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Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course
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Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course - TriathlonLong Course
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 Swim
Comments: I made a very last minute decision to wear the wetsuit. I wasn't going to right up until the time I left transition to go warmup and then I decided to grab the suit. I wasn't sure if it would be too hot or not. Turns out it was a cool morning so despite the hot water the swim was not too hot. My swim continues to suck. I do think a lot of this one was my horrible sightening skills though. I swam a lot extra. And I had to correct so badly in some cases it really just never get me into a flow. There was one dude swimming near me that I easily was passing when I was in my flow and then I'd mess up and have to correct and he'd get next to me again. Oh, and I think I really hate wetsuit swimming. What would you do differently?: Um, swim a direct line. And probably more time in the pool would help a lot. I can swim the distance but I need to work on improving.  Transition 1
Comments: They had wetsuit strippers and those guys had the suit off in no time. I was expecting my T1 time to be quite a bit longer as it involved a rather long run up a hill which I am sure is in the T1 time and not the swim time. They had someone there with a hose to clean your feet off which was totally needed. What would you do differently?: nothing really.  Bike
Comments: The bike course is hilly, no doubt about it. But all in all doable. If you didn't train on hills though this course was going to beat you easily. The first 15 miles are mostly rolling hills with one longer steeper one thrown in for good measure. Then you can let loose for about 5 miles and get speed. But then that ends and we leave the Oly course and head out for our 15 mile out (and back), which was into the wind, mostly a gradual uphill (with some major climbs thrown in for good measure). It's the only spot I wish I had aero bars and race wheels. What would you do differently?: Not much, I trained on hills and I think I handled the big ones fine. I would have loved to have been at a lighter weight so that the minor ones were easier but well, it is what it is. Transition 2
Comments: #W%$#$%#%@!@ I was pretty pissed to get into T2 to find someone racked in my spot. It wasn't like we could just grab another spot. I asked some guy from the oly who was done to grab a race official. He started to do so and then realized it was his bike in my spot. Grrr. Other then that it went ok. As I left T2 I headed to the bathroom for my one and only bathroom stop. That time is on my run though. What would you do differently?: Kill the little prick that racked in my spot?!?!? Not allowed? Ok, then nothing.  Run
Comments: Well, not quite the run I was expecting. Not the course I was expecting. Way more hills then I thought. I would have totally trained different had I had a better idea of this run. That being said, I did have a better run then my last long course. Although it was slower that is due to the course more then me. I held it together and kept running. I started to walk on a long uphill and this lady came running past me. That kind of motivated me to keep running again. So from then on out I kept a pretty steady pace. We went back and forth a few times but in the end I was able to pull away from this person. I knew there were two people pretty close behind me near the end and so I just used that as motivation to keep on trucking. The run course was interesting, with lots of dirt, hills, and weird sections in it. For example, at one spot we had to run around a building on the golf course and then later an out and back in a neighborhood. Clearly trying to get the miles in but it made for an interesting run What would you do differently?: The heat did get to me on this run even though I have run in the heat a lot. Not normally when the sun is fully out though. I think for my next HIM I will get more runs in while the sun is fully out and not just stick to morning runs Post race
Warm down: I was pretty spent at the end of this race. It took a lot of out me. I couldn't really eat, not even cookies. WHAT? I took a bite or two and handed it to Tina. What limited your ability to perform faster: Lack of swim training. I need more intensity on the bike as well. And more hills on the run. But, I was trained. It would have been a much longer day if I hadn't trained as hard as I did. I clearly train for having a good race and not for a podium spot as I am not that fast and don't want to put the time in to get fast. But I do want a steady race. Losing some weight will help as well Event comments: This is the first year for the long course and I think they did ok but could do with some changes. I was VERY disappointed to find that the transition area was torn down already and no one was watching my bike. They hadn't even finished the Oly awards yet, let alone starting on the lc and they already had transition torn down? Really? Then stand there and guard my bike please. Food was not what I was wanting after such a long day on the bike. I could have used something lighter to eat, like a small piece of bagel or something. They had sandwiches and cookies. I heard a rumour there was fruit but they were out when I got there. From what Tina said a lot of spectators where chowing down. Either they need to control that or have extra out for when the bottom of the pack finishes the lc. The volunteers were AMAZING. They had nearly as many volunteers as they did racers (both oly and lc combined). They cheered loudly, were super friendly, and were generally a pleasant group. There was no lack of aid stations in this race. Every 10 miles on the bike for the lc and about every mile on the run. At mile 8 they started with the coke. Loved that. Although they did not start on time, for either the race nor the mandatory meeting the day before they were not horribly off schedule. Last updated: 2011-03-09 12:00 AM
