Our Own Tough Man and Tough Woman Triathlon Cochiti Lake, NM

(Spotty photos because I used an old digital camera just in case it got wet)

If anyone told me a year ago that I would even be tangentially involved in a Tough Man Triathlon I would have laughed.

But my friend Linda volunteered to set up buoys  for the swim yesterday and I said I'd go out in the boat with her today to watch the swimmers and help if any got into trouble on the 1.2 mile swim.

So we arrived with a borrowed inflatable raft boat at 6:00 am only to be told that some of the buoys had drifted overnight and could we go out and reposition them as there was no one else in a boat to do it. They gave us four 25 pound sand bags and lots of rope.

So we did. Unfortunately the 5hp electric motor quit after fifteen minutes, so we were left with oar-power. We didn't need the sand bags because we were able to pull up the 5-gallon bucket that was anchoring one of the large buoys and we repositioned that one. Another boat did come along to realign a few other markers. I told Linda that we getting rid of the ballast and I took her handy knife and slit the bags...sand in the lake OK, nylon bags NOT.

So after the race we had to retrieve all of the buoys....and their anchors...some were 5-gallon buckets half filled with concrete, others were held in place by 2 cinderblocks tied together and all were buried in mud, which made getting them loose a bit of a challenge.

After retrieving one or two buoys and concrete anchors we had to row the boat to the dock, unload and row back out for the next ones. We did this at least six times hauling either two 5-gallon buckets or four cinderblocks in the boat between the two inflatable seats that were pretty useless for any activity other than sitting to fish or watch scenery.

After hoisting up several of the anchors...have you ever tried getting 2 cinderblocks or 5-gallon buckets up from a depth of 50 feet or more and over the side of an inflatable raft boat with bare hands pulling on a nylon rope?...well, after hoisting up several of the anchors I just couldn't pull hard enough...so we decided to cut a few free. So now there are a few 5-gallon buckets and some cinderblocks at the bottom of Cochiti Lake.

I felt like we'd done a Tough Man event that wasn't on the schedule of events! And neither of us are exactly young. But we had a blast doing it...wet and muddy. My favorite thing to be out on a boat...too bad it wasn't salt water, I'd have been in heaven.

Didn't even think about taking photos of our efforts; these were taken early in the morning when we thought we'd just paddle around and drink coffee.

Oh, and did I mention the hunky guys? There was one beefy stud with two pierced nipples who was definitely "family" and was waiting there on the dock to help unload a few tons of concrete...and he untangled one of the ropes...I made some comment about not minding being tied up...and he ....well, enough about that.

(Spotty photos because I used an old digital camera just in case it got wet)