Camaraderie is an important part of Live.Love.Tri. event

For any woman who has ever considered entering a triathlon, the all-women’s Live.Love.Tri. race set for Aug. 25 in Rio Rancho should get a serious look.

“This Albuquerque Live.Love.Tri Triathlon is a brilliant idea. And it has a perfect name,” said Ann Harris Davidson, 60, who completed the inaugural race last year.

“It is an ideal triathlon for local women who are not world-class triathletes but who would like to try a triathlon. It has the camaraderie of an all-women’s event and is manageably short, being set over distances that do not require more than a total of an hour or two of activity.”

	If you go WHAT: Live.Love.Tri. WHEN: 7 a.m. Aug. 25 WHERE: Rio Rancho Aquatic Center, 745 Loma Colorado Blvd., Rio Rancho DETAILS: Sprint Reverse Triathlon – 5K run, 10-mile bike, 400 meter swim HOW MUCH: $65 Individual/Athena/Fat Tire (+$10 USAT Fee) $90 2-Person Relay Team (+$10 USAT Fee per person) $120 3-Person Relay Team (+$10 USAT Fee per person) $100 Mother/Daughter Division (+$10 USAT Fee per person, do entire race individually and combine times) Registration increases $10 per individual/team/category on Aug. 5 and closes Aug. 19 at 9 p.m. Registration limited to 450 participants. INFO: livelovetri2011@gmail.com

Davidson leads an active lifestyle, but she said she didn’t follow a training program for last year’s race and she finished feeling good – although she admits she would have preferred the run course “be a little less hilly.”

The Live.Love.Tri. is the brainchild of Anna Volkman and Kristen Briggs, neither of whom had done a triathlon before committing to putting on the race last year.

“We decided, did a triathlon, (and) thought it looked easy enough … and then were pleasantly surprised when it took much, much more effort,” Briggs said.

The overwhelming response had them scrambling for enough T-shirts and race packets. But they pulled it off and, from most accounts, did it with style.

She said the pair spent the days after the event going through email after email of women sharing their stories and thanking them for the experience.

They heard from women who did the race after losing a large amount of weight, women who had recently become widow and even two women stationed with the military in Quatar who did the race there – even if it was 100 degrees with 58 percent humidity.

Davidson has a message for women who want to do an event like this, but don’t think they can complete it: “If I can do it, they can.”

“By 60 years of age, few people are without some physical or medical problems, and I am no exception to that,” Davidson said. “But I believe that it is important to continue to do as much as one can. ”

Davidson said she grew up participating in sports. She was born in the bush of Swaziland, Africa, and her early education was at a British-style boarding school where the “girls were absolutely expected to participate in sports just as much as the boys were.”

The Live.Love.Tri. was a vehicle for her to “check off another item from my ‘bucket list’; to have the satisfaction of still being able to undertake physical challenges successfully.”

Briggs said this is exactly what the event is all about.

“We didn’t create this as a way to man-bash,” she said. “We just wanted to create a supportive environment to encourage healthy activity.”

The event is also designed to be “pro-mom,” she said. Organizers provide a station where kids can make support signs for their moms while they are out on the race course, and there is a mother/daughter category as well where the times of two are combined.

New this year is the opportunity to nominate a deserving woman to win a new bicycle and cycling gear. Any woman in the Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Los Lunas, Belen or East Mountain area may be nominated. Entries are due by Aug. 15 and the nomination form can be downloaded at www.livelovetri.blogspot.com.

As for Davidson, she would love to get to the 10th anniversary of the Live.Love.Tri and be able to say (at 70) that she’s done them all.

But unless they will count remote participation, that isn’t going to happen. Davidson leaves in mid-September for Cameroon, Africa, to serve with the Peace Corps as a community health educator.

“Perhaps, it might be possible for me to organize a 5K run for women in my area of Cameroon, to coincide with the dates of the next Live.Love.Tri. triathlon, as part of Peace Corps’ contributions to health promotion activities for women and girls in Cameroon,” she said.
A triathlon with appeal for womenCourtesy of FiELd of Dreams photographyAnn Harris Davidson, 60, participates in the inaugural Live.Love.Tri. in August 2011. This year’s race is scheduled for Aug. 25.Triathlon gives women a sense of camaraderie

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