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 2011-09-27 9:08 AM |
 Payson, AZ |  Subject: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course |
| 2011-09-27 9:19 AM in reply to: #3701886 |
Master  2538   Albuquerque | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course Great job! Glad you came out to the inaugural long course race. I'm still beat down from the heat/sun and went half your distance! |
| 2011-09-27 11:00 AM in reply to: #3701905 |
Extreme Veteran 380 Houston | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course Let me at the that racked in your spot! Great race and race report. Can't wait to meet ya in April at a truly flat course. You are going to do awesome. |
| 2011-09-27 2:02 PM in reply to: #3701886 |
Expert 1111 Albuquerque, NM | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course Congrats on completing a tough race!! |
| 2011-09-28 10:24 PM in reply to: #3701886 |
Master 1623 | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course Great job Kim! You did awesome! |
| 2011-09-29 12:50 PM in reply to: #3701886 |
| 2 | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course Hi There Congrats on finishing a tuff course. I get a few blogs forwarded to me and just wanted to respond to a few of your comments...We posted that we had cut off times on our course this year. I believe you may have come in post cut off times....We still had volunteers on site but yes, we have to start breaking down transition at some point (after the cut off of course) when I checked even tho the fencing was down volunteers were still available to check athletes out. We had made several announcements for athletes to clear their belongings out of transition so the die hard volunteers left would only be watching long course folks' stuff.. unfortunately not everyone complied with this request and it may have put too much on those volunteers who had been out there for sooooo long already.. again our response as a race team is that we executed the plan as it was spelled out according to cut off times and did our best to provide support past those times as well! Additionally, I wish you had asked about food. We had soooo much left over, pretzels, fruit, juice, bread, PB meat, cheese, cookies, vegies, coke etc BUT we cannot leave all food items out all day in the heat - most of it was stashed in the large cooler and was available upon request.. again I believe this issue was primarily a post cut off issue but we did our best to continue to have support out there... sometimes we need help in helping you. We also had massage therapists, music, trivia contests ,sand castle building stuff out there for folks to entertain them but yet some folks are still unimpressed with post race activity.. hmmmmmm. Issues like these are what make me believe we will likely not host the long course again any time soon. I personally was on site Sat and Sun for 18 hours each day and had very long days prior to and following the event. So many of our volunteers pulled similar hours and it is simply too much for me to ask them to stay any longer or to do that again when most folks honestly don't understand what it takes to host an event of that length in such a rural area without even running water or electricity on site. In any case we hope you enjoyed the day and I hope you enjoy the finisher's medal and wonder if you got the tattoo... remember "this race ain't for sissies!" volunteers and athletes alike! I for one am sooooo very proud of my family and community for pulling off the first EVER long course in NM.. we have less people, resources and money than most yet we did it with heart and enthusiasm and I love them for it and think it will spur on great things for triathlon in NM! Kori |
| 2011-09-29 4:13 PM in reply to: #3705310 |
Expert 1111 Albuquerque, NM | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course s2k - 2011-09-29 11:50 AM Hi There Congrats on finishing a tuff course. I get a few blogs forwarded to me and just wanted to respond to a few of your comments...We posted that we had cut off times on our course this year. I believe you may have come in post cut off times....We still had volunteers on site but yes, we have to start breaking down transition at some point (after the cut off of course) when I checked even tho the fencing was down volunteers were still available to check athletes out. We had made several announcements for athletes to clear their belongings out of transition so the die hard volunteers left would only be watching long course folks' stuff.. unfortunately not everyone complied with this request and it may have put too much on those volunteers who had been out there for sooooo long already.. again our response as a race team is that we executed the plan as it was spelled out according to cut off times and did our best to provide support past those times as well! Additionally, I wish you had asked about food. We had soooo much left over, pretzels, fruit, juice, bread, PB meat, cheese, cookies, vegies, coke etc BUT we cannot leave all food items out all day in the heat - most of it was stashed in the large cooler and was available upon request.. again I believe this issue was