This was my first Duathalon and being half the distance of nationals was going to give me a pretty good feel on how Nationals would feel and the state of my training.
I got to race with all kinda of new things today, first time using speed laces, borrow Giro Areo helmet, some Carbon Profile design areo bars, my Garmin 310XT, and my fancy new tri suit. When I looked into tri suits, I debated going with a suit or two piece, decided on the suit because I ride in Bibs and like not having waistbands and lack of shorts sliding all over. Decision post race.... I want a two piece. I loved the suit but did not love, not being able t get dressed with out needing a second person to zip me, and then the lack of ability to use the bathroom the 5 mins before the race because I could not unzip my self. This being my first DU I also had to think a lot more about fueling since with running my stomach cant handle much. I planned on eatting 3 times, gu before the race, gu early bike and gu late bike, drinking a whole bottle on the bike and had a small fuel bottle with Cliff shot at the transition I could drink between transitions.
Run #1
The women started all together in their own wave which was nice. When the gun went off three girls immediately went to the front.and I followed not wanting anyone getting away from me. I let one lady lead and hang off the front about 20-40 feet while I settled into pace. On the first hill I closed the gap some, which was a good sign. By mile 2 I had caught her, and she was losing speed so I passed her. She stayed right behind me and I could hear her breathing hard. When we came to a second, short and very steep hill around mile 2.75, I pushed it hard knowing that she was weaker on the hills than I was. She broke less than 1/4 of the way up and dropped back. I kept the pace up but recovered for the bike that was coming up.
It was pretty neat being the first woman coming into the transitions and getting cheered on by several guys as I passed.
T1
This so much easier than I though. I have heard horror stories of transitions but with little to put on of change it went quick. I did second guess my self and only grabbed one GU instead of the two I should have. I took a few chugs of the Cliff and off I went.
Bike:
I knew this was probably going to be the strong point for me since Im more of a cyclist, but I wanted to still push to see where my Time trial abilities were. The bike was pretty uneventful except that I got passed by the woman that won, heres how it went:
mile 1: man i feel pretty good
Mile 5 : IVE ONLY GONE 5 MILES?
Mile 8: Im bored. the adrenaline worn off.
Mile 10: What the hell a girl just passed me? damn it. Keep with her.
Mile 15: Im tired, I think I went too hard in the run, how the hell am I supposed to run another 5k? This chick is too far ahead of me,I need to just pace my self, eat the gu.
Mile 20: thank god almost done, just want to be off the bike.
Mile 21:...., Mile 22: where the hell is the turn???
Mile 23: oh thank god, theres the tent.
T2: Shoes off, shoes on, helmet off. Good too go.
Run #2:
Holy crap I need to do more bricks. I felt like a slug trying to run. I thought my run times were going to be 8 min miles. Took about a mile to not feel like I was going to trip on my floppy feet. On the second run it was nice to loop around because I could see the other women a gauge how close they were. The leader was about a min ahead, and the woman behind me was a little more than a min, By mile 2 I felt pretty good and was ramping it up again. The hill close to mile three almost killed me the second time around but I knew it was less than half a mile left. Finished strong and really happy with how it went, since I really didnt know what to expect.
Results being 2cnd overall Female, with 5k: 20:36, Bike 20.3 avg, and 5K 21:38
First 5k is probably only 30 seconds off my 5kPR, the bike I think I can get up higher with lots of solo riding (ugh) and the second 5k was not as slow as I thought, and with better understanding of pacing and bricks itll get better.
Post race BBQ, was fantastic, had two plates of pulled pork and got a neat owl trophy.
No photos yet.
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