Race Recap: Jingle Bell Triathlon

Jingle Bell Triathlon/December, 12^th, 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 4^th 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 2^nd.

Not bad for an off-season race!

Results:  http://trisportcoaching.com/race-results/jingle-bell-tri-2010-overal.html

Slideshow: http://vimeo.com/17748393

The Early Years: My first triathlon

My entrance into the sport of triathlon was nothing less than a fluke. I started as a road cyclist and was later convinced to join the high school swim team my junior year. I didn’t know how to swim when I started, but had a group of great coaches that helped me every step of the way. By the next season I worked my way up to being the captain of the varsity squad. After a fairly successful senior year of swimming I was ready to get back on my bike and start racing. I opened the 2008 road season with two wins in local races and a win in Santa Fe, NM at the end of May. Two weeks into the month of June, with no races planned for a few months, I started to feel an itch for competition. After calling around I found out that there was a triathlon in nearby Lubbock, TX. I was never interested in triathlons and told myself on several occasions that I would never do one. The only running background that I had was playing basketball in the 7^th grade and being burnt-out on swimming didn’t help. I found myself starving to compete anyways.   

 My first tri was a sprint that took place simultaneously with a 70.3. At this event I met 2010 Trisports.com (http://trisports.com/) teammate Mike Montoya for the first time. He looked me up and down in my florescent blue Speedo and asked if I was on a swim team. After a few words of encouragement and advice from Mike my nerves were calmed for only a few minutes before the start.  I had a mechanical issue on the bike, but was still able to finish the race in 30^th place overall. Once I had finished my race the pro 70.3 competitors were just starting their run. After experiencing the performance of the professional 70.3 athletes its like something in my head clicked. For some reason I was drawn into every aspect of triathlon. Learning everything I could about the sport was my main priority. Once I returned home, I immediately looked at the results of my race and was determined to prove to myself that I could do better. I looked up the results of all the other local races to see how fast I needed to go to win. I found one thing in common with most of these races; Mike had won them. After looking at all of Mike’s times I remember saying to myself, “man, I want to be as fast as that guy one day.” The next tri I competed in was two weeks later and I finished 6^th overall. Finishing 6^th was much better than the previous 30^th, but I was still not convinced it was my best. So, the most common saying in the sport goes, “do one, then you’re hooked.” I soon realized I was no exception.

Safe Training

Rance

 I see several bad decisions in this photo

 First triathlon, first 5k

Year and a half  later, I'm running down Mike. I still wasn't able to beat him though. He won by 8 seconds. Not long after this Mike broke the course record at the AVIA Austin Sprint Triathlon.