primarily a post cut off issue but we did our best to continue to have support out there... sometimes we need help in helping you. We also had massage therapists, music, trivia contests ,sand castle building stuff out there for folks to entertain them but yet some folks are still unimpressed with post race activity.. hmmmmmm. Issues like these are what make me believe we will likely not host the long course again any time soon. I personally was on site Sat and Sun for 18 hours each day and had very long days prior to and following the event. So many of our volunteers pulled similar hours and it is simply too much for me to ask them to stay any longer or to do that again when most folks honestly don't understand what it takes to host an event of that length in such a rural area without even running water or electricity on site. In any case we hope you enjoyed the day and I hope you enjoy the finisher's medal and wonder if you got the tattoo... remember "this race ain't for sissies!" volunteers and athletes alike! I for one am sooooo very proud of my family and community for pulling off the first EVER long course in NM.. we have less people, resources and money than most yet we did it with heart and enthusiasm and I love them for it and think it will spur on great things for triathlon in NM! Kori Kori, I'm sorry to hear that the logistics of hosting a long course has put you off for possible future long course events. I was excited when the EM HIM was announced. At the time, I had already selected Soma 2011 as my first HIM - but, having raced EM Oly last year, I knew the challenge that the EM HIM would present and had already earmarked it for next year's schedule. I did go down to the butte this year to cheer my friend (ABQ-TJ) on to his first Oly finish. In my opinion, I thought it was an excellent event overall. I was so enamored with the wetsuit strippers that I sent a email to Angie at Chasing3 to let her know what a great job they did. In that email, I also pointed out a few minor issues I noticed as a spectator regarding the start and finish of the run course. She replied and gave full credit to you for the production of the event and said she'd forward my email to you. Hopefully she did - that email was intended to be a compliment. I too was surprised to see transition taken apart when I went with my friend to pick up his bike (approx 4.5 hrs after Oly start time). It seemed, at that point, that many were still out on the long course and several bikes were racked. I don't recall feeling like there was any security there at that point - I could be wrong. Anyway, please don't be discouraged. Please know that you did a great job this year in spite of the glitches (they are just lessons to be learned and applied in the future). Your dedication, hard work, and long hours are definitely appreciated by the NM tri community! |
| 2011-09-29 4:25 PM in reply to: #3705665 |
| Payson, AZ | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course RockTractor - 2011-09-29 2:13 PM s2k - 2011-09-29 11:50 AM Kori, I'm sorry to hear that the logistics of hosting a long course has put you off for possible future long course events. I was excited when the EM HIM was announced. At the time, I had already selected Soma 2011 as my first HIM - but, having raced EM Oly last year, I knew the challenge that the EM HIM would present and had already earmarked it for next year's schedule. I did go down to the butte this year to cheer my friend (ABQ-TJ) on to his first Oly finish. In my opinion, I thought it was an excellent event overall. I was so enamored with the wetsuit strippers that I sent a email to Angie at Chasing3 to let her know what a great job they did. In that email, I also pointed out a few minor issues I noticed as a spectator regarding the start and finish of the run course. She replied and gave full credit to you for the production of the event and said she'd forward my email to you. Hopefully she did - that email was intended to be a compliment. I too was surprised to see transition taken apart when I went with my friend to pick up his bike (approx 4.5 hrs after Oly start time). It seemed, at that point, that many were still out on the long course and several bikes were racked. I don't recall feeling like there was any security there at that point - I could be wrong. Anyway, please don't be discouraged. Please know that you did a great job this year in spite of the glitches (they are just lessons to be learned and applied in the future). Your dedication, hard work, and long hours are definitely appreciated by the NM tri community!Hi There Congrats on finishing a tuff course. I get a few blogs forwarded to me and just wanted to respond to a few of your comments...We posted that we had cut off times on our course this year. I believe you may have come in post cut off times....We still had volunteers on site but yes, we have to start breaking down transition at some point (after the cut off of course) when I checked even tho the fencing was down volunteers were still available to check athletes out. We had made several announcements for athletes to clear their belongings out of transition so the die hard volunteers left would only be watching long course folks' stuff.. unfortunately not everyone complied with this request and it may have put too much on those volunteers who had been out there for sooooo long already.. again our response as a race team is that we executed the plan as it was spelled out according to cut off times and did our best to provide support past those times as well! Additionally, I wish you had asked about food. We had soooo much left over, pretzels, fruit, juice, bread, PB