Dodging Millipedes

This weekend was the Chile Harvest Sprint Triathlon in Socorro. This is one of my favorite races of the Southwest Challenge series. The race is close to Albuquerque, only about 80 miles south and is a seeded time trial pool start. The great thing about this format is the field is spread pretty far apart by the time people hit the bike. And as far as I can tell there aren’t any packs or drafting. Normally a sprint race with 400 athletes would get pretty darn crowded on the bike.

The other thing I like about the seeded time trial start is you don’t know where your competition is. You can sort of keep an eye on them at the swim start but as soon as you get to the bike it’s very hard to judge where they are at, as a result you really have to hammer the whole course.

Biking through the desert this time of year, in the morning, brings out the millipedes. These critters are about 4-6 inches long and were all over the road on the bike course. I was weaving around trying not to run over them but there were a few already smashed. I’m sure when the brunt of the bikers came through the rest of the bugs didn’t stand much of a chance.

This is my first race using the new Outlaw time trial helmet. In fact it was the first time I really even buckled the helmet on. Note to self – adjust the straps before racing! The helmet is pretty cool and actually seemed to make a difference, at least I felt geekier so it must have made a difference.

The run was pretty miserable because I had all the little rocks in my shoes from T1. My bike was racked next to the curb and when I got out of the pool I went over to the bike and my feet were full of those darn little rocks. I wasted lots of time in T1 trying to get my feet clean but failed miserably. Oh well. My feet will heal, eventually.

Overall, The race was great, and I took some time off of my previous races. So I get a new course PR! Yeah! The swim was a bit slower as well as T1 and T2, but the bike and run were both faster. I placed 2nd in the Age group, with the first place guy just crushing me, 20th overall male.

Oh, did I mention this race was the State Club Championship? Which the Outlaws won! We have been the defending champions for the last two years! Guess its one more year with the target on our backs. Congratulations Outlaws! Keep up the hard work!