1st Southwest Challenge Series Awards Presentations for the 2009 season completed
There will also be a presentation of awards immediately following the White Sands President's Day Duathlon on February 13 which is the first race of the calendar year. Remember that registration for this race closes January 29 for mail-ins, and February 5 for fax and e-mail. If you're unable to attend that race, we will have the awards at each succeeding race this spring available for pick-up.
Click here for a complete list of this year's award winners 
This years Sportsmanship Award went to Diane Proud. Diane was an El Paso native in the nineties and one of the original regional Greats of our sport. Dianne raced in the innagual SouthWest Challenge Series and all during the early years of triathlon. A truly gifted athlete with a personality that was a gift to others she was both the envy of and inspiration to her competitors. Diane moved to Dallas with her husband and family in the late nineties, so is unknown to many Series competitors today. She went on to become a regular member of countless Team USA squads in both duathlon and triathlon, and was a regular on the All-American rolls for many years. Returning often to El Paso over the years, she joined in many of our training sessions and has remained a favorite amongst all the Old Southwest Challenge Series original core athletes.
The anticipation can end! The schedule is for 2010 is here! More races than ever. By my count 37 races with the possibilty of doing 33 as four of them are on the same day.The Buffalo Springs offerings from the Greers still give the athletes a choice beteen the Toughie and the Shortie for Buffman and Squeaky (Dog House Sprint) and the BSLT Ironman 70.3 (Tri-Raider Sprint). In the other two instances, the respective races are so geographically distant there shouln't be any reasonable conflict. Sadly we lost Ransom Canyon, but welcome back the Defined Fitness folks from Rio Rancho with both a duathlon and triathlon. Mark Mico's Spring Fling race is also an addition this year. El Paso's Labor Day weekend race has been updated with a new location and an official USAT race director. Some of the dates have changed, but you'll recognize your old favorites returning.
Printable 2010 Southwest Challenge Series Race Schedule
Most exciting to me is that I feel that my long time ambition of sanctioning an ample number of quality races in each of the three sectors of the Southwest Challenge territoryare now available. All athletes should have a fair chance now at being competive for year-end honors.
The scoring and rules for 2010 will remain the same, except the qualifying number of races for eligibilty for post-season honors will be raised to five. We will still take your best eight scores with a quarter point awarded for each race after eight. This opens the competiton to both the studs and the blue collar folks who like to race as many as possible. Every one has a chance.
There is in the works for next year a Championship race open only to the year-end podium finishers with no age group classifications so that the top three men and women in all the Southwest can be determined. There were a lot of requests for such a race, and while not yet official, we're getting close to making it happen.
Stay tuned for the Awards presentation. The Saturday of the White Sands President's Day Duathlon is looking prime right now. For those interested, there may be some evening festivities in addition for those who want to partake and enjoy a little extra fanfare.
This should be an exciting year, as we here at the Southwest Challenge Series have several ideas. innovations, and projects working to make 2010 a real year to remember.
Thank all your Race Directors at every chance and stay tuned to this website for new announcements regarding the Awards.
Best of luck to everyone.
Merry Christmasand Happy New Year!
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Also, we have this update from John LeRoy concerning our friend and long-time fellow competitor, Ken O'Connor who was diagnosed this past winter with prostrate cancer. Your prayers and good wishes are requested.
Many of you have asked about Ken O'Conner, one of our more experience competitors (in the 70+ age group), since you haven't seen him at the races since last winter. Ken has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and has been undergoing radiation treatments. He has been having to make daily drives from Grants to Albuquerque but has recently completed the last treatments. I am anxiously awaiting word from Ken as to the status of the cancer and whether additional treatments will be necessary. I am hopeful that he will be back competing in the fall races; there is a huge vacancy at the races without him. You can send Ken your regards at
oconnor@7cities.net
That leaves us with eight races to go in the 2009 season. Still time to rack up plenty of points to capture a podium spot in your respective age group. If you liked the awards last year, we have even bigger expectations for this year.
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This is a call for everyone's prayers in response to some very sad news regarding one of our band. Dianne Proud is one of the original athletes from the days of the inception of the Southwest Challenge Series. At that time, she was an El Paso native. One of the finest athletes to ever come out of our area, she was a perenial Series age group winner, and went on to become a familiar face on many TEAM USA groups in countless world championships. She is a repeat All-American over the years, and one of this area's most beloved personalities, especially amongst those early athletes.
This week Dianne received her tragic diagnosis of ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. She is the second of our number in recent years to come down with this horrible and debilitating condition. We all remember John Stermer, who after a two year battle left us in 2006.
This is a call for everyone's prayers in response to some very sad news regarding one of our band. Dianne Proud is one of the original athletes from the days of the inception of the Southwest Challenge Series. At that time, she was an El Paso native. One of the finest athletes to ever come out of our area, she was a perenial Series age group winner, and went on to become a familiar face on many TEAM USA groups in countless world championships. She is a repeat All-American over the years, and one of this area's most beloved personalities, especially amongst those early athletes.
Dianne moved from El Paso several years ago, but has always kept her El Paso connections current and vibrant most recently celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary where she was married in Soccorro, TX. . She has communicated an optimism and fighting spirit that we, in the realm of triathlon, are all too familiar with, and hence,she is becoming an inspiration to us all. Dianne currently works at the Cooper Aerobics fitness center in Dallas, TX. Read more about Dianne on the Copper Clinic Website.
This disease seems to prey on the athletic. Indeed, it bears the name of one of the most famous baseball players to ever step up to the plate. It has been featured in recent Kona Ironman races as afflicted athletes have had friends competing in their name and on their behalf.
We, here at the Southwest Challenge Series, rally around Dianne in this time when she is searching for sources of strength from all quarters, and on her and her family's behalf, we ask the prayers and support of you all.
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2008 Race Season Results
Attached is the list of award winners for each age group for 2008 Season. 
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