meat, cheese, cookies, vegies, coke etc BUT we cannot leave all food items out all day in the heat - most of it was stashed in the large cooler and was available upon request.. again I believe this issue was primarily a post cut off issue but we did our best to continue to have support out there... sometimes we need help in helping you. We also had massage therapists, music, trivia contests ,sand castle building stuff out there for folks to entertain them but yet some folks are still unimpressed with post race activity.. hmmmmmm. Issues like these are what make me believe we will likely not host the long course again any time soon. I personally was on site Sat and Sun for 18 hours each day and had very long days prior to and following the event. So many of our volunteers pulled similar hours and it is simply too much for me to ask them to stay any longer or to do that again when most folks honestly don't understand what it takes to host an event of that length in such a rural area without even running water or electricity on site. In any case we hope you enjoyed the day and I hope you enjoy the finisher's medal and wonder if you got the tattoo... remember "this race ain't for sissies!" volunteers and athletes alike! I for one am sooooo very proud of my family and community for pulling off the first EVER long course in NM.. we have less people, resources and money than most yet we did it with heart and enthusiasm and I love them for it and think it will spur on great things for triathlon in NM! Kori I emailed Kori directly and let her know that I had an awesome time and I sure hope that they find a way to keep it going. It's a tough course and not for everyone but a great event all in all. I'd love to do it again some day. After the memory of this years torture goes away. lol |
| 2011-09-29 4:25 PM in reply to: #3705665 |
| Payson, AZ | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course RockTractor - 2011-09-29 2:13 PM s2k - 2011-09-29 11:50 AM Kori, I'm sorry to hear that the logistics of hosting a long course has put you off for possible future long course events. I was excited when the EM HIM was announced. At the time, I had already selected Soma 2011 as my first HIM - but, having raced EM Oly last year, I knew the challenge that the EM HIM would present and had already earmarked it for next year's schedule. I did go down to the butte this year to cheer my friend (ABQ-TJ) on to his first Oly finish. In my opinion, I thought it was an excellent event overall. I was so enamored with the wetsuit strippers that I sent a email to Angie at Chasing3 to let her know what a great job they did. In that email, I also pointed out a few minor issues I noticed as a spectator regarding the start and finish of the run course. She replied and gave full credit to you for the production of the event and said she'd forward my email to you. Hopefully she did - that email was intended to be a compliment. I too was surprised to see transition taken apart when I went with my friend to pick up his bike (approx 4.5 hrs after Oly start time). It seemed, at that point, that many were still out on the long course and several bikes were racked. I don't recall feeling like there was any security there at that point - I could be wrong. Anyway, please don't be discouraged. Please know that you did a great job this year in spite of the glitches (they are just lessons to be learned and applied in the future). Your dedication, hard work, and long hours are definitely appreciated by the NM tri community!Hi There Congrats on finishing a tuff course. I get a few blogs forwarded to me and just wanted to respond to a few of your comments...We posted that we had cut off times on our course this year. I believe you may have come in post cut off times....We still had volunteers on site but yes, we have to start breaking down transition at some point (after the cut off of course) when I checked even tho the fencing was down volunteers were still available to check athletes out. We had made several announcements for athletes to clear their belongings out of transition so the die hard volunteers left would only be watching long course folks' stuff.. unfortunately not everyone complied with this request and it may have put too much on those volunteers who had been out there for sooooo long already.. again our response as a race team is that we executed the plan as it was spelled out according to cut off times and did our best to provide support past those times as well! Additionally, I wish you had asked about food. We had soooo much left over, pretzels, fruit, juice, bread, PB meat, cheese, cookies, vegies, coke etc BUT we cannot leave all food items out all day in the heat - most of it was stashed in the large cooler and was available upon request.. again I believe this issue was primarily a post cut off issue but we did our best to continue to have support out there... sometimes we need help in helping you. We also had massage therapists, music, trivia contests ,sand castle building stuff out there for folks to entertain them but yet some folks are still unimpressed with post race activity.. hmmmmmm. Issues like these are what make me believe we will likely not host the long course again any time soon. I personally was on site Sat and Sun for 18 hours each day and had very long days prior to and following the event. So many of our volunteers pulled similar hours and it is simply too much for me to ask them to stay any longer or to do that again when most folks honestly don't understand what it takes to host an event of that length in such a rural area without even running water or electricity on site. In any case we hope you enjoyed the day and I hope you enjoy the finisher's medal and wonder if you got the tattoo... remember "this race ain't for sissies!" volunteers and athletes alike! I for one am sooooo very proud of my family and community for pulling off the first EVER long course in NM.. we have less people, resources and money than most yet we did it with heart and enthusiasm and I love them for it and think it will spur on great things for triathlon in NM! Kori I emailed Kori directly and let her know that I had an awesome time and I sure hope that they find a way to keep it going. It's a tough course and not for everyone but a great event all in all. I'd love to do it again some day. After the memory of this years torture goes away. lol |
