Santa Fe Triathlon returns after one-year hiatus
Cloud cover permitting, the Saturday sun will peak over the Sangre de Cristos right around the time a wave of runners heads down Rodeo Road to signal the rebirth of the Santa Fe Triathlon.
Back after a one-year hiatus after a lack of participants, the event has more than 160 entrants signed up for a mini triathlon organizers hope is here to stay.
The abbreviated event, referred to as a sprint triathlon because of its shortened distances, starts with a 5-kilometer run, then a 12-mile bike ride and ends with a 400-meter pool swim at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center. The disciplines are done in reverse order from a typical triathlon, said race director Amanda Galbraith.
Most events, like the famed Iron Man triathlons, start with the swimming leg and end with the run.
“The idea here is safety because we’d like to have the runners away from traffic areas before it gets a little later,” Galbraith said. “With sprint events like this, you can start in the pool but you wind up starting most of them one at a time and it can get a little time consuming — and congested.”
Things get started early enough. The 6:30 a.m. launch from the Chavez Center parking lot will have three waves of athletes heading out in five-minute intervals. The top competitors, Galbraith said, should finish in about an hour.
Winners get medals and gift certifi
cates to Ten Thousand Waves and Whole Body Wellness. Others will get gift certificates to local restaurants, among other things.
While the prizes are a nice perk, city marketing and special events administrator Anya Alarid said the real win here is bringing the triathlon back to life.
“People had a genuine interest in holding this again,” she said. “This came from the community and people were here willing to do it.”
Co-organized by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and the Saturday Warriors, the Santa Fe Triathlon had seen its numbers dwindle over the years. After the 2017 race, it was called off without much hope of getting it back.
That’s where Alarid’s department and the Saturday Warriors stepped in. A local triathlon enthusiasts’ group, the Warriors also organize events in Santa Rosa, Albuquerque and the upcoming Patriot Triathlon on Sept. 14 in Rio Rancho. Registration for the Patriot race is ongoing through the organization’s website.
“The great thing about these is some people are out there for the first time and others are serious triathletes who just throw it into the training schedule, so there’s a good mix of people involved,” Galbraith said. “Some of the first-timers are just trying to lose weight and others are genuinely curious about the sport and want to give it a try.”
The running leg takes participants on a 3.1-mile jog down Rodeo Road toward Santa Fe Place mall and back to the community center parking lot. The entire lot will be set up as a transition stage for runners mounting their bikes for the 12-mile ride down Richards Avenue, then for their final leg entering the pool.
“We’ve been seeing low turnout for a lot of races in recent years so we’re pretty happy with what we’ve seen so far,” Galbraith said, adding that roughly 40 percent of Saturday’s entrants are from the Albuquerque/Rio Rancho area. “The low numbers have been kind of a trend lately but maybe this gets things going in Santa Fe again.”