Mount Taylor Quadrathlon
Bike 13 miles, run 5 miles, ski 3 miles, and snowshoe 1 mile up to
the top of 11400' Mount Taylor, then reverse the order back down to
the town of Grants. That's the Mount Taylor Quadrathlon, without a
doubt the best multi-sport (or any other kind, for that matter)
race in New Mexico. This race offers challenge, uniqueness, the
beauty of the mountains, great prizes, and seems that the whole
town of Grants turns out to volunteer. We're extremely lucky to
have a race of this caliber in our backyard.
Nevertheless, I (Matt Perini) got my butt kicked (once again). I
could claim that fat, age, and poor condition contributed to my
less-than-awesome performance, but then I discovered that the
overall winner, Mike Kloser, is 42 years old. So it's just fat and
poor condition. Mr. Kloser, and the female winner, Danelle
Ballangee, both from Colorado, are two of the best adventure racers
in the world, and Ms. Ballangee has now won 4 Quads in a row.
Our own Laura Wilcox did have an awesome performance at her first
Quad, proving herself to be the best female multi-sport athlete in
Socorro and one of the best in New Mexico. Laura finished the race
in 5:08:36, placing second in her age group and making her
5th woman overall. I finished way behind her in
6:47:19. Jim Shepherd rode the bike leg for the Socorro coed team
"One Geezer, A Ringer, & A Fast Girl", which finished the race in
5:26:49, taking second in their category. Socorro also entered the
"New Mexico Tech Viejos + 1" male team, which took first in their
division with a time of 4:59:01.
Special thanks go to SSR members Barry Field and Christian Krueger,
who were volunteers at the second and third transition areas,
respectively. Without people like Christian and Barry, who spend
about 10 hours on the mountain helping with timing and aiding the
racers, this race would not be possible.
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