Race Day at the Cochiti Triathlon

When Cece left Albuquerque on Sunday morning, it was pouring rain. She remembered the last triathlon she was in with a bad shoulder when there was down pouring rain...hard to control the bike, hard to get warm and hard to see through the rain drops and fog on her glasses. Wet, wet wet! She hoped things would clear up for the race today and she kept reminding herself that going north might change things weather wise. As she travelled, the sun started to rise and Cece kept pulling over to take pictures, which resulted in her being late to the triathlon! But it all worked out fine! The lake was over cast and there was a great deal of cloud cover which made the 75 degrees with a slight breeze very pleasant for all the athletes.

Cochiti Lake is VERY rocky and we had to climb over many barriers made of rocks....hard on the feet!

Here is Cece's friend Ellie and her son Jacob. She told Cece the last pic she took of her made her look like she was eating a bug! Cece told her to get rid of the bug face then!
Remember our mothers told us not to make that face because it will freeze that way! She looks fantastic and Jacob won some raffles at the tri this am!

Stephanie, Cyan and Misty pre-race....working on their game faces!

The triathlon had a separate feature this year! In addition to the tri they held an adventure race. Here are the adventure racers taking off. They rode and then had to use GPS signals to find clues which led them to kayaks and they had to paddle 8 miles....then use the GPS continually to find their other destinations which involved swimming, rock climbing and much more. This was an 8 hour race! WHEW!

Cece had a bird's eye view of the transition area for the triathlon. She was at the Leukemia Society booth which she set up so that she could observe the transition technique! Cece will be doing this next Saturday! Running in cleats and then hopping on the bike and clipping in is not a graceful maneuver! She saw falls and near crashes, a person who lost their shoe, and many had to stop and fiddle around with adjustments just to get going. Many had their bikes in the wrong gear and were pushing too large gears and could not get their bikes to move once they hopped on! Then from that cold start, they had to climb the boat launch wall that was a 12 percent grade and then climb the dam wall. URGH! Lots of climbing with cold legs.

Misty did a fantastic job swimming in open water with a personal record that she set for herself today. Then Stephanie took off from the transitional area...with one of the more graceful exits Cece saw all day. Cece is looking forward to her own...graceful exit next Saturday!

This is Cyan getting her mojo on before she takes over the run from Stephanie on the bike. Focus. Cyan. Focus! She told Cece she has never run a 10K before...but Cece knows she is a capable runner and this should be no problem for her at all! But it was getting real hot by the time she started running.....

But still, she had no problems at all!

Besides a few open water rescues, it was a great day and fun was had by all. After the race, they had a big BBQ and handed out prizes and it was fun to hear all the stories of the day as people lay down and got massages to unwind their tired bodies!