Mesa Valley triathlon 2012 race report

Sunday April 1st 2012 the Mesa Valley triathlon was held in Las Cruces NM. It's a fast and fun course. The race director is Mark Mico of Tri Sport Coaching. He puts on the best races in the South West. The courses are always well marked, the results are posted very quickly, and the age group awards are top notch wooden plaques.
The Mesa Valley triathlon was my 79th multi sport race, and my 62nd triathlon.

I've never struggled with my eating the morning of a race before. Race mornings I've always ate perfectly, being totally focused on the race at hand. The morning of the Mesa Valley triathlon 2012 was the first time I'd ever binge ate before a triathlon. While warming up for the race my belly was uncomfortably full. I was afraid having ate as much as I did I'd struggle with stomach cramps during the race, but thankfully once the race started my body seemed to have no problems at all. I've been struggling with my eating disorder horribly in the past month, I haven't struggled this much in a couple years. I'm not sure what the reason has been. Somethings going on and if I don't figure it out I'm going to be back into the 290 pound range in no time.

I finished the triathlon in 1 hour 10 minutes 45 seconds taking 25th place out of 152 triathletes overall, and 2nd place in my age group of 14. I broke my previous Mesa Valley triathlon PR of 1 hour 23 minutes 10 seconds by 13 minutes! Considering I didn't train much in the off season, had gained 11 pounds in late March, separated my shoulder in a bike wreck last week, was unable to raise my right arm above shoulder height without a lot of pain, and was racing with about 10 pounds of extra food in my stomach I was very happy with my results.

I think God was watching out for me race morning. I was struggling with my addiction. My addiction has proven time and time again to be more powerful than my strongest will power and more cunning than my best laid out plan, and when it made it's unwelcome appearance in the worst possible time God stepped in on my behalf. My eating disorder may be to much for me to bear, but it's nothing for God to handle. That morning it was as if He was saying to me, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

"I'm listening God, I really am."

My next race will be the Spring Fling triathlon in Rio Rancho NM on April 22nd 2012. It will be my 3rd race of the South West Challenge Series. I currently have 19 points and am in 1st place in the 35-39 age group division.

Mesa Valley Triathlon 2012

I'll be racing the MVT (Mesa Valley Triathlon) this weekend in Las Cruces NM, it's a 500 meter Swim-25K Bike- 5K Run starting from the NMSU pool.

I'm no where close to being in race shape right now, I took full advantage of my off season this year. This weekend will be a suffer fest, but a bad day racing is still a ton of fun! Since October I've only swam a total of 8,448 yards, my run volume has been very low, I'll be riding a time trial bike for the first time since September of last year, and I've gained a lot of weight this month (more on my weight gain in a post later). Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

Toughman competition at the Mesa Valley triathlon

This weekend was the Mesa Valley triathlon in Las Cruces New Mexico. There was some amazing performances this weekend.

Jason McClure passed me with authority just passed the half way point of the bike. He immediately got a flat on his rear tire, continued racing regardless of the flat tire & put even more time on me with a flat! Amazing performance!

Rob Lovit had a bad crash about a mile into the bike. He ruined his front wheel & had some pretty bad road rash on his hand, back, shoulder, & leg. It took him a bit to put his bike & wheel back together enough to be able to ride again, but as soon as his bike was able to be ridden he was back into the race pushing himself as hard as he could. Even with the crash & the pain from his injuries he was able to ride himself back into a 2nd place Clydesdale finish. Another amazing performance!

John Gardea, one of the most consistent & most improved triathletes in the SW series took 1st place Clydesdale. The clydesdale division is going to be one fierce battle this year & I'm looking forward to watching it as it unfolds.

Brooks Vandivort took 2nd place in the age group 35-39, which is my division. He's ahead in the 35-39 age group in the SW challenge series. He's getting faster with every race. He has absolutely crushed my course PR's at every race he's done this year.

Ross Martinez showed up & raced at the Mesa Valley triathlon after not racing for almost 10 months. His time off from racing sure didn't seem to slow him down any. He took 3rd place in the 35-39 ag.

Valentine Ramirez who has beaten soundly in 2 of the races I've competed in this year took 8th place in the 35-39. Turns out his weakness is swimming. Even though he's far superior to me on the bike & run, he struggles enough in the water I may be able to finish ahead of him in the SW series- as long as he doesn't improve his swimming much.

I had a great run finishing the 5K in 23:42 averaging a 7:38 pace. I had poor bike time of 49:11 in a 25K averaging 19 mph. I had a really poor swim time of 10:19 for a 500 meter swim. I finished in a time of 1:23:10 taking 5th place out of 9 in my age group & 32d male overall out of 133.

The 5th place this weekend gave me another 5 points for the SW challenge series, I now have 23 points total. I'm in 3rd place in the south West Challenge series 35-39 Age Group behind Brooks Vandivort & Val Ramirez. My next race will be the Holloman duathlon. Both Val Ramirez & Brooks Vandivort are registered for this race, and since there's no swim in the Holloman duathlon I'll probably be finishing behind the 2 of them. Hopefully I'll be able to find a race or two this year that the 2 of those beasts aren't going to be at, because the 2 of them keep getting farther & farther ahead in the SW challenge series with every race we do together. Since 2006 I've finished in 2nd place in the SW series twice & 1st place 3 times. This might be the year that I get beaten up & humbled. I'll do my best, but I be honored to be beaten by either one of those guys. They are great people & honorable competitors. Looks like this is turning out to be a challenging season! I'll keep you posted on how it goes.