the Rio Rancho Duathlon. It's part of the Southwest Challenge Series and is held just a few miles away from our house. I was pretty smug about the whole thing because I WASN'T going to be doing it.I have no reason not to do it, really. It's a couple miles from my house. However, I, Am, Lazy.
Nope. Not me. I had my day of sloth all planned out: I would do body markings and then watch everyone else work hard, including Sweet Baboo, for whom this would be his first "head race official" gig.
I love days of sloth. I have lots of them. They involve a lot of sitting, and internet surfing, popcorn, and
sometimes they involve closet sorting, but mostly they involve bed. Hey, maybe that's why I'm one of the slower triathletes. Maybe if I had fewer days of sloth, I'd get more awards... Nahhhhh.I haven't mentioned the Southwest Challenge Series. It's a series of sprint tris, a couple Olys, and a few duathlons. There are age group and Clydesdale/athena awards. You have to do at least 8 races in a given year. For each race, if you place 1st in your division, you get 10 points, 2nd gets you 9, 3rd gets you 8, and so on. If you do more than eight, your top eight placings are counted, and then every race beyond that gets you a quarter of a point "bonus".
Got it? Good.
Last year Mini-baboo was champion of the under-19 AG division, and was the only one who qualified in that division. Sweet Baboo was champion of the Clydesdales.
And I, well, I was second place. There are a lot of Athenas who are WAY faster than I am but most of them aren't stupid enough to do as many as 8 or more races to qualify. I am.
I AM that stupidly competitive.
And yet, I, Am Lazy.
I'm an enigma.
In 2006 I was beaten by nemesis Helen, who is much faster than I. I narrowly beat Karen, my other nemesis, who is a little faster than I but moving across the state and wasn't able to get in enough races in to catch me.
But this year Helen lost too much weight this year and had to become an age grouper. (What you'd call a Win-win). Karen meanwhile, still wasn't able to get her 8 races in; in the midst of house building as she is.
And then there's Sara. Sara is a Super friendly woman from Roswell not too much older than I. Usually I can beat her, but she surprised me this year: she's gotten 12 races in, several of which I wasn't at, and has been racking up lots of points. I watched carefully to make sure those points didn't get too close to mine, and with the Rio Rancho Duathlon approaching, the series last race, I was pretty satisfied that I had the series locked up. I have my 9 races in, and I figured I had the championship all locked up. Surely, she won't come this far north for a measly little Duathlon. Because if she did, could beat me for the series.
Except that, well, she did come this far north.
While signing up Mini today I mentioned that I would only be doing this race if I knew Sara was doing it, and Michi looked a bit flustered and said, "but she is doing this race."
I leaned forward and rested my forehead on the table. She did not just say that. She did not just go an trash my day of sloth.
$HIT! There goes my day of sloth.
I wrote the check for the race and took home my shirt and goody bag. Mini-baboo, of course, thought it was hilarious.
The RR-Du is a hard 5k-25k-5k course over Rio Rancho's very hilly terrain, that last year in April I'd said, "was as hard as childbirth." Of course, that was before I'd done my first Olympic, Half Iron, or Ironman, but still, I'm badly out of shape, having slacked off pretty dramatically during my post Ironman LooUHvul burnout.
So there it is, my folly.
All things considered, I've actually gotten kinda stoked in the past couple hours, thinking it would be cool to finish my season by actually trying to crossing a finish line. I hadn't wanted to admit it, but I have been a bit bummed since walking off the course at Soma. Especially when I found out they didn't enforce the cutoff on the run and let everyone finish who was already on the run.
See you at the finish line.
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