Skip to main content

SMW Duathlon

Finally a decent race this year! So its now 4 months since I broke my collar bone, and despite some disbelief. I am starting so show some of the form I had last year. The Metroplex Du-2-Du is the longest Du on my race calendar, a 5k run, 42k bike followed by another 5k run. It is under 2 hours of racing, but it hurts. This was my third year to complete this race. I went into it hoping for a top 10 placing, and was pleasantly surprised to finish 2nd overall to duathlon power-house Dana Lyons.Race morning was pretty typical, I got to the race site at 6am and filled my tires and set up my transition area. I decided to leave my shoes off the bike and put them on in transition. I didn't want to take any chances of knocking them off the bike like I did in Austin 2 years ago. I hung around and chatted with a few of the Tri-geeks from Dallas and talked to Dana and the Woodlands group and wished everybody luck. I just wanted to have a solid race and not get tossed like the past two weeks of racing. Three races in three weeks would bother some people, but I have raced a lot more in the same amount of time. I have had good recovery in between each so I felt confident that I would have a decent race. I went to the bathroom one more time, yes BATHROOM, at Jacks races, there is a real bathroom, along with port-o-cans for those that need to stand only..There were two waves, 39 and under and 40+, Dana would be in the second wave starting 4 mins back. I just told myself, just don't let Dana catch you.. then I would have a decent race. Dana beat me by 3 mins in Opelousas and it was a shorter race. There were some familiar faces in the starting gate, and some new ones. The gun went off and the race was on. I stayed in the second run group not wanting to go out with the sub 5min mile group. Dwain let the runners through a blistering 5k, I felt confident staying in the top 10 on the run would set me up for a decent bike. I went through T1 kind of slow telling myself I still have another hour and 20 mins of racing. I got on my bike and passed four guys just leaving the park. Once out on the main road, I caught up to runningmanrick and was joined by the ever present Paul Pear. We got our speed together and rode in order to the turnaround. I noticed that the leader, Marius was losing time to us. I kept my heart rate under control and then around mile 10 I made my break to catch Marius. I figured that if I wasn't going to win the race I would at least be remembered for something, leading off the bike. I went to work and by the second turn around I had really closed in on Marius. I caught Marius at the last turn around with about 6 miles to go and put almost 2 mins on him, Rick and Paul. I was unaware of where Dana was at the time, but I assumed he would be closing in on me and I would be seeing him sometime while I was dying on the second run. I went into T2 happy with leading off the bike. I have not lead a major race so it was a very satisfying feeling. I had a great transition and got to work on the second 5k. I was surprised to feel so good going out onto the run, no major leg cramps, and I had an efficient turn over. I will attribute this to my new saddle (fizik arione) allowing me to get a bit further forward on my bike and utilize some different muscle groups. I had never run my first mile after biking under 6:30, so when I turned a 5:59 I was like, whoa, this is cool! In the back of my mind I was thinking when I would be caught by Marius and Rick, I was completely unaware of how much time I had put into them on the Bike. I was unaware of the time difference until I made the u-turn for the last 1000 meters of the run. That’s when I also saw Dana! He was close to 4 mins back, but he still had another mile to run.. He know new what he had to do to win. I crossed the finish line tired, and I knew that I had been beat. I didn't realize how close it was though. I waited for Dana to finish. I watched the clock tic by. 2 mins, 3 mins, 3:30, 3:40, and then there he was...so close.. I lost by 17 secs. My closest finish ever to Dana. I was definitely happy, and I had the fastest bike split, with some notoriously fast bikers such as Jason Fisherman and Ed York.
Full results
Mile 1 5:24
Mile 2 5:42
Mile 3 6:18
5k 18:12
T1 46.1
Bike 1:04.01
T2 23.3
Mile 1 5:59
Mile 2 5:44
Mile 3 6:13
5k 18:21
Finish 1:41.44
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Midnight Moonlight Ramble

Over the weekend Bike Houston put on a great event, the Midnight Moonlight Ramble . I had the pleasure of riding the 20 mile route with some good friends. The ride starts and finishes at the George R. Brown Convention Center and takes you through the Galleria area and down Memorial and Allen parkway for a scenic tour of Houston. By the way, the ride starts at 2 AM with the festivities beginning at midnight. The ride is for everybody, Hard Core Roadies, Nob heads, sub-culture messengers and families with tow-alongs. Pics of Team Moose . Thanks to Dakine for the Moose head!
5 comments
Read more

Austin 20-Miler Marathon

So first, I did not finish, I pulled out at mile 20. I did not have it in me, so another day, another race. I am a bit disappointed, but I have learned a lot during the training. Thank you to all for the well wishes! The plan: Take the first 3 miles out with the 3 Hr pace group uphill and then use miles 4-7 downhill to make up a bit of time. Miles 8-11 get into a comfortable pace. Work up the hill at 11 and then rolling hills through 18. 19-26 are somewhat down hill so pick up a bit of speed heading back in. Take a gel every 4 miles, and 1 gel right at the start. Alternate between water and powerade at every water stop. I thought if I could get through the half around 1:29 I could run even or better the second half. Race Recap: Race morning was really nice, cool and windy. Temp was in the 40's and it looked to be overcast. The race started 15 mins late, that does not seem like much, but when you have nutrition and bathroom duties to take care of it can be a little problem. The rac
2 comments
Read more

Imogene Pass Run

I broke the race up into 3 parts, the first 5.5 miles to lower camp bird, the next 4.5 miles to the summit and then 7 miles downhill to the finish. The first 5.5 miles are at gradients of 8-15% steep. I was able to jog portions and walk the steeper inclines. I made it to the lower camp bird, mile 5.45 in about 1 hour. That’s an average pace of 12 minute miles.  The next 2.2 miles took me nearly 50 mins, I reached Upper Camp Bird, mile 7.65 in 1:52:50. Heading on towards the summit, the next 2.35 miles took me another 57:50, making my final time to summit 2:50:41. Yes, that is an avg pace of 25 minute miles for 4.5 miles. The Summit is at 13,114 ft of elevation.  I descended the final 7 miles in 1:09:45, an average pace of 10 minute miles. I finished in 4:00:27!  My thoughts about the course. Its hard, period. You are going up a mountain and altitude. Lets be realistic, its hard, really, really hard. The views are incredible, the mountain can be wonderful or down right ugly if it ge
Post a Comment
Read more