Patriot Triathlon in Rio Rancho

In keeping with the theme of late race reports, I was the only Triatomic that did the recent (September 14) Patriot Sprint Triathlon in Rio Rancho—Nathan Romero was the only other person from Los Alamos that I saw there. This race is one of two new ones in the Southwest Challenge Series this year that will use the same course that includes the new Rio Rancho Aquatic Center. The other race is the Jingle Bell Triathlon (December 7) and will be the same course, but run as a reverse sprint. The inaugural Patriot race had about 300 participants and had a time-trial swim start. The race was chip timed with ChampionChip which I think always do a good job of timing (including transition splits) and reporting results on their web site within days after the race. The water was a bit on the warm side, but the aquatic center is very nice with spectator seating and large locker rooms. The transition area was in the parking lot (race parking was at adjacent facilities, like the Rio Rancho Library). The transition area was sufficiently roomy and well organized as was the whole race, actually. The bike course was well marked and very similar to the Defined Fitness Duathlon (which is cancelled this year and likely beyond) and actually overlapped part of that course around the big casino-convention center area. There are some moderate hills, but nothing really steep. The road was mostly in good condition except for the last couple of miles, which they said would be repaved by next year. The run was a bit dicey for me. The first mile is paved and a steady uphill, then it turns and the next mile is hilly on loose dirt and gravel, which was problematic for my bad back, especially on a couple steep downhill sandy parts—I forced myself to walk most of this part thinking about my Dr’s advice about not doing anything stupid to hurt my back. The final mile is on pavement again, thankfully. I got 5th in my age group (out of 21) and 35th woman (out of 140)—consequences of walking in the dirt, I guess. Nathan was first in his AG and 7th overall male. Interestingly, I had the second shortest time for women in T1—doing something right in transition. There was a photographer there that took nice pictures (and offers them for sale on her web site). The awards were engraved picture frames that looked pretty nice. There was a military band there that played pre race—kinda cool. There was a lot of military participants as this race honored military personnel, police, fire fighters, and such. Post race, there was cut up fruit and bagels and all the oreo cookies you could eat. So, for a race that you can actually drive to on race day, this was a good one and would be good prep for the Elephant Man that comes two weeks after and has a similar type of bike and run course.