​In the span of a minute, Conrad Sanders experienced the full range of emotions an Ironman race can provide.Crossing the finish line? The 32-year-old clutched and pumped the banner he broke through, the face of pure determination and ultimate accomplishment.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA few seconds later? Sanders was sprawled on the pavement, holding a pained, exhausted grimace as he furiously tried to catch his breath.“Make sure he gets up and walks,” a nearby medical officer said.But once he was back on his feet, barely a half-minute later?Sanders said he wouldn’t mind coming back for more next year.“Definitely,” he said, with a grin on his face.Sanders was one of 746 participants to cross the finish line Sunday in the Ironman 70.3 Ruidoso, the first half-triathlon to be hosted in New Mexico by The Ironman Group, a popular international endurance sports company.Finishing in 4 hours, 4 minutes and 52 seconds, Sanders was the fastest to complete a 1.2-mile swim around Grindstone Lake, a 56-mile out-and-back bike ride through Ruidoso and finally, a 13.1-mile run around the athlete village at White Mountain Sports Complex. The event site boasted the highest average elevation (6,920 feet) of any Ironman race in the United States, one that only 53 percent of the 1,390 who entered finished.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHowever daunting the grueling mountain course seemed, there was something — the proximity of the race, the challenge it provided or all of the above — that got the competitors to the starting line early Sunday morning.Take Sanders. It wasn’t a surprise he made it out for Sunday’s race — after all, the Arizona native is a regular on the Ironman circuit, competing in 20-plus half-triathlons since he took up the sport in 2013.Sanders also plans to run his eighth “full” triathlon (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run) this fall.“Ironman has a lot of money from me,” he chuckled. “They’re making a killing off me, that’s for sure.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut it was a feel for New Mexico that made Ruidoso a no-brainer for Sanders. Working as a dietician in Zuni, he said he “100%” knew he was going to enter the event when it was announced.“New Mexico, I thought it was a flyover state,” Sanders said. “ … But working up in Zuni, (he’s had) a real change in the perception of what New Mexico is. It’s a really, really beautiful state … You don’t have a lot of races at this elevation.”Alina Hanschke, the top women’s finisher at 4:30.06, was drawn to the Ruidoso event more for convenience than anything else. Balancing raising two young children as an active triathlete, the Puebla, Mexico native believed Ruidoso would be a perfect place to take a week-long family vacation while getting the opportunity to race.Looking at her children from just behind the finish line, the 42-year-old wondered aloud if they knew every family doesn’t do this on vacation