Jingle Bell Triathlon/December, 12th, 2010/Rio Rancho, NM
The early stages of a cold, an injured heal, and a late start was all on my plate Sunday morning at the Jingle Bell Triathlon in Rio Ranch, NM. Warm temps and a clear northern New Mexico sky made it a beautiful race day.
The day started with my alarm clock not going off and waking up 30 minutes late. After that I rushed to gather my gear and get it all loaded in my ride. Once I accomplished all of this I noticed my keys were in the ignition and the doors were LOCKED! Luckily I had a spare in the house (answered prayer). Once I got going on the road things started to come together and I arrived in Rio Rancho on time. I setup my transition, went through body marking, and had all of my pre-race conversations. The temperature started to rise and I was feeling great and ready to have a good race. While I was having a conversation with a fellow competitor we began to hear cheers. He said, “Dude, I think that was the start”. I responded with, “looks like we’re going to play some catch-up” and a smile. At the moment I thought we would only be 20 seconds or so behind. Turns out, we were over a minute back. The adrenaline kicked in and my legs began to move around groups of people. Once I hit the 1 mile mark I had about 12 guys still in front of me. The front of the field was spread out across the hilly course and I started to see gaps between the top 5. Moving fast on the down hills and faster on the ascents I found myself on a blazing pace. I had 7 more guys to pick off with a mile to go. The race leader had 1:30 on me and a small gap started to open between him and a few other guys at the front of the race. Matt Gonzales was someone I definitely had my eye all morning. He’s not shy about running low 16s. So, when I started to close the gap on him I began to think I could actually salvage this race. I was 4th into transition and on the bike. I still had work to do. I found myself at the front of the race within the first three miles of the bike. My legs quickly became heavy toward the end of the hilly bike course. I was quickly reminded of what time of year it was, the off-season. Once I hit the pool I had nothing for the first 200 meters and was passed by a hard charging mate. I wouldn’t be able to close the 27 second gap and finished in 2nd.
Not bad for an off-season race!
Slideshow: http://vimeo.com/17748393
