I did my first multisport event of 2008 this morning on a beautiful day in White Sands Missle Range in southern New Mexico. Officially, this is my 2nd race for the 2008 Southwest Challenge Series (SWCS) since it started with the Polar Bear Sprint Triathlon, I had posted previously about how points are tallied in the SWCS series. Last year, I managed to pull off being Athena Champion, and now I'm back having another go at it.
The 5K run goes out into the desert and back on a sandy unpaved trail, and I averaged a 10:19 pace, which is closer to the 10 minute pace I keep hoping to break every year. I was sucking wind, too, boy. Woo. WHOO. woo. WHOO. I gave it my all. I managed to inch past Helen for a brief, glorious 30 seconds or so and then she blew by me and I never saw her again. Left me in a cloud of dust, she did.
(Rationalization number 1: She's been doing this much longer than I. She's also much skinnier than I am.)
On the 30K
bike, I averaged nearly 15 mph, which is pretty good considering I haven't been on my bike in nearly 3 months.
There was this one girl I was trying to catch because I thought she might be an Athena but as I w
orked harder and harder to catch her I really did feel like I was about to throw up, so I backed off.
(Rationalization number 2: she turned out not to be an Athena, and she's 10 years younger than I.)
Gotta have those little rationalizations if you want to stay healthy.
I'm still working on the one for the 65-year-old guy who soundly kicked my butt.
Oh, and I got to wear my cool new LG ROCKET aero helmet, which I LLLOOOVVVVVE. It passes the best test of all: I forgot I had it on.
Results:
I did it in 1:46:18, and was first Athena.
Mini-baboo got 1st place in the under 20 division, and Sweet Baboo got 2nd place in the 40-44 males.
Considering I ran 23 miles only 6 days ago, I'm happy with the results, but I've got a lot of work to do! So far in the series, I've got 17 points.
Here's my 2007 report on this race, which I did in 2:04:26.
Here's my 2006 report on this race, which I did in 1:58:28.
Tomorrow, a brisk 15-mile trail run north of Albuquerque.
1 week to the Black Warrior 50K.
...
The 5K run goes out into the desert and back on a sandy unpaved trail, and I averaged a 10:19 pace, which is closer to the 10 minute pace I keep hoping to break every year. I was sucking wind, too, boy. Woo. WHOO. woo. WHOO. I gave it my all. I managed to inch past Helen for a brief, glorious 30 seconds or so and then she blew by me and I never saw her again. Left me in a cloud of dust, she did.
(Rationalization number 1: She's been doing this much longer than I. She's also much skinnier than I am.)
On the 30K
bike, I averaged nearly 15 mph, which is pretty good considering I haven't been on my bike in nearly 3 months.There was this one girl I was trying to catch because I thought she might be an Athena but as I w
orked harder and harder to catch her I really did feel like I was about to throw up, so I backed off.(Rationalization number 2: she turned out not to be an Athena, and she's 10 years younger than I.)
Gotta have those little rationalizations if you want to stay healthy.
I'm still working on the one for the 65-year-old guy who soundly kicked my butt.
Oh, and I got to wear my cool new LG ROCKET aero helmet, which I LLLOOOVVVVVE. It passes the best test of all: I forgot I had it on.
Results:
I did it in 1:46:18, and was first Athena.
Mini-baboo got 1st place in the under 20 division, and Sweet Baboo got 2nd place in the 40-44 males.
Considering I ran 23 miles only 6 days ago, I'm happy with the results, but I've got a lot of work to do! So far in the series, I've got 17 points.
Here's my 2007 report on this race, which I did in 2:04:26.
Here's my 2006 report on this race, which I did in 1:58:28.
Tomorrow, a brisk 15-mile trail run north of Albuquerque.
1 week to the Black Warrior 50K.
...
