Preamble:
As I built back my running and biking this summer, I knew I wanted to do some multisport race, even if I’m not swimming at all right now. A friend clued me into a race in early September right down the street from me, at a venue and through a race company I have done multiple times before, that included a duathlon option. Perfect!
Because I am paranoid, I didn’t sign up until the last minute. I did a mock run-bike-run workout about a week beforehand to test everything out, and kept a close eye on the weather. The day before, I decided it was time to stop being a wuss and drove to the venue to sign up. I’ve done a dozen or so triathlons but had never done a duathlon, so as long as I crossed the finish line it would be an automatic PR.
My husband was out of town that weekend so I didn’t have any support to get pics, help with logistics, or carry a dry bag for me, which meant I had to be extra careful while preparing. I spent a good couple of hours Saturday night cleaning my bike (and finally taking off the reflectors and broken computer), charging my Garmin, gathering all my equipment, and freezing water bottles. I decided to use my road bike because my triathlon bike is in desperate need of a tune-up and probably a new rear tire, and I haven’t ridden it on the road in years. I got everything as ready as possible the night before.
I didn’t sleep very well – race day nerves exist no matter how many you have done, I guess – and was up at 5 a.m. My dogs weren’t happy about being woken up earlier than normal from their beauty rest, and my pit decided 5:30 a.m. was a fun time to chase a rat in the alley. When she jerked the leash I got that familiar twinge in my knee and thought, OH NO. I decided to play it safe and took one ibuprofen with breakfast, just in case.
My husband was out of town that weekend so I didn’t have any support to get pics, help with logistics, or carry a dry bag for me, which meant I had to be extra careful while preparing. I spent a good couple of hours Saturday night cleaning my bike (and finally taking off the reflectors and broken computer), charging my Garmin, gathering all my equipment, and freezing water bottles. I decided to use my road bike because my triathlon bike is in desperate need of a tune-up and probably a new rear tire, and I haven’t ridden it on the road in years. I got everything as ready as possible the night before.
I didn’t sleep very well – race day nerves exist no matter how many you have done, I guess – and was up at 5 a.m. My dogs weren’t happy about being woken up earlier than normal from their beauty rest, and my pit decided 5:30 a.m. was a fun time to chase a rat in the alley. When she jerked the leash I got that familiar twinge in my knee and thought, OH NO. I decided to play it safe and took one ibuprofen with breakfast, just in case.
I sunscreened up, ate a bit of sweet potato and some frozen coffee cube-coconut milk-cocoa powder smoothie (delicious!), and headed out shortly after 6 a.m. to get to the race site in plenty of time. I got there early enough to get a great parking spot so I made several trips between my car and transition rather than try to carry everything at once.
Now, this is where it gets weird: I was pumping my tires beforehand and the valve stem snapped off my rear tire again! This EXACT thing happened while getting ready for my second 70.3 attempt in 2015, on my tri bike! I have no idea what to make of this. Am I having difficulty pumping tires in the dark? Are pre-race nerves messing with how I use my pump? I was stunned and then got worried. Would I come back from the first run to find a flat tire? What if it went flat while I was riding? There wasn’t a whole lot I could do at that point except cross my fingers and hope it held out for a couple of hours.
The race was set up so the duathlon transition was in one spot, which was T2 for triathletes, and the swim and du start was near T1, about a mile away. I made sure my bike, helmet, shoes, and gloves (yes, I decided to wear my gloves) were ready to go and made the casual trek down to the start. The sun was starting to come up but it was already warm and muggy. I had a lot of time to kill before the duathletes started so I wandered around, people watched, used the real bathroom by the water, ate a fruit-and-nut snack bar, and cheered for the waves going in the water.
Finally it was getting close to du time! I chucked my dry bag with my car key and glasses into the trailer that would take everything to T2. After we lined up at the start, I realized I had left my race belt and bib in the bag! Eeeeek! One other woman was also missing her bib, but we were numbered up on our arms and had timing chips on our ankles, so I assumed it wouldn’t be a big deal and it never even came up later. Whew!
