Milkman Race Report

The Milkman Triathlon, one of the longer running triathlons in the region, has an interesting tradition; they hand paint the names of each of the winners on large milk can. It kind of reminds me of the Stanley Cup, and the various names painted on the cup provide a timeline of two generations of New Mexico triathlon history. Several Los Alamos names are etched on the can….Jeff Bangor, one of the best triathletes in the country in the early 90’s and with whom Pat Brug had many memorable battles won the men’s race one year. Our transplanted Ukrainians, Toma and Viktor have each won the race once. A casual glance appears that Clay has won the race more than any other male in the history of the race, and next year Triatomics will be able to see the names of two of it’s own on the milk can, Deb Kidd won the woman’s race, and Clay repeated again by narrowly edging the second place competitor by 5 seconds. Click image for large


Milkman is again the New Mexico qualifier for Best Of The US, a race that both Dina and Clay qualified for and raced the last two years, with Clay finishing an impressive 8th last year. I know Clay was planning on attending this year, I don’t know about Deb.

Milkman is a great race, and if you haven’t competed in the event you should consider it for next year. The town of Dexter is about 7 or 8 miles from Roswell. Roswell is about a 4 hour drive from Los Alamos with plenty of reasonably priced hotels and some decent restaurants. The venue is at Van Lake, a small fishing lake with camping facilities. The race has laid-back feel and is well run. It has a festive post race party with light snacks, free ice cream, milk products and other tradition post race beverages. For years he race has been issuing unique ceramic milk jars as prizes, going three deep in each age group, and giving additional prizes to the top ten men and women.

The race starts with an open-water 500M swim in Van Lake. It is a basic out and back and is generally considered a good “beginner” open water swim because it is easy to sight, they have 7 moderately sized waves which diminishes the chaos open water swims usually exhibit and the lake is only about 5 feet deep, so if you get panicked you can stand up anywhere in the swim. The bike is a rustic out and back on rough, empty country roads that is deceptively challenging. The run is a flat, loop over roads and trails. The race is well supported with lots of aid stations and friendly volunteers.

The day presented tough conditions, with a stiff southernly wind and hot weather that had to be in excess of 90 degrees by the end of the race. Long time participants said it was the toughest conditions they could remember. For me, the race started well. My swim wave was the 6th out of 7, and I had a strong start in the swim and quickly put myself in second place in my wave. Some people wear wet suits, some don’t. I chose not wear one, thinking the time gained in the short swim would be lost in transition trying to get it off. I observed that while I was swimming with a hard effort, the 2500 ft elevation of Dexter made the effort feel pretty easy – an observation I have had with other low altitude swims. The bike was a rolling climb to the turn around, and I felt like a rock star - chewing through earlier swim waves, passing a lot of people, really hitting my stride. The turn around revealed a different kind of reality, as that stiff south wind was right in our face. My new super deep dish front wheel was getting pushed around quite a bit making the progress a little sketchy. I don’t know if it was nerves or what, but my return bike ride was quite a bit slower and I lost valuable time to the couple of guys from my wave I was trying to race with, and I didn’t pass nearly as many people on the return. Riding into T2 I saw Martin starting the run, and I figured he must be in first place for his age group. The run went well for me, I could see that I was slowly catching the two guys from my swim wave who were ahead of me, and while I cut into their leads, I ran out of race. I ended up second in my age group and 5th overall. In context, I was a little disappointed I didn’t have more courage on the bike return, but all-in-all it was a decent effort and sets me up well for my first big race of the year at Buffalo Springs the last weekend of June, where I hope to qualify for the 70.3 championships in Clearwater FL, and place well in my age group.

Triatomics were well represented, with Rachael Hundhausen, Deborah Kidd, Kim Meyer, Jeri Sullivan, Taraka Dale, Tina Andres, Ben Davis, John Boland, Martin Pieck, Clay Moseley, and me all attending. Almost everyone won something, or was satisfied with their race. We placed three men and two women in the top ten of each field. Here is a group shot courtesy of Clay: