Ft. Sumner New Mexico is where Billy the Kid is buried. Every year they have a festival to this, including the tombstone race. This involves carrying a large tombstone over an obstacle course. It also includes,for the second year in a row, the Tombstone Triathlon.
You can find the results here. This is a very nice little race. The race director, Patricia, got into multi-sport in the process of losing over 200 pounds and yes, I know, that's a humbling number
The swim is 400 meters in a nice clean reservoir. I have been swimming once this past year, and but surprisingly I was toward the front of the finishers, behind a high school swim team and a few other folks. My swim time, including running up the steep boat ramp to T2, was 9:54.
This little race was surprisingly difficult. The bike was hilly, on somewhat rough, chip seal roads. However, the roads are in pretty good shape. There aren't any potholes or cracks to catch your tires. So you pedal, and pedal, up over high rollers to thee turnaround. All the way out there was a stiff headwind and I was wondering if there was going to be one on the way back. Impossible you say? Not in New Mexico, which is powered by an improbability engine. As it turns out, though, we had a tail wind on the way back. Total bike: about 1:02, with an average mph on the bike of 15.39 mph
The run was most uphill for about three-quarter miles, and then flat for another mile or so, and then mostly downhill. It was about 5k, and it took me 33:50, with an average pace of 10:34. Geh.
All in all, a fun, challenging little race. Make sure you put on your climbing legs! My only recommendation would be that markings be brighter and clearer; if I had not already taken a wrong turn earlier in the car, I would have done it on the bike. As well, on the run, there is a short section that is easily missed and would result in cutting the course. During most of the race, there didn't appear to be anyone manning this corner. There were plenty of aid stations, and the race was nice and early so you didn't get too heated up. You can camp at Lake Sumner for cheap, or stay about 30 miles away in Santa Rosa.
Next up: Big Horn 50 miler, this weekend THIS WEEKEND! DON'T PANIC!
There's lots of snow and mud on the course, so they had to put up a new course. It will still have lots of mud. I"ll address how I intend to approach this in my Thursday 13.
New Bighorn Course: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/36956822