I sized up my competition as we all made friendly chit-chat. There were 7 men and 5 other women, a couple of whom I assumed would be pretty fast. Confession: I had looked up race times from the event last year and knew that I could make top 3 on a good day. I had a lot of unknowns at the start line – my knee, the weather, my bike tire – but I know if everything came together I would be OK. Finally we were off!
The race:
Since we were such a small group we really didn’t have an officially marked course. We headed down a path about a mile, turned around at a sign, and hopped back into what would be the second run course, but in reverse, toward our transition. We spread out pretty good and I fell into third place woman quickly. It was HOT already and I was focused on just not doing anything stupid – running at a comfortably challenging pace and not overdoing it. Before too long I was at my bike with no issue. It was supposed to be a 5K but I came in at about 2.8 miles.
I completely forgot to check my back tire and did a quick shoe change, threw on gloves and helmet, switched over my Garmin, and clomped over to bike out. The course was two laps of an island park that goes one-way counter-clockwise, and because we only had one lane of traffic we rode to the left and passed on the right. It was strange doing the complete opposite of everything you know about biking! I heard “on your right” a LOT during the first lap, but I was paranoid about my tire and didn’t want to kill my knee right off the bat.
The race was set up so the duathlon transition was in one spot, which was T2 for triathletes, and the swim and du start was near T1, about a mile away. I made sure my bike, helmet, shoes, and gloves (yes, I decided to wear my gloves) were ready to go and made the casual trek down to the start. The sun was starting to come up but it was already warm and muggy. I had a lot of time to kill before the duathletes started so I wandered around, people watched, used the real bathroom by the water, ate a fruit-and-nut snack bar, and cheered for the waves going in the water.
Finally it was getting close to du time! I chucked my dry bag with my car key and glasses into the trailer that would take everything to T2. After we lined up at the start, I realized I had left my race belt and bib in the bag! Eeeeek! One other woman was also missing her bib, but we were numbered up on our arms and had timing chips on our ankles, so I assumed it wouldn’t be a big deal and it never even came up later. Whew!
I sized up my competition as we all made friendly chit-chat. There were 7 men and 5 other women, a couple of whom I assumed would be pretty fast. Confession: I had looked up race times from the event last year and knew that I could make top 3 on a good day. I had a lot of unknowns at the start line – my knee, the weather, my bike tire – but I know if everything came together I would be OK. Finally we were off!
The race:
Since we were such a small group we really didn’t have an officially marked course. We headed down a path about a mile, turned around at a sign, and hopped back into what would be the second run course, but in reverse, toward our transition. We spread out pretty good and I fell into third place woman quickly. It was HOT already and I was focused on just not doing anything stupid – running at a comfortably challenging pace and not overdoing it. Before too long I was at my bike with no issue. It was supposed to be a 5K but I came in at about 2.8 miles.
I completely forgot to check my back tire and did a quick shoe change, threw on gloves and helmet, switched over my Garmin, and clomped over to bike out. The course was two laps of an island park that goes one-way counter-clockwise, and because we only had one lane of traffic we rode to the left and passed on the right. It was strange doing the complete opposite of everything you know about biking! I heard “on your right” a LOT during the first lap, but I was paranoid about my tire and didn’t want to kill my knee right off the bat.
After I realized my tire was fine I was able to settle in a bit. At the end of the first lap I passed the second place woman! Not going to lie, when I saw she was on a non-racing bike I thought, “Yes!” The second lap was a bit better for the ego as I passed a bunch of slow people and more non-racing bikes. I dismounted without incident and clomped back to my transition spot for the second run.
A huge, scary, black cloud was moving in and I thought, “We might get wet.” It was SO hot but at least the cloud cover was keeping the sun off us. We had to do a loop on rough gravel in a wooded area, so not only was it rough on the feet, the hot air was now stagnant with the trees blocking any breeze. I was breathing SO hard, definitely not sneaking up on anyone, but feeling surprisingly OK. I drank some water on the course and threw some more down my back.
A huge, scary, black cloud was moving in and I thought, “We might get wet.” It was SO hot but at least the cloud cover was keeping the sun off us. We had to do a loop on rough gravel in a wooded area, so not only was it rough on the feet, the hot air was now stagnant with the trees blocking any breeze. I was breathing SO hard, definitely not sneaking up on anyone, but feeling surprisingly OK. I drank some water on the course and threw some more down my back.
