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