| 2011-09-30 9:10 AM in reply to: #3701886 |
Expert 1323 Rowlett, TX | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course Sounds like you left it out on the course and did great!! Great job and way to race hard. |
| 2011-09-30 7:05 PM in reply to: #3701886 |
Master 1591 San Diego, CA | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course Solid performance your first time out on long course. Sounds like a really tough race. I hope the guy that racked in you spot learned his lesson this time around. |
| 2011-09-30 7:45 PM in reply to: #3705310 |
Extreme Veteran 845 | Subject: RE: Elephant Man Triathlon Long Course s2k - 2011-09-29 12:50 PM Hi There Congrats on finishing a tuff course. I get a few blogs forwarded to me and just wanted to respond to a few of your comments...We posted that we had cut off times on our course this year. I believe you may have come in post cut off times....We still had volunteers on site but yes, we have to start breaking down transition at some point (after the cut off of course) when I checked even tho the fencing was down volunteers were still available to check athletes out. We had made several announcements for athletes to clear their belongings out of transition so the die hard volunteers left would only be watching long course folks' stuff.. unfortunately not everyone complied with this request and it may have put too much on those volunteers who had been out there for sooooo long already.. again our response as a race team is that we executed the plan as it was spelled out according to cut off times and did our best to provide support past those times as well! Additionally, I wish you had asked about food. We had soooo much left over, pretzels, fruit, juice, bread, PB meat, cheese, cookies, vegies, coke etc BUT we cannot leave all food items out all day in the heat - most of it was stashed in the large cooler and was available upon request.. again I believe this issue was primarily a post cut off issue but we did our best to continue to have support out there... sometimes we need help in helping you. We also had massage therapists, music, trivia contests ,sand castle building stuff out there for folks to entertain them but yet some folks are still unimpressed with post race activity.. hmmmmmm. Issues like these are what make me believe we will likely not host the long course again any time soon. I personally was on site Sat and Sun for 18 hours each day and had very long days prior to and following the event. So many of our volunteers pulled similar hours and it is simply too much for me to ask them to stay any longer or to do that again when most folks honestly don't understand what it takes to host an event of that length in such a rural area without even running water or electricity on site. In any case we hope you enjoyed the day and I hope you enjoy the finisher's medal and wonder if you got the tattoo... remember "this race ain't for sissies!" volunteers and athletes alike! I for one am sooooo very proud of my family and community for pulling off the first EVER long course in NM.. we have less people, resources and money than most yet we did it with heart and enthusiasm and I love them for it and think it will spur on great things for triathlon in NM! Kori Please. Please! PLEASE! put on the long course next year! I didn't finish the race (I quit on the run in part because I knew I wouldn't finish by the advertised cutoff time, but apparently that wasn't an issue and it certainly wasn't my only issue) and want to come back next year and finish. Please? PLEASE?!? |
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Chasing3
Sunny
Overall Rank = 54/71
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 1/1
We decided to make a long weekend of it in New Mexico and drove down Friday. We were camping at the state park and actually getting to use our camper. With Tina away all the time using our camper is a rare thing indeed. About a 1/3rd into the drive I realized I forgot my Heed. UGH. Guess that means I am living off the course. Can I tell you all how much I hate Gatorade? At least I remembered the cookies.
Packet pickup was interesting. I was there the same time as another girl and she got a loud cheer as she picked up her packet. I thought that was kind of odd. Then I got a large cheer. Apparently with only 71 entered into the long course (first year for it) they were cheering for everyone doing the long course.
Woke up early to get in some coffee and breakfast. I was camping at the same state park that the race started from. The plan was to bike down to the race start, which was only 1.5 miles away. However, at 5:30AM there was no moon and it was dark as crap. I did not feel safe biking even with the headlamp so put on my best whine voice and begged Tina to drive me down. She hadn't planned on going down closer to the race start time.
Quick little swim.