I tried to keep a steady pace and concentrated on picking people off one at a time. A couple of times, I started feeling a little nauseous so I just backed off a bit. After we got out of the wooded area and back into the breeze I felt a lot better and could pick up the pace a bit. My knee felt fine and I was going with it. The finish line came into earshot and view. I decided I could pick it up a bit more and blew by a couple of guys. They announced my name as I crossed the finish line. I had done it! I may have ugly cried for a minute as I caught my breath. I was a duathlete!
Official results for the du still aren’t on the website, but my Garmin says I ran 2.8 in 26:56 (9:38 minute per mile pace), biked 10.88 in 41:26 (15.8 mph), and ran 3.36 in 30:32 (9:06 pace). I tried to stop and save the workouts as I was coming into transition both times, so assume a couple of extra minutes for transitions. I saw 1:41:39 on the unofficial results posted at the race. (First place was a good 6:30 ahead of me, so it wasn't even close.)
I forgot that this race doesn’t do awards until almost everyone is off the course and I wanted to hang around, assuming I had finished second or third. I had completely forgotten to bring a post-race snack! They had watermelon at the finish, and a delicious smelling fresh waffle bar, but sadly I have food allergies so those were off limits. I ate a bunch of watermelon and tried not to think about it. Luckily the rain cloud blew over, because it was a good hour and a half before du results were posted – without our splits, as there was a “glitch,” apparently, and only after a fellow duathlete complained – and I saw I did finish second. Hooray! But I had to wait around another hour for the awards ceremony and then for them to finally get to the duathlon, which was awarded last. I figured we would be, but the lack of results, the lack of splits, and the awards at the very end kind of made me feel like we were the odd ones out.
By that time it was after noon and I had been at the park for almost six hours. I stopped for a Tim Horton’s on the way home but I had to get home asap to let the dogs out. I finally had some food and a well-deserved shower. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent going grocery shopping and doing some cooking.
Overall? It was a fun way to spend a morning and an exciting new challenge. I was happy my body and my bike tire held out. I was very happy with the results and that I placed so well.
Official results for the du still aren’t on the website, but my Garmin says I ran 2.8 in 26:56 (9:38 minute per mile pace), biked 10.88 in 41:26 (15.8 mph), and ran 3.36 in 30:32 (9:06 pace). I tried to stop and save the workouts as I was coming into transition both times, so assume a couple of extra minutes for transitions. I saw 1:41:39 on the unofficial results posted at the race. (First place was a good 6:30 ahead of me, so it wasn't even close.)
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| You've seen this already, but... I didn't take many pictures. |
By that time it was after noon and I had been at the park for almost six hours. I stopped for a Tim Horton’s on the way home but I had to get home asap to let the dogs out. I finally had some food and a well-deserved shower. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent going grocery shopping and doing some cooking.
Overall? It was a fun way to spend a morning and an exciting new challenge. I was happy my body and my bike tire held out. I was very happy with the results and that I placed so well.
I did feel like we duathletes got the short end of the stick. Sure, there were a dozen of us and hundreds of triathletes, so I understand that you have to spend your time and money where you'll get the highest ROI. But... to not even post our results until someone complains? Come on.
I'd probably do this race again because it's so close and convenient. I don't know that I'd do the du again, but now that I have my automatic PR, I might try to do it faster. I would definitely budget better for time and bring a post-race snack.
In the end, I had a great time and my body and bike cooperated, which was about all I can ask for on any given day.
In the end, I had a great time and my body and bike cooperated, which was about all I can ask for on any given day.
Congrats on your first du and nice job! It was a pretty gross day, so you did especially well considering that. It's awesome to get the award, but at the same time I might be okay with just missing out on it because they make you stick around SO long after you're done for the ceremony. I sure like the races that post the times and you're on your own to stop by the awards table. I'm glad your knee cooperated and your tire too!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Once I figured I was getting a huge tile I knew I wanted to stick around. Had it been something smaller I might have left, haha.
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