Run  

1:09:55    6:31    0:48   38:55    0:51   22:46 

Overall, pretty good improvement. I chalk it up to the training. As for the race itself . . .

I woke up at 4AM and put together two mugs of coffee, two bagels, and a breakfast drink for the 2hr drive to Gallup. I got there around 6ish, entirely too early. I picked out a spot for the bike, and tried to pass the time waiting for the start. On the drive over, one of the pads on my aero bars blew off somewhere on I-40. I rigged up a spare pair of socks over the arm rest. Worked out alright.

It was a snake style seeded pool start, with a 20 sec interval. I was surprised that I was the 5th person to start. I waited to get passed in the pool, but it never happened. I didn't have a super time, and I was pretty winded after the swim. I think I was inefficient in my stroke.

Once out on the bike, I felt terrible going up the hills. Absolutely awful. Again, I waited to be passed, but it never happened. My computer pooped out 3 miles in, so I really didn't know how I was doing.

Out on the run, I felt alright to start, but was crushed by the San Fran style hill on the course. I kept my effort up all the way to the top, but had to walk for a few seconds. I was suprised I ran a sub 23 5k after the walking. I was pleased to finish under 1:10.

If the race was scored like last year (with top three finishers overall as ineligible for age group awards), I would have placed first in 25-29! Third wasn't bad either, but is a little strange when you finish 6th overall.

I really like coming back to Gallup. I spent three years of my life on the reservation, teaching social studies at a BIA (now BIE) school. It would have been nice to spend more time there, but I had to get back after the race. It was good to see a couple friends from the old days running the race.

Up next - Farmington Triathlon on 7/4. And a lot of studying for the bar. But not too much.