Karen Boehler
CCSR writer/editor
Neil Segel signaled he was No. 1 as he came into the finish, and he was right. The 21-year-old was the only runner to finish the race in under an hour.
(CCSR photo by Karen Boehler)
DEXTER — The hot temperatures didn’t dampen the spirits of the 270 participants in this year’s Milkman Triathlon in Dexter Saturday, and in fact was an encouragement for some to run faster.
Las Cruces High teacher and swim coach Terry Moore was the fastest woman to cross the finish line — in 1:08:09.5 — and she said the heat was an incentive.
“It was tough,” she said. “The heat was brutal out there, especially on the run, but that was my motivation, was to finish as fast as I could so I could be in the heat the shortest time possible.”
The first runner to cross the line turned out to be the overall winner — something that doesn’t always happen because of the way the starts are staggered by age group — and despite attending college in Tucson, Ariz., Neil Segel said he hasn’t gotten used to the heat.
“I can’t say that,” he said. “I’m from Albuquerque and I still haven’t gotten adjusted to that heat in Tucson. That’s why I came home for the summer to get away from the heat, but this isn’t doing any better, because the high today is hotter than it is in Tucson. So I’m dying.”
But after finishing only in the top 20 two years ago, the Albuquerque High grad and member of the University of Arizona Tricats triathlon team was happy to take the title.
“I’ve been training a lot, and in the last year I just made tremendous gains so it’s nice to come back and win,” he said. “It’s pretty humbling and it’s a lot of fun and it’s very rewarding. So it makes me really confident in my coach that he’s doing the right thing and my training plan is what’s best and that his coaching really plays off.
Knowing he was in better shape this year with a chance to win made him especially cautious of something he ran — or rather biked — across two years ago.
The Milkman triathletes started the morning with a cool dip in Lake Van before going on to the much hotter bicyle and road races.
(CCSR photo by Karen Boehler)
Cows. “I had the misfortune of getting stuck on the bike with a herd of cows,” he said. “Right before the turnaround a herd of cows just went right across the road. So I had to stop for 30 seconds or whatever. So it really gave meaning to ‘Milkman.’ So this year I was just praying I wouldn’t see any cows, and if I did,, I knew I had to scream at them and tell them to get away. No cows this year, so it was a good race.”
Segel was the only runner to come in in under an hour, finishing in 59:19.2.
The fastest area runner was Perry Toles, who won the male 50-54 age group despite a worrisome knee that he was cradling in ice after the race.
“I am surprised,” he said of his win. “I was very happy I was able to do the event because I was having some issues with my knee, and I was able to run today.”
And Toles had good things to say about the weather.
“It was actually wonderful,” he said. “It was hot. There was no wind, which was nice on the bike but I actually would have liked to have a little bit of a breeze on the run.”
Because of the staggered starts, Demon senior Clayton Garnett was the first local to cross the finish line, coming in in 1:24:39. He was having difficulty with cramps as the run ended., but he said it was better than his first time last year.
“I felt a lot better this year,” Garnett said. “I paced myself a lot better on each split, and on the swim I felt so much better because last year I just died. I stopped so many times. But I paced myself better and finished that pretty strong. The bike I just pushed myself harder. The run, I didn’t feel as strong as I did last year but mainly because of the cramps. I was pretty content with everything overall.”
Garnett ran the entire race solo, but also was a member of the first-place age 13-18 relay team.
Garnett started off with the swim, then handed off to Bryce Breedyk for the bicycle race. Arielle Breedyk finished up with the run, and she was amazed how well the trio did.
“We were very excited,” she said. “It was unexpected, because it’s me and Bryce’s very first triathlon. We didn’t know what to expect so we’re just very excited.”
Laughing that, “I didn’t know what I was getting into,” Breedyk said the course seemed endless.
“It was hot,” she said. “It was like we were running in the middle of nowhere and you never knew when it was coming close to the end. There was a lot of nothing.”
A lot of purple was seen along the course as the entire Clovis High School swim team competed, with Kenan Bussen winning the male 18-19 race and little brother Luke winning the 10-14 age group.
But why does a swim team run triathlons, Kenan was asked.
“Our coach is really good about getting everyone out to try new things, and since I’m on the cross country team also, we just needed to add biking in there and we started doing triathlons all together,” he said.
And he was happy with the results.
“It was my best triathlon by far,” he said. “It was really fun. It was hot but I had a great time.”
Two of the last runners to cross the line showed it’s not only the young and very fit who can compete.
Roswell 82-year-old Jim Lilly may have come in third from last, but he was smiling as he picked up his first-place trophy said he hopes he can be an inspiration.
“I hope they aspire to do better,” he said.
As to how he does it, “Well, it’s just getting up in the morning.”
Socorro’s Royce Laine was the very last runner to cross the finish line, but for good reason.
Laine has been wheelchair racing three years, and had only his arms to take him through the course.
Asked if it’s not difficult, he said, “You don’t think about it. You just do it. I roll through it.”
He uses a specially-built bicycle and special wheelchair, and although this is his second year at the Milkman, he called it “OTC race. Off-the-couch. I didn’t get a chance to do anything at all.”
The reason for competing, he said, was for his two daughters, Regina and Sarah, who were in Korea with their mother meeting their grandmother for the first time.
Although the awards ceremony was well underway when Laine approached the finish, a shout from the times brought a temporary halt to the ceremonies as everyone rush to cheer him on, giving him the loudest round of applause for anyone finishing.
The only people who might have deserved more accolades were the 200 or so volunteers it takes to run the event.
Race Director Larry Marshall said some have volunteered 25 years of the 26, for very little recompense.
“They get to swim, eat a little ice cream and come back every year,” he said.
Marshall also praised the Dexter Town Council, the mayor, Dexter National Fish Hatchery and the “wonderful” several dozen sponsors of the race.
And while no one was hurt or seriously injured — only one runner didn’t finish — members of the Chaves County Search and Rescue, Dexter EMTs and Valley Clinic were on hand to cool people down and check out the inevitable minor aches and pains after a triathlon.
“It looks like it’s gone wonderfully,” Marshall said. “The athletes are all cheery and telling me they had a good race. We had almost no W-I-N-D. It’s hot, but all and all, people are appreciating the ice water and things like that. It looks like we had a great race.”
Ten of the top New Mexico amateur males and females in the sprint triathlon — a 500 meter swim, 20K bike and 5K run — qualified for the Best of the U.S. national championship, with the top 10 percent of every age group qualifying for the USAT national championship.
And with athletes coming from across New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and California, “I’m very pleased,” Marshall said. “Everybody’s healthy and had fun. We’re happy.”
For more sports news, go to Chaves County Sports Report