Odessa Tumbleweed Tri

This week I had the privilege of traveling with my friend Bobby Gonzales to the Odessa Tumbleweed Triathlon and made the most of my time picking Bobby’s brain on all things triathlon. Bobby has such vast experience and his willingness to pass along what he knows is incredible. Since the landscape to Odessa isn’t exactly the most beautiful, Bobby and I had a lot to talk about.

The race itself was pretty straight forward. It began with a 400 meter pool swim, but the problem was that they tried to line everyone up by swim times and they were not very successful in doing so. I know several races use this format, but race directors please consider doing a reverse Tri instead. Not only do you have to deal with a crowded pool, but you have no idea where you stand in relation to other competitors. I’m a huge supporter of all things El Paso, but I purposely do not participate in the Eagle in The Sun Triathlon for this very reason. Instead of a race it becomes a time trial and I can do that on my own for free.  As far as my swim time, I had a smooth swim and covered the 400 meters in 6:39 and felt great coming out of the pool.

The bike course for Odessa is a super flat 12 mile out and back. In years past Bobby had mentioned that there is a nice tailwind giving you a push on the way back into transition, but this year the wind was very light and I can’t say it helped very much. I pushed the bike hard and averaged right around 22 mph, but since the race had a staggered start for the swim I had no idea where I stood.

Just like the bike the run course was a flat 3.1 mile out and back. I felt fine for the start of the run, but slowly began to run out of gas. I average a 7:13 pace and finished the race in one hour five minutes, but had no idea what place I finished in. It turns out that I was second in my age group and ninth overall, but was pretty frustrated with the race set up. Bobby had a great race and finished second overall and Rob showed us all up by participating in both the Midland race on Saturday and the Odessa race on Sunday and finished 2^nd in Midland and 1st in Odessa for the Clydesdale division.

The Odessa race marked my 8^th race of the season and I’m thinking of doing only about three more before December. I continue to train for the Elephant Man 70.3 and hope to be in good enough shape to pull it off. The season has gone well, but I can honestly say that I’m only a strong second level triathlete. In the races that I have placed second in my age group, usually the individual that beats me is a good 3 to 4 minutes faster. In addition, my overall finish is always a good 8 to 9 minutes slower than the overall winner. I will continue to work hard and tighten that gap, but it will probably take several more years to get there.