I came I saw I conquered

The first annual Elephant Butte Olympic Distance Triathlon happened yesterday. My only question is why in the hell is this only the first annual? Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased to have been here for the beginning. But how many geniuses did it take to come up with the fact that this is one of the most beautiful places to race, or at least that I've had the honor of racing, right up there with Castle Rock and Dead Horse Point. The only thing I can think of is that people have thought of it and no one wanted to take it on. However, the whole town came out to participate in their own way. For this I thanked as many people along the way as I could. Yes, even through the tears.

I will definitely do this race next year and I can't wait. Usually, I don't ever set real goals for myself due to my history of accomplishing little to nothing I've ever "set out" to do. I didn't become a 5.12 climber, I didn't go to San Francisco for the summer to join circus school, I never went to Colorado Mountain College, I'm still in Albuquerque. The list goes on.

This year was different. I came, I saw, I conquered. I came into this year with much more knowledge of what I am capable of doing and what I wanted to do. I saw the opportunity to do something I've always wanted. And this weekend I conquered one of the most grueling physical challenges I've ever faced. You have no idea how happy I am. My time was shot, my bike is destroyed, my knees are killing me, and I've never been so proud of myself in my life. I set out to become a triathlete and though I must perfect my preparatory skills, I'm fast proving that I can set goals and stick them through until the end. If next year goes any better than this one, I think I will have to start investing in long term goals.

Okay, off my soap box and back to the race. The men started us off and left us women back at the beach jealously awaiting our turn. Since there were so few of us, they started us all off together, feet flailing, bubbles everywhere, heading out to the first boey. Let me tell you now, my carbo loading paid off. No fatigue and 37 minutes later I was out and into transition. My goal for this tri was to cut time off my transitions since they were so long in my first. I rocked out my transitions. Cut them in half. On the bike, feeling confident and crossing my fingers, the first few hills posed little problem for me. I could feel a slight resistance from my tire and the road was bumpy, but other than that the day was fine. Soon, my bike was making grinding sounds, popping in and out of gear and the resistance had gotten so great that I feared I might not finish. Down hills weren't much better than the up hills with so much resistance I was getting off my bike to fix what I only made worse in the end. I just had to deal with it. I had to finish, no questions. With absolutely no one in sight for most of the bike portion I found myself overwhelmingly worried about getting lost, being last (I was 2nd to last), or my bike falling apart completely (and it was making enough noise to convince me of this). I came into transition crying to find that many competitors were done with the race. The run started out with a sandy hill to asphalt and I walked several times throughout. The aid stations were my friends and I tried hard to take in and enjoy not only the views but the essence of the run which was the dam. I was one of few citizens ever permitted to cross it. Homeland security had cameras on us and made us sign waivers saying we would not stop on top of it. The last aid station at the turn around featured a super soaker, goo, and ladies in tight black cheerleading things. At the end Melanie and Tim were there to cheer my name. My time, a whopping 4:10. Poo. I kept saying there's always next year. And there will be. Somehow I will afford and new bike. My run and swim times were respectable for having a month to train but 2:16 on the bike was ridiculous. My bike and I aren't speaking as of yet.

After the race Melanie and I were talking with Dustin about the race. They were showing their disapproval of my choice to ride my own bike in the race. I had Dustin ride my bike around the corner and back once. His first words were "Oh my God." The damage was audible.

I traveled 33.7 miles back to the same geographic location, but physically and mentally, I came back to a different place entirely.


The first picture was part of the run a little under a mile from the turn around so at that point I had over 3 miles of running to go.

The second picture is of the second and biggest dam. Looks like both of these were taken from